Does a 3ph land plane need to have adjustable blades?

[jgoodma1]

I'm eventually going to get a land plane for my Kubota L4060, but I'm not ready to part with the green yet. Nonetheless, I'm always looking for a used one on Facebook Marketplace, and today, for the first time, I came across a used Everything Attachments 6' land plane for sale (albeit, still way over my budget .....$2500). The seller posted some very good photos of it and I could clearly see that the blade carriers were welded to the side plates, making the blades non-adjustable up and down. In other posts on land planes that I've read over the past couple of years, I repeatedly saw the opinions that those blades should be adjustable up and down to tune the cutting depths. But with EA being one of the Cadillac brands and seeing that their blades are not adjustable, I'm wondering if they really need to be, and if they don't, it opens up my used land plane options a bit. Just looking to get some knowledgeable opinions on this issue. Thanks.

 

[old and tired]

How about this one? Land grader - farm & garden - by owner - sale
At $1400?

Or J Bar land leveler new - farm & garden - by owner - sale

 

[dj1701]

I can't vouch for adjustable blades, but I have no issues with the one I have. Works great.

Dave

 

[KennyG]

There might be some advantage if you have a big tractor and are working with a hard surface. However, if the surface is already loose I doubt it makes much difference. Mine works pretty well on loose surfaces, was built from scrap and cost about $25.

 

[thclimer]

I have placed a 1" thick board between the skid plates and the sides which essentially raises the blades about an inch as mine are not adjustable and I wanted the blades to dig in less. If you want the blades to be even less aggressive just use a thicker spacer of wood between the skid plates and you might need longer bolts.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I'm eventually going to get a land plane for my Kubota L4060, but I'm not ready to part with the green yet. Nonetheless, I'm always looking for a used one on Facebook Marketplace, and today, for the first time, I came across a used Everything Attachments 6' land plane for sale (albeit, still way over my budget .....$2500). The seller posted some very good photos of it and I could clearly see that the blade carriers were welded to the side plates, making the blades non-adjustable up and down. In other posts on land planes that I've read over the past couple of years, I repeatedly saw the opinions that those blades should be adjustable up and down to tune the cutting depths. But with EA being one of the Cadillac brands and seeing that their blades are not adjustable, I'm wondering if they really need to be, and if they don't, it opens up my used land plane options a bit. Just looking to get some knowledgeable opinions on this issue. Thanks.

Do you mean a Box Grader? My brother and I made one. Blade angle is adjustable, but not vertically. It works great as it is. I would be fine with a non adjustable one also. We don't change the blade angle very often..

 

[thclimer]

Do you mean a Box Grader? My brother and I made one. Blade angle is adjustable, but not vertically. It works great as it is. I would be fine with a non adjustable one also. We don't change the blade angle very often..

Pretty sure they are referring to a "Land Plane" or sometimes called a "Road Grader"

Here is one that has adjustable blade depth. I have just added a wooden spacer / shim under the replaceable ware skid plate on each side which accomplish the same thing.

 

[hosspuller]

The blade height adjustment is to compensate for blade wear. As the blade is worn, one lowers the blade. Some LP's have multi holes in the blade holder to accomplish this. Others have slots the blade holder moves in, Others have both (Road boss)

 

[Gordon Gould]

The cutting edges on mine are not adjustable. They are set 3/4" below the runners. I have over a mile of gravel roads I maintain and I have not turned the the dual edged cutting edges over yet after 8 years of use but I have replaced the mild steel runners.
The LPGS works beautifully for me and I don't feel the need for adjustable blades. Maybe just luck, I don't know.....

gg

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Fixed cutting edges on both of mine also, never needed adjustable ones or scarifiers for that matter.

 

[jgoodma1]

Do you mean a Box Grader? My brother and I made one. Blade angle is adjustable, but not vertically. It works great as it is. I would be fine with a non adjustable one also. We don't change the blade angle very often..

Thanks, no, what others are showing in photos is what I'm talking about....land plane, land leveler, road grader.

 

[jgoodma1]

Pretty sure they are referring to a "Land Plane" or sometimes called a "Road Grader"

Here is one that has adjustable blade depth. I have just added a wooden spacer / shim under the replaceable ware skid plate on each side which accomplish the same thing.
View attachment 758771

Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I was thinking in terms of needing to set the blades deeper, but if that's never needed, then what you're suggesting would certainly work for me. Thanks.

