Dirt Moving best impliment to level a paddock

[855ROOKIE]

Boys and Girls..

Being a true and total tractor rookie (never even sat on one until I bought one 10 months ago.) I was a total city slicker. I am now learning the in's and out's..sort of.

I have a very muddy horse paddock that pools water. When things dry out a bit I would like to find some way to level off the ground and try to prevent this kind of pooling next fall and spring.
Riding a 1995 JD 855 that serves me well..

Q. Any suggestions as to what kind of 3 point implement I should use for the job ?

 

[Johndeere3720]

Boys and Girls..

Being a true and total tractor rookie (never even sat on one until I bought one 10 months ago.) I was a total city slicker. I am now learning the in's and out's..sort of.

I have a very muddy horse paddock that pools water. When things dry out a bit I would like to find some way to level off the ground and try to prevent this kind of pooling next fall and spring.
Riding a 1995 JD 855 that serves me well..

Q. Any suggestions as to what kind of 3 point implement I should use for the job ?

Either a box blade or a rear angle blade. Box blade would be better because you can pull and push material and still level by tilting it back and back dragging the area. :thumbsup:

 

[AKfish]

Either of the mentioned implements will do the job. Or a landplane, possibly.

One question that you should answer before buying a new/used attachment for the purpose of filling and leveling a low area is - will you need to haul in additional material or can you "borrow" the needed fill from higher ground adjacent to the low spot?

If you plan to "borrow" the dirt from adjacent ground, you'll need to break it up and move it. A box blade is a better tool for that type of work.

If you'll haul in the needed material - a rear blade would do very well to level up and spread the dirt. Or if the amount/area is not too large - you could use your front-end loader - if you have one. I fill and back-blade my road and driveway quite often with just my loader.

A landplane works very well with loose material, too. But it's not the ideal attachment if you've got pretty big mounds of dirt to move and level up.

AKfish

 

[Army grunt]

I agree a box blade to move enough fill to the padlock area then use pull lawn airreater(cant spell it, the roller that pokes holes in the ground)an chained behind that pull a wooden pallet weighted down with a few cement blocks,on the front of the pallet fix a 2x6 8ft long this will do the leveling an hole thing will keep the ground from getting hard, I did this when building my flying field years ago. In my case i used sand to do the finish coating.As you pull you'll see by going back in a cris cross pattern it will take an leave as needed Go slowly it takes time,but trust me it works great, an very cheap.
Army Grunt

 

[Phineas7]

I have a box blade with a hydraulic top link that has been great for such jobs. Being able to adjust the BB angle allows me to change from scrapping off a little or a lot to depositing a little or a lot on the fly on the same run.

I used this technique for setting up a carport pad with a slight run off grade and for leveling an area for a swimming pool.

I was new to tractors also. The carport was my very first project and was the motivation to get the tractor to start with. I had never used one before.

You can see along the back where the retaining wall is going up, what the grade used to be.

It turned out like this.

In the back yard, I built another retaining wall and a flat spot for an 18' pool.

 

[Todd NE WY]

If you are a rookie I would look at something with guide wheels on it. Either a rear blade or if the material is loose enough a landscape rake, if its not loose then a box blade with rippers to loosen then something with guide wheels. It is scarey easy to make a level surface with guide wheels and it is equally as easy to make a real mess with a 3 pt implement without them.

Todd

 

[dmay]

Boys and Girls..

Being a true and total tractor rookie (never even sat on one until I bought one 10 months ago.) I was a total city slicker. I am now learning the in's and out's..sort of.

I have a very muddy horse paddock that pools water. When things dry out a bit I would like to find some way to level off the ground and try to prevent this kind of pooling next fall and spring.
Riding a 1995 JD 855 that serves me well..

Q. Any suggestions as to what kind of 3 point implement I should use for the job ?

Welcome.

Funny you ask 'cause I just got my tractor dirty last night trying to level my horse paddock after a winter of heavy horse use.

What soil do you have? Note I have heavy clay soil. Ground was still soft (wet) in spots so was a traction challenge. The horse created lunar landscape and heavy clay wet soil conditions was too severe for my 2320 to pull any 3pt implement effectively. I ended up using my FEL bucket to back drag the lunar landscape into the beginnings of a more level condition. You have so much more torque in reverse gear and with front tires just off the ground enough weight on the bucket to level the clay. Much more work to do. Eventually once I get it level I will maintain with my landscape rake.

 

[MMagis]

Here’s a link to anther thread. My suggestion is on the second page. Though it seems like you could slope the water away, it seldom works.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/204539-horse-paddock-drainage-clay.html

 

[whistlepig]

I would have a load of fill dirt dumped and use the FEL to fill in the low places and back drag it. Have some extra dirt available so you can do some touch up work the next time it rains.

 

[lager1829]

The box blade is the way to go. One thing you may want to consider is putting a layer of wood chips down in your paddock. I have done that for the past several years and the mud factor has been minimal. Search for "horse carpet" or "playground mulch". Put down a 4 to 6 inch layer and mud should not be an issue.