Rake Will a landscrap rake grade my driveway?
- Thread starter mx125
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FrogLick
Silver Member
Ouch is an understatement! Although it certainly looks like a well built implement, for the price one could buy several other implements that would be less specialized and perhaps have more versatility.
satcomm
New member
I have an Agritek DS-96 ( Agritek :: Holland Michigan) that did a great job on my 700' driveway. 3 months after I bought it, the wife insisted that we pave the driveway. I still use it for some of the trails in the woods. I believe it was around $800.00 (6 years ago)
porky69
Silver Member
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2007
- Messages
- 102
- Location
- Coaldale, Alberta, Canada
- Tractor
- 2009 Massey Ferguson GC2400
I have never used a box blade for landscaping (just for dragging dirt/garbage/weeds out of the way on a potato farm) so I can't comment on that.
As far as the hard pack, it isn't really much of an issue in my driveway but if I do need to loosen it up a little I have a couple of sections of diamond harrows that my wifes uncle gave us, I just put a couple of good sized rocks on top of the harrows and make a couple of passes and it loosen my driveway up enough to use my blading technique.
I find that unless the surface you are grading is pretty much flat to start with it is very hard to control the height of the rear blade when blading forwards and I usually end up creating a whole bunch of ripples in the surface (unless I spend extended periods of time blading). So instead of waiting for the drive to get really rough I have a tendency to grade it at least once a month.
As far as the hard pack, it isn't really much of an issue in my driveway but if I do need to loosen it up a little I have a couple of sections of diamond harrows that my wifes uncle gave us, I just put a couple of good sized rocks on top of the harrows and make a couple of passes and it loosen my driveway up enough to use my blading technique.
I find that unless the surface you are grading is pretty much flat to start with it is very hard to control the height of the rear blade when blading forwards and I usually end up creating a whole bunch of ripples in the surface (unless I spend extended periods of time blading). So instead of waiting for the drive to get really rough I have a tendency to grade it at least once a month.
Egon
Epic Contributor
Porky, put gauge wheels on the back blade.
porky69
Silver Member
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2007
- Messages
- 102
- Location
- Coaldale, Alberta, Canada
- Tractor
- 2009 Massey Ferguson GC2400
I have the wheels, the cutting torch, the welder (but no plug-in in the garage), the steel. But the big problem is no time for fabrication. It sucks working 5days a week away from home and not being able to tinker in the evenings.
GreenMtns
Gold Member
mx125 said:
You can get a nice "finish coat" with the box blade. However, if you have a lot of rocks it will not rake them out.
To get the "finish look" on the final passes set the box so the front blade is about 1/4" higher than the back blade. As you travel over the driveway the front blade will plan off any high spots and drop the fill in the low spots. As this is going on the rear blade will drag a very nice finish on the drive.
The box blade used to drive me nuts until I learned this tip here on TBN. Now I would not trade my box blade for 2 rear blades.
GreenMtns said:
Thanks Al. I did finally get a box blade. A dealer happed to have a 60" frontier blade in stock and was a good $400 under other dealers that claimed a month wait. I love it. I tried it out on my drive and some soil areas and it's very effective. On my drive, I do drag to a stop on certain spots on my uphill grade (about 4%) and have to raise the box slightly to continue. It's sometimes a traction (tractor weight?) issue and at times it is a horsepower limitation. But I know I'd be on the limit with a 60" on my 24hp compact. Coming back down it works well. And it works well enough that I'll happily trade the effective width with the occassional power limit.
I'll try that tip next time. That makes sense. There are lots of subtle adjustments that can really add to it's effectiveness.
I tilted the 3pt arms and recambered an off-camber portion of a trail. Very cool implement.
Bought a 5' Leinbach Yard Tool today and have been grading 1/4 mile gravel access road for the last couple of hours(really bad shape). Works great! Thanks FarmwithJunk for the supporting information on the Yard Tool that finally push me over the edge in getting one. Paid $450 for the Yard Tool. I did find going uphill with it full I lost traction and would spin out. Have R4's on the TYM T273.
