Land Plane or Box Blade

[Dano33]

Hello All-

Looking at either a box blade or a land plane and not sure which one I need. What I do need is a tool that will:

1. Maintain my gravel driveway by filling in the low spots, keeping it level, and removing light weeds.

2. Cut sod off of a grass paddock so I can get to the dirt beneath in order to create a dry paddock for my horses.

3. Allow me to maintain / level the dry lot once the horses are in it. As you can imagine, the lot will be full of hoof marks once winter rolls around, so I will need a tool that will allow me to remove the hoof marks and keep it level as needed.

So, which tool would you choose if you could only afford one?

Thanks in advance for your insight / help.

Dano

 

[murphy1244]

If your not wanting to move a lot of Dirt I would go with a Land Plane.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Any chance of some pictures? Conditions can make a difference with what is recommended.

 

[mikim]

I have both but for your purposes I'd say the land plane would take priority. That being said ...sounds like you're going to need both.

 

[mikim]

Hello All-

Looking at either a box blade or a land plane and not sure which one I need. What I do need is a tool that will:

1. Maintain my gravel driveway by filling in the low spots, keeping it level, and removing light weeds. landplane

2. Cut sod off of a grass paddock so I can get to the dirt beneath in order to create a dry paddock for my horses.box blade

3. Allow me to maintain / level the dry lot once the horses are in it. As you can imagine, the lot will be full of hoof marks once winter rolls around, so I will need a tool that will allow me to remove the hoof marks and keep it level as needed. landplane

So, which tool would you choose if you could only afford one?

Thanks in advance for your insight / help.

Dano

as indicated

 

[bcp]

2. Cut sod off of a grass paddock so I can get to the dirt beneath in order to create a dry paddock for my horses.

2. Maybe a land plane with a below-grade adjustable front blade, and a tailgate added to the rear to drag material instead of spread it.

Bruce

 

[Dano33]

I can try to grab some pics when the sun is back out. The gravel driveway is fairly small in that it is only a couple hundred feet, however we have gravel all around our barn that needs occasional work.

As for the paddocks, they are fairly smooth and are mowed often. Plus the horses tend to keep them short. Underneath the grass is typically very fine dirt that could pass for topsoil. In fact, when there are excavation project around my area, people often have no problems selling the dirt.

The harder work will come in winter and spring when the grass is soft and the animals tend to leave hoof prints all over the place until the ground has a chance to harden up again. I am thinking that a land plane with scarifiers may do the trick better than a box blade.

 

[oosik]

As has been said - move a lot of dirt with a box blade, maintain a surface move a little dirt with a land plane. I have both and I use the roll over box blade to maintain the ditches on the driveway and the grading scraper/land plane to maintain the run of the driveway. Were I to choose one it would definitely be the grading scraper/land plane. A smooth, crowned & level driveway is very difficult to maintain with any kind of box or rollover blade.

 

[Dano33]

Looks like the Land Plane is the better bet. I figure I can use my rear blade to remove the grass and then use the land plane to level and maintain the dry paddock and gravel driveway.

I used my rear blade to cut a decent sized garden last fall which was fairly easy since the ground was soft.

On Monday, I am going to go check out a Woods Land Plane that has the ripper shanks. Hopefully this will work well for the intended application.

 

[oosik]

Dano,
I used my land plane/grading scraper to create a brand new road right out thru the virgin land earlier this summer. Mine has the manually set scarifying shanks and let me tell you, set at max depth ( -2.5 inches) it literally tore the snot out of the sod. I though quite a while on what to do with all the sod - it was 10-12 inches thick - finally I put on the disk harrow and half a dozen trips over this mess and it cut the sod up just fine. Reinstalled the GS and now the road is smooth as a babies backside. It is a summer only road, no gravel, but it sure helps access the high meadows on the property. I used it on the driveway with scarifiers down and ended up with a wider, crowned and much smoother drive with no potholes. Prior to the GS I had used the back blade on the driveway but it did not do the job. It didn't get rid of the potholes and was impossible to eliminate the "ripples" with the back blade.

Ha, my first run down the driveway with the new GS was frightening. It sounded like I was dragging a rock crusher - but after tearing up the surface with the scarifiers I then began the smoothing process with sacrificers up and now have a drive that looks like it did when constructed 32 years ago. Next time I try something like that I'll wait until the drive is damp - it was a very dusty operation.