Driveway maintenance

[redbeard]

Driveway and roads around my woodlot are important for me too keep smooth and level. My box blade works great and have mastered a few techniques over the years. Dose any one have a land plane?  they appear too do a nice job especially keeping a nice looking edge of your roads.   https://youtu.be/OIed2lzfQ-g

[Ljohnsaw]

Sure looks like it will work.  However, at the end when they were working in the rain, he commented it would work better dry.  Where your are at, that gives you, what, about 7 days a year when its dry... :D

[pine]

Yes I have one that was built by Cammond Industries. 
They recently changed their name to SFI Superior Implements instead of Cammond Industries. 
I don't know what else may have changed but the one I have is very robust and works extremely well. 
If you are maintaining a road or roads very frequently they are  by far the superior tool to use.  I also have a blade which is great for ditch work and basic grading but for road maintenance I turn to the Land Plane. 

The company that you linked to has a good reputation but I would warn you that from my previous research their stuff tends to be good only up to a certain size tractor and owner demographic.  Depending upon what size tractor you have it might be too much tractor for their so call "heavy duty" stuff.  I am not saying that they don't have good quality, they do, but their definition of heavy duty is lacking.  If they say heavy duty think medium duty.

The dual blade design and the weight of the unit makes a great maintenance tool and cleans up washboards and potholes very nicely.  Will also give you a nice crown on the road if used properly.

[Chuck White]

Looks like a very nice attachment, seems to do a nice job!

I wonder if my John Deere 1023E sub-compact would pull the 5-foot model?

[redbeard]

Good info Pine thanks. John the rain seems to be letting off a bit. I think we have Northern CA. Weather now and your getting Southern CA. Weather.
I picked that Utube video because it explained its use. I did notice it bounced around a bit.
Land pride makes a 84" one, I've had good luck with my other attachments. My John Deere is a 50hp. I believe a land plane attachment will get enough use too justify. I do know my neighbor will have a eye on it. Because I Barrow his roller and use it more than he dose. And cost is about same. So it might be win win for both of us. Iam so fortunate to be surrounded by great neighbors we all have different equipment and help each other out with our projects.

[Ljohnsaw]

John the rain seems to be letting off a bit. I think we have Northern CA. Weather now and your getting Southern CA. Weather.

I am so fortunate to be surrounded by great neighbors we all have different equipment and help each other out with our projects.

You got that right - it's hot here!  But I've seen 117° for a week.  We are only suppose to stay about 105° for a few days and then have a cooling trend of 99°.

When I had a ranch, I had an old Case 210B orchard tractor.  Great machine.  My neighbor had something a little smaller and the 3-pt brackets on the axle were cast iron.  Mine were soft iron.  He had a homemade post hole digger and it snapped his brackets.  He let me keep the post hole digger on my property so I could dig all the hole for everyone in the neighborhood.  He didn't want that thing near his tractor again!

[Al_Smith]

Dose any one have a land plane?     

I don't but I've seen them in action .They act like a mini road grader and do a good job leveling out ruts,wash outs  etc .

I can shoot grade pretty good with a dozer but it isn't something you learn over night .Left a lot of lumpy roads until I got the hang of it .

[coxy]

my neighbor does drive ways and has  one works great

[John Mc]

You got that right - it's hot here!  But I've seen 117° for a week.  We are only suppose to stay about 105° for a few days and then have a cooling trend of 99°.

Yikes!

By state law here in VT, we're required to cry like babies any time the temperature exceeds the mid 80s.

[4x4American]

You got that right - it's hot here!  But I've seen 117° for a week.  We are only suppose to stay about 105° for a few days and then have a cooling trend of 99°.

Yikes!

By state law here in VT, we're required to cry like babies any time the temperature exceeds the mid 80s.

:D :D :D   That explains it!  I was up to East Concord today and I broke something on my trailer and the Vermonter who was helping me was crying like a baby about the heat  :D :D   The thermometer said it was like 88°F, I didn't think it was that bad!

[LeeB]

That driveway looks like it didn't need any work to begin with. How do the do on a drive that really does need work?

[Chuck White]

I think the idea is to take material from the high spots and drop it in the low spots! 

[DFILER2]

What I've experienced is that any leveler without wheels behind it is great if your road is flat to begin with but terrible if not. A 3 point device like that will raise if the front wheels go down or can dig in if the front wheels go up. The ones with wheels behind it take care of that problem, like this one:
https://www.deere.com/en_US/products/equipment/frontier_implements/landscape_equipment/box_scrapers/ll12_series_drawn_box_scrapers/ll12_series_drawn_box_scrapers.page

[gspren]

  That was on level ground, which my driveway isn't, when I scrape the driveway I like my box blade because it will drag some stones uphill and put them back where they were.

