Rear Blade Land leveler

[Gordon Gould]

I am not trying to contradict anyone and I know that weight is important but if you only have 12" sides I think that 1200 lbs may be to heavy. The heavier the LP the more material it will cut and that material has to be contained in the box as it passes thru. 12" sides are not very high for a really heavy unit. I would make them taller if you are shooting for 1200 lbs.

My LP is 600 lbs and 5' wide with 12" sides. That is 120 lbs per foot and it runs full or close to full a lot of the time. There are lots of variables. I have experimented with adding weight to my LP and running it parallel to the road surface, or level you might call it, if I go over 750 lbs or 150 lbs per foot the box fills so much that I start to get material flowing over the sides unless I hold the LP up with the 3 pth height lever or tip it back with the top link. Again there are lots of variables like material and blade height and angle.

So you might consider more height to make it heavier or maybe happy with 150 lbs per foot or so. Just something to think about.

gg

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Gordon has made a good point, :thumbsup: you need to have taller sides. I would say 18" minimum, but that's just because that is what my 5 footer has. My 7 foot 1400lb unit has 22"x 84" sides.

 

[Mallard1]

Thanks for the quick replies, I wasn't trying to be smart with the weight comment, just trying to build this only once. The angle and 2x4 tube were scraps I had laying around that's why I suggested them and will probally switch to the 4x6x5/8 angle as you suggested. I see the points about digging to much with increased weight.

In the past when Ive bladed the road with a 6ft box blade and leaving the lever all the way down I get at most 25% fill in the box. The road is mostly red dirt with small 1/2"-1"ish size rock and when dry is very hard.

I guess my worry is building one to big and heavy that grabs a lot of dirt and and I caint pull it very well as much as one to light that just skips across the top. However I do have some old railroad track laying around that could be added later for weight?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Thanks for the quick replies, I wasn't trying to be smart with the weight comment, just trying to build this only once. The angle and 2x4 tube were scraps I had laying around that's why I suggested them and will probally switch to the 4x6x5/8 angle as you suggested. I see the points about digging to much with increased weight.

In the past when Ive bladed the road with a 6ft box blade and leaving the lever all the way down I get at most 25% fill in the box. The road is mostly red dirt with small 1/2"-1"ish size rock and when dry is very hard.

I guess my worry is building one to big and heavy that grabs a lot of dirt and and I caint pull it very well as much as one to light that just skips across the top. However I do have some old railroad track laying around that could be added later for weight?

When the ground is just right and a heavy implement digs in to much, you simply take some of that weight off the ground by raising the implement just a bit. I have yet to find that a ground working implement was ever to heavy. You just need to control that weight with the hitch.

The only time that I see that this could possible be a concern is if you actually wanted a wavy finished surface, for off road bikes and the such, other wise I see weight and being able to hold a smooth straight surface as being ideal.

Just my :2cents:

 

[Mallard1]

Picked up 2 7' cutting blades from CAT today ($65ea) so now its time to order the rest of the steel and get this going. only hit 101 degrees today, perfect time to do some welding!!!

 

[jenkinsph]

Picked up 2 7' cutting blades from CAT today ($65ea) so now its time to order the rest of the steel and get this going. only hit 101 degrees today, perfect time to do some welding!!!

What kind of blades did you get? Most new blades are running about $25/ft in my locale. 5/8"x6"x96" reversible were $195 each.

 

[Mallard1]

1/2"x6"x84" cat pn#9w2299

 

[boggen]

TNT (top and tilt) replacing top link with a hyd cylinder, and then replacing side link with a hyd cylinder. most folks most likely only need to replace 1 side link with a hyd cylinder, but 7 miles of road, and in woods and most likely a good amount of turns. would suggest replacing both side link with hydrualic cylinders.

a TNT setup drastically improves things, by being able to adjust things while you are moving, no getting off tractor and trying to mess with some ugly turn buckles / nuts on the 3pt hitch to adjust things.

able to adjust 3pt hitch rear blade, box blade, even land plane grader scraper. to help keep crowns on road.

==========
box blade with sacrifice teeth, land plan grader scraper, and then a rear blade can be nice. tools for full ditch work and road (dirt / gravel) work.

there are some DIY plans here on TBN. were folks have built a pull behind motor grader http://www.machinerytrader.com/drilldown/category.aspx?catid=1048&etid=1 using a 3pt hitch rear blade.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

TNT (top and tilt) replacing top link with a hyd cylinder, and then replacing side link with a hyd cylinder. most folks most likely only need to replace 1 side link with a hyd cylinder, but 7 miles of road, and in woods and most likely a good amount of turns. would suggest replacing both side link with hydrualic cylinders.
a TNT setup drastically improves things, by being able to adjust things while you are moving, no getting off tractor and trying to mess with some ugly turn buckles / nuts on the 3pt hitch to adjust things.

able to adjust 3pt hitch rear blade, box blade, even land plane grader scraper. to help keep crowns on road.

