How to use a Grader Scraper

[civilian]

A Pile? Whenever possible ask the driver to tailgate spread. They set the tailgate chains to limit the amount of material that can be dropped and drive along spreading out the load. Then you smooth it

Tail gating is not the only way or maybe not even the best method. Example: starting at the end of the drive coming in off the street, drive is 90 degrees to road. Can't get even flow of material down. Material might be a bit damp and want to stick together when emptying. Or sticks in the truck. The spread from the tail gating may not cover the width of the drive. I have had both done. When it was tail gated, it was too thin, but accomplished what was needed for the time being. Now I am spreading from piles to get the depth I want. Just my thoughts. Jon

 

[ruffdog]

I still think that once it gets packed down some and gets rained on, that landplane will get it nice and smooth.

Even guys with a CTL will work with it for a while as it is getting packed.

 

[deezler]

Tail gating is not the only way or maybe not even the best method. Example: starting at the end of the drive coming in off the street, drive is 90 degrees to road. Can't get even flow of material down. Material might be a bit damp and want to stick together when emptying. Or sticks in the truck. The spread from the tail gating may not cover the width of the drive. I have had both done. When it was tail gated, it was too thin, but accomplished what was needed for the time being. Now I am spreading from piles to get the depth I want. Just my thoughts. Jon

Man, I don't know how many more hours it would have taken me to get my 1000' driveway installed without the services of my excavation guy and his 12-yard dump truck. He could lay 12 yards of 21A out in a perfect 2 inch thick layer for a good 300' of my driveway, barely had to tune it up at all except for smoothing out the short overlap zones. The idea of driving 800 feet with each load in my puny .25 yd bucket load at a time seems insane; get a good dump driver and it will save you hours of work. My dude's key for success: drive fast as hell. Like, 20 mph while spreading down my winding driveway, real fun to watch!

 

[ljjhouser]

First snow of the year here in Central Oregon this morning. Pretty soon it's gonna be time to put on the rear blade.....and screw up the driveway

Ha ha! That is the reason we have a tractor. So we can fix it after we screw it up the first...and second time. Best Wishes.

 

[Gordon Gould]

So if someone who is a long time user of one of these implements could write out how they use it, I would sure appreciate it (YouTube videos are not clear and show all sorts of different set ups....the people on those videos mainly just yak.)

Thank you.

I don't have a video but I have some pictures. This is what works for me when I add gravel to a road. It is 3/4" crushed ledge gravel mix which packs hard with time.

1) I tail gate out a load of gravel. My truck is small so it's 3-1/2 tons per load. Then I pack what I just dumped with the truck. In this case the loaded truck with the next load is used to pack.

Then if the road needs shaping I use a blade to get the contour I want. Here it is a crown. First the left side - shown. Next the right side then spread and blend the berm in the middle. I omit this step if no shaping is needed.

Because my blade work is often a little rough I even it all out with my land plane. I lengthen the top link to lift the front blade a little. Notice the front of the runners a slightly off the road and the front blade has much less material than the rear blade.

And this is how it looks after the LPGS pass on the left side.

It didn't come out like this the first time i tried. It takes patients, practice, and experimentation to develop a system that works for your situation. Stick with it - The vast majority of landplane users will tell you it is the best road implement they have. I have 2 rear blades, a box blade, and an LPGS. I also have a lot of road to maintain. I use all three but the landplane gets used the most by far.

Hope this was helpful.

gg

 

[Bendboater]

Gordon; Thank you, that does help.
I received my second load today and am in the process of spreading and smoothing it out.

 

[jyoutz]

A section of chain link fence panel secured on all sides by pipe and stretched tight (think gate panel) makes an awesome final finish gravel smoother. Get a panel as wide as your road and drag it with a chain. Of course you have to man handle it into place when you change directions but it works very well.

 

[jyoutz]

Ljjhouser;
From what I am learning here, I think you said it the best:
"Both land planes and box blades take practice. Neither one is a one pass job. Relax and take your time."

First snow of the year here in Central Oregon this morning. Pretty soon it's gonna be time to put on the rear blade.....and screw up the driveway

Turn your rear blade around 180 degrees so you are plowing snow with the back of the blade, not the cutting edge. This will remove the snow, while skimming over the gravel without disturbing it.

 

[scootr]

I don't have a video but I have some pictures. This is what works for me when I add gravel to a road. It is 3/4" crushed ledge gravel mix which packs hard with time.

1) I tail gate out a load of gravel. My truck is small so it's 3-1/2 tons per load. Then I pack what I just dumped with the truck. In this case the loaded truck with the next load is used to pack.

View attachment 767959


Then if the road needs shaping I use a blade to get the contour I want. Here it is a crown. First the left side - shown. Next the right side then spread and blend the berm in the middle. I omit this step if no shaping is needed.

View attachment 767960

Because my blade work is often a little rough I even it all out with my land plane. I lengthen the top link to lift the front blade a little. Notice the front of the runners a slightly off the road and the front blade has much less material than the rear blade.

View attachment 767961


And this is how it looks after the LPGS pass on the left side.