 

[jgoodma1]

The cutting edges on mine are not adjustable. They are set 3/4" below the runners. I have over a mile of gravel roads I maintain and I have not turned the the dual edged cutting edges over yet after 8 years of use but I have replaced the mild steel runners.
The LPGS works beautifully for me and I don't feel the need for adjustable blades. Maybe just luck, I don't know.....

View attachment 758822

View attachment 758823

View attachment 758824

The cutting edges on mine are not adjustable. They are set 3/4" below the runners. I have over a mile of gravel roads I maintain and I have not turned the the dual edged cutting edges over yet after 8 years of use but I have replaced the mild steel runners.
The LPGS works beautifully for me and I don't feel the need for adjustable blades. Maybe just luck, I don't know.....

View attachment 758822

View attachment 758823

View attachment 758824

gg

Thanks. One thing I've wondered.....and this is another reason why I was thinking that I'd want the adjustable (and therefore, removable and replaceable) blade supports, is do you need to worry about possibly churning up a big rock with scarifiers and then possibly bend one of the blade supports? I will need scarifiers for my particular driveway, I think. Right now I'm using a beat-up old Gannon roll-over box blade that weighs around 900 pounds (which I need to replace), and the box blade alone does not really churn up the gravel on my driveway, even with it weighing 900 lbs. And I have some drainage issues with hard rains and need to crown the driveway pretty well, so I really need scarifiers to churn up the gravel to re-groom it.

 

[Skagit]

I've had both, you want adjustable cutting edges. I currently have an EA and it's lack of adjustability is a point of frustration for me. They work much better when you can adjust the cutting depth. Also the cross tube part of the frame isn't high enough above the leading cutting edge so it plugs up easily.

Everyone is going to tell you to just buy a hydraulic top link, that does not solve the problem.

 

[jaxs]

It's interesting to see how much material people loosen while maintaining roads in some areas. Here we do one of two ways. From centerline to shoulder with blade angled and taking a light cut,loose material fills divots and excess in a row on shoulder in both directions where it stays. Next time road is graded the row on shoulder is spread back on road. The most popular base is white chalky rock that is easily crushed into dust. Once dust is spread,it must be watered then compacted back into rock as it was originally. Base is then topped with gravel,crushed stone,asphalt or concrete. If gravel or stone is spread without base under it the material sinks and disappears. We try not disturbing base while grading ,hence light cuts with minimum disturbance.

 

[oosik]

I have a Land Pride land plane grading scraper - with scarifiers. GS2584. The blades are adjustable as a total unit. I've never made any adjustment to these blades. Works just fine for me - just as it came from the factory. As you can see in this photo - the "blades" are in their full UP position.

In particularly hard soil - I will also use the scarifiers.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Thanks. One thing I've wondered.....and this is another reason why I was thinking that I'd want the adjustable (and therefore, removable and replaceable) blade supports, is do you need to worry about possibly churning up a big rock with scarifiers and then possibly bend one of the blade supports? I will need scarifiers for my particular driveway, I think. Right now I'm using a beat-up old Gannon roll-over box blade that weighs around 900 pounds (which I need to replace), and the box blade alone does not really churn up the gravel on my driveway, even with it weighing 900 lbs. And I have some drainage issues with hard rains and need to crown the driveway pretty well, so I really need scarifiers to churn up the gravel to re-groom it.

On the rougher roads I do w/o a thick layer of surface gravel and a proper road base the frost pushes up rocks during the winter so that every spring when I start grading there are new rocks either exposed above the surface or just below the surface. I remove the exposed ones.

The others I find with the grader. Most are just turned up but some are bigger and stop the tractor cold. I do not have scarifiers so the blades do all the work. I have never bent the blade support which is 3/8" angle. These are what I typically turn up.

gg

 

[Gordon Gould]

These are from the section of road where that load of rocks in the last post came from.

And Skagit is right - you don't want a cross member over or just behind the blade. It creates a pinch point for the material flowing over the blade. The blade should be behind or well ahead of the blade.

gg

 

[joc664]

There might be some advantage if you have a big tractor and are working with a hard surface. However, if the surface is already loose I doubt it makes much difference. Mine works pretty well on loose surfaces, was built from scrap and cost about $25.

View attachment 758746

I presume the yellow arch is just for carrying, and the weight of the implment alone is used for down force.

 

[KennyG]

I presume the yellow arch is just for carrying, and the weight of the implment alone is used for down force.

Correct. The arches are ribs from an old satellite dish I had laying around and the lifting chains go slack when I use it. I've modified it a little since the picture to actually pull it from the bottom of the 3 point frame and not the arches to minimize the tendency to raise the front. The concrete blocks actually provide the down force.