Road Grader

[RonMar]

Looks even better with paint How far below the side skids does your front blade extend?

 

[LetsRoll]

I think its 3/4". Have you started putting yours together?

 

[RonMar]

Havn't started assembling mine yet. Need to do pinion bearings on my truck rear diff this weekend. I will probably start next week sometime as I want to get my drive in better shape and take the humps out of our circular turn around area so I can add some gravel to it.

After looking over some pics of a "bad boy" grader up in the box blade photo comparison thread,
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Board/implement/Number/667861/page/9/view/collapsed/sb/5/fpart/11/vc/1/o/all
I was thinking about 1/2" below the skids would be about right. I may have to think about that a little bit more after seeing your results. The pics of the one in the thread I linked to appear to show both the front and rear blades going below the skids. I think I like the way you did it with just the front blade cutting as it looks like you could more easilly control the ammount of cut with the toplink as you described. With the rear blade also going below the skids, you would have to lift the front quite a bit to stop the rear blade from cutting.

 

[montejw]

I finally got around to building a road grader. It turned out better than I expected....

Nice job. What thickness plate did you use for the sides? I want to build one of these myself, been shopping them and they are pricey.

Monte

 

[PILOON]

I followed this discussion and perhaps have a suggestion.

Instead of welding the front blade, how about welding a 'backer' (say 2" sq tubing) with some vertically welded guides (say 3/8" angle stock), one pair to extend the height of the square tube backer and another pair , maybe 6" high on the front face of the blade location.

One would then use a pair of threaded rods or long bolts & nuts to raise or lower the corners of the front cutting blade.

This would permit scalping the curve or hump on the road bed.

Onother method would be adjustements to the skids.
Same idea except lowering a skid would create a hump on the roadbed for drainage.
The skid would probably merely need a heafty vertical leg welded with a couple of bolt holes at say 1 or two inches higher than the down the down position.
Kinda the way most snowblower skids get adjusted.
Actually if your roadbed is twice the width of the grader/scraper you would only need one adjustable skid as you'd always run the high skid on the center to have your 'crown'.

Good thinking and nice work.

 

[LetsRoll]

Nice job. What thickness plate did you use for the sides? I want to build one of these myself, been shopping them and they are pricey.

Monte

I cant remember, there 5/16 or 3/8 inch thick side skids. I think there 3/8". It's been a year since I've built it.

 

[montejw]

I cant remember, there 5/16 or 3/8 inch thick side skids. I think there 3/8". It's been a year since I've built it.

Thanks. I need to draw one up and calculate the weight from the steel needed. My tractor is smaller than yours.

Monte

 

[sandman2234]

I picked up two 7 foot grader blades from Duragrader when I picked up Wayne_Freeman's long lost Duragarder. They only cost me $5 a foot, or $70 for two of them. I thought that was a little high, but compared to yours, I got a steal!!
My Duragrader got put on the back burner due to the ownership of the road going to my sister in law's house changing. The city took over it, because the owner didn't pay the taxes. We have been lucky in getting them to keep the major potholes filled, and that is about it. The guy mentioned that I wasn't properly licensed and insured to be doing roadwork, when I took my tractor out to spread a load he dumped. I have been letting them and the owners on that road handle it ever since. The largest tractor down the street is about 13 hp.
David from jax

 

[montejw]

I picked up two 7 foot grader blades from Duragrader....

Are you talking about just the cutting edges?

Monte

 

[sandman2234]

Just the blades, not the whole contraption. I planned on building my own when I returned to Jax to keep my sister in laws roadway graded.
I mentioned this due to the original poster paying $300 for the blades and some other misc parts.
Sorry for not making that clear.
David from jax

 

[montejw]

Just the blades, not the whole contraption. I planned on building my own when I returned to Jax to keep my sister in laws roadway graded.
I mentioned this due to the original poster paying $300 for the blades and some other misc parts.
Sorry for not making that clear.
David from jax

Not a problem. I'd like to build my own, I'll be shopping for cutting edges.

Monte

 

[LetsRoll]

$70 for two 7 ft blades, thats dirt cheap. I paid $184 for the both of my blades (7 ft as well). But they are from woods, not the dura grader company (thats where my dealer ordered mine from).

I had forgotten that you where the one that picked up Wayne's duragrader. Wayne's ordeal was another reason why I built my own. Glad I did, cause its been a money maker for me. I'm in the process as of right know, getting rear remotes for my tractor just because of this one implement. But, since its making me a ton of green backs, I decided it was time for rear remotes. But truth be known, I'm just tired of getting off the tractor to adjust the top link. Plus, when a paying constomer is paying by the hour, you dont want to be messing around by adjusting the top link all of time. Hydraulic top link will take care of that problem.

 

[LetsRoll]

Not a problem. I'd like to build my own, I'll be shopping for cutting edges.

Monte

Wait until you have to buy carriage bolts, there not cheap either. You have to use carriage bolts to bolt the cutting edge to the angle iron. I used grade 8 carriage bolts, as well as grade 8 nuts and lock washers. But just keep in mind of how the end results will turn out. These graders are well worth the money it takes to built one.