View attachment 767963


It didn't come out like this the first time i tried. It takes patients, practice, and experimentation to develop a system that works for your situation. Stick with it - The vast majority of landplane users will tell you it is the best road implement they have. I have 2 rear blades, a box blade, and an LPGS. I also have a lot of road to maintain. I use all three but the landplane gets used the most by far.

Hope this was helpful.

gg

Please show this implement in many pics as the rear hinged part is an interesting and unusual addition

 

[Gordon Gould]

Please show this implement in many pics as the rear hinged part is an interesting and unusual addition

I put that tail gate on as an experiment. It is hinged on top and can swing a full 360*. There is a set of stop pins on the bottom. In the first picture the tail gate is dragging behind the pins and the grader is running properly. That is both blades are full all the way across with equal amounts of material being moved by both the front and rear blades.

This is the way I normally run the grader. And I think it is fair to say that the tail gate is doing nothing to make my grader any different from a commercial one except add about 90 lbs (which is a good thing).

What I discovered is that the tail gate is heavy enough to hold back sod while the heavier gravel passes under it. As seen here.

So while doing road maintenance cutting along the road edge sod like this

I can run along until I get to much sod and then lengthen the top link (hydraulic) to stop cutting and let the gravel run out. I lift the grader leaving a pile of sod and use the tail gate against the stops as a blade to push it off the road.

In the spring after mud season when roads are full of ruts and holes I swing the tail gate over so it rests against the stops on the inside. That way it holds excess material in the box and pulls it along the road until it drops into a low spot. It also works on a washout where a pile of loose gravel ends up at the bottom of a hill. I can pull it up. Like a box blade but not near as efficient. I don't have a real good picture of this but this is one where I am trying to remove a slight crown caused by driving down the middle all the time. I want the road flat but sloped so water will run left to right - high side to low side. Note: the land plane is not good at destroying crowns as many believe. You have to work at it.

So the tail gate isn't a great improvement but it's useful.

gg

 

[ruffdog]

A section of chain link fence panel secured on all sides by pipe and stretched tight (think gate panel) makes an awesome final finish gravel smoother. Get a panel as wide as your road and drag it with a chain. Of course you have to man handle it into place when you change directions but it works very well.

I have used a heavy wood skid too. Add some weight in the back or front to tailor how much it digs in. Also hook the chain to the 3pt so you can change how the front of the skid digs in.

 

[scootr]

I think you are on to something here. One complaint I have with the landplane is it does not carry material from the highs and deposit in the lows as a box blade does. Nice that it separates the grass out too.
My old MF 30B skiploader gannon back board had a float option. The board was heavy and it lifted a few inches, enough to let a rock kick out instead of holding up the blade.
P.S.
I saw a guy with a water tank on one of these. It had a sprayer in front for dust control? Or material workability? And it added WEIGHT.

Anyway - thanks for sharing your modification. This is on my project list.

 

[FERLING]

After almost three years of "thinking about it", I finally purchased a Rankin GS-5 Grader Scraper (aka; Landplane) for my Kubota L2501.
Yes, it is a lot easier than trying to use the bucket or rear blade. However, it isn't quite as easy as I had anticipated. But maybe I am not using it correctly. So I was hoping I could get some "tips" here.

My primary use is for gravel on my driveway. Indeed, I just had a load of gravel delivered today and I am in the process of spreading and leveling it out. I purchased the device because I was of the understanding that, without hydraulic top and tilt, it's easier to use than a box blade. So, I went with this far more expensive option.

My understanding is that I want the implement level front to back so that both blades equally engage the material.

I thought that it was meant to be "dropped and dragged". But when I do that, I just load it up with material (like it's flowing over the sides). So I have been ever so slightly holding it up. But then, whenever the tractor goes over a bump or dip, the Grader Scraper goes down or up respectively....just like my rear blade does. Rankin says (in their instructions) that the blades are set down 1/4" from the factory....which they seem to be.

I do not want a crown on the road (so I don't cut it off in the winter when plowing with my rear blade) so I set one side higher than the other and have been attempting to work the material out to each side. Seems to be getting there, but it's taking a lot of passes (many dozens).

I am unsure which way the blades should run. I sort of assumed that they should be angled off to the side of the road. But, because my gravel road turns into pavement at the end, if I keep dragging it the same direction I then get a pile of gravel at that one end, on one side. So, after a dozen or so passes, I then tilt the implement the other way and go the other direction so I can drag the material away from the paved road.

I enjoy tractor time, but it just seems to be taking way, way, too long to work this short (less than 200') section of road.

Maybe I am expecting too much from the tool (or gravel for that matter), but I sure would appreciate suggestions on how to use this (supposedly simple) implement.

Thanks

A box blade and experience with it is hard to beat. For a fine surface refinisher use a Landscape rake. You can buy both for price of a Land plane.

 

[FERLING]

When you say you had a load of gravel delivered - how did they deliver it? One pile you have to spread over the 200', several piles spaced out along the drive, or did they tail gate it so you have a roughly even layer the length of the drive ?

