Ideas for Leveling Dirt and Seeding for Grass with Tractor

[Hay Dude]

I just leveled about an acre of ground that was bumpy like you describe. What I do is curl the loader bucket so the cutting edge is about 6” off the ground and the “heel” of the bucket is on the ground. Put the loader in float and drag it backwards. Works very well for scraping off raised bumps and dragging that scraped dirt into low spots.

Pro tip: if the ground is hard, put a load of dirt in the bucket to make it heavier & scrape high spots more effectively. Notice the back of my bucket where it meets the ground has loose dirt being pulled along, like a scraper.

I did this on Wednesday at a job I did with excellent success and was able to seed and straw it when done.

The middle was left undone because it will become a spot to dump logs, branches, debris.

 

[saxon11]

How about renting a land plane (they only have front mount at rental store) and using that? Then coming back after with chain-link drag?

 

[airbiscuit]

A landscape rake with guide wheels would do the trick (the guide wheels make you a better operator)

 

[mred2]

I like to use my cultipacker before and after I seed. Makes and good seed bed and pushes the seed into the ground. But a seed drill is the best, but too much money for me to own one.

 

[amhicks21]

My primary job for about the past 15 years is finish grading. I spend about 400 hours a year on a CTL and I spend about 400 hours a year on a tractor. I usually visit a grade job twice before it gets seeded. The first time, I take a CTL with a bucket and harley rake. The excavator doesn't get super close to stuff with topsoil so the goal with the CTL is to get dirt tucked in all around the concrete, foundation, utilities etc and also to get the grade close enough for a landscape and irrigation to get installed. If you don't have a bunch of obstacles, than that step isnt necessary. Ive done it without the CTL but bringing a tractor within a few inches of a brand new house is a bit sketchy. We have all of the finish grading implements for CTL's that you could want but I've found the tractor is always superior for the final step. The second time is with the tractor (usually l6060) and an ATI preseeder. Its basically a 3pt harley rake with a roller instead of gauge wheels. That leaves a finish literally as smooth as a parking lot. If you have any way of renting a harley rake, I'd personally go that route. You can just toss the dirt til youve got the right amount down and with the drum set to only contact with the teeth, just start driving and it'll do the work for you. I usually finish by doing straight drag passes or windrows to gather any debris. Heres a baseball field that had the infield extended that shows pretty well how smooth it can be made with no hand work. Ive even installed a milled asphalt parking lot this way by just tossing around 200 tons of millings with a wheel loader and then letting the preseeder do its thing and its still flawless 6 years later. The normal harley rake that you'd be able to rent will leave tire marks instead of a rolled surface but it doesnt matter for seeding.

and here's a normal yard.

 

[bigtiller]

With all the time you spent spelling all them words with that informative post, you left out one very important fact...what is a CTL?

 

[amhicks21]

Compact track loader

 

[dirttoys]

Rent a Harley rack, I can't find anything else that will do what it does.

You can get awfully close with just a bucket if you take your time. If you have a buddy that does landscaping/construction, buy a twelve pack and have him come over for a couple of hours, get his guidance on where to land the pile when it is delivered if you can.

When you get done, you will be amazed how good you have became with a bucket.

Best,

ed

 

[RjCorazza]

I also use the heel of my bucket in reverse to smooth out dirt. When working a large area I have used a box blade for the rough work, then a landscape rake with gauge wheels for the final, plus once again after seeding to work in the seed.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Here is a pic of spreading about 10-12 yards of dirt with nothing more than my FEL. I didn't even put the box blade or the rear grader blade on the tractor!
this took about 4-5 hours. About 4" in thickness, tapered at the end.


Dumped the full bucket while moving over about 6-8'. Then put the bucket flat or slightly tip down (only about an inch). Back dragged what was just dumped. Rinse and repeat overlapping the previous dump. Once all the material was down, I used the same back dragging technique on the whole area.