Steel Cut for Grader/Planer

[MtnViewRanch]

Kim, both my 5 foot and 7 footer grader blades currently have the cutting edges 1 inch below the side runners. I have a Land Pride RBT45108 (9 footer) rear blade. My 75hp 12,000lb tractor is at the low end of this blades capabilities. This rear blade is rated for a 125hp-15,000lb machine. Two years ago I bought that rear blade with no hydraulics for around $3600. Added welded hydraulic cylinders myself.

I maintain just under 2 miles of road and the roads vary from 12 to over 24 feet wide. Most of the road has enough crown in it that if I were to go much wider than my 7 footer I would be working against myself. But that is just me with the conditions that I have to work with. I am very happy with my 9 foot blade. I usually only have it at a 25-30 degree angle. When smoothing the road, do you ever run the tractor in reverse and use the backside of the blade? Sort of like a dozer blade with the cutting edge in reverse. I have found that this works better than pulling the blade in reverse.

For your size tractor, I would definitely build a grader blade with 24" sides 6-8 foot long, 3/8" thick.

Good luck

 

[KWentling]

Brian, thanks for the info. That helps a lot. The blade I have now is a Leon and I converted it to hydraulic swivel, pivot, and the gauge wheel. I think I gave about $900 12 years ago. It took quite a bit of work to convert it. You're Land Pride looks like a nice blade. You say you added the cylinders. Was it already set up for that? I had to make brackets, etc. on the Leon. Do you know if LP is available in a 10'? There isn't that many that offer over 8' I've found. I have an email in to the Land Pride dealer but haven't got a reply yet. The JD dealer's price for a 10' all hydraulic Rhino is $5416 and a Frontier is $5432. Both are in stock and are their heavy duty models. Rhino has a lighter blade that is still rated for more HP than I have that would probably be less $ but he doesn't stock that one. I assume that those are list prices and he is supposed to make me an offer for my Leon on trade. The Leon was bought from the same dealer. I'll be surprised if he offers more than 2000 for mine in trade, but we'll see on Wednesday. I do kind of like the idea of having both implements so may go with building the grader and keeping the Leon. By the way, when I bought the Leon, I had a 65 HP tractor. It worked good with it as it was a narrower tractor. You know how one thing leads to another?

Kim

 

[KWentling]

When smoothing the road, do you ever run the tractor in reverse and use the backside of the blade? Sort of like a dozer blade with the cutting edge in reverse. I have found that this works better than pulling the blade in reverse.


Good luck[/QUOTE]

I do that where our road leaves the pavement, but that is all. I have not tried that over a long distance. With the tail wheel set up I can control the depth of cut and fill real well and the blade doesn't react to the tractor's movements like a blade will without that wheel behind. That is far and away the best thing I did to it. Only wish I'd made it with 2 wheels a couple of feet apart instead of the single wheel. I might redo that project and incorporate a weight box into that so I can have some down pressure.

Kim

 

[Gordon Gould]

Sorry I lost track of this thread and did not respond sooner.
Thank you all for the compliments.
It took many hours to cut the steel. Would think very hard before I did it again.:laughing: At the time I didnt know any better.
The fit was excellent. The parts where all within 1/16" and square. But I
spent alot of time with a hand file to get them that way. The five cross
pieces and the angle piece were the only ones I had to worry about.
I do carpentry work so know alot about making things fit, But steel was
new to me. The welder said it was better than it had to be.
The cutting edges fit a Land Pride rear blade for their lower hp rated blade.
I didnt feel that I need the strength of a heavier edge with my 4x4x3/8 angle.
They are flat with bevel on one edge 3" wide and 3/8" thick. 75 bucks each.

 

[jenkinsph]

Gordon,

Have you had a chance to use it yet?

 

[jenkinsph]

Kim,
The grader I built on page one of this thread has the blade flush with the bottom wear strips. I found this worked better for my purposes since the runners will compress the soil some and still allow you to shave the material off the surface. My thoughts on the depth of blade settings is that I wanted to plane off the material that is above the side runners and leave the material below the runners. Even with the blades set flush you can load up with material within a fifty foot pull in gravel driveways or tilled land. It will shave off any high spots as needed and drop into low spots as intended.