Trying to get a picture in my mind of what you are doing.

gg

A good gravel delivery should involve a spreading of gravel. If truck has access to area he should be able to spread as little as inch and thicker. You should only have minor raking to do.
I have a 1325 ft driveway and a two truck delivery of a total of 36 tons. The only scraping I do is the beginning of area unloading starts.

 

[scootr]

I got my bush hog 7ft landscape rake for $200 from a neighbor. When he asked if I wanted the rake for that amount I almost broke a finger trying to get the money out of my pocket fast enough. One of the best tools I got. Right now I'm trying my darndest to build a set of gauge wheels for it. I'm picking rocks off the property and maintaining the gravel road with it. And I have the 3 way gannon also

 

[Gregster613]

scootr, Please detail your gauge wheel build as you progress. I will follow "eagerly". I've got a woods 60" rake and I sure wish I had gauge wheels for it!! Would love to have some ideas on how to build a set. Thanks, Greg

 

[FERLING]

scootr, Please detail your gauge wheel build as you progress. I will follow "eagerly". I've got a woods 60" rake and I sure wish I had gauge wheels for it!! Would love to have some ideas on how to build a set. Thanks, Greg

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/countyline-landscape-rake-wheel-kit

 

[jayhawk238]

You're putting 20 more yards onto a 200' section of road?!? You have way too much loose gravel, me thinks. You can't expect to easily smooth out a big bowl of mush. Post some pics for us.

What did you use for the bottom layer(s) ? I constructed my driveway with a well crowned/raised bed of sand (my local soil type), packed as well as my tractor tires would do under a fully loaded machine (heavy rear attachment, full bucket of material on front loader). Then a mixture of 3"-minus gravel and crushed concrete, whichever one was more conveniently available and affordable for me. I let the semi trucks and concrete trucks compact this for my during my home's construction (concrete trucks are the ultimate road compaction!). Only after this point did I start putting 3/4"-minus over top, and I really only have a few inches of it at most.

I was thinking the same thing. Lot of rock for a short drive. Unless it's really, really wide!!

 

[Yamezz]

I didn't take any pictures, unfortunately, but I spent yesterday spreading 56 tonnes of 20mm quarry rubble over virgin loamy-sand to make a driveway and car park. I used my 3720 and land plane to spread it 150mm thick and reasonably smooth.

The driveway section was pre-spread with the dump truck, but the car park section had to be made from individual piles. I spent probably as much time dragging the land plane forward as pushing it in reverse. When I needed to get gravel into a corner or a low spot, I used the FEL bucket to transport it, but the land plane did most of the work. Sometimes it will carry too much material, so the 3PH needs to be 'worked' a bit. This is less of a problem on previously compacted rubble, hence I have just done a good enough job until the rubble gets packed down from use, then I will return and polish it nicely smooth with the same land plane.

 

[Bendboater]

I completed my driveway and and parking area the other day by renting a roller/vibratory compactor. Now it's pretty smooth (not quite as smooth as an asphalt road, but really close). Will see how long it lasts.

My notes on using the Landplane. These notes are based on what I have heard here as well as what I have learned using the implement. Since I have not used the scrafiers (yet), I have no comments about their use. These are MY notes and are really only intended for me to refer to. If others find them useful, then great. But they are not intended to be a tutorial in the operation of a Landplane as other peoples experiences undoubtedly are different (as clearly seen in this thread).

- Material type and moisture content is critical. Material with a lot of fines (for good compaction under the finish layer) tends to clump up when wet. It also can overflow the sides of the landplane if too much is grabbed at once. Whereas super loose and/or dry gravel (with minimal fines) just flows over the blades as would be expected. Too dry = lots of dust.

- A landplane is not a drop and drag implement. It requires constant monitoring and adjustment (feathering) of the three point height. I had the best "luck" using settings between 2 and 3 with just a slight change making a huge difference on the ground.

- Fresh (newly deposited) or lose material requires a higher setting (and more feathering) of the three point control, than does well compacted material.

- A landplane will move a significant amount of material around (if desired), but it doesn't spread it very well then. If material is in a pile, drag away small amounts at a time onto an already somewhat leveled surface.

- Fix imperfections as you find them otherwise they will continue to screw with you (i.e.; cause the tractor to pitch one way which causes the implement to pitch the other way, either leaving a pile or dip)

- Be super cautions about pushing material with it as the three point is not designed for these forces.

- Do not overwork the gravel. Moving the gravel around too much causes the fines to drop out leaving the courser material at the top. The course material doesn't compact (or stay compacted) well.

- While the instructions say to set it to level (front to back), it seems to work best with the front slightly raised.

- Can go either way with the implement, but I prefer to drag with the blades angled toward the center of the road (i.e.; drive on the right side of the road) as much as possible.

- Go slow but steady.

- Drag away from (not towards) pavement or places you don't want to deposit material. Otherwise you wind up with a pile at the transition that then has to be leveled out.

- Take your time, be patient and enjoy the "seat time".

Thank you to all who have contributed to my journey of getting to know my landplane.