Land Plane Advice

[HunterWare]

I would consider having 4x4 AND DIFFERENTIAL LOCK ENGAGED a strain on your tractor. I understand you can pull the 5' with your 1026R but better to size implements to your tractor that are not always straining everything.

On a hard packed driveway the land plane grader scraper is easy to pull. On a soft driveway or after a rain it can be much more difficult to pull and you have less traction too. I like to suggest combinations that will work well in less than optimum conditions.

A 4000 series Deere with ballast will pull an 8' lpgs in most conditions.
A 3000 series Deere with ballast will pull a 6' lpgs in most conditions.
A 2000 series Deere with ballast will pull a 5' lpgs in most conditions.
A 1000 series Deere with ballast will pull a 4' lpgs in most conditions.

The above is my opinion for heavy duty land plane grader scrapers without straining the tractor and use under a variety of soil and moisture conditions, with and without some slope changes.

jenkinsph, You have helped enough people with enough wisdom around here that it feels a little odd to contradict you. But I also actually have been using this little tractor and this plane for the last several years and I just gotta. =) It's really not a strain.

My statement (and point really) was that I only need to lock it up on that one small steep section of the road. That part is steep enough that I don't mow it side-2-side, but I can still drag a fully loaded 5' plane up that section of the drive. I just measured the slope with an inclinometer and it is 17 degrees (3.75/12 rise/run) most of the way up this hill. That's as steep a drive as most will have, and steeper than most would want. (I sure wish the original owners had picked a gentler path up the hill, UPS hates me in the snow).

Also, I don't feel at all like I'm overloading the tractor on that section, as I'm running definitely running out of traction not power. If I ran rear chains, or a couple hundred lbs of wheel weights then I'm sure that I could pull my 5' grader (loaded) up that hill without 4wheel or diff lock. I only engage the other wheels because I need more ground connection than I get with my ittybitty tires and without the weights or chains. I never lug and frankly never see more than a couple hundred RPM of loading on the tach (maybe dropping from 3200 RPM (PTO speed) to 3000ish). Basically I'm just to cheap to buy a full set of wheel weights and to lazy to throw on chains in order to avoid engaging my diff lock on that hill.

Regarding the dry gravel point, I completely agree. The best time to grade is a couple/several days after a decent rain. If the road is too dry then you don't really accomplish much (especially with the smaller planes that by nature will be lighter weight), and if the road is still too wet then it's just a muddy mess. The reason I specified that I could pull a "fully loaded" land plane up the hill was to hint that I wasn't talking about just skipping an empty plane over a dry/packed road.

Note to the OP: With smaller planes like we are running you will need to run it back and forth over your drive a couple times to unpack the top 1" of the road and get it mobile, then the plane can really do it's work. Larger planes, and planes with rippers, can short-cut this a bit... But small planes will do job just fine, they just need a couple passes. With each pass you will notice that you are carrying/mixing more material and you will see more of the road surface is scuffed/marked/handled. Once you have made several passes the whole surface you are doing should be soft/mixed/worked for a least an inch of depth. Now you just want to pack this new smooth/even/mixed surface back down with a roller (ideal) or with the heaviest vehicle you own (driven back and forth, trying to always drive on virgin road surface).

My dealer recommended the 5' plane for me (salesman is familiar with the property) and he wasn't wrong. I've been maintaining this drive for 5 years now and it works great. It's literally one of my three favorite things on the tractor (other two being forks and backhoe).

So I have to respectfully disagree and I'd humbly suggest that my 1000 series Deere does, in fact, pull a 5' lpga in most conditions. (or I've just been imagining my nice driveway and easy time working on it)

Here's a couple pics for reference:

 

[shui5612]

I have a box blade and scraper blade (7 and 8ft respectively) from MK Martin. I was looking into their scraper blade (rear blade) with the tail wheel and side shift but got the box and the blade for less than that blade alone.

Really good quality with no complaints.
I use them for leveling sand, gravel, earth. There are roots and stumps and stones and both of those attachments managed to stop my tractor in its tracks in 4x4 and low range. (I have a 110 hp Deutz agrofarm 430).
I had a Chinese subsoiler that got bent in half and I didn't even feel it on that tractor.

