Land Pride grading scraper

[catdozer]

Going to build a landplane coming up pretty soon, this thread has once again influenced me! I've got all the steal I need, but need to come up with a place for cutting edges, I'm going 72in wide and set the blades straight, but how long should my skids be? I'm curious. I'll be using I-Beams for the sides. And should I weld on a mount to put suitcase weights on it? Or will their be enough weight already?

 

[wcampbell47]

Hello everyone,
I hope I am not hi-jacking this thread I just thought why we are on the subject someone could recommend what size grader blade my tractor could handle.
I have visited quite a few tractor dealerships that maintain their gravel parking lots with a grader blade. And they comment they maintain
Other businesses parking lots once or twice a year with these blades.
I have seen some use a 48 wide, some a 72 wide, saw a 48 behind a very large CUT, I guess they use what tractor is available.
I need to decide between 48 in wide or a 60 inch wide for a Ford 1520 (23hp). I have a gravel drive but also I would like to try to take care of a few small parking lots.
For parking lots I am thinking wider is better? Land pride site list the
GS1548 for 20-50 hp and the GS1560 for 25-50 hp.
My tractor handles a 500lb. 60 inch box blade ok but I have never used a grader blade. I imagine two blades compared to a single box blade is a lot more drag but a box blade holds a lot more material.
Thanks for the help and interesting reading.
Johnny Walker

I pull a 60 inch grader behind my 21 hp Kubota, but I have to have the FEL on for the weight and traction. My 32 hp K handles the grader much better. If you don't have an FEL and 4WD you should probably go with the 48 inch unit. The grader does a great job of maintaining a parking lot. The grader will move some material, but not as much as a box blade. The grader is all about cutting down the high spots and filling in the low spots.

 

[PapaPerk]

We just bought a Land Pride Box Scraper
I asked for advise in the attachment section - nobody replied - so I went with my gut feeling.

Why is your bush hog drooping at the back? The tail wheel should be higher than the front of the hog during transport... and mowing. :thumbsup:

 

[jenkinsph]

Going to build a landplane coming up pretty soon, this thread has once again influenced me! I've got all the steal I need, but need to come up with a place for cutting edges, I'm going 72in wide and set the blades straight, but how long should my skids be? I'm curious. I'll be using I-Beams for the sides. And should I weld on a mount to put suitcase weights on it? Or will their be enough weight already?

I wouldn't build one that needs extra weights instead build one that is sturdy, ridgid and heavy duty. If you look at the pics I posted on pg 19 of this thread you will see I used beams and these are 5'0" in length. Works well but I would make them even longer if you can find the right length of steel. I bought two pieces out of the cut/scrap pile and this was as long as I could make the skids. You could make it with 6' skids and be in good shape imo.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Going to build a landplane coming up pretty soon, this thread has once again influenced me! I've got all the steal I need, but need to come up with a place for cutting edges, I'm going 72in wide and set the blades straight, but how long should my skids be? I'm curious. I'll be using I-Beams for the sides. And should I weld on a mount to put suitcase weights on it? Or will their be enough weight already?

A 6 footer is going to be ALL that your tractor wants. If your main use is going to be road work, build the grader with the blades angled. Angled blades work best for removing wash board. Build the grader with heavy wall steel so that the weight and strength is built into the unit itself. You really want this implement to weigh well over 100lbs per foot width. 100lbs per foot is the absolute minimum IMO.

 

[catdozer]

I wouldn't build one that needs extra weights instead build one that is sturdy, ridgid and heavy duty. If you look at the pics I posted on pg 19 of this thread you will see I used beams and these are 5'0" in length. Works well but I would make them even longer if you can find the right length of steel. I bought two pieces out of the cut/scrap pile and this was as long as I could make the skids. You could make it with 6' skids and be in good shape imo.

Well it will defiantly will be rigid! I really like yours, and the low profile sides. I have the steel and it's all mostly in 20ft pieces so the length will be no problem, now did you ever want longer skids? I still don't know on a cutting edge, for first time I think I will just use and bolt on 1/4 flat steel. If it wears to fast I'll buy cutting edges, but I want to find out how well this works before I put too much money in it. It's going to be used on my CT235 and sometimes a 4120 Deere, first it's going to smooth up irrigation lanes then seed them, if good I'll use it on driveways. Do you ever want to add anything else to it to do better or is it good as it is?