==========
box blade with sacrifice teeth, land plan grader scraper, and then a rear blade can be nice. tools for full ditch work and road (dirt / gravel) work.

there are some DIY plans here on TBN. were folks have built a pull behind motor grader http://www.machinerytrader.com/drilldown/category.aspx?catid=1048&etid=1 using a 3pt hitch rear blade.

WHY 2 ? If the hydraulic side link is built properly (IMO) you will get an equal amount of tilt to each side mimicking or commonly exceeding what the manual OEM link provides.

 

[boggen]

New here but I have a question for the experts. I have a new holland 1927 and a Belarus 570 and I'm looking for something to better smooth out our gravel roads at the deer camp. Right now we have about 7 miles of road but only about 4 get driven on much and need quarterly smoothing. Every couple of years our neighbor will bring the road grader over and pull the ditches and re crown the road but in the mean time I have been using a 6ft box blade to patch it up but it takes all weekend to do now. So I've been looking at a land plane to help speed it up. I would like to get a 8ft wife and either a 2 or 3 blade. I have seen two types and wanted opinions on them. Most of our roads are typical south arkansas gravel roads, red clay gravel.

Land Plane - takes the work out of repairing gravel driveways. Great for grooming horse arenas leveling soil, plowing snow and more.
This style seems to just be made of 4" angle and doesn't seem like it would be hard to build but I wonder if it would hold up with out replaceable grader blades

Recover your gravel road with the Everything Attachments Land Leveler, Land Plane, utility grader
This style uses replaceable grader blades and has taller sides which should carry more rock but would be a little harder and more expensive to build.

Any thoughts?

TNT (top and tilt) replacing top link with a hyd cylinder, and then replacing side link with a hyd cylinder. most folks most likely only need to replace 1 side link with a hyd cylinder, but 7 miles of road, and in woods and most likely a good amount of turns. would suggest replacing both side link with hydrualic cylinders.

a TNT setup drastically improves things, by being able to adjust things while you are moving, no getting off tractor and trying to mess with some ugly turn buckles / nuts on the 3pt hitch to adjust things.

able to adjust 3pt hitch rear blade, box blade, even land plane grader scraper. to help keep crowns on road.

==========
box blade with sacrifice teeth, land plan grader scraper, and then a rear blade can be nice. tools for full ditch work and road (dirt / gravel) work.

there are some DIY plans here on TBN. were folks have built a pull behind motor grader http://www.machinerytrader.com/drilldown/category.aspx?catid=1048&etid=1 using a 3pt hitch rear blade.

WHY 2 ? If the hydraulic side link is built properly (IMO) you will get an equal amount of tilt to each side mimicking or commonly exceeding what the manual OEM link provides.

--box blade = moving dirt / filling in areas, taking away some dirt from other areas.
--rear blade = moving dirt side to side.

2 side link hyd cylinders
--more angle in both directions on the fly. instead of say 20 degrees +/-, your able to get say 40 degrees +/- in tilt.
--while 40 degrees that may seem like a lot. putting in / maintaining a ditch that is getting filled with dirt. rough cutting / moving and working way down to were i want it. not taking to much dirt out and putting back more in. but just taking enough out as needed. a couple issues for me is around culverts running under the road (dirt / gravel), i can back up to them yes. but i simply don't have enough angle. and if i did. if i move 3 feet forward dragging rear blade or box blade, i would score and wreck the road way. i need abilty of 2 side hyd cylinders to adjust quickly.
--if running say a "3pt hitch OFFSET rear blade " were i could swing blade clear out to one side. i can run tractor on the road for most part, and let blade scrape scrape along a couple inches down some steeper ditches (if i got left or right wheels over side and onto ditch, i would most likely roll the tractor over).
--hand controls for 3pt hitch and any remotes even factor remotes do not lend themselves good for a single hand, and being able to operate them at the same time. if i had 2 hyd side links, i could almost guarantee the levers would be side by side, and i could tap them slightly like i would with 2 levers of a FEL (front end loader) to adjust tilt in either direction (a finger on each lever) and in this... could feather in either direciton. with and/without dealing raising / lowering 3pt hitch. Other words. it would be like. having a FEL, were each arm raised and lower independently of each other. how many times you wish you could of done that while back dragging with the FEL?

 

[Mallard1]

Gordon, I was just wondering where you cut the 4 bottom edges of the side plates how much did you cut off for the lead angle? it looks like you just cut a triangle off the corner.

I am not trying to contradict anyone and I know that weight is important but if you only have 12" sides I think that 1200 lbs may be to heavy. The heavier the LP the more material it will cut and that material has to be contained in the box as it passes thru. 12" sides are not very high for a really heavy unit. I would make them taller if you are shooting for 1200 lbs.

My LP is 600 lbs and 5' wide with 12" sides. That is 120 lbs per foot and it runs full or close to full a lot of the time. There are lots of variables. I have experimented with adding weight to my LP and running it parallel to the road surface, or level you might call it, if I go over 750 lbs or 150 lbs per foot the box fills so much that I start to get material flowing over the sides unless I hold the LP up with the 3 pth height lever or tip it back with the top link. Again there are lots of variables like material and blade height and angle.

