dirt leveling, grading, etc.

jdrotert · Sep 4, 2001

I did a side job this weekend with my Kubota B2150 w/ FEL. A friend of mine's family member hooked up to the county sewer system earlier this year. The workers had back filled (if that's what you call it) the trench they dug. It looks like a mine field now. The owners had a tandem truck load of dirt hauled in with the intention to move it, by the wheelbarrow load, and fill in the depressions and reseed. My friend mentioned that I had a loader tractor, and I had a job! I filled in the trench and drove over it to compact it down. Then I back dragged with the bucket's bottom and back side for a smooth finish. There was a larger area that needed attention too. I worked on this for about 1-1/2 hours to get a gradual slope and good surface for seeding or sodding later (that's the owners job).

Now on to the questions: I only had a loader. I thought I did pretty good (it was my first time). Could I have used a box blade here at all? Would it have worked better for leveling than the FEL bucket? Also, would some sort of harrow be beneficial to further level and prepare the dirt for seed or sod? What other attachment(s) would have made my job easier? (Besides maybe a skid-steer loader!)

BTW, a tandem load of dirt was WAY TOO much for this job. I ended up loading it into three pickups for use at another family members place. They gave me $150, pizza lunch and all the iced tea I could drink for three hours of work. I had fun and made a little on the side. Is that why they call it LABOR DAY?

Knight9 · Sep 4, 2001

I am by no means an expert on "leveling and grading dirt", however I have just completed the grading at our new home. I did a lot of grading of the clay and what little topsoil I had. Where it was too hard to move easily, I used my rototiller to loosen it a bit. Then I had 30 dump trucks of topsoil brought in. I used just my FEL, a back blade, and a drag harrow to distribute the topsoil. I'm sure a box blade would have been useful but I got the job done. I did find the harrow to be a very valuable tool. I dumped some weight on it (rocks) and it did a nice job of smoothing out any little bumps or hollows. I'm pretty happy with how the whole thing turned out.

Kevin

GlueGuy · Sep 4, 2001

You bet the boxblade would have made a difference! Especially with T&T. I find that with the boxblade, it's easy to change the slope on a piece of dirt just by tipping the box one way or the other. This is not easy at all with just the FEL, as the bucket is always tipped the same way as the dirt.

The GlueGuy