What attachment do I need?

[MeBuyIt]

I have a 500 foot long gravel driveway (packed down). Due to the slope of the driveway a hard rain will cut grooves and divots.
What 3-point attachment do I use to flatten(groom) my driveway back into shape? In addition: I would need to use this attachment
early in the spring so it has time to pack down before winter since I use a snowblower (no flying rocks).

 

[mikester]

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[oosik]

I think mikester is directly responding to the fact that you have NO TRACTOR listed.

I assume you have some type of tractor. SO..... I would suggest either of these two implements.

Land Plane Grading Scraper( LPGS ). Easy to use - little to no required learning curve - but it really won't crown nor do the driveway ditches nor plow snow.

Rear blade. Easy to operate - but it DOES have a significant learning curve to get good results. Can be used for many other projects - including snow and driveway ditches.

 

[Eagle1]

Box blade is useful to return the gravel back up the hill to where it came from while filling holes and grooves.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Land Plane is a magical attachment for driveway refurbishing and maintenance!

Lots of discussion on the subject, here in the EA Channel Group.
Travis

 

[TerryR]

I have a 500 foot long gravel driveway (packed down). Due to the slope of the driveway a hard rain will cut grooves and divots.
What 3-point attachment do I use to flatten(groom) my driveway back into shape?

All you need is a rear blade, no fancy hydraulics, and a willingness to learn how to use it. See the results on my steep quarter mile gravel driveway here: Grading an "Interesting" Driveway

 

[MESSMAKER]

I have never used a land plane, so it may be better. A rear blade is better for snow removal but a box blade is better for anything else.

 

[scootr]

A picture of the drive & the make and model of the tractor would help us give more specific answers.

 

[nisaacs]

If you have ditches, I recommend a rear blade. Offset can be a nice feature too. We have a 1/4 mile street (non county maintained) so we do it.

 

[Thomas]

Off set rear blade may come in handy.

 

[Yander]

I was going to say Box blade also but that pic of what the land plane did was impressive.

 

[stumblinhorse]

I traded in a landscape rake, a box blade and an arena groomer on a TR3. It really works, if you have enough tractor to pull it…

 

[Wolfy]

You really need a vertical tilting grader blade for a driveway but that said a box blade is so effective for leveling and refurbishing land that I would buy both.

 

[MF243RedTop]

Rear blade/back blade .... Able to do everything listed by box blade or land planes and way more. But requires a bit of learning curve to master.

 

[nisaacs]

Snow finally melted enough to dress up the street, it was getting washboards in it. Ditches were still too muddy so I left them alone this trip. I need the gravel that's in them, the base is getting thin. Turned out pretty good. I just sold my box blade, I never use it.

 

[Straightgrain3016]

The unversal advice I was given; get the heaviest box blade; might apply to all graders...

 

[ovrszd]

My votes, Box Blade or Rear Blade. Broad uses.

I consider the Land Plane Grade System similarly to a Zero Turn mower. Very limited on projects where they are effective. But, in those projects, they are the best choice.

 

[Hoss710]

Box blade for sure, love how well they fill in the voids , rear blade for heavy cutting and angle work.

 

[Straightgrain3016]

Snow finally melted enough to dress up the street, it was getting washboards in it. Ditches were still too muddy so I left them alone this trip. I need the gravel that's in them, the base is getting thin. Turned out pretty good. I just sold my box blade, I never use it.

View attachment 775874View attachment 775875

Nice looking crown

 

[rScotty]

The absolute best implement I can recommend is real nice but spendy even as a manual adjustable type. It's would be a back blade that has angle, tilt, and offset along with a set of bolt on end caps - and also has a blade that reverses (most do that).

Box blades are real handy - but not in all soil types - so the end caps let a back blade do the work of either a back blade and a box blade - more adjustably - and all in the same implement.
Woods has them. So do others.

OR, THE OTHER WAY.....For very little money, you can just get an old angling backblade that has enough rotation so that the blade can be reversed and then first of alll pull it with the blade facing backwards. Pulling it like that lessens the tendency that newbies have of taking a new tractor and making an old smooth road into a washboard road. You'll know what I mean after you do it.

Now unfortunately that old inexpensive back blade doesn't have a tilt adjustment - and you need to hold the blade tilted to do the initial ditch cleaning and also for the final crowning. So get your blade to work at a tilt by setting the 3pt lift arms at different lengths so that the tilt stays the same as you raise and lower the blade.

Also check and see if it can offset - some old blade can be offset. In fact, that's actually more common than a tilt-adjustable blade - and you''ll find the offset very handy for the ditches.

Try not to bend anything when cleaning out the ditches.

good luck - smoothing drives is harder than it looks the first few times.
rScotty