Light Duty LandPlane

[Dougryan]

Hi,
I'd like to build a very light duty land plane for use on my yard. I prefer the land plane design over a box blade or rear blade. I think that having the 'grade wheels' behind the blade will do a lot to smooth out the humps and minimize the digging and bumps that would otherwise be caused by the tractor movement.

I have a lawn tractor and therefore cannot engage too much dirt at once. I'm going to need to take lots of small bites, and I'm ok with that approach. It will be a heck of a lot better than pulling a rake by hand.

Thinking about using a dump cart as the primary implement and simply add a grader blade to the tongue of the cart. I will also extend and reinforce the tongue.

Here is picture of my intended design. The grader blade itself will probably be a simple piece of 1/4" x 4" flat stock or perhaps a piece a angle iron with a 1/4" thick profile.

How far back should I mount the blade? I'm thinking that 75% to 80% of the way back would be about right.
What angle should the blade be set at? My diagram show a 10 degree slant back.

Thoughts?
Thanks

 

[jones6780]

Is there grass in the area? You will need weight to make it work. Might consider angling the blade left or right to move the dirt.

 

[texasranger556]

Might be better with a serrated edge like a ratchet rake if you just want to smooth things out.

 

[smokinmad]

Hope you have a 3pt to raise the tongue so you can raise the blade off the ground. I would move the blade forward so you can get a little height when lifting the blade. And like JONES said, be able to angle it. To remove high spots in grass, you will need weight in the trailer AND on the 3pt, to hold the tongue of trailer down so it will cut.

 

[Dougryan]

No 3point... just plan to drag it behind a lawn tractor. I plan to put some weight in the trailer, what every is lying around will do. I also like the idea of using a ratchet rake type blade. Need to look for one of those. Maybe at Tractor Supply.. I have a local steel surplus shop too that might have something like that as a loose drop. Could get it for $ per pound

Thanks for the comments.
Doug

 

[Dougryan]

So I didn't end up building a land plane... Instead, I went for the tried and true "chain link fence drag". I'll have to post a couple of pictures, but for now I'll just describe it. Pretty simple really... Fence is 4' tall and I was able to get a 25' piece for $15.

I started by trying to thread a 1" x 1" angle iron through the holes. Kind of weaving it through the off-sets in the fence. That didn't work. I even bent the fence a bit to try to make the slot a bit wider. No luck. I ended up folding the fence around the angle iron and using scrap pieces of fence wire to twist tie the fence to itself.

I drilled two holes in the angle iron to attach the drag to my tractor.

Then I took one pallet and attached that to the fence about 1 foot back from the angle iron. Again, I used some left over fence wire to twist tie the pallet in place. One tie at each corner. Then I cut the fence to length with about 1 foot hanging out behind the pallet.

For weight, I put two cement filled 12" concrete blocks on the pallet and attached them with ratchet straps. Ended up being too heavy for my tractor. No diff lock so it was hard to get it moving and once I started, I had to keep momentum up or I would just start to spin a wheel. I pulled one block off and just centered the other for even weight distribution on the pallet.

Did several passes and it seems to be working well. Just enough to rough up the soil and break some rocks loose. Also, because the pallet is rigid, it seems to be doing a good job of cutting down high spots and filling in the lows.

Overall, pretty satisfied with how it's working. Pics coming soon.

Doug

 

[Spanner]

:checkmark:

 

[CincyFlyer]

Geez, I almost suggested "Piper Cub clone" before I read the contents of this thread! But the fence is a pretty good idea, and very cheap.
If you need something heavier, Tractor Supply sells some stuff that's got much thicker wire, and has "prongs" so that you can flip it and it will dig in better. It's heavy enough to not need weight, and some folks are pulling it with garden tractors.