Box Scraper Ground Plane or Box Scraper?

[/pine]

... but a lot of people don't seem to get the idea that it is best to have the correct implement for a certain job and then complain when their light duty stuff doesn't work...

In my experience the main difference between high end, top dollar, heavy duty box blades, rear scrape blades, planer blades, rakes etc...and their lighter less expensive counter parts is not what they can do...they can do the same thing as the HD products....just not as fast and efficiently...

A guy that maintains a private road a couple of times a year does not need the same tools a guy that maintains roads for a living does...but he can get reasonably priced tools that do the same thing as the commercial guys use...

I always thought the size and weight of the implements should be chosen for the size/hp of the tractor...not the size of the job they're intended for...

 

[Stormtruck2]

Very good point. Hopefully tomorrow I can take a pic of each drive and post them. I'm on duty until 2200 tonight, unless I get held over until 0600 tomorrow, so it won't happen tonight. Good idea, wish I had thought of that.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

In my experience the main difference between high end, top dollar, heavy duty box blades, rear scrape blades, planer blades, rakes etc...and their lighter less expensive counter parts is not what they can do...they can do the same thing as the HD products....just not as fast and efficiently...

A guy that maintains a private road a couple of times a year does not need the same tools a guy that maintains roads for a living does...but he can get reasonably priced tools that do the same thing as the commercial guys use...

I always thought the size and weight of the implements should be chosen for the size/hp of the tractor...not the size of the job they're intended for...

For some things, a light duty implement does work fine, as I mentioned they have their place and purpose. There are circumstances where no matter how long you may work at something, the light duty implement simply will not get the job done.

I am one of those guys that is a weekender and only need to tend to my roads once in awhile. I am not retired and I do not do this stuff for a living. I am fortunate that I am able to have some of the bigger nicer stuff to get my chores done in a timely manor.

And your right, the weight and size of an implement should coincide with the weight and power of the tractor. But no one is building roads with BX's and no one is landscaping around a house with a D9. There is still the right tool for the job that should be followed.

Just my opinion.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

No doubt the heavy duty/expensive equipment works better or more efficiently than lighter/less expensive stuff in many if not most applications. For many of us though, the expense is just not worth it.

It is really hard not to sound rude by prefacing a comment with, "Don't want to sound rude" or "With all due respect".

Like I said before, very nice equipment.:thumbsup:

Your absolutely correct, I don't like sounding rude. In hindsight I should have rethought what I was saying and how to say it. I apologize to anyone that I may have offended. :ashamed:

 

[jenkinsph]

No doubt the heavy duty/expensive equipment works better or more efficiently than lighter/less expensive stuff in many if not most applications. For many of us though, the expense is just not worth it.

It is really hard not to sound rude by prefacing a comment with, "Don't want to sound rude" or "With all due respect".

Like I said before, very nice equipment.:thumbsup:

You would agree I think that sometimes it is a matter of priorities, some people choose to buy a $500 blade and a $1500 tv others may buy a $1500 blade and a $500 tv.

I have followed this forum long enough to know that you can get whatever you feel in your judgement is needed for this work. What I find dubious is that some here try to express an opinion about these various implements without ever having used them.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

You would agree I think that sometimes it is a matter of priorities, some people choose to buy a $500 blade and a $1500 tv others may buy a $1500 blade and a $500 tv.

I have followed this forum long enough to know that you can get whatever you feel in your judgement is needed for this work. What I find dubious is that some here try to express an opinion about these various implements without ever having used them.

One of the reasons that I show pictures of my stuff, to show that I have experience with what I'm talking about.

 

[jenkinsph]

Brian,
I understand that and do the same, people who are interested in maintaining a nice drive recognize the importance of using the right tool.

I posted Monday in the attachments forum here about the equipment I use to develop large lawns, I included pics of the equipment and the finished lawn, seven pics in all, no response. I thought everybody likes pics. The landplane grader works extremely well for smoothing seed beds.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/192570-grading-large-lawn-areas-3.html

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Steve, just as you use your land plane (didn't we come up with some other name for these?) for other than road grading, I too have used mine for flattening out large areas. Works great and has nothing to do with roads. I did not see your thread, need to go look. I think that most people that have not used a (grader blade?) simply do not realize how good that they work.

 

[jenkinsph]

Brian,
Landplane/grader seems closer in terminology as it does plane the ground flat. Hard to know what an implement will do if you haven't had experience with it. I built my landplane/grader for about $850-900 including the steel and two 96" double edged grader blades with plow bolts. So it isn't necessary to spend alot of money either.

 

[RAF]

Land plane / Road Grader

I thought this was a good video. It answered a lot of questions I had about them.

YouTube - How To - Tractor Land Plane - Gravel Road Maintenance

 

[beppington]

Land plane / Road Grader

I thought this was a good video. It answered a lot of questions I had about them.

YouTube - How To - Tractor Land Plane - Gravel Road Maintenance

That driveway appeared to be in very good shape already when they started planing it in the video. I wonder how well that plane would work if the road needed serious work. I dunno, I've never used one.

