Use of a boxblade

[applseed]

Hello:

My name is Jerry and I own a Kubota L3400 Tractor with a backhoe, a woods grader blade, which looser than a goose, box blade, and a landscape rake.

I work on my property and about a mile of gravel road.

My question is what is the proper way to grade a road with a boxblade?

Thank you.

Jerry

 

[Muhammad]

Welcome to TBN.

 

[beppington]

It's not easy to grade a road smoothly with a box blade, unless it has a tail wheel. A box blade without a tail wheel will tend to follow every dip & bump, & can actually make them worse. With a tail wheel, that smoothes out the ride the box blade takes, & therefore results in a smoother road surface result.

Oh, and the further the tail wheel is out behind the box blade, the smoother your road will be.

 

[Briana03]

Hello & WELCOME to TBN!

I moved your thread to the Attachments Forum.

 

[Verticaltrx]

Use the box blade with the scarifiers down to loosen the gravel some and fill in any major holes or depressions. Then hook up your landscape rake, set it to bring the gravel towards the center at a decent angle, and go up one side and back the other. The angling of the landscape rake helps it to knock down washboards and not just follow the bumps.

 

[cowpatty]

The lanscape rake will be your best friend of the three for fine tuning the drive

 

[magicheater]

With care and the addition of a hydraulic top link adequate driveway work can be accomplished. By varying the bite of the blade in use by using the other in a drag mode, a very acceptable finish can be had. I have had a box blade for only 2 years and have learned to use it how I need it to operate. With no down pressure one needs to be able to adjust the BITE for successful use

 

[TripleR]

Like magicheater, I use a box blade for maintaining my roads and have a hydraulic top link. My brother does the same with standard top link. Our landscape rake is sitting in the weeds and our back blade is where it has been for a year not far from our drag scraper.

I am not saying it works better, but it works well enough for me since I hate swapping out implements.

Someday, I will get with my son and another tractor and redo a road on another farms where kids and four wheelers have really "rearranged" the rock, but until then I will stick with the bb.

 

[foreman Etexas]

I usually work the bad spots first,then make a couple passes on the road,you just got to look ahead and see were you mite need to lose alittle or not loose it.When im working the bad spots first is when I have my rippers down and drive down the road and see were the high spots are and lightly rip them so when i do make the full passes it pickes the loose rock up easier.I do agree the landscape rake makes it look better when done but is it worth the extra hook-up,when most of the time you can just split your tracks and the flaws will wear-out sooner or later.

 

[Haoleguy]

Hello:

My name is Jerry and I own a Kubota L3400 Tractor with a backhoe, a woods grader blade, which looser than a goose, box blade, and a landscape rake.

I work on my property and about a mile of gravel road.

My question is what is the proper way to grade a road with a boxblade?

Thank you.

Jerry

Welcome Jerry - There are some boxbladers in this forum that do amazing things with a solid boxblade with top-n-tilt. I'm sure they will chime in when they have the time. I quickly maintain a gravel drive that is approximately 1600 ft in length and has some trees and invasive bushes right on the driveway's edge. The proximity of the bushes and trees to the edge require I use an offset blade with compound angle to create road pitch and drainage ditch. If I have significant road depressions or need to move gravel I use a boxblade with and without scarifers, respectively. I only use the rake to touch up during wet conditions as it makes for dust in dry conditions. Once in good shape a touch up now and again is fast and simple with either the boxblade or blade. Some folks have a land/road plane that works well to maintain gravel/dirt roads. I think this is especially true for the very long driveways that some have in the west......Cheers, Gary