Box Scraper Land Plane for Ford 1100...

[TIDE HSV]

I have an extensive graveled parking area plus drive. I've recently had the entire area re-graveled. There is one slope connecting the parking area and the drive. My contractors advised purchasing a grader-scraper for the gravel, which tends to migrate downhill/downstream over time. The little Ford supposedly develops around 13 HP. I'm looking at the Land Plane, now owned by John Deere, I think, and the Land Pride scraper-grader now owned by Kubota. The Land Plane is available only in 5'. The Land Pride has a 4' model, which is something like 430 lb+. The 5' Land Plane is around 70-80 lb heavier. The Land Pride is about $300 more, as priced around here. The 5' Land Plane requires a minimum of 18 HP. The 4' Land Pride says 20 HP minimum. My landscaping contractor says that the Ford will handle either easily, just moving gravel. Any experience out there?

 

[jbrumberg]

I had a Ford 1100 in many ways I wish that I still had it. For moving gravel I agree with your landscaper. IMO

 

[TIDE HSV]

I had a Ford 1100 in many ways I wish that I still had it. For moving gravel I agree with your landscaper. IMO

Thanks! Did you have a box or something similar you moved gravel with it?

 

[jbrumberg]

All I had was a dual hydraulic frontend 4' dozer blade and an old weighted down car hood to move and level gravel/sand for the 150' of driveway I managed then. It took forever, but it worked. I would have liked to have had a rear blade or boxblade for it back then.

I checked tractordata.com. The 1100 has a lifting force of 881#’s at the 3ph. I had appropriately sized Woods tiller and rotary cutter that it handled really well. If I remember correctly both were ~40”.

It was a great little tractor. I traded it in for my current tractor. Replacement parts may be hard to find nowadays.

Good luck have fun.

 

[TIDE HSV]

Thanks. That's helpful. My tractor isn't fitted with the front end, so I have to use the 3 pt. At 881, it sounds like the 70-80 lb lighter of the 48" Land Pride (Kubota) may be really important. It's just not the steel; it's the extra gravel the 5' would pick up. Here are some pix of my back parking area and drive to give an idea of the job...

 

[jbrumberg]

TIDE- You have a really nice place. Unless there is a balance issue with your tractor-blade setup I really do not think the extra blade length matters in this case; all you are lifting is the blade. You are moving the material not lifting it. How much you move is blade height dependent if I understand you correctly. You could make it work with the 13HP, especially in 4WD in lower gearing. If I remember correctly my gear driven 1100 had 3 ranges with 5 gears forward. Just my $.02.

 

[TIDE HSV]

Thanks! I was checking several nearby dealers and almost didn't call the one furthest away, which was still only around 60 miles. Boy, am I glad I did. Not only were they $200 under what my landscaper could get for a dealer price, I found out that there's a GS0548 model which only weighs 300 lb, with thinner steel. That was even cheaper by another $150 or so...

 

[TIDE HSV]

BTW, the gearing is as you remember it but, without the front bucket, only 2WD is available...

 

[jbrumberg]

It really pays tp shop around for attachments. Like you I am 23 miles from any population center; much farther for decent tractor stuff. My original family owned NH dealership went out of business due to market forces. They were ~20 miles away and would do home service as needed. I still miss them.

I really do not think that you will have any problems with 2WD for what you intend to do.

 

[TIDE HSV]

I'm in Huntsville, AL, so in the middle of 6-700K people. It's just that the local dealers understand nothing but MSRP. I just bought an X370 JD riding mower from a dealer about 30 miles away. The "local" dealer wanted MSRP - period. The salesman even told me he'd sold two that morning. (IOW, don't even try bargaining.) The dealer I bought from sold it $1000 cheaper and delivered it - free. I guess it's just one of the problems of living in an affluent area. OTOH, there's this - US News, so go figure...

 

[jbrumberg]

Cummington, MA has ~1000 residents, few stop signs, and no traffic lights. Some MA maps do not even show it.

My tractor related experiences parallel yours. If a dealership gouges you/me because they can gouge others it's a win-lose for you/me.

There are regional differences.

I consider my 1100 to have been one of the best trainer tractors for which to ask. I upgraded due lack of FEL and mostly its challenges handling snow. I can get up to 120" of snow each Winter.. Ground clearance did create challenges at times especially moving heavy, wet snow, but that and other clearance challenges were always managed one way or another.

 

[TIDE HSV]

Snow is a rarity here and, when it comes, this is the way it's handled...

 

[jbrumberg]

At some point every Winter I start dreaming about shoveling snow. It can become a daily occurrence due to drifting.

An old picture. I have all kinds of snow pictures. Fortunately for me I enjoy cold and love to snowshoe and all I have to do is walk out the slider and head anywhere I want.

