scraper blade mess

[deereman63]

I have a six foot scraper blade and have just discovered that this thing can be lethal to a gravel drive. I thought i would pull in material that had worked to the outside during the winter.. The problem with this is that it is very difficult to get a level surface. By the time i had finished the driveway looked like the battle field at Verdun not some pride of surburbia. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif2 problems I think
1) It is quite difficult to accurately control the lowering of the hitch. Any solutions to this?
2) there is to much play on such a wide blade. Next time i will remove the two extensions bringing the blade down to 4ft.

 

[brad_oatley]

spin it around and back blade

 

[Henro]

Putting skid shoes or gage wheels on the blade can make a HUGE difference from what I can see.

Running the blade backwards, so it is less aggressive is an option, but something to hold the blade up works even better in my limited experience... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[RoyJackson]

Might try renting a rake for this kind of work.
Or, if the material isn't too much...or too heavy, just rake it by hand (of course, I've no idea of the length of your drive).

I normally push some gravel on to the lawn when I push snow. Some I rake by hand, some I just leave if it isn't clumped up.

 

[tim250f]

What exactly are skid shoes? How do they attach to the blade? I'm curious because it looks like I'll be picking up a woods blade some time next week and I don't remember seeing that as an option.

 

[RobS]

I just graded mine yesterday. I use a rake, it works much better. The tines stir up more of the fines and such which will then pack better. I made multiple passes in the "normal" orientation, angled to pull material toward the center then a pass with no angle to distribute the center material. After all that I swiveled the rake around and did the same with the rake reversed. It's much better but I have some areas that desperately need more stone. That will have to wait until spring.

I have a blade also but found it doesn't work well at all for drive maintenance. I only use it for snow now /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[rambler]

Yuo can only make a washboard surface with a tractor & a blade not angled and no gauge wheels. The mechanics force this outcome.

However, angle that wide blade as far as you can, run pu & down the driveway several times throwing the loose stuff to the middle, and you will come out level with a crown. Works great.

The key is to angle the blade - more is better.

With a flat (perpendicular) blade, as the tractor wheels go up & down over little bumps, so does the blade and makes things worse. With the angled blade, it will not follow the ripples, but actually level.

Spin the blade around & finish by using the back edge, fether the gravel out...

--->Paul

 

[HomeBrew2]

That's great advice from rambler. When I get to redoing my drive, I'll use that technique. I had to regrade a very shallow swale and couldn't rotate my 5' blade to max (but did have it at 15°) cuz I needed the wheels outside the ditch so I did 2 things: 1) I shortened the top link as far as it would go then 2) I cut 1" pipe 2" long for spacing the top of the blade assembly forward of the mounting plate to further decrease the shallow angle of entry into the dirt. Both mods worked a lot better than original.
Cheers!

 

[creeper]

I have also recently learned of the power a blade can have.TNT would be a nice feature,but not an option for me right now. The angle did help, but it is hard not to bury the blade on uneven ground. I use the blade mostly to break it all up and then go over it with a pulveriser to spread it out. You don't get the crown that way tho. I will just have to practice some more, maybe on someone elses drive LOL. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[bellweather]

gauge wheels are the way to go. I have a landpride rake with flip-down blade and before I got the gauge wheels, driving down my gravel driveway was like a thrill ride...kids loved it.