I agree with Brian on having long skids, this equates to "The longer the straight edge the straighter the line" theory. I could easily see a 10' wide plane with side skids 8' in length behind a 100 hp tractor. For open areas that you want to smooth out such as fields, lawn areas or parking lots the wider blade makes this an easier task since the longer (wider blade) will do a better job of averaging out the ground.

How deep you need to cut depends on what you need to accomplish. If you need to cut through the surface to remove pot holes and remix the material on a road a lower blade setting will allow this to happen faster. To handle this sort of task I use my boxblade with hydraulic rippers and can move alot of material fast. I can then smooth and plane the road with my landplane to a nice finish. For most driveway and gravel road repairs I do the landplane is all I need to smooth the road surface. I find the rear blade and landplane are used more than the boxblade.

For anyone building a grader/planer I think that it is very important to make sure it is built stout enough to limit flexing and twisting as much as possible. To accomplish this I feel that box tubing in large dimensions with thick walls works the best. This also adds weight and ridgidity at the same time.

I am going to make some improvements to my grader next week as soon as I get my welder back from the shop (supposed to be ready Wednesday) they have had it about a month. Will post pics when done.

 

[Gordon Gould]

yes ! See thread under attachments "New Grader Trail Run Today" 4-30-2010

 

[Chilly807]

When smoothing the road, do you ever run the tractor in reverse and use the backside of the blade? Sort of like a dozer blade with the cutting edge in reverse. I have found that this works better than pulling the blade in reverse.

That's what I do once I have the material pulled out to where I want it. Low gear in reverse with the blade turned backwards. Slow but very little need for a rake when I'm done. And ten minutes with a rake is worth two hours in the seat if you ask me.

It'll ride up slightly instead of digging in and gouging the finished surface.

Chilly

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Brian, thanks for the info. That helps a lot. The blade I have now is a Leon and I converted it to hydraulic swivel, pivot, and the gauge wheel. I think I gave about $900 12 years ago. It took quite a bit of work to convert it. You're Land Pride looks like a nice blade. You say you added the cylinders. Was it already set up for that? I had to make brackets, etc. on the Leon. Do you know if LP is available in a 10'? There isn't that many that offer over 8' I've found. I have an email in to the Land Pride dealer but haven't got a reply yet. The JD dealer's price for a 10' all hydraulic Rhino is $5416 and a Frontier is $5432. Both are in stock and are their heavy duty models. Rhino has a lighter blade that is still rated for more HP than I have that would probably be less $ but he doesn't stock that one. I assume that those are list prices and he is supposed to make me an offer for my Leon on trade. The Leon was bought from the same dealer. I'll be surprised if he offers more than 2000 for mine in trade, but we'll see on Wednesday. I do kind of like the idea of having both implements so may go with building the grader and keeping the Leon. By the way, when I bought the Leon, I had a 65 HP tractor. It worked good with it as it was a narrower tractor. You know how one thing leads to another?

Kim

Kim, yes the Land Pride RBT blades comes set up for the hydraulics. I don't care for tie rod cylinders, and that is what LP comes with. I had the welded cylinders before I had the blade. Now after I mounted them and made the hoses for them, I took off the offset cylinder because I do not have enough remote valves yet. I need 4 remotes and I only have three.:ashamed: The other 2 are used for the Top & Tilt. If you look close in the picture, you can see that I only have one hydraulic on and the offset is a manual telescoping cylinder with pins that came with the blade.

Yes Land Pride has 10 foot rear blades. Either an RB55120 (1454lbs) or what I prefer, an RBT55120 at 1753lbs. :thumbsup: Both are rated for 180hp and 15,000lb tractors.

 

[KWentling]

Yes Land Pride has 10 foot rear blades. Either an RB55120 (1454lbs) or what I prefer, an RBT55120 at 1753lbs. :thumbsup: Both are rated for 180hp and 15,000lb tractors. [/QUOTE]

Brian, I got to looking again last night and found the RBT120. Sent an email to a different dealer so maybe I'll get a price. Didn't see the RB120 model anywhere. Also found an online price for a Bison 10' BINVHL 300XHD (1530 lbs.) all hydraulic for $4343 at Beaver Valley Supply in Atwood, KS. I may be down that way this spring with my trailer anyway so that's may be possibility. Still leaning toward the landplane though