Rear Blade How to grade a driveway? Need help please

[psdx]

It sound like I need to look for a good used Landplane.

This is absolutely the right answer. The problem you described is a "washboard" effect and you'll never get that out with a rear blade. There's a reason that road graders have mid-mounted blades. You need to isolate the blade contact surface from the undulations in the driveway surface. Every time your front axle goes up over a slight bump, your rear blade drops down. And every time your front axle drops down for a slight dip, your rear blade goes up slightly. This action is the reason you cannot eliminate the washboard, or ripples in your driveway.

While they do make mid-mount blades for compact tractors, they are expensive and not that useful due to the limited clearance under the belly of the tractor. Some people use box blades with varying degrees of success, but because the surface contact area on the box blade is rather short, you still get the up and down effect described above. The reason the land plane works so well is that the runners are much longer than a box blade and at tends to dampen out the up/down motion. I've used a rear blade, a box blade, and a land plane on several gravel driveways. The land plane is a completely different experience with much different results. I have one made by LandPride but there are a number of good ones available. I could not find a used one in my area so I had to buy new.

 

[Trav City]

If you can weld or have a friend that can help you out you can build one for about $400+ to fit your tractor. I built this larger 8' landplane for about $950 with straight set blades for landscape work. For driveway work I would use the angled blades which is more common. Long skids help overcome the problem with the dips you are experiencing. I plan on building a small 4' plane for my x749 in the next month or so and will post some pics of the build.

Nice work! Thanks

 

[SandburRanch]

I know it is a pain, but try grading while driving backwards as your wheels will be on relatively flat surface which will eliminate the YO-YO effect.

YO-YO effect is the best description I've heard.

So with a landplane being recommended, what keeps it from YO-YO ing the same as any other implement hooked up to a 3 point hitch?

 

[Gordon Gould]

The problem you described is a "washboard" effect and you'll never get that out with a rear blade. .

Comments like this are not only incorrect but they also don't help the OP get his job done. He has said that he would like to stick with the rear blade at this time. Recognizing that, and the fact that a rear blade might not be the easiest tool to use for a beginner, we should offer advice that will help him use it effectively to get his job done. There are a lot of roads that are maintained by nothing more than a rear blade and they are kept in good shape.

Educating him on what other tools are available is great and after he does a little successful blade work he will be able to assess the benifit of other tools more easily.

Sorry for the rant - just my .02. No insult intended.

 

[beppington]

YO-YO effect is the best description I've heard.

So with a landplane being recommended, what keeps it from YO-YO ing the same as any other implement hooked up to a 3 point hitch?

Land planes are longer (front-to-back), & therefore can't go down into the dips to the extreme that a box blade can. They have runners/ glides along the sides.

 

[s219]

Land planes are longer (front-to-back), & therefore can't go down into the dips to the extreme that a box blade can. They have runners/ glides along the sides.

So this has me wondering -- if I was able to make some long "skis" to bolt onto the side of my box blade, would that improve it for this kind of use? I think some heavy angle iron with a turned up tip and tail would do the trick.

The only thing missing in that case would be the angled blades on the land plane, which are important but for a different reason.

 

[beppington]

With a box blade, I don't think there's any way to just set it or adjust it to where you can just drive your tractor & have the dips go away. You'll have to manually raise & lower the BB to remove rises & fill dips, & it likely will never be as good a result as it could be with some other adjustments:

You could modify you BB to add a runner to each side. As a cheap starter, you could even rig up something like a 4x4 on each side (the longer the better (notice how long road grader machines are), well until the 4x4 is so long it sags). The 4x4 would glide along the ground, making your BB act like a land plane. Of course the 4x4's won't last long this way, so you could raise them up & put a wheels under each corner. Set the wheels so your BB's' blade is 1/4" - 1/2" below the wheels, so it can dig a little but not too much. The first time you use it this way it'll cut off tops, taking that material to the dips. And it'll likely not touch the dips for extended stretches to where you think this thing is a waste of time. It may take quite a few passes, getting better each time, to really improve it - to where you've entirely filled the dips with material from the tops. Eventually it'll be level enough that your BB's blade touches ground the entire time, & you'll have a very level drive.

 

[beppington]

So this has me wondering -- if I was able to make some long "skis" to bolt onto the side of my box blade, would that improve it for this kind of use? I think some heavy angle iron with a turned up tip and tail would do the trick.

The only thing missing in that case would be the angled blades on the land plane, which are important but for a different reason.

Yes, exactly! I was typing my post above as you were posting yours.

You have it all right, & yes angling the blade is very desirable to reduce washboard, so do it if you can figure out a way (if you can't get a land plane).

Heavy angle iron will work good for a while. Of course the dirt/ rocks will wear it away.

 

[beppington]

I haven't tried angling a box blade this way myself, but here's an idea: I think that tractors with telescoping lower link ends could have one link extended & "propped" open (stick a bolt or something in there) to where it stays extended so the box blade is angled.

I doubt manufacturers would say this is OK, but if you're only pulling, & you don't go overboard with it, it seems like they should handle it.

 

[psdx]

Comments like this are not only incorrect but they also don't help the OP get his job done. He has said that he would like to stick with the rear blade at this time. Recognizing that, and the fact that a rear blade might not be the easiest tool to use for a beginner, we should offer advice that will help him use it effectively to get his job done. There are a lot of roads that are maintained by nothing more than a rear blade and they are kept in good shape.

Educating him on what other tools are available is great and after he does a little successful blade work he will be able to assess the benifit of other tools more easily.

Sorry for the rant - just my .02. No insult intended.

Read my post again. You'll note that the OP changed his position and decided a land plane was what he was after, which I quoted to provide context for my comments. I was merely explaining why I agreed with him. Yes it is possible to get decent results with just a back blade but as you pointed out we are helping someone with less experience. ...I thought I was being helpful...

Let's stay on the topic