LPGS Newbie - need help with set-up for road maintenance

[UncleBuck1]

I need some help setting up my LGPS for gravel road maintenance-- if I run flat, without any tilt, will it follow the contour of the road? Or do I need to tilt the blade to preserve the crown in the road? Any tricks or tips I should be aware of when using a LGPS?

 

[cglaser104]

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=394800

Help me design the best attachment for smoothing gravel

 

[flashpuppy]

I personally have found that my LPGS is great at removing the crown. I use a scraper blade to pull gravel from the edges and put the crown back on after several uses of the LPGS.

 

[UncleBuck1]

I personally have found that my LPGS is great at removing the crown.

Well that pretty much answers my question!

 

[Gordon Gould]

I personally have found that my LPGS is great at removing the crown. I use a scraper blade to pull gravel from the edges and put the crown back on after several uses of the LPGS.

I don't find that to be the case on my road. My LPGS is 5' wide and the road averages about 12' wide. I only recrown the road with my rear blade every 2 or three years. I grade the two sides and hardly touch the middle. You have to pay attention to where the material is going to come from to fill the low spots. If you have a one lane road with a set of compressed wheel ruts and run your blade down the middle straddling the crown then you will definitely remove the crown. A common mistake is to regrade the road with a new crown and not pack it. Generally if you pack it you will find it is not what you wanted and you will have to regrade it. This is because the areas with thicker fill pack more than the areas w/o fill or very thin fill so something like a wheel rut which has deep fill will just reappear when it is packed. In a perfect world when you grade you what to cut deep enough so that when you are done the entire road has has the same thickness of unpacked material setting on top of the packed road base which has the shape you want. In other words cut deep enough so you reach the bottoms of the ruts or wash board or pot holes don't just fill them in with loose surface material. If the loose material is of even thickness when you pack it the contour or shape will not change.

gg

 

[flashpuppy]

My LPGS is 7 foot. My road is about 10 foot. I can set the tilt to not cut all the crown off, but find that eventually I do wind up removing it a bit.

I like the LPGS for the ease and speed. If I had to just pick one though, the blade would be it. It has taken many hours to become really proficient with it.

 

[crazyal]

Can you give us more details? Like how wide is your road, how wide is your GS, what brand, are the blades angled, and is the blade height adjustable and what is the range compared to the side skid? Most of my driveway is about 10' wide (in places a little wider) and I use a 6' Befco GS. If you are leveling land wider is better but not so much when maintaining a road. Each person has their own way of doing things so it depends on which GS you have.

My Befco the blades are adjustable. They would go from about even with the skid to about 1" below it. By drilling new holes directly above the factory ones in the side plats I made it so I can adjust the blades so they can now go above the skid by about 3/4". This allows me to raise one side so the blades don't touch the crown of the road while the other side can do it's job. My blades are angled to help make the material migrate to one side. Also I don't do a "set it and forget it" adjustment. It may be a little more work but I adjust the depth of the blades several times while taking care of the road. But with time and experience you will learn what the road needs and will adjust as required.

 

[UncleBuck1]

Can you give us more details? .

My road is 10-12 wide and my LPGS was made by Armstrong Ag and is 7 (a 6 would be narrower than my tractor). Blades are angled but not adjustable.

https://www.armstrongag.com/app/download/3447077/DBG+-+DOUBLE+BLADE+GRADER.pdf

 

[flashpuppy]

What does your road look like? Flat? Hills? Curves? Do you have ditches on the sides? Do you have a good base of gravel down already?