Land Plane Advice

[JerryK]

I was going to buy a 7', but changed my order to 6'. The 6' handles my drive, AND it fits on the trails out in the woods better. Not that I would not like a 10' wide one, or a 10' wide Zero Turn mower... but some things are better not so wide....

 

[Dadnatron]

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.

That is very interesting, especially given I've never used one before. I didn't think it would likely be much of a 'power hog'. I kind of figured you'd skip along pretty quickly regardless. Your tractor is about equivalent to mine, although yours is a bit heavier. I might have to look harder at the 7' version then.

 

[JerryK]

Depending on your road makeup, and how deep you want to work it to fix low spots.... you can get the LP full of gravel and it pulls hard when your traction tires are on loose stuff. If you are only working the top few inches, then all the material is just spilling over the blades. And it pulls pretty easy. But deep enough, and the material can be close to spilling over the sides of the LP.

 

[joeu235]

That is very interesting, especially given I've never used one before. I didn't think it would likely be much of a 'power hog'. I kind of figured you'd skip along pretty quickly regardless. Your tractor is about equivalent to mine, although yours is a bit heavier. I might have to look harder at the 7' version then.

Besides the 9 shank primary tillage chisel plow, its the hardest pulling implement I own.

 

[JRobyn]

JRobyn.

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

If I put the right skid down in the "ditch" (lowest point) on the right side of the road, the left side skid is a foot or more to the left of the top of the crown. And the crown is getting cut. I can compensate and make do by setting my 3pt with a bunch of tilt, but this defeats the wonderful "drop it and pull it" ease that is a land plane. I need it to be easily usable by my wife.

If I put the left side skid right on top of the crown (where it should be) the right side skid is a foot or more to the right of the "ditch", which is several inches above the road surface, so it's bouncing along cutting nothing.

Granted, I do NOT have perfectly profiled road edges. This is TN. Ever hear "Rocky Top"? If someone could please come and cut the solid rock for me, that would be nice.

 

[JRobyn]

My LandPride "blades" are only about 6" tall, so in use, the amount of gravel I'm pulling is not that much of a load. If you have your blades set to cut a lot, the excess SHOULD just spill over the top of the blades. It requires WAY less to pull than my box blade. I have had the LPGS full to the top (of the blades) and then some with clumpy wet fines when I once tried to use it with a wet surface and my 43hp HST pulled it with no discernible strain. I am grading crusher run top dressing.