[KUBOTA B3200] Grader Blade / Box Blade Recommendation for Driveway Maintenance

[Forest_Man]

I'm gonna chime back in to STRONGLY recommend you stick with a 5' box blade for your B3200. 32 horsepower of engine can drag a 6' unit well in the right conditions, but your machine is very lightweight. Inertia is often what keeps a heavy pull moving through soil, not just rated power.
According to this, your machine is only 53" wide, so a 5' unit will cover your tracks well.

If makes any impact: my B3200 has 4" spacers, adding 8" to total width and loaded rear tires.

How about a blade? What length should I get? I just came across a 7 footer back blade for $350:

The general advice here on TBN is to buy the size box blade that covers your rear tire width by a couple inches, but don't go bigger. A 6' unit with the scarifiers down will easily stop your little B3200 dead in its tracks. A 5' probably will too, but a little less often, haha. The other factor is when driving through the forest, a 6' unit will bonk into trees more. Keep it tight.

Yes, I understand the compromise and limitations. And the attachment originally is intended for driveway maintenance only - but you are correct, in the future we could use it on the forest.

 

[Forest_Man]

If you want the most versatile implement, a 6 foot 3-way rear blade with tilt, angle, and offset is the standard. The 3-way adjustment allows you to do trenching, crowning, and reduces the pull force required when the load gets heavy.

I don't know much about rear blades, or anything tractor related, to be honest.

But I came across this 7' rear blade and it seems to have a adjustment. Could you explain me what this adjustment is (tilt, angle or offset) and if this blade would be adequate to create drainage swales if I chose to go this route?

 

[nyone]

need to wait for the driveway to dry before attempting anything. Not working on it until then

As someone who built a driveway through a swamp...you definitely should wait for it to dry. You can hand dig trenches to drain puddles in the meantime.

On mine I had to use tree tops to keep my mini ex above water. I then dug ditches and placed the material on the logs. At that time I stopped working on it for a month. Then it dried out, I placed road fabric directly over that and covered in 4-6in of stone. I have had dual axle dump trucks loaded with stone over it within 3 months and still do 4yrs later. Road fabric really helps with wet spots, so does filling low areas that can hold water.

 

[deezler]

Drainage on each side and 12' wide is not going to happen. God bless you and I hope one day we'll do it. But not for now.

Is this a camp? or do you have a real house back there?

So, just curious, if you have a house fire, do you just let 'er go? Never get deliveries by truck or van?

I thought my own 1000' driveway was long to get hacked in and installed into my own woods, but mine had to support cement trucks and semis just to get my house built. Plus obviously wanting fire trucks and ambulances to be able to reach my family abode.

 

[Forest_Man]

So, you said 995 yards long, so, that's where I got the 3000 LF. You said 12 ft wide wasn't gonna happen; so I used 10 feet wide as the width. I then converted the Square Feet to Square Yards by dividing by 9. Most roadbase materials, as a really brought brush, weigh about 100#/sy/inch of thickness. IE 6" of road base, over a 3 ft x 3 ft area, is gonna be approx 600 lbs.

Okay, got prices today for crusher run:

Low End: (1) truck load = 15 yards = $375 delivered ($25/Yard)
High End: (1) truck load = 12 yards = $600 delivered ($50/Yard)

Assuming I have to cover 300 yards this year: 300 yards = 900 feet

Surface Area: 900 Feet x 9 Feet wide = 8,100 Ft^2 = 900 Yd^2

So how do I convert 900 Yd^2 to truck loads? I am lost in the last step here...

 

[deezler]

I got a 7 footer for my Kioti, but it weighs twice as much as your Kubota. 6' probably better for your machine - I'm also thinking about heavy snow removal now that we know the location.

 

[Forest_Man]

So, just curious, if you have a house fire, do you just let 'er go? Never get deliveries by truck or van?

Propane and sewage truck comes here - well, they've had in the past. It is tight but they manage. The sewage truck comes in reverse - I've told the kid many times to drive forward and simply turn around but he insists and that does not help me keep the road.

The road was fairly usable until we had the timber company few months ago hauling trucks and trucks of timber.

The timber company is still on the hook to repair the roads but I am learning as much as I can about this because it will land on my lap very soon. My plan to for them to get it as good as they will and then I'll pick up the slack and maintain with my Kubota.

 

[deezler]

Upstate NY.

Like, catskills or adirondacks?

If catskills, maybe Andrew Camarata could make a new video out of tuning up your road. He gets so many view per youtube video that it pays him big bucks, dunno how that translates to his job pricing.

Andrew Camarata

Videos from my property maintenance business.

www.youtube.com

 

[Forest_Man]

Like, catskills or adirondacks?

Catskills

If catskills, maybe Andrew Camarata could make a new video out of tuning up your road. He gets so many view per youtube video that it pays him big bucks, dunno how that translates to his job pricing.

Andrew Camarata

Videos from my property maintenance business.

www.youtube.com

1.4M subscribers? WTH?

Is he here on TBN? I'd reach out and ask.

 

[paulsharvey]

Okay, got prices today for crusher run:

Low End: (1) truck load = 15 yards = $375 delivered ($25/Yard)
High End: (1) truck load = 12 yards = $600 delivered ($50/Yard)

Assuming I have to cover 300 yards this year: 300 yards = 900 feet

Surface Area: 900 Feet x 9 Feet wide = 8,100 Ft^2 = 900 Yd^2

So how do I convert 900 Yd^2 to truck loads? I am lost in the last step here...

So base materials, as a rule of thumb, will be about 100# per square yard, per inch of thickness, compacted. IE, 4" should be about 400 pounds per square yard.

Cubic yards, it's gonna be about 2700#/cubic yard.

Did some very dirty math; what you described sounds like 10 loads, at 18 tons per load (15 cy) and by your numbers, $3750. With trucking included, that's really good prices.