Box scraping the driveway. Grrrr!!!

[NWhomesteader]

I borrowed by buddies 54" box scraper to resurface the driveway. I got some 3/4 minus and went to work but now I'm getting pretty frustrated. I can move plenty of material but somewhere in the process I've established a "washboard" effect and cant get rid of it. It's not so much washboard as it is wooptie doo's (think dirtbike races). they are spread out just enough that the front of the tractor goes up causing the box scraper to dip/dig in, then the front of the tractor goes down causing the box scraper to deposit a big mound.

It's never ending now. The only thing going over it seems to do is maybe move the mounds. It sucks to drive down and I'm going crazy here. Any suggestions from you seasoned pro's? I've tried adjusting the top link and just dragging the thing across the top, I've tried lifting and lowering the scraper to different levels but it's not doing a whole lot of good.

 

[oosik]

Welcome to TBN there NWhomesteader. I have a mile long gravel driveway that I've tried for 25 years to maintain in the summer with a rear blade - then a box blade. It was a "no joy" situation - all I did was create and accentuate wool-de-doos. The rear blade is fantastic for snow and the box blade is great for moving large amounts of material.

Three years ago I bought a Land Pride Grading Scraper - GS2584. What a world of difference - this implement levels, smoothes and brings the drive back to what it originally was.

The first pass was with the scarifiers down to disrupt the top 3-4 inches. Then with the rippers up it leveled, filled and smoothed the entire drive. Its been over 25 years since the driveway was in this good condition.

Bottom line - either find a friend that will loan his land plane grading scraper or buy one for yourself - you will not be disappointed.

 

[Sysop]

There are a few things you could try.

Slow down; the 3 point is held down by gravity, but the motion is somewhat restricted by the hydraulics. When the front of your tractor pitches up over a hump, it raises the 3 point some. When the front pitches back down off the hump and the back raises up onto it, if you are traveling faster than the 3 point will fall, the blade will raise out of the material leaving a hump that gets worse with every pass.

If it is the changing angle of the blade causing you the grief rather than the speed of travel versus float of the 3pt, instead of mounting it firm on the 3 point, use some short chains to attach it so it can be dragged and the angle of the tractor has no effect. Lots of times for a simple dressing you can put the box on the three point at an angle and run up each side to push material toward the center, then drop the box off the three point and hook it to chains and drag it up the middle to level it out.

Finally, you can use a different tool to take the humps off. Many times I'll use my loader bucket in the dump position, with the loader in float. As I slowly back up I can adjust the angle of the bucket's dump position to change how aggressively it moves material. Backing the tires over the humps I'll keep the bucket curled up some so it isn't aggressively taking material, and as the bucket edge is approaching the leading edge of the hump, I'll cycle the bucket closer to "full dump" and let it tear the hump off. As I reach the crest of the hump with the bucket's edge I roll the bucket up slowly to start depositing the material in the low spot on the back side of the hump.

Hopefully some of this will help.

 

[jesseb3@att.net]

There are a few things you could try. Slow down; the 3 point is held down by gravity, but the motion is somewhat restricted by the hydraulics. When the front of your tractor pitches up over a hump, it raises the 3 point some. When the front pitches back down off the hump and the back raises up onto it, if you are traveling faster than the 3 point will fall, the blade will raise out of the material leaving a hump that gets worse with every pass. If it is the changing angle of the blade causing you the grief rather than the speed of travel versus float of the 3pt, instead of mounting it firm on the 3 point, use some short chains to attach it so it can be dragged and the angle of the tractor has no effect. Lots of times for a simple dressing you can put the box on the three point at an angle and run up each side to push material toward the center, then drop the box off the three point and hook it to chains and drag it up the middle to level it out. Finally, you can use a different tool to take the humps off. Many times I'll use my loader bucket in the dump position, with the loader in float. As I slowly back up I can adjust the angle of the bucket's dump position to change how aggressively it moves material. Backing the tires over the humps I'll keep the bucket curled up some so it isn't aggressively taking material, and as the bucket edge is approaching the leading edge of the hump, I'll cycle the bucket closer to "full dump" and let it tear the hump off. As I reach the crest of the hump with the bucket's edge I roll the bucket up slowly to start depositing the material in the low spot on the back side of the hump. Hopefully some of this will help.

