land plane / leveler

[bdog]

I have a 7' box blade but I just bought a bigger tractor and it will no longer cover my tracks which are 8'. I have a little over a mile I am guessing of dirt roads on my property that I want to maintain as well as a 1 acre or so gravel equipment lot.

I was thinking of buying something 8 -12' wide.

I was looking at something like this Recover your gravel road with the Everything Attachments Land Leveler, Land Plane, utility grader

or this http://www.tractorhouse.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=6448603

I have used 3 point box blade a ton but never either one of these style implements. The land plane looks like it would work great but then again the pull type leveler with the gauge wheels on the box should work pretty good also.

Anybody have any feedback on these style of implements?

 

[coobie]

I have a 7' box blade but I just bought a bigger tractor and it will no longer cover my tracks which are 8'. I have a little over a mile I am guessing of dirt roads on my property that I want to maintain as well as a 1 acre or so gravel equipment lot.

I was thinking of buying something 8 -12' wide.

I was looking at something like this Recover your gravel road with the Everything Attachments Land Leveler, Land Plane, utility grader

or this http://www.tractorhouse.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=6448603

I have used 3 point box blade a ton but never either one of these style implements. The land plane looks like it would work great but then again the pull type leveler with the gauge wheels on the box should work pretty good also.

Anybody have any feedback on these style of implements?

Not every landplane is created equal,LOL.Do your research.I ended up buying a 7ft befco landplane weighs 703 lbs. from my local dealer Michigan Iron & equipment after some research.Buy the most heavy duty one you can afford IMHO.Weight is your friend while grading roads.I grade over a 2 mile road with mine.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

For maintaining a road, very difficult to beat a LPGS in my opinion. Just like most grading implements, weight is your friend. I have found that to be able to work well the implement needs to weigh between 125-200lbs per foot of width. A lot of people are satisfied with less, but to work best you really do need that weight. If I had your machine, I would not go any wider than an 8-9 footer. I have a 7 footer that weighs 1400lbs, and if I don't pay attention and the conditions are right it will stop my 75hp 12,000lb tractor.

 

[bdog]

If I had your machine, I would not go any wider than an 8-9 footer. I have a 7 footer that weighs 1400lbs, and if I don't pay attention and the conditions are right it will stop my 75hp 12,000lb tractor.

Thanks for info. I forgot to update my profile / signature. I just traded tractors I now have 130hp and about 15,000 lbs. I definitely will look into the heavier units. The bulk of my dirt roads are about 10' wide so if I got a 10' unit I could cover the whole road in one pass.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Unless your roads are perfectly flat, that is not what you want and even with a 15,000lb tractor, it is only 2WD, so you have at best around 10 - 11,000lbs of tractive effort. With the roads that you have, even a 7 footer may be to wide.

Maybe someone else will have a different outlook, I can only give advise based on my own experiences.

 

[Gordon Gould]

The bulk of my dirt roads are about 10' wide so if I got a 10' unit I could cover the whole road in one pass.

That would be great if you keep all your roads flat w/o any crown on them for drainage.

 

[jcummins]

That would be great if you keep all your roads flat w/o any crown on them for drainage.

That seems counter to what I've read....and that is you want a crown. Can you explain.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

That seems counter to what I've read....and that is you want a crown. Can you explain.

Maybe Gordon should have had one of these at the end of his statement. In most cases, and Gordon agrees, you would not want to be able to grade a road in a single pass.

 

[TomSeller]

Maybe Gordon should have had one of these at the end of his statement. In most cases, and Gordon agrees, you would not want to be able to grade a road in a single pass.

Agree, you need a crown. Two passes sloped away from center.

 

[bdog]

Unless your roads are perfectly flat, that is not what you want and even with a 15,000lb tractor, it is only 2WD, so you have at best around 10 - 11,000lbs of tractive effort. With the roads that you have, even a 7 footer may be to wide.

Maybe someone else will have a different outlook, I can only give advise based on my own experiences.

Do these levelers draft harder than a box blade? I have pulled my 7' box blade plum full of dirt with a 45 horse tractor. I had a 10' box blade I used to pull full with a 4430. I think it was 125hp.

 

[bdog]

That would be great if you keep all your roads flat w/o any crown on them for drainage.

Actually they are all flat. Our main driveway to the house is about 500' and is concrete. These "roads" I am talking about maintaining are in the fields, turn rows , etc. They are just dirt and don't get driven on very often. Not that it rains much here but if it is too wet we don't have a need to travel on them. They get minor ruts from time to time from various things like atvs, etc but just making them flat again is fine. I know a proper road has a crown but these are not that important. I do like to keep me gravel parking area flat though.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Do these levelers draft harder than a box blade? I have pulled my 7' box blade plum full of dirt with a 45 horse tractor. I had a 10' box blade I used to pull full with a 4430. I think it was 125hp.

I can move about 4 CY of dirt with my LPGS if the dirt is moist. There are 2 blades cutting 1" of earth, it can pile up real fast. Yes it "can" be much harder to pull than a box blade. But all of this can be controlled. Maybe you should just get the 10 footer and be happy that you will be able to grade your roads with a single pass.

We TBNers go through this learning process all the time. All we can do is guess what your conditions are and give advise on what we think the situation might be. Until it is clear to us exactly what you have and are trying to do, a lot of our advice simply does not apply.

I am sorry that it took this long to get on the same page.:sorry: One last thing, you may not like the cost of a good 10' LPGS. My guess would be quite a way north of $4000.

Good luck

 

[jenkinsph]

Actually they are all flat. Our main driveway to the house is about 500' and is concrete. These "roads" I am talking about maintaining are in the fields, turn rows , etc. They are just dirt and don't get driven on very often. Not that it rains much here but if it is too wet we don't have a need to travel on them. They get minor ruts from time to time from various things like atvs, etc but just making them flat again is fine. I know a proper road has a crown but these are not that important. I do like to keep me gravel parking area flat though.

I am currently working on a 14' wide model with 8 1/2' long skids which a 4430 should be able to pull. Just mentioned this because the lpgs is good for smoothing fields and pastures too, something you might consider useful,

 

[bdog]

Thanks again everyone for the advice. Looks like I will give a 10' unit a try depending on price. I can get a 10' box with gauge wheels for around $1500. I know it will work, but maybe not as good. If I can get into a LPGS for around 3k or less I will give it a shot otherwise it looks like I will take the cheaper solution.

 

[RG1]

I'd make sure to get one that has scarifiers to loosen crusted dirt or gravel easier than with just the blades. Not all of them do. The blades on many of them can be tilted on their mounting points inside the walls instead of doing it with the draft arms.

Here are some link that may interest you-
Tractor Land Plane - Tractor Land Leveler - 3 point Hitch

BB45 Series Drag Scrapers | Land Pride

GS25 Series Grading Scrapers | Land Pride

http://www.tractorhouse.com/list/list.aspx?Manu=EVERSMAN

 

[SGBotsford]

... I definitely will look into the heavier units. The bulk of my dirt roads are about 10' wide so if I got a 10' unit I could cover the whole road in one pass.

You want to put a camber on the road so that you have 8 feet in the middle that doesn't keep puddles. For a short 300 yard one I put one corner of a blade down and made about 40 passes, with the down corner at the back and about 3 inches lower than the up end.
(Too light a blade)