 

[jenkinsph]

Using the plane pictured in the video you could expect fair to decent results. That plane was light duty to medium duty at about 75-80 lbs/linear foot.. If you use a plane that is roughly 125 lbs/linear foot you will get better results. If you use a plane with longer skids you get less deviation in the finished grade.

I good 7' plane with 72" skids and enough strength not to allow any flex in the blades should weigh close to 1000 lbs. For better control it helps to have the hydraulic top link too.

 

[Gordon Gould]

That driveway appeared to be in very good shape already when they started planing it in the video. I wonder how well that plane would work if the road needed serious work. I dunno, I've never used one.

It depends on what you mean by serious work. If you need to recrown or change the pitch for drainage its not the tool to use. If the general contour of the road is ok but you have wash board, shallow wheel ruts, or pot holes then they work very well. On mine if we have a bad mud season I use my rear blade first to get the crown and drainage pitches reset then I use the grader plane afterwards and for the rest of the year. Here is a before and after pic of a section of my road. They're not a real good example but they are the only before and after pictures I have. This section is still pretty primitve. No proper road material at all except some crushed stone that I put in the mud ruts one spring before it dried up. I went over it with just the grader. Maybe this will give you an idea. But you really need to try one. The other important thing the grader does is it remixes the surface material so it is just like it has been resurfaced.

 

[brucewj]

It depends on what you mean by serious work. On mine if we have a bad mud season I use my rear blade first to get the crown and drainage pitches reset then I use the grader plane afterwards and for the rest of the year.

Yep, same here. It is a lot faster for me to use the plane to keep the road in good shape. I have to use the back blade once or twice a year to reshape everything, depending on how much moisture, amount of traffic, and how big the potholes are!

 

[jake98]

Those grader/planers look like they're good if you have mile of road to do, but they seem like a single use attachment to me. Boxblades do the same thing but are way more usefull with the other functions of moving more volume over short distances, cutting slopes, and backfilling. Moving snow too. It would be silly to get a grader first. (did that sound rude?)

 

[RAF]

I have two gravel driveways that I need to maintain. One is level and the other is rather steep and rutted with a high center ridge. Which would be better for maintaining the driveways. I also want to be able to scrape some of the gravel loose on the inclined driveway during the winter. I will be pulling them with a JD 4600. I look forward to your advice.

For the information posted. I would think the the grader / land plane would serve the purpose well.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Those grader/planers look like they're good if you have mile of road to do, but they seem like a single use attachment to me. Boxblades do the same thing but are way more usefull with the other functions of moving more volume over short distances, cutting slopes, and backfilling. Moving snow too. It would be silly to get a grader first. (did that sound rude?)

A box blade does not even come close to cutting out wash board like a land plane-grader blade does. But you are right, if a person only has small chores to do, not much sense in spending all that money on all the more specialized implements.

I know that I would have to have less than 200 feet of roads before I would give up my land plane-grader blades.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Those grader/planers look like they're good if you have mile of road to do, but they seem like a single use attachment to me. Boxblades do the same thing but are way more usefull with the other functions of moving more volume over short distances, cutting slopes, and backfilling. Moving snow too. It would be silly to get a grader first. (did that sound rude?)

Not rude at all. But Don't forget eveybody has different needs and priorities. Your right it is not a boxblade replacement. It is specialized to make it very easy and quick to create flat planer surfaces from grassy, lumpy, bumpy, pot holey, rutted ones. What may seem silly to you may make perfect sense to the next guy.
Different strokes for different folks.

 

[jenkinsph]

Those grader/planers look like they're good if you have mile of road to do, but they seem like a single use attachment to me. Boxblades do the same thing but are way more usefull with the other functions of moving more volume over short distances, cutting slopes, and backfilling. Moving snow too. It would be silly to get a grader first. (did that sound rude?)

Not rude but uninformed.
I should point out the people who have good ones like them, most of the people with reservations haven't used them. My Frontier 1284 boxblade is a heavy duty model with hydraulic scarifiers 7' wide and 1250 lbs it works great but I use my landplane/grader blade more often.

 

[djradz]

Yep, same here. It is a lot faster for me to use the plane to keep the road in good shape. I have to use the back blade once or twice a year to reshape everything, depending on how much moisture, amount of traffic, and how big the potholes are!

Not having a plane, I can only base my two cents on the numerous pictures that other have posted, and thus the basis for my suggestion that a rear blade be the choice, if only one implement is to be purchased.

Every one of the pictures shows an extremely flat road, with little or no crown. Also, often it appears the planes let some gravel fall to the outside, which seems to establish a little berm, which also helps to hold water. Thus, more frequent grading it required, as potholes will develop. If more of a crown was established, it would seem less grading would be required. Again, from the pictures, it does not seem the plane (or a box blade) can be angled, so creating a crown would appear to be more diffiicult, and why my vote is for the rear blade first.