10' Land Leveler Review

[Ranger1969]

Working leveling out 2 acres so I bought a land leveler to assist a dozer that was doing the heaving lifting/cutting. I paid 1250 for the leveler and another 250 for cylinder/hose. I had never used one before so the 40 hours I spent were a learning experience on how to use it and what it's not good at! The tractor is a NH TD5050 with 95HP 4WD. It is well matched to the 10' bucket and can pull a full bucket and drag more in front. A full bucket holds almost 2 yards of dirt. If you are running a 2 wheel tractor I would go with an 8' bucket(for that size of tractor without weight on the wheels).

The dozer was doing a lot of long pushes and would leave a "dirt windrow." Typically I would run behind him to clean up. The land leveler does a good job at pulling loose dirt. It will also "cut" for a short period 10' or so until the bucket fills to a certain level then it will just drag/float. I had played around with adding weight boxes to the top of the bucket to give it more down pressure. That is on the to do list someday. You can move dirt but it's a slow process. It is effective on small areas/jobs. It also works on leveling roads. I ran it on ours several times and they showed big improvements. It's not as smooth as a double blade road grader but not bad. Be glad to answer questions.

 

[Rocky Hoffler]

I have a 6 ft land leveler works ideal for smoothing and leveling but it doesn't move dirt as a box blade

 

[crazyal]

I would try raising your blade up. I've found that with my blades below the skids I tend to dig up too much dirt/ gravel. On the first pass or two I leave the blades low and with the help of the rippers dig things up but for finish passes I put the blades even or even slightly higher than the skids.

 

[jenkinsph]

I agree with crazyal if you want to smooth the "dirt windrows" you mention raise the blade where it is skimming the ground and spreading the windrows out. This should help smooth the surface. Tillage tools followed by finishing tools would make a huge difference in smoothing behind the dozer.

To level the ground you need some reference for cutting and filling. A grade laser and a receiver mounted to your drag box would help with that. A wireless remote display for the cab can reduce the neck twisting too. Might see what these rent for at the local rental yards.

Smoothing/averaging is much easier to do than leveling/cutting and filling.

 

[Ranger1969]

Hello all,

Thanks for the answers. We shot grade with a laser(pounded a grade stake in) and I was pulling the dirt windrows into a hole. That was the easy part, just drop the blade as far as it would go and roll to the hole, reverse. The actual leveling part was difficult almost impossible. I didn't have a laser mounted to the blade and every 3-4 pass I would have to jump out of the seat and re-shoot. Huge pain and it didn't take long to realize that it takes some tools/skill to move dirt efficiently! I did the best I could then the money ran out and the dozer rolled on down the road. It rained a few days latter and ugh I had small pools of water all over. I am waiting for it to dry out and then take another crack at it. Really the dozer did its job and now I am within a few of inches.

 

[Dadnatron]

I have a 12' Killefer blade, little different design and a little heavier, but essentially the same. I pull it with a 5100e and for me, it works very well. It doesn't have skids and the blade is about 1" below the sides, so I can scrape clean or dig. I used it extensively in smoothing my fields. I had many dips of about 6-12" x 20-30yds and I took the high spots and filled the low spots so my fields now are about as smooth as they could be. I also drug it over the entire field at about 1/2" above the surface. This allowed me to catch any high spots and pull it to low spots. I can run my tractor about 20mph without almost any bucket movement.

I also use it while I build my road. I move the dirt with a 6yd dirt pan, but will come back and smooth/level it all with the killefer blade.

The ONE thing I wish mine had was 2 separate hydraulics for each wheel. There have been a lot of times when I would like to be able to angle it side to side even just a few degrees to get a heavier bite on one side than the other. It would take some work to make it happen on mine, as the design would have to be altered quite a bit. But I still wish it were so.

All in all, it is one of my most used dirt moving implements. Much more so that my box blade. I can move more dirt much more quickly.

I'm glad yours is working out for you, but I'd see if you can lower the blade out of the box a bit. It might give you a new appreciation for what it can do. I'll try to take a pic of mine and the setup this weekend.

 

[ovrszd]

Yep, side to side adjustment is really nice!!!!

I borrow my neighbor's. It tilts. Last time I used it was to create a drainage waterway. The side tilt was invaluable.

To the OP, don't worry too much about imperfections. You'll get better at it with time. Also alternate your direction of drag. Crisscross the area to get the best "grade".

Thanks for posting and for the pics!!!!

 

[kthompson]

I have same size blade running about same hp and like mine very well, different brand but does great job. Difference between the OP and mine is, mine right wheel can be moved without changing the left wheel on the made axle so you can lower either end for grading. If desired I can post picture of mine but think the design is simple enough it could be added to his designed.

EDITED TO ADD The pulled box blade does a much better than job than one on the 3 pth, amazing the difference. Unless you was wanting to push dirt.

 

[Ranger1969]

Dadnatron,

I looked at the specs for a JD 5100e and it's similar to what I have.

Do you have any problem pulling a 12' blade? I thought a 10' would be my max. Can you fill up the box?

Do you have weight on your wheels?

How do you like your dirt pan? What kind is it? Do you pull it with the JD5100? If so does the 5100 have enough pulling power? I had kicked around the idea of getting one but assumed my tractor was too small.

I looked up the 12' Killefer blade and it is a heavy build. I was thinking about the idea of adding weight to this one. It will cut for a short time but after it fills to a certain level it will only drag. I think more weight will give more down pressure. On my version the blade is about 1" lower than the sides so you can cut with it some.