 

[laurencen]

good day, in the process of building one of these for my CK20, figure 4 1/2 feet wide cut and 3 feet long sides, not decided weather to angle the blades or not, if only the front blade was angled I figure it will tend to pull to one side but with the angled blade it may crown better for driveways, anyone played with crowning driveways with a unit like this

Laurence

 

[PILOON]

Way back we had a homemade grader all made from 6 x 6 stock, bolted together using 3/8 x 4 blades that were lagged to the 6 x 6 stock.

Yes we angled the front blade, and yes it pulled off to the side.
We arranged the front blade so that it 'spilled over' in such a way thet the second blade would catch the stock and move it in the other direction.

To offset the sideway forces the second blade was also angled, but in the opposite direction to counteract the forces of the first blade.

Worked good!

We also had a 3rd blade, this was straight across and acted as a finishing blade, smoothing everthing up.

To crown our roadbed we simply added a weight to the 'ditch side' or lower side of the crown causing it to dig a bit more than the center or crown.

We used that old rig for about 10 years maintaining about 2 miles of roadbed that serviced about 50 cottages. (lots of traffic)

Road maintainance was generally done every 3-4 weeks and at that time we pulled the grader with an old Willis jeep in first gear.

That grader was basically 8 ft wide x 8 ft long and towed with 2 chains, one from each corner of the bumper to the 2 front corners of the drag scraper.

Good luck!

 

[laurencen]

my idea is to adjust the rear blade, by dropping one side say 1/2 inch and raising the other 1/2 inch it will crown, if I drive down the outside edge of driveway the furthest edge down, lift and do a 180 at the end then drive the opposite side I figure it will crown to the center, my adjustment assuming slight angle on the back blade is acheived cutting slots in the side plates at a angle and jack bolts behind to counter act the force pushing the blade back, this could also be done using a couple cylinders on the ends of the blade, the comercial units use the turnbuckle on the bottom link to crown a similar way lifting one side of the grader.

 

[PILOON]

Way back we had a homemade grader all made from 6 x 6 stock, bolted together using 3/8 x 4 blades that were lagged to the 6 x 6 stock.-----------------
----------------That grader was basically 8 ft wide x 8 ft long and towed with 2 chains, one from each corner of the bumper to the 2 front corners of the drag scraper.

Good luck!

sketch added,
towing is from left side of sketch, making the top the right or ditch side.

 

[yzbdsbp]

I am starting to research building one of these myself, The dealer bought ones are just to expensive. There is so much good information on this post....But one quick question do yall think that a bull dozer's cutting blade would work to build the cutting blades for the grader??? I havent compared the two yet, but I have a friend that works for CAT and Im sure I could get the dozer, or road grader cutting blader for next to nothing if they would work?

 

[PILOON]

Hi
I would not bother with the extra expense of true grader blades.

On the 'drag grader' that I described we simply used 5/16 X 4" normal hot rolled mild steel for our cutting edges that were lagg screwed to the 6 X 6 cross pieces.

As stated we graded over 2 miles of roadbed for over 10 years and that was done about every 3 weeks from early May till early Nov.

The blades never really showed that much wear,
In fact the old wood grader essentially rotted away and the steel blades found a new vocation.

 

[LetsRoll]

I am starting to research building one of these myself, The dealer bought ones are just to expensive. There is so much good information on this post....But one quick question do yall think that a bull dozer's cutting blade would work to build the cutting blades for the grader??? I havent compared the two yet, but I have a friend that works for CAT and Im sure I could get the dozer, or road grader cutting blader for next to nothing if they would work?

I dont see a problem using one. But, I will say this which is my opinion, I wouldn't use a road grader without using a hardened cutting edge. For example, last fall, I graded a ladies driveway that had a six inch hump down the middle of her driveway. This hump was almost two feet wide. My road grader cut it like it was butter. Since this hump was gravel and dirt mixed. I had to grade for about 20 foot, dump the load that my grader was collecting and then back up and smooth that 20 foot. It took me a couple of hours just to separate the rock from the dirt. Always remember, the heavier or more dense material will set on top (which is gravel). I quoted this lady to grade her driveway for $250 dollars. When I got done, I went to the door to get my payment. The lady wanted to see how good of a job that I did for her. Upon her seeing the quality of work that I did, she was blown away with my work that she couldn't understand why I only charged her $250 dollars. She said landscapers had charged her $750 to $950 to do her 2200 foot driveway. I told her I wanted her business and I dont do this for a living. Needless to say, when she went back inside to get my check, she came back out and paid me with a check for not the amount that we had discussed upon earlier. But she paid me $400 dollars ($150 dollars more than are deal was supposed to be) and said she'll call me next year (that was the fall of 2006, here it is, spring of 2007). If I hadn't had a hardened cutting edges, I dont thing I could have done such a good job on her driveway. I am so glad I choose to purchase hardened cutting edges. By the way, hardened cutting edges will bust up or break up a pot hole in a driveway. Mild steel will just ride over the pot hole. The cutting edge needs to have a machined and angled edge. That is what will cut through the pot hole. Mild steel does not have the machined angle edge and is not hardened, so it will get beat up pretty good while hitting gravel or rocks. This is not the ladies driveway that I was talking about, but you will get the idea of how they perform.

Before Picture

After Picture

End Of Driveway