So you might consider more height to make it heavier or maybe happy with 150 lbs per foot or so. Just something to think about.

gg

 

[MtnViewRanch]

--box blade = moving dirt / filling in areas, taking away some dirt from other areas.
--rear blade = moving dirt side to side.

2 side link hyd cylinders
--more angle in both directions on the fly. instead of say 20 degrees +/-, your able to get say 40 degrees +/- in tilt.
--while 40 degrees that may seem like a lot. putting in / maintaining a ditch that is getting filled with dirt. rough cutting / moving and working way down to were i want it. not taking to much dirt out and putting back more in. but just taking enough out as needed. a couple issues for me is around culverts running under the road (dirt / gravel), i can back up to them yes. but i simply don't have enough angle. and if i did. if i move 3 feet forward dragging rear blade or box blade, i would score and wreck the road way. i need abilty of 2 side hyd cylinders to adjust quickly.
--if running say a "3pt hitch OFFSET rear blade " were i could swing blade clear out to one side. i can run tractor on the road for most part, and let blade scrape scrape along a couple inches down some steeper ditches (if i got left or right wheels over side and onto ditch, i would most likely roll the tractor over).
--hand controls for 3pt hitch and any remotes even factor remotes do not lend themselves good for a single hand, and being able to operate them at the same time. if i had 2 hyd side links, i could almost guarantee the levers would be side by side, and i could tap them slightly like i would with 2 levers of a FEL (front end loader) to adjust tilt in either direction (a finger on each lever) and in this... could feather in either direciton. with and/without dealing raising / lowering 3pt hitch. Other words. it would be like. having a FEL, were each arm raised and lower independently of each other. how many times you wish you could of done that while back dragging with the FEL?

View attachment 433021

As far as not getting the same amount of tilt to each side with a single side link, that is wrong. To start with, it is usually less than 1* difference and if you set the links up properly, you can get exactly the same amount of tilt to each side.

Not going to argue with you about maintaining ditches, different set of conditions. If you really need that much tilt on a rear blade, you need hydraulic tilt on the rear blade that has that offset feature, also hydraulically controlled that you should also have just for safety reasons. Sounds like a complete hydraulic rear blade assembly would be the ticket for your conditions.

As far as with a box blade, don't need it in my opinion, tractor won't pull a single pull ditch that steep anyway. The tractor has to be in the ditch if you need a deep ditch, so no reason to have the capability when you can't make use of it. I suppose if you want just an 12"-18" deep narrow ditch, then being able to have the box that steep would be beneficial, a lot of trips would be required using a box, but whatever. I would use a rear blade to cut the ditch, box blade is sort of a waist of time IMO.

Just how I see it with the experience that I have. No doubt you are correct for your needs.:thumbsup: Pretty hard to know absolutes without being there. :confused3:

 

[Gordon Gould]

Gordon, I was just wondering where you cut the 4 bottom edges of the side plates how much did you cut off for the lead angle? it looks like you just cut a triangle off the corner.

I did. I cut a 3"X 3" triangle off

 

[Mallard1]

Thanks Gordon, my steel is supposed to be delivered today and my my wife is going out of town so I'll try and get started this weekend

 

[Mallard1]

all the steel came in this morning, went ahead and cut everything at work while I had the benefit of having a fork lift to move and level everything up on the saw. hopefully it will move along fairly quickly but I think drilling all the 11/16 holes for the blade will take a little while.

 

[Mallard1]

Well I've made a little progress so far. I used the plasma to cut the corners off the plate and got the skids bent to fit. Drilled the holes in the angle for the blades. Now time to start welding it all together. I'll try to post a few pictures as I'm back inside, it's already 90 here supposed to hit 99 today!

 

[jenkinsph]

Well I've made a little progress so far. I used the plasma to cut the corners off the plate and got the skids bent to fit. Drilled the holes in the angle for the blades. Now time to start welding it all together. I'll try to post a few pictures as I'm back inside, it's already 90 here supposed to hit 99 today!

Looking forward to the pictures, good luck with the project.

 

[Mallard1]

Here's where I ended up tonight.


So tomorrow I will build the 3pt hitch and I need to flip it up side down and weld the bottoms up.

Iirc the lower pins are on 30" center to center. Does any body know off the top of their head the correct height for the top pin? Thanks for all the help. I hope to finish it up tomorrow then clean it all up and paint some time next week

 

[Xfaxman]

For this style hitch from: Quick Hitches

 

[jenkinsph]

Here's where I ended up tonight.
View attachment 433483

So tomorrow I will build the 3pt hitch and I need to flip it up side down and weld the bottoms up.

Iirc the lower pins are on 30" center to center. Does any body know off the top of their head the correct height for the top pin? Thanks for all the help. I hope to finish it up tomorrow then clean it all up and paint some time next week

Looks pretty good so far but you are going to need a lot of help getting the entire shop turned up right. Much easier to just turn your work over.