[florida]

Our neighbor has one he uses on our gravel road. What a difference it makes over a box blade. 2 or 3 people on the road work on it with 2 of them using box blades. Huge difference when Don uses his Land Leveler. He had to replace the main blade last year for about $150.00 but everyone chips in to pay for his fuel and wear and tear on his small tractor. We got him to come over and flatten the driveway when we put 80 yards of ground asphalt on it 6 months ago and he made it look like a paved rod.

[jdonovan]

have one, works great to give you a nice smooth surface.

I have a top-n-tilt- so I can easily put some crown, or outslope into the road as needed. What I like about land planes for leveling work, is they are about idiot proof. Just the the top link adjusted so both blades are working, and drive... repeat until smooth.

When you are re-working a bumpy road, you need to take a few light passes, and as it smooths out you can then switch to dropping it all the way.

This tool is REALLY dependent on your road being loose enough to get some small gravel and/or fines loose from the surface. I tried using it on a very old WELL and truly hard packed road and it just skipped along the surface. That road is going to need some passes with a tool with rippers first to get some loose material to work with.

[Tom L]

I made one here for the shop, it works good, I have everything topped with crushed concrete here in my yard, mine is very heavy maybe 1000lbs
the looks of that one is that it is too light, and you need an adjustable blade, that you can continue every couple of yrs to lower a bit at a time. if you can't replace/adjust  the blade, it will just wear and not do a very good job.

[John Mc]

By state law here in VT, we're required to cry like babies any time the temperature exceeds the mid 80s.

:D :D :D   That explains it!  I was up to East Concord today and I broke something on my trailer and the Vermonter who was helping me was crying like a baby about the heat  :D :D   The thermometer said it was like 88°F, I didn't think it was that bad!

If you stay here too long, you become a hot weather wimp. However, that same guy might spend hours helping his neighbor fix a tractor in 10˚F weather and the only comment might be, "it's a bit nippy out today".

[WmFritz]

However, that same guy might spend hours helping his neighbor fix a tractor in 10˚F weather and the only comment might be, "it's a bit nippy out today".

Funny how we get acclimated. I met a guy last winter from Ironwood Mi at a snowmobile race. He was 78 or 82... I forget now, but temps were around 0°f with a stiff breeze. I'm in the pits with all my cold weather gear on and pacing to keep warm. He is wearing a jacket, jeans, leather work boots and standing calmly next to his old Moto-Ski like it was spring weather. His gloves were sitting on his seat the whole time he waited for his race to go to the line.  He told me he races the first couple events each winter and then heads to Arizona till spring.

[Kbeitz]

I got one for my Kubota. But the bottom of my driveway washes out almost
every week. So I have an old Roper that has a homemade blade the keeps
everything in tip top shape. This way I'm not switching stuff off and on
from my big tractor. It's a pain fighting between the 3 point mower and
the box blade or what ever else. I need one tractor for every tool.



 

[scsmith42]

I use an Agritek Driveway scraper behind a tractor.  It works really well (but it's not quite as heavy duty as the Land Plane).  Much better than a box blade.  This is what they look like:



 

[Tom King]

I have an 8' Woods grading blade, with a tailwheel, and hydraulic controls for swing and tilt. I only have two remotes, so the offset has to be set by hand, but is easy to do. The tailwheel really helps make it into a small motorgrader, and not leave humps.  I pull the stuff up from the edges back to the center with the grading blade, them spread it back out with a box blade.  The grading blade can even cut ditches if you catch the ground soft enough.

Here's a picture of one, not mine.  I keep mine under a shed, and it looks a lot better than this one, even though it's older:  https://www.google.com/search?q=woods+grading+blade+with+tailwheel&tbm=isch&imgil=jRqddV0Z88-_uM%253A%253B84uiYFXNTSRIAM%253Bhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.liveauctioneers.com%25252Fitem%25252F5071548_nice-woods-rb1010-3pt-hyd-adjust-blade-wtailwheel&source=iu&pf=m&fir=jRqddV0Z88-_uM%253A%252C84uiYFXNTSRIAM%252C_&usg=__B7VEDilqut2zz4KkI5C7SB7gTnM%3D&biw=1304&bih=691&ved=0ahUKEwimr-On7MvNAhWGQCYKHdm4Ci4QyjcIOw&ei=VwRzV-anAYaBmQHZ8arwAg#imgdii=jRqddV0Z88-_uM%3A%3BjRqddV0Z88-_uM%3A%3BAOkEyd8pqhpwEM%3A&imgrc=jRqddV0Z88-_uM%3A

[4x4American]

Do you guys think it would do any sort of grading if I took a hardwood timber and dragged it behind my tractor with a chain?

[Chuck White]

We've done that in the hay fields here, just hook a chain out near the ends, making sure one chain is longer so the timber will be dragged at an angle, then attach another timber behind the first on, on the opposite angle and it will pick up whatever comes off of the front timber and level (smooth) it out.

[thecfarm]

I have a good base on my 500 foot driveway. Even had the log truck use it for a couple months. Could not really tell they was trucking over it.