After 2 years of ownership and use. I can say that the paint and build quality is really good. My manual adjust rear blade even has a place to put a cylinder on if needed so if ever you want to upgrade to hyd angle you could without needing to get a new attachment or weld up brackets.

Hope this helped.

 

[ovrszd]

Here's a couple pics for reference:
View attachment 500032View attachment 500033

Very difficult type of slope to maintain. Without moving a tremendous amount of dirt the builder didn't have much choice.

Looks like you are maintaining it very well indeed. :thumbsup:

 

[HunterWare]

Getting back to the OP's original question: I don't know those brands but I would just suggest that you want it as solid, heavy, and wide/long as you can carry.

Good things and why:

• Solid is just always good, and leads to Heavy.
• Heavy will help you cut, minimizing the number of passes you need to make on a packed/hard drive.
• Wide will allow more work to be done per pass.
• Wide/Long means longer and more separated skids on it which means the result is smoother for each pass.
• Higher moldboard in order to mix/carry more material, leaving a better surface
• Adjustable cutters let you control how deep under the skids you operate
• Rippers remove the need for a couple "warm up passes" before you really start leaving a good surface

Good luck and enjoy! I love my plane and now only use my scraper blade for ditches and snow.

 

[Catman8]

My suggestion, always buy your implements from a local large implement dealer you can trust that will handle customer service issues. When your talking about purchasing an item that weights hundreds of pounds and the shipping cost for a small online dealer to have the item returned is going to eat up all their profit and put them in the hole, they are going to do everything possible to give you the run around to avoid that loss, and the aggravation is just not worth it. Buy local and only from well respected implement companies that have been in business for decades, with state of the art manufacturing were the implement are going to be build straight, avoid small shops were they are building their implement on tables and cannot control the warping. There is a reason these small implement shops are cheaper, they don't have the engineering experience behind what they are building and they cut corners, just because they try to copy the big quality name brands does not mean your getting the same quality.

 

[shui5612]

Unfortunately don't have a nicer pic of the rear blade. But like I said, they held up great and finding an attachment that can actually stop a big tractor in its tracks without bending/breaking is a sign of quality/strength to me (MKMartin). Paint quality is great too.

The box is 7ft and the blade is the 8ft model.

 

[joeu235]

I have a 8' foot Road Boss. It's all my 98 hp Deere 6403 can handle but does a great job.

 

[mcgoo]

I have a 8' foot Road Boss. It's all my 98 hp Deere 6403 can handle but does a great job.

Nice video

 

[Dadnatron]

If HP is not an issue, would you go bigger?

I have a 100hp tractor. I need to purchase a land plane for road work. I have the options of an 84" which is almost exactly my wheelbase or I can get a 96" which covers an extra 6" outside of each wheel.

Is there a benefit to one or another? I am typically a 'go big or go home' type of guy, but since you all have a lot more knowledge about these than I, I'd like your opinion. I'd go with the EA 96" V2, but they are 5wks out and $500 more. If they had it available, I'd go ahead. But I think I need to take care of these roads and I don't 'think' I'd see enough variation to be worth the wait.

So, 84" wheel base. Options Woods 84" or 96" land plane?

 

[JerryK]

You don't have to go as wide as your rear wheels. If you work the road real loose it can be real hard to pull the LP heaped full of gravel. Usually, you want to crown the road some, and you only have to be as wide as a little wider than half the road width. Unless you want a flat road and want to go with a 12 footer one pass monster.......

 

[CalG]

Somewhat a distraction from the topic, but....

How does a land plane handle "topographic" roads?

The hill up to my place is STEEP! , and includes three pronounced roll overs . I recently tuned up the surface with the York rake fitted with rear gage wheels, and wonder if a more aggressive tool such as a land plane would be an option.

The road suffers from washboard due to the pitch, tires spin then throw material back. Instant washboard. Also, there is constant maintenance due to rains and run off at the edges. There are several "bones" (read ledge) embedded in the gravel that will never allow a perfect surface, but I can live with that for another thirty years, As I have so far.

Just wondering what a land plane does when it crests a knoll?

 

[ovrszd]

Tries to cut it off and fill the valley. That's it's intended purpose.

 

[jenkinsph]

If HP is not an issue, would you go bigger?