I think Sysop is on to something. I've never had issue with creating washboards, but I've got Pat's Easy Quick change on mine, causing the loader arms to be longer, thereby allowing me to lower the box further. (The BX arms are a bit short for my BB, in my opinion.) Also, when I'm doing final grading, I have the rear of the box WAY down...to the point that I'm wondering if I'm going to run out of threads on my top link. That way there's lots of travel left in the arms regardless of tractor angle, and the blades aren't trying to pull material. Those scraper/land planes do look awesome though. I'd have bought one by now if I wasn't thinking about getting a bigger tractor.

 

[Sysop]

Those scraper/land planes do look awesome though. I'd have bought one by now if I wasn't thinking about getting a bigger tractor.

Agreed, if you are planning a purchase (or build) to tend to the task in the future, the land planes are pretty awesome at such a task.

 

[ovrszd]

Box Blading is an art. No flame intended here. Some people can't get it. Friend of mine tried one. Got so mad I thought he was going to burn his tractor/BB. He bought a grader attachment and is happy.

I on the other hand can smooth very well with a BB. But I run a road grader on the side. So I understand.

Rather than give up on the BB. I hope you will calm yourself and with patience, diligence, and delicate touch attempt to fix what you have destroyed. If you can master this skill the BB will become your best friend. And you'll save the additional cost of buying a land plane.

I run my BB at a faster than you can walk pace. If I create a divet or hump I go back and fix it. I use a BB on a tractor with 1/4" valving (more challenging), and on a tractor with position control (much easier). I didn't see where you mentioned which you have?? Position Control will speed up your learning curve. 1/4" valving will delay it.

 

[ruffdog]

Sometimes pulling a bigger wood skid or pallet with concrete blocks on it will move the high spots to the low. You can even angle it to move the stone more to one side. This only works on nice loose stone though.

 

[Halftrack]

I'm always looking for the cheapest way out. My suggestion, if you owned the box scraper, would be to get a couple of 2X10s about 8' long and bolt them to the sides of the box scraper, effectively making it a land plane. It would require 2 or 3 half inch holes in the side plate of the scraper to attach the 2x10s and maybe elevate the blade about an inch above the bottom of the boards, maybe more, so you perforate the boards a few more times. Put a cross brace at the front to either tow with a chain or to attach to the lower links of the 3 pt if you want more control. Drag it and if it fills up too much, raise the box on the boards, probably better to start high, then lower. Start down the center of the drive and work out to the edges. How long will it last, hopefully long enough to fix your drive. If it doesn't, you can always use to boards for something else. Good luck!!!!

 

[Tul01]

I've also found once you have it nice and loose, to go backwards, using the back of the blade to allow the tires to always be driving on freshly leveled ground. This reduces the washboard effect. Then I drag it with a railway iron to start packing, followed by a chain link fence drag to level the new ridges from the iron and continues to pack it. Then I drive it all and pack it, sometimes with gravel in the bucket to get more pressure on the front tires. Works for me, but I only have 450' of driveway and 2- 200' parking lots to maintain.

Brent

 

[pmhowe]

Halftrack, I like your approach. I'm going to try it this summer. Thanks for posting.

 

[teg]

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/122762-beginners-guide-using-box-blade.html

Enjoy reading...

 

[TSO]

Good recommendations here.

I do more work with my box blade than any other implement (besides the loader) and like Ovrszd said, it really is an art. It took me many, many hours to finally perfect the technique.

Something else you can try, if the tractor can handle it ... Is to use the loader like this:

Loader in float position.
Bucket curled ever so slightly up.
Drive forward.
The goal is to lightly "peel" the high spots with the cutting edge of the bucket.
As the bucket fills, keep watch to not let the edge tilt down causing it to "dig in" ... Because you just want it to "peel" the high spots.
You'll be able to find the right bucket curl angle with a few tries.
Once you fill the bucket, distribute the material to another spot with feathered dumping, or a pile you can grab with the box on the next grading pass.
Repeat as necessary until you peel off all the high spots.
You'll also notice that this actually packs the material with the bottom of the bucket as it peels the high spots ...

Good luck!

 

[RDrancher]

3/4 minus can vary quite a bit. Is the material mostly different sizes of crushed stone or are there a lot of powdery fines mixed in?

 

[Old Red]

I purchased a GS 2584 Land Pride Grader Scraper and it was a piece of cake. No tricks or special modifications needed. Just drop and go and let it do the work for you. First time using you will look like a pro.

