Land Plane for Kioti DK45

[Mark Headley]

Looking for experiences to decide on a land plane to maintain a large amount of gravel driveway.
Think I have it narrowed to the RoadBoss or E/A brands.
The E/A has ripper teeth that may be of some use to me- haven't used either (with or without rippers) before.
I'm on a foothill in WA state, as opposed to flat Iowa land, so I need to go uphill some.
Is 6' better than 7'?
Currently I own a L/P RBT3596 blade and a root rake grapple.

 

[jenkinsph]

If you have much slope going uphill I would go with the 6' model.

 

[oosik]

If you ever plan on any repairs - potholes, washboard, riffles, etc - get the rippers. Get the LPGS as close to half the driveway width as possible. Up one side - back down the other. If you consistently go down the middle - it can eventually remove the crown. I have the Land Pride - GS2584. Pulls easily behind my Kubota.

Ah - found you there on Google Earth - firmly planted half way between Seattle and Portland. Hope the last wind storm didn't cause you much damage.

 

[cjoffutt]

I would get the rippers no matter what brand you end up with. Never know when you'll need/want to use them. Plus the added weight of them is nice. Even if you do not want to 'rip' the ground, just turn them upside down in the holders and problem solved. Not to mention, it's usually a very minimal cost to go that route. Pretty sure my Woods LPGS was only $100 more for the ripper version.

 

[Mark Headley]

"Ah - found you there on Google Earth - firmly planted half way between Seattle and Portland. Hope the last wind storm didn't cause you much damage."
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Yah, in the Big Bottom Valley, as it's called. I don't think it was named after the inhabitants? lol
Across the street from a leg of the upper Cowlitz River- 29 miles west of White Pass.
Not too much damage- just some tree litter and a power outage for a day.

 

[Smokeydog]

6’ EA LP is all my 60hp 4x4 can do going uphill sometimes. Does a great job. Tired the rippers once but didn’t work too good on my driveway and really didn’t need them. For yard work they may come in handy. Been a time, maintenance and money saving tool for our hillside driveway.

 

[NBHAracer]

I have a 6' EA landplane that I pull with my Kioti. Overall I'm happy with the quality and its performance. Works very well. I'd definitely recommend the 6 foot version in whatever brand you decide to go with. As oosik said, ideally you want the driveway to be crowned and higher in the middle. So ideally, the landplane should be exactly half the width of your driveway, that way you can go down on one side of the driveway and come back up on the other side to maintain the crown. 6 foot is a perfect size. (5 foot would be a tad too small as it probably wouldn't be wide than the tractor.) On a side note, my driveway also has a steep hill in the middle of it. When the landplane is digging in a good bit (i.e. has a bunch of material), my Kioti can't go up the hill in medium range. Has no problem in low range. So that's usually the range I use the landplane in. And if you can afford it, I'd recommend the ripper shanks. My landplane from EA doesn't have it, and I'm thinking about selling it and buying the EA landplane with shanks. 80% of the time you won't need shanks. In fact if you maintain your road regularly, you'll probably never use them. The landplane does well with just the slanted cutting blade. That's all I need for my driveway. However I helped a neighbor with his driveway which probably hadn't been maintained in 7 years. It was as hard as concrete. The Landplane mostly skipped and bounced above the road because it was condensed and packed so hard. Took 14 passes before the slanted blade even started to cut in. Having shanks would also be handy for helping remove potholes. I could put the shanks down about 2 inches to rip the pothole out, then regrade everything with the blade.

 

[oosik]

So ...... Mark - have you decided yet? Trust me - if your DK45SE handles a Land Pride RBT3596 - It will handle a 6 foot or 7 foot land plane grading scraper with ease. My LPGS is a Land Pride GS2584. My M6040 doesn't even know it's back there on the 3-point. I have a valley in my mile long gravel driveway. Just for convenience - I put the tractor in 4WD when pulling the grading scraper up out of the valley. Otherwise - it's 2WD all the way. Even with the scarifier shanks down.

I have a Rhino 950 rear blade. It's 8 foot and weighs 1050#. If I get aggressive - which is usually a mistake - I will have to go into 4WD and the turbo will start to whine.

My rear blade and land plane grading scraper - View attachment 684425View attachment 684426