Diesel fuel can get a little finicky at -23ºF. I use a mix of PowerSource fuel additives to keep my fuel water free, clear, and liquid. And I swear by my Mr. Funnel, a fuel-water separating fueling funnel that I use to filter the fuel I add to the tractor. It really works.. I use it with every fill up all year long.

 

[TIDE HSV]

At some point every Winter I start dreaming about shoveling snow. It can become a daily occurrence due to drifting.

An old picture. I have all kinds of snow pictures. Fortunately for me I enjoy cold and love to snowshoe and all I have to do is walk out the slider and head anywhere I want.

Diesel fuel can get a little finicky at -23ｺF. I use a mix of PowerSource fuel additives to keep my fuel water free, clear, and liquid. And I swear by my Mr. Funnel, a fuel-water separating fueling funnel that I use to filter the fuel I add to the tractor. It really works.. I use it with every fill up all year long.

That sounds interesting. I drove Benz diesels for thirty years, until it stopped making economic sense. Back in the '70s, I'd buy a quart of ATF and pour it in on the bottom of the tank to soak up the water in diesel. Which reminds me of a story. I have friends who had an old 2 cycle Saab, also back in the '70s. His wife was driving and stopped to fill up. It was an old full-service station and she handed the attendant a quart of oil and told him to pour it in before the gas. She said he looked funny but started back to do it. Then he returned and said "Lady, if I do this, your husband will kill me." Now, Ursula is a no-nonsense, almost 6' tall German. She got out, took the oil out of his hand and poured it in while he shook his head...

 

[chim]

The gravel in the pictures looks almost like clean stone and what people around here would use for landscaping / mulch. Doesn't appear to have "fines" mixed in to lock it in place. If that's the case, you'll have plenty of seat time with the LP. Sorta like driving on marbles.

 

[TIDE HSV]

The gravel in the pictures looks almost like clean stone and what people around here would use for landscaping / mulch. Doesn't appear to have "fines" mixed in to lock it in place. If that's the case, you'll have plenty of seat time with the LP. Sorta like driving on marbles.

That's very acute. It's actually the second application. The first had to be scraped up and hauled off. Through a truck driver's mixup (or a bait and switch), the first load didn't match what the contractor had picked up at the yard. It had to be hauled from around 50 miles away. Rather than the fine gravel ordered, the rocks ranged from 3" to 7". It was impossible even to walk on. Fortunately, the contractor was able to donate it to a city museum at the other end of the mountain I live on - for mulch. Now there are two sizes of the replacement load. The smaller stones have settled down nicely. When you pick up a handful, they are quite angular, not rounded at all, and they've locked down well. It's hard to show in pix, but there's a slope where our back parking area joins our circle drive. Larger stone went there because the pea gravel we had originally washed badly. There was some left over and I consented to have it placed atop the smaller gravel, not only on the slope, where it was planned, but out where street dead-ends at our drive. The larger stone, as you say, has not settled down at all, and it is indeed like driving like marbles. Right now, we're discussing having them come back, scrape it up (again!) and place it on the drive we have in the front of the house, not pictured. In our area, there are only two types of stone easily available - river stone and crushed limestone, which is not very attractive, but effective. We lived for a time over in NC, where they use crushed granite. They had something they called "mill run," which I suspect is similar to what you're describing. It eventually packed down to almost an asphalt-like state. Sorry for the length but this has been a long, painful project and your comment picked at a sore...

 

[oosik]

Those pics of your driveway look great. Brown gravel - all ours is either black or grey. I have a Land Pride - Land Plane Grading Scraper - GS2584. 84" wide & 710 pounds. I pull it with my Kubota M6040.

A note - a land plane grading scraper - LPGS - will not move material horizontally. And it doesn't move material forward much either. It just lifts it up and lays it back down SMOOTHLY. It really doesn't "move" a whole lot of material. So they are very easily pulled. And are very easy to use & use well.

Your tractor will have no problems with a 4' or 5' LPGS.

 

[TIDE HSV]

Those pics of your driveway look great. Brown gravel - all ours is either black or grey. I have a Land Pride - Land Plane Grading Scraper - GS2584. 84" wide & 710 pounds. I pull it with my Kubota M6040.

A note - a land plane grading scraper - LPGS - will not move material horizontally. And it doesn't move material forward much either. It just lifts it up and lays it back down SMOOTHLY. It really doesn't "move" a whole lot of material. So they are very easily pulled. And are very easy to use & use well.

Your tractor will have no problems with a 4' or 5' LPGS.

Thanks. At this point, my main worry is the slope for the reasons Chim set out above. Last evening, my wife and I went out to the symphony and, when we exited the drive, where the large stone is laid down on the small, and deep at that, I noticed her AWD Subaru fishtailed a bit. I think I'll first load the tractor down good - I have some really heavy locust logs which need to be transported up to my shop apron, where the splitter is - and make sure it can negotiate the slope...