 

[beppington]

Well it will defiantly will be rigid! I really like yours, and the low profile sides. I have the steel and it's all mostly in 20ft pieces so the length will be no problem, now did you ever want longer skids? I still don't know on a cutting edge, for first time I think I will just use and bolt on 1/4 flat steel. If it wears to fast I'll buy cutting edges, but I want to find out how well this works before I put too much money in it. It's going to be used on my CT235 and sometimes a 4120 Deere, first it's going to smooth up irrigation lanes then seed them, if good I'll use it on driveways. Do you ever want to add anything else to it to do better or is it good as it is?

Ditto on the angled blades - They should definitely be angled.

Mine has depth-adjustable blades. I haven't ever adjusted them ... they're set at about 1/4" below the skids ... but if you weld them on & they're too shallow or too deep, you'd need to re-weld them - what a pain. Bolting them on would be better.

I kinda wish my grading scraper had a flap/ gate on the back that could be either in the 'up' position (not being used), or down to make the grading scraper act like a box blade. I don't have this gate now, & don't seem to really need it, but I thought it might be a neat addition, to drag a bunch of dirt at once.

 

[catdozer]

I was also thinking of a tailgate but I might put a skidsteer plate on back to push it with the T190. I'm also going to cut slots in the main to adjust the depth with bolts, I don't want angled I'm going to leave them straight. And the way I build stuff it won't be light. Jenkinsph landplane is almost exactly of want I want to build. How far apart should I put the blades?

 

[beppington]

I was also thinking of a tailgate but I might put a skidsteer plate on back to push it with the T190. I'm also going to cut slots in the main to adjust the depth with bolts, I don't want angled I'm going to leave them straight. And the way I build stuff it won't be light. Jenkinsph landplane is almost exactly of want I want to build. How far apart should I put the blades?

My blades look like they're about 15" - 18" apart.

 

[jenkinsph]

My blades are about 24 inches apart, I can check in the morning and post.

About the straight set blades, I felt for most of my work which is planing landscapes that the straight set blades were the best deal. I don't wan't the dirt to drift to one side or the other. I also have the blades set to 0 with the bottom wear strips. Since the plane is heavy it will still cut aggresively with a slight shortening of the top link. I can go a short distance and easily have dirt piled up under the tractor behind the rear wheels. That isn't the purpose of the landplane for my use though, if the ground is flat and smooth I want to move very little dirt. My thought is to cut off the mounds and fill in the depressions. I also have wider skids to reduce the gouging. Overall I am very satisfied with it for land planing in small to larger lawn areas.

For primarily road and driveway work angled blades would be preferred since you can tilt up the rear slightly and build a crown. I use a rearblade with topntilt to build a crown and recover material from the edges. I have had good success using the two implements together for roadwork. I do have the topntilt which allows me to raise one side of the plane slightly to help with sloping when needed. For roadwork I can see having the blades set lower to better mix the gravel and fines.

About the washboard areas, so far these seem to be dealt with easily and haven't noticed any issues or experienced any problems removing them.

About the DIY side of this project, if you think having adjustable depth is a real concern then an easy work around to address this problem would be to build the plane with the blades 1 inch below the skids. You could have pin on wear strips that would protrude upwards thru the flanges and use a hairpin clip to hold them in place. Have a set of thin wear strips 3/16 to 1/4 inch which would allow a net 3/4" setting below the skids and a 3/4 inch spacer wood strip to sandwich between when wanting to finish plane at the zero setting.

If you want to test this using flatbar in lieu of grader blades I would strongly recommend you drill the holes needed for the grader blades prior to assembly. It would be very difficult to drill these holes afterwards. Frankly I think all of us that have these implements will tell you to simply go for the grader blades to start with.

Last thing, Brian and I have talked about using these in reverse, both of us do. I have contemplated putting a hitch on the back end and then dragging it. Easy to drive forwards and safer for the hitch components too. Debating whether to do this or add the flip over tailgate with stops.