Box Scraper Sizing of box blade?

[MtnViewRanch]

The width? Well I don't know exactly but my tiller is 60" and covers the tracks.

60" would be the min that I would get. Just wondering about the power issue with a 72".

It is an aviation runway.

As for the land plane. Never seen one of those. I do have a gravel driveway to maintain also thats why I thought box blade.

Here is a land plane. It will work very good for maintaining your gravel driveway. My Mahindra 3215HST is about the same size as your tractor. 60"-66" is really about all you want for width. Any more and you are going to have problems. GradeMaster Grader Blades or Land Pride Grading Scrapers There are many others also, just need to look for them.

If you can swing it, you may want to consider both a box blade and a land plane grader type blade. Sounds like you could make good use of both. Remember that weight is your friend when doing this type of work, don't get anything that is light duty, you would just be wasting time and money.

One last thing, load your tires, makes a day and night difference with these size tractors.

 

[Canada_CT230]

I guess I should clarify what I am doing.

The runway will be 1000' long and aproximately 50' wide. Currently about 15' of it is already grassed (the whole length). The rest is fairly level tilled soil. I want to make sure it drains properly and meets up to the existing grassed area.

I won't be pulling rocks or stumps or breaking new ground. It is probably more a finish levelling and grading for water drainage.

The other use for the box blade is to maintain the gravel driveway that is about 1500' long. It stays in pretty good condition until it rains for days on end. Then the few low spots collect water and then the potholes grow. Currently I tow a double skidsteer cutting blade that is spaced apart about 12" with redi-rod. It doesn't really weigh enough and is hard to attach weight to it. Then I can only use it in the small window after the rain. Just soft enough to rip up a bit but not so soft to make a mess. This blade is hard to use because it is towed with chain. Turning around is a pain is the butt.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I have 4 different implements that I use on my roads.

A rear blade
A rollover box blade
A landscape rake
And a road grader blade

The land plane, often called a road grader blade or grader blade would be your best bet in my opinion. I maintain over a mile of roads with mine, and if I was to have only one implement to do so, the grader blade is what I would have for maintenance.

 

[Carykong]

only 1000'?----hmmmm--is this for ultra light aviation?

 

[Canada_CT230]

Yes and no. Kitfox. Homebuilt aircraft but has super short field capability.

 

[sandman2234]

If you want to kill two birds with one stone, you can buy a box blade and add rear training wheels on it, extended out several feet. That way you can remove it when you aren't working on the runway. The advantage of the training wheels is to keep the boxblade from digging in when the tractor wheels drop into a hole or rut, by extending the area covered. A 3pt road grader uses two blades, which covers potholes better, plus uses a runner on each side to help leveling. The drawback to them is they don't have the ability to move piles of dirt/carry dirt (rock, etc) nearly as well as a boxblade.
To me a land plane is one of these...


http://www.zacherengineering.com.au/images/Land Plane/landplane1.jpg


David from jax

 

[jenkinsph]

Canada CT 230,
A landplane does what you are looking for a boxblade to do. It planes the ground flat and smooth. If you make multiple passes up and down the area it will smooth it a little better with each pass. I would use one similar to MountainViewRanch's as shown above. The long skids help get the ground very smooth and planar.

Another approach mentioned above is to add the training wheels to a boxblade. I just purchased some 4"x6" boxtubing Friday to make removeable side skids for my boxblade. I have a heavy duty boxblade with hydraulic scarifiers and having the option of adding these runners makes it more flexible. I move my equipment on jobs alot and this may help reduce the number of implements I have to transport. On jobs that require a better finish though the landplane is king. Real motorgraders and long backbone land levelers do the same thing only better but are not practical for most homeowners either.

 

[jenkinsph]

If you want to kill two birds with one stone, you can buy a box blade and add rear training wheels on it, extended out several feet. That way you can remove it when you aren't working on the runway. The advantage of the training wheels is to keep the boxblade from digging in when the tractor wheels drop into a hole or rut, by extending the area covered. A 3pt road grader uses two blades, which covers potholes better, plus uses a runner on each side to help leveling. The drawback to them is they don't have the ability to move piles of dirt/carry dirt (rock, etc) nearly as well as a boxblade.
To me a land plane is one of these...


http://www.zacherengineering.com.au/images/Land Plane/landplane1.jpg


David from jax

A good well designed 3pt landplane will carry quite alot of material with each pass. This weekend I was working contours in a field to smooth it out and used my landplane to do it. It will carry as much dirt as most boxblades I see here on TBN, but where needed I still have a heavy boxblade to use. The boxblade with scarifiers will cut much better though. In this case the OP has said he has tilled the runway already.