Rake Blades, Boxes and Rakes

[fishhead]

Ok need some advice

here's my situation
Have a B3030 with front blower and landpride 1572 backblade for dealing with snow (about 125" on 1/2 mile gravel drive) The other main usage for these implements would be maintaining road and drive.

The blower works great but I find that carrying the blade as well helps deal with smaller snows in addition to clearing the driveway better without setting the skidshoes too aggressively on the blower. I added skidshoes on the blade and they help keep the blade from dragging but are far from optimal.

The issues I have with this blade are that it seems too light and bounces alot, the blade cannot be offset with the shoes in place, there is no tilt or float option and no guide wheels are OEM.

So, I started thinking about replacement options and came up with several:

1 landpride RB3572- much heavier-available guidewheel and skid shoes and blade ends also tool-less float, angle and offset adjustments
2 woods HBL72-2 ditto on avail features

both of these seem like they would work better for grading and plowing snow due to increased moldboard height and weight but I worry that the moldboard height might cause difficulty raising the blade enough or getting the right blade angle on so small a tractor. Also rear blades only seem to come with a single tailwheel -I assume that this is done to allow the blade to rotate easily- could a good result be gotten by using skid shoes in combination with the tail wheel? Are the side plates truly useful?

3. Landscape rakes such as a Landpride 3572 with gauge wheels and fold down blade- from reading it seems like a landscape rake is great on gravel drives but i think that the fold down blade might not hold up too well when grading in the summer, too, the snow might not roll off it well. Anybody with experience here?

the landpride rakes and blades on the website are advertised as accepting the other component (ie. rake frame accepts a blade and vice-versa) anybody try this?- the dealer says its not easy but it seems as if one could make up some jigs to hold the pieces fairly easily.

I have considered boxblades but it seems that I would have few other uses in the near term and that they would neither plow snow nor bring gravel back in to the center of the road. I am looking to limit the number of implements for storage (spousal) reasons in the short term.

Thanks for taking a look,
Bill

 

[PAB_OH]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I am looking to limit the number of implements for storage (spousal) reasons in the short term.

Bill )</font>

Sorry, nothing useful to add but that caught my eye. I am having the same struggle (combination spousal/space problem). Good luck!

I do have an old HEAVY Rhino LR back blade that doesn't have shoes on it. I have only used it once for snow removal but it worked great on my 1/4 mile gravel drive. It was frozen pretty good and I didn't dig in at all.

 

[fishhead]

yeah, they work great if the drive is frozen and stays that way but this year has been challenging and warm.

 

[ronjhall]

I have a RB3573 for my B2910. By shorting up the top link I have lots of clearance. The blade can also be rotated 360 degrees when attached to tractor.

Here is link to a picture in my TBN photo gallery. Click Here
I did not find the thread. But I remember a TBNer that bought the RB3572 and just the rake part of a LR3572. Both use the same frame.
The extra weight allows me to clean snow off a paved drive down to the surface.

 

[fishhead]

looks nice-seems like the height is okay-how far off the ground can you get it when you raise the arms? Have shoes, wheels,end plates?
Thanks for the pic

Bill

 

[Compact1]

fishhead,

I have a New Holland TC24DA and use a Landpride RB3572. My left 3-pt. adjustment has 3 holes and I have to use the bottom hole to avoid height problems. When the pin is in the bottom hole I can lift the rear blade high enough to never have problems.

I don't have a picture to send but could probably arrange one if necessary.

It's a great blade and easy to adjust without hydraulics.

 

[fishhead]

thanks- though the hydraulics are enticing I think i will try it without first. Do you use any kind of wheels or skids?

 

[ronjhall]

I have gage wheels for my LR but not for the RB. No shoes or end plates.
My LR is a LR1584. It cannot be rotated 360 on tractor.

 

[fishhead]

anyone with the woods hbl series blade? Anyone want to take a guess at how a heavy blade with all the accessories would do for maintaining a road?

 

[Dk45_Jeff]

I have an HBL96-2 with tail wheel, but it was purchased last fall and I’ve only used it on three projects thus far. The tail wheel was great at spreading gravel on driveway getting rid of highs and lows that would take me a lot of time with box blade to remove. Tail wheel has also good at leaving gravel on driveway when plowing snow. I haven't needed to touch up my driveway crown and it doesn't have drainage ditches so I can't comment on maintaining them yet.

Though this doesn’t address your original question it might help with the decision. My third project was putting in a 100 yard road through a newly cleared strip. I did it as a training exercise in preparation for redoing my cabin's driveway this summer. Once the box blade rippers loosened soil pulling out the sapling stumps the HBL was able to make a good crown and cut passable drainage ditches. The tail wheel makes it much easier to get a smooth finish compared to my box blade. The tilt really made the crown easy to put in, and cut the ditches. As the blade is 8' long wide I didn't need the offset feature. Even though the blade is heavy it did tend to ride up and over things like sapling stumps and partially exposed rocks. I think multiple passes would have allowed the blade to eventual cleared the stuff, but the box blade rippers seemed like a quicker solution. A hydraulic toplink made blade setup and adjustment easy.

End plates on the blade may be useful for the initial gravel spreading. But a FEL also does a passable job at this rough work so end plates may not be cost effective if you already have a FEL. From my limited experience the tail wheel is what really makes the rear blade easier to use then my box blade for road maintenance.