 

[Ranger1969]

I have same size blade running about same hp and like mine very well, different brand but does great job. Difference between the OP and mine is, mine right wheel can be moved without changing the left wheel on the made axle so you can lower either end for grading. If desired I can post picture of mine but think the design is simple enough it could be added to his designed.

EDITED TO ADD The pulled box blade does a much better than job than one on the 3 pth, amazing the difference. Unless you was wanting to push dirt.

Kthompson, Yes please post design - I love to see it. Thanks

 

[Dadnatron]

Ranger,

It has no problems at all with the 12' blade. If I drop it in a ditch, or have a really full blade and am going up hill it will grunt a bit, but I haven't had any issues with it. The times it is hardest is full blade, deep enough to be cutting and going up hill. On flat ground... I don't remember ever having any lugging at all.

I always keep it in MFWD - 4wd.

What type of dirt pan??? That is a good question. The bearings on it were discontinued in 1981, so that should tell you how OLD it is. I think it is a Reynolds 6yd (same as a John Deere 700) but the front dolly wheels have been removed so it is directly attached to the drawbar. It works great, but I've had some issues with breakdowns which have resulted in a bit of custom machining of bushings and parts. But all in all, the tractor handles it fine. My biggest problem with it is trying to get the correct depth for my 'bite'. It is difficult, and regardless of whether I use stops or not, I always tend to have to fuss far too much. I'm sure there is a trick, because no one who does this for a living would tolerate the up/down/up/down it seems I have to do in order to get the pan full.

I don't know what I'd do differently, I picked it up for $4K which while it wasn't cheap, it was 'relatively' cheap. I had looked for quite some time and needed to get something. If I had my way now, I would have tried to find a newer pan simply for the issues with the parts. But, now that I have them fixed, hopefully it will give me the time I need to finish my roads and dirt moving.

 

[oosik]

Ranger - I don't know exactly how level/smooth you are shooting for but..... that next to the bottom pic shows that you are doing a great job of smoothing out what the Cat has left behind.

Without some type of laser leveling equipment - its rather a shot in the dark. As far as smoothing goes - your box blade is doing a good job. You might also consider a Land Plane Grading Scraper - although it will not MOVE near as much dirt as your box blade.

 

[ovrszd]

Ranger,

It has no problems at all with the 12' blade. If I drop it in a ditch, or have a really full blade and am going up hill it will grunt a bit, but I haven't had any issues with it. The times it is hardest is full blade, deep enough to be cutting and going up hill. On flat ground... I don't remember ever having any lugging at all.

I always keep it in MFWD - 4wd.

What type of dirt pan??? That is a good question. The bearings on it were discontinued in 1981, so that should tell you how OLD it is. I think it is a Reynolds 6yd (same as a John Deere 700) but the front dolly wheels have been removed so it is directly attached to the drawbar. It works great, but I've had some issues with breakdowns which have resulted in a bit of custom machining of bushings and parts. But all in all, the tractor handles it fine. My biggest problem with it is trying to get the correct depth for my 'bite'. It is difficult, and regardless of whether I use stops or not, I always tend to have to fuss far too much. I'm sure there is a trick, because no one who does this for a living would tolerate the up/down/up/down it seems I have to do in order to get the pan full.

I don't know what I'd do differently, I picked it up for $4K which while it wasn't cheap, it was 'relatively' cheap. I had looked for quite some time and needed to get something. If I had my way now, I would have tried to find a newer pan simply for the issues with the parts. But, now that I have them fixed, hopefully it will give me the time I need to finish my roads and dirt moving.

I've got a 5yd Midland with dollies. If my borrow area is short and I have to fill quickly I struggle with the bite as well. If I've got enough room to fill at a slower pace it's not so bad. I think a scraper without dollies would be harder to control because of the distance between your tractor tires and trailing tire of the scraper. I also think you and I are pulling scrapers a bit large for our tractors. This makes the bite depth more critical. A bit too much and you spin out or stall the tractor. A larger tractor would pull thru it. I recently hired a 13yd scraper pulled by a 245hp 4wd tractor. He didn't struggle controlling the bite at all and could actually cut "grade" with the scraper almost as smoothly as I could with a road grader.

 

[jenkinsph]

Hello all,

Thanks for the answers. We shot grade with a laser(pounded a grade stake in) and I was pulling the dirt windrows into a hole. That was the easy part, just drop the blade as far as it would go and roll to the hole, reverse. The actual leveling part was difficult almost impossible. I didn't have a laser mounted to the blade and every 3-4 pass I would have to jump out of the seat and re-shoot. Huge pain and it didn't take long to realize that it takes some tools/skill to move dirt efficiently! I did the best I could then the money ran out and the dozer rolled on down the road. It rained a few days latter and ugh I had small pools of water all over. I am waiting for it to dry out and then take another crack at it. Really the dozer did its job and now I am within a few of inches.

When it dries out you should be able to see where the puddles were located. Try pulling dirt in to these holes. Puddles if they hold the water for too long can kill the grass that may be planted later. Just try to get the area smooth enough that it will drain without these puddles.

I would not concern myself with getting the box fully loaded. Just concentrate on moving the dirt to the low spots with as much finesse as you can muster. Don't dig too deep on a high spot, that may cause another hole to fill. Multiple light passes that overlap should get it fairly smooth. Working with what you have.

Now if you have more than the two acres to work on I might consider a different approach. I do a lot of this work and find that a land plane grader scraper does a good job with smoothing and averaging the surface. Drag type finishing tools whether factory or home made can all help with smoothing. For my work where I have to transport the equipment frequently the lpgs is more convenient for my uses. Below is a picture after smoothing with the lpgs and another after the grass was up.