 

[s219]

I box blade my driveway with the box all the way down in float, so it doesn't really matter what the front wheels of the tractor are doing, as the box is always resting on the ground under the influence of gravity. It would take some massive bumps or dips to cause that floating action to be overcome, so it makes me wonder how the OP had the 3-pt set, and what the driveway was like to start.

If you dump a big pile of material and then drive over it, I can see that causing the box to bottom out on the 3-pt, and then you just created a bump. So I'd say to back drag any material that gets put down before driving over it with the box.

I think the whole trick is to repair any severe dips and knock down any large bumps before driving over with the box blade.

There is also an art to setting the top link so that the rear cutting edges of the box blade are doing what you want. For driveway work, I tend to run with a longer top link so that the box is feathered and "spreading" material. When the top link is short, the box will want to dig, and that's not what I want.

 

[Egon]

Be of good cheer. You have joined the box blade roller coaster club to which many belong?

It isn't the right tool grading a road. The landscapers are what you need.A rear blade with gauge wheels will work. For it you have to angle the blade and work a windrow from one side to the other probably more than once. This distributes material more evenly eliminating the roller coaster or shadows in the night headlights.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

We have some box blade videos in the How To Videos section of our website that may help you out.
Travis

 

[jenkinsph]

I recommend that you reduce your travel speeds to the point you can raise and lower the box blade as needed with control.

Don't beat yourself up here, most people I see without enough seat time and experience have problems using a box blade. Very difficult to borrow a box blade and not having enough practice expect to get good results.

Typically when I am working a driveway I call in a driver/dump truck who is vey good at tailgating the loads. This saves me a lot of time. If I have to start with piles dumped on the driveway I use the fel to evenly distribute the gravel where it is needed. Then use either a box blade, land plane grading scraper or fel bucket to smooth.

If the driveway needs to be reshaped to improve drainage or increase the crown a rear blade works the best and should be done first. Then get the entire drive way as smooth as you can prior to adding the base and rock. When I have dump trucks show up with the materials I try to have the drive smooth and tip the driver to roll up and down it first with his load still on the truck to pack it in. I get a lot of bang for the buck out of a $20 bill this way.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

I had a washboard problem with my drive due to the neighbor (who also lives on the drive and owns a tractor) just trying to scrap it smooth without really understanding what he's doing.

(1) Like Sysop says, every time your wheels go over a bump, it raises your 3pt and the blade, causing another 'wave". So the solution to that is to not drive over bumps. And to do that, you need to blade it smooth and then drive over it. Which means flipping the back blade around and grading in reverse.

(2) Even doing #1 can be a pain since the blade may alternately bounce and dig into the existing 'waves', especially if the washboards are perpendicular to the drive. So I angled my blade nearly 45 degrees to slice through them. That pretty much stopped all bouncing and waving.

(3) As you may assume, I don't have ripper teeth. So this took a lot of multiple passes to dig up enough material to totally remove the potholes, which left me a very high row of driveway mix running down the drive. If you don't dig out the pot holes, just filling them in won't help as the change in material density will cause you to bounce the material out as you drive over it. The potholes just come back that way. You need to have a homogenous material mix put down as a surface and packed to the base. NOTE: If you're adding material because you want to bring up the drive, or have lost a bunch to erosion, you'll probably want to work it into the existing row of dug up material so you again get the homogenous mix.

(4) You want to move that row of material so it's in the center, more or less. You can reduce the angle of the back blade somewhat, but you still don't want it straight across. You're also going to need to put a slight tilt to it because while you spread that row out, you're going to want a slightly raised berm down the center-line of the drive so the water flows off of it. Alternatively, you can have one side of the drive raised so the water goes all to a single side, but that might feel a bit weird driving on it with the cars and trucks all the time.

(5) I forget what the recommended broken rock to sand to clay ratios are here in New Hampshire, but in my opinion, you're going to want the maximum amount of rock and just enough fines to lock them together. Too many fines and then the rock just floats around in it like raisins in ice cream; and you'll end up with a quicksand-like mess come mud season.

 

[Rotax]

You guys are missing one very simple thing, box blades are all fine and dandy for spreading out lots of material but if you want to smooth something out nice a regular 3point hitch blade is much better. The fact is you can angle it! That is what will take your washboard out and also you can put a crown on the road with it so water won't sit on your drive way when it rains and it will dry much faster!!