Cutting side hill trails

[bfisherman11]

I have a lot of hillside on my WI property and have a few existing side hill trails that if I had one leg shorter than the other would be no problem to walk. Ha

Anyhow, I would like to level them out a bit to make walking easier.

Attachments I have are as follows:

• Front loader
• 5' back blade
• 5' disc

The places I have these trails (sorry no pic) are not that bad of a side hill. I would guess on a 5' wide trail were are talking a rise of about 12-18". Just makes for a less comfortable walk.

I think I should work a spot from the down hill side flat the length of my tractor to start. Then from that flat spot use the bucket to dig the up hill dirt out as I drive forward. I could occasionally dump the extra dirt. Once done, I could go over with the back blade to smooth it out.

Does that sound like a good way to do it?

Tractor is an LS G3033 4x4

I did a search, I know I have seen some discussion in the past on this but sure did not find any when I just looked.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Egon]

With gauge wheels your back blade would work well. Otherwise your method is the way to go.

 

[bfisherman11]

Egon, Hate sounding like a novice but I am not that familiar with gauge whls. If your blade was not originally equipped with them can you add these to your back blade so it runs level?

Thanks!

 

[Ford850]

This is how I've done it:
Use the back blade. Angle it, with the leading edge on the high hill side and lowered so the cutting edge is level not parallel to the hill. You can experiment with the top link length until the blade cuts aggressively on it's own. Drive in very low gear so you can raise/lower the blade as needed. That will pull the high soil to the low side. First pass is crude. Each pass cleans and refines the trail. That's worked great for me. Soil condition will be the determining factor though.

 

[boggen]

3pt hitch box blade, more likely better at leveling / cutting and moving the dirt...
--most box blades have "rippers / teeth" that you can drop. and can really help break up hard compacted dirt.
--and then box blades simply has "sides" that hold the dirt in unlike a 3pt hitch rear blade. some rear blades you can get "bolt on" side wings" that can turn a rear blade into a box blade in thought.

FEL with general duty bucket. well STINKS. the bucket will want to skip jump all about. getting some sort of removable "tooth bar" for the FEL bucket can help when digging with FEL. being able to remove tooth bar. so you can back drag with FEL for me comes in really handy.

TNT (top and tilt) replacing top link and one of the side links on 3pt hitch with hydrualic cylinder. so you can adjust on the fly. can make life even easier. and overall dealing with drive ways / trails much more easier / quicker. more so when keeping a crown (slight hill in center on straight aways, to slight angls in corners so water runs off of driveway / trail) trying to make adjust manually 3pt hitch links is way to time consuming, and most likely not really done / used a whole bunch, except a couple adjustments if that.

============
with above noted.... i would say get a "box blade" with rippers / teeth on it. and if lot of curves / corners and different grades wanted see about TNT for the 3pt hitch.

FEL, rear blade, disc can go so far. but ya need those ripper teeth, a tooth bar for FEL might do it. but that is more for straight digging with FEL. vs trying to level out and remove ruts / high spots / low spots. and that is were a box blade shines more.

 

[/pine]

Agree about the box blade but there could be a few exceptions...especially agree about T&T...
A couple of questions for the OP...

Are you planning on making the trails fairly level? What type of storm water run off/control ?

Are you planning on cutting the high side and filling the low? or making a full (trail wide) cut ?

 

[Gordon Gould]

Looking at the implements you have I would try to do in either of two ways depending on your soil before I bought a box blade. Personally I would use a rear blade to do what you want to do but many other would prefer a box blade. If you can cut the soil with the rear blade ie not loaded with roots, boulders. or hard packed clay and such, then I would just use the rear blade. If you angle the blade to roll the dirt from the high side to the low side you can then tilt the blade back to level by shortening your top link. Each time you make a cut adjust the top link to keep you blade level if you have to. Make sure you start the cut far enough up on the up hill side edge of the trail because if you decide later to widen it on the up hill side it will be difficult with the step you have already cut in the side hill.

You can also tilt your blade using what ever adjustments you have in the lower links of your 3ph but when the blade is angled the top link is a simple way to get tilt on the blade.

If your soil is to tough to cut with just the blade try using your disc to rip it up then go at it with your blade as described above.

 

[4570Man]

I had to cut out a hill on one of my trails. It was steep enough it made me uncomfortable to drive my Mule across. I used my backhoe to dig out the high side and dump it on the low side. Then I used a box blade to level it more accurately. A FEL would substitute a backhoe, but in my case would have been much harder to get a level spot to start with.

 

[Ed of all trades]

The tool I would choose, yes I know you don't have this one, is a plow. just plow a pass or two throwing the soil down hill and level it out with your back blade. Ed

 

[Egon]

Egon, Hate sounding like a novice but I am not that familiar with gauge whls. If your blade was not originally equipped with them can you add these to your back blade so it runs level?

Thanks!

Yes you can add them later. They allow you to angle the blade, put weight on it, dig material from the inside and roll it to the outside. It would allow for easy transition to level path depending on soil conditions. Also works well for crowning and smoothing road surface. They allow you to roll a windrow back and forth while dropping off a little with each pass. This really helps make a smooth road with few shadows. Rolling the windrow actually moves the soil slightly in the direction you are travelling and evens out the distribution of material. Even lets you roll unwanted rocks to the side without piles of dirt.

The fell works well for digging in the side hill and dumping on the low side. Work down hill when doing this. Just make sure you start level side to side and keep it that way. Your disk would do a nice job of loosening up the trail for the final grading.


( you can actually make the blade replicate the work of a grader.

Do a search on this site and you will find many examples. "Henro" has a post showing some real nice ones.

The ones I made have a piece of Square tubing welded to the back of the blade with an insert that has caster wheel attached. Height is adjusted by drilled holes and pins. Weight is any piece of flat slate I can lift. It's crude but does work.

If you wish I could switch computers and show an example of a back blade graded area.