How to stop rippling when spreading/dragging with back blade

[Jay4200]

Hello,

I have a Mahindra 3616 and recently purchased a 7' adjustable rear blade. Currently I'm trying to fix a road we use. We have plenty of clay dirt and cinder mix that I consider as road base. While I spread this on the road, I get a lot of ripples/waves/ridges. (Not sure proper word to use.)
What am I doing or not doing that is causing this? The more I go over it the more the tractor follows those bumps and just makes it worse.

Any help or tips are greatly appreciated.

One, you're driving too fast. Two, the material you're pushing is too dry and you're not digging enough up - try grading a day or two after a hard and steady rain. You want to run the blade all the way down, but have to pull up enough material to generate enough pressure on the blade that the blade floats up into the 3pt travel range, THEN drive slow enough that the 3pt doesn't follow your bouncing tractor.

If all else fails, run it over with a landscape rake that has gauge wheels.

 

[Ford850]

I follow the same rules others have noted:

1) Angle the blade. It's amazing the difference this makes.
2) Drive slow. I use Low range First gear sometimes, and enjoy the quiet slow pace for a change.
3) I only grade my drive when it's damp.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

I find the best way to handle this is to blade in reverse. That way, you have filled in the low areas before your tractor wheels get to them and your tractor will stay level. But, you must have enough loose material so that the blade will 'dump' into the low areas as you back up.

Otherwise, in my opinion, it's too difficult to drive forward and try to dump material into the low spots.

 

[zzvyb6]

The old sure way is to disconnect the top link to prevent the tractor ride height chages from coupling with the blade AND to use gauge wheels mounted behind the blade to set the road elevation to the trailing material level.

A simple process but often hard to fathom. It also depens on your definition of 'smooth'. For some that means speed bumps and ripples add character to a road and are a roadway feature.

 

[whis]

practice, practice, practice, then a little more practice. you can be told, read a book about it or even watch a youtube video, but practice is the only thing that will work. I never leave lift handle alone always moving up or down a little bit

 

[MossRoad]

Watch this video....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESC2NKkKkCU

 

[Gordon Gould]

practice, practice, practice, then a little more practice. you can be told, read a book about it or even watch a youtube video, but practice is the only thing that will work. I never leave lift handle alone always moving up or down a little bit

^^ X2

Plus what was said above especially the slow part and constant control is necessary. You need to understand the mechanics before you have a good chance of making the corrections, ie when the front tires go up the blade goes deeper or if you push in reverse you are grading before your tires get there so they don't go up and down so much. ( In general going in reverse is only good for pushing new or loose material ) , use the reverse side of the blade (like the video) so you spread rather than dig. If your ali-oops are straight across the road work on them with an angled blade, if the ali-oops are angled work on them with a straight or opposite angled blade. Give yourself some time to learn all this stuff.
Try not to get frustrated - it is not easy at first. Just do little stretches at a time until you "get it". If you screw up a spot fix it right then. The section you are working needs to get better with each pass.

Practice, practice, practice. And don't expect to be good at it for a while.

gg

 

[k0ua]

Watch this video....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESC2NKkKkCU

I agree.. turn the blade around and your blade will smooth. Then Adjust your toplink so the blade is angled with the top more forward than the bottom of the blade. Just like you spread butter on your toast with a knife. Now run with the 3pt all the way down, you do not need to "ride herd" on the control, just put it all the way down all the time. This will solve your problem. the blade cannot "dig in". You will not move much materiel, but the blade will have a smoothing effect, just like that butter on your toast.

 

[JimnAZ]

Thanks for all the replies. The tips make sense and I understand them. But for the record, I am driving slow as in crawling
I have not tried turning the blade 180 or disconnecting the top but yesterday I worked a lot with the blade at an angle and saw the difference.
Thanks again!

 

[k0ua]

Thanks for all the replies. The tips make sense and I understand them. But for the record, I am driving slow as in crawling
I have not tried turning the blade 180 or disconnecting the top but yesterday I worked a lot with the blade at an angle and saw the difference.
Thanks again!

After you turn you blade around, then adjust your toplink to adjust the smoothing action. Just like the butter knife.