Grading Road repair is a Land Planer the right tool

[martialplumber]

I am going to have to repair my road after the long Maine winter and I am going to purchase a Land Planer.I have attached some pictures and was wondering if 1. Is the Land planer the correct tool and will it smooth out this road and if so what would you bring in for extra material if any

 

[joeu235]

Land plane would make quick work of fixing you road. I don't think you need more gravel. The implement does take a lot of tractor. I have an eight foot wide land plane that is all my 98Hp 11,000# tractor can handle.

 

[/pine]

Looking at your pics...I would say NO WAY would a land plane work as well as a rear blade...BUT I have never pulled a land plane...because my road is till/river rock base (very similar to your pics)...and it is extremely frustrating to have a larger rock lift an implement (rear scrape, box blade, rake etc., etc...) up and drop its payload untold times during each pass...

IMO unless you want to add *several* inches of uniformly sized gravel over top of the till...there will always be an issue with larger rocks interrupting the smoothing process...

 

[airbiscuit]

Whatever you get, it will be important to establish and maintain a decent crown to the road, and make sure the sides are lower than the roadbed. It looks like your erosion occurred because the water ran down the road, rather than off the side of the road.

 

[martialplumber]

Thanks for the reply's- My road is 10' wide so I would purchase a 5' Land plane to maintain a crown

 

[Steppenwolfe]

View attachment 550242

I pull a 5 ft land plane with my little B2320 Kubota. It does an amazing job on my 1/3 mile gravel drive at my cabin. I also use it on the main gravel road to the cabin, about 20ft wide x 1 mile long. Takes about 45 minutes, but my neighbors love me for keeping the road smooth. It's amazing what a land plane can do. But, like slash pine said, it isn't good with big stuff.

 

[oosik]

Some hard cold facts here, martial plumber. The land plane grading scraper WILL smooth out your driveway. I have an 7' LPGS - Land Pride GS2584 and easily pull it with my 64 hp M6040.

The LPGS WILL NOT move material from the side of your driveway to the center. As a matter of fact - it will not move material horizontally - at all. The LPGS will MAINTAIN the crown if its already there - it WILL NOT crown the driveway.

You need a HEAVY rear blade to move the material from the side of your driveway to the center and create/maintain a crown.

I have a Land Pride RB3596 - rear blade @ 565 pounds. Wonderful tool for snow removal on my mile long gravel driveway. Was like **** on bacon as far as summer time driveway maintenance. Simply not heavy enough to break my driveway when, in the summer, it sets up like concrete.

I now have a Rhino 950 - 96" and 1050 pounds. Works like a champ for summer maintenance. Weight is our friend when it comes to a rear blade.

 

[oosik]

View attachment 550249 Between my operating system and this blog - I'm going to go nuts. My OS keeps dropping connection and I can't upload photos. Anywho - this is my new Rhino 950 rear blade.

 

[Tractorable]

That's a big bad blade right there!

 

[/pine]

FWIW...A rounded rock the size of a large grapefruit that is mostly embedded will raise even the heaviest scrape blades...and will continue to do the same on every pass until the rock is displaced...

Every time a grading implement is raised the payload is dropped and makes for a ridge...

Also, regardless of the attachment...working non uniform material (like in the OP's pics) tends to further separate (specific gravity at work) the material...i..e., fines from larger gravel/rocks...