I have a 100hp tractor. I need to purchase a land plane for road work. I have the options of an 84" which is almost exactly my wheelbase or I can get a 96" which covers an extra 6" outside of each wheel.

Is there a benefit to one or another? I am typically a 'go big or go home' type of guy, but since you all have a lot more knowledge about these than I, I'd like your opinion. I'd go with the EA 96" V2, but they are 5wks out and $500 more. If they had it available, I'd go ahead. But I think I need to take care of these roads and I don't 'think' I'd see enough variation to be worth the wait.

So, 84" wheel base. Options Woods 84" or 96" land plane?

Most of the use for my 96" land plane is smoothing pastures land for reworking. If you see where this would benefit you the wide and heavy land plane is a good choice. If most of what you need is for road work it would be better to go with one that is half the width of the roads. I would not be concerned about covering track of rear tires with a landplane within reason, as long as you can follow the road edge without dropping the rear tires in the ditch.

For pasture smoothing after it has been tilled up a land plane does a good job smoothing the field out. You could use a 10' or 12' with a 100 hp tractor. You may be better off with two land planes, I have a 4' wide and an 8' wide and use both.

 

[jenkinsph]

Somewhat a distraction from the topic, but....

How does a land plane handle "topographic" roads?

The hill up to my place is STEEP! , and includes three pronounced roll overs . I recently tuned up the surface with the York rake fitted with rear gage wheels, and wonder if a more aggressive tool such as a land plane would be an option.

The road suffers from washboard due to the pitch, tires spin then throw material back. Instant washboard. Also, there is constant maintenance due to rains and run off at the edges. There are several "bones" (read ledge) embedded in the gravel that will never allow a perfect surface, but I can live with that for another thirty years, As I have so far.

Just wondering what a land plane does when it crests a knoll?

Land planes are all about averaging and smoothing. They work best on roads that have been properly shaped with a rear blade or grader. I find that a rear blade, land plane and heavy roller is a good combination to have for farm roads and driveways. A motor grader and experienced operator does a great job with all of it and is a good way to go for initial building of the road. A land plane used correctly followed by a roller can help maintain the road and will prolong the need for reworking.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Somewhat a distraction from the topic, but....

How does a land plane handle "topographic" roads?


Just wondering what a land plane does when it crests a knoll?

If you have a fixed top link, that holds the angle of the grader relative to the tractor wheel base, so to speak. So if it is a sharp knoll as the tractor crests the rear of the grader will lift and dump the load in the box just ahead of the crest. There are a couple things you can do to help. If you know it is going to happen then as you come to the top you can lift the grader a little to gradually empty the box just before the crest so you don't dump a pile then set it back down on the skids. I use a hydraulic top link which makes it easy to keep the grader skids flat on the road on those kinds of places. Or you can just go back and smooth those places with your bucket when you are done.

gg

 

[JerryK]

Also, depending on your road make up... working it dry tends to bring all the stone up to the top. Working it damp tends to keep the fines mixed up with the stone so it will pack down better. When damp, it will not sometimes spill over the back without clumps. You can just back up with the LP and that will usually level the clumps... Or drag your FEL bucket backwards at a slight downward angle... whatever floats your boat.

 

[JRobyn]

If 72" will do, I have one I'll sell at a good price. For my 10ft wide roads, I need a 60". Bought TOO big.

 

[Dadnatron]

JRobyn.

Why is that size "too big"? I understand it's bigger than half, but how is that hurting you?

 

[ovrszd]

JRobyn.

Why is that size "too big"? I understand it's bigger than half, but how is that hurting you?

It's too big because he believes it's too big. Really doesn't matter about the details. His methods of use will certainly vary from ours and everyone else's.

 

[joeu235]

I have an 8' wide LP. I wish now that I'd bought a 7' wide instead The reason is that on a one lane road you have to go up and down both sides anyways. So the extra width isn't really doing anything other than maxing out the tractor, burning more diesel, and wearing the tires more. The LP is really supposed to be pulled with some speed, and there is a lot of tire slippage at least on my 98 HP tractor which weighs 11,000 pounds.

Johnson grass in the road crown is a real pain too. It makes things much easier if you spray Round Up a week before.