Leveling an Arena....

meledward23 · Nov 4, 2005

Well color me stupid.... But I am still trying to figure this one out. I have worked with professional graders for 10 years. Unfortunately their machines and mine work a little different. I just cant get this down.

I have an indoor horse arena. 60x120 feet. It has high and low spots. I have tried blading it, a double wheel pulverizer, and discing it. So far I cant get the high spots out (or it may be the lows that always stay).

Anyway I try and adjust the 3 pt to dig into the highs and lift out of the lows. This seems to work the best, but invariably I am always early on the dig and late on the pull up.... Obviously when the tractor goes up and down and I dont adjust the 3PH I just move the high lowes around. It's not just moving fluff sand these are packed mounds....

And is that draft lever actually do anything. I have yet to notice a difference when I have it on max and none....

Any useful suggestions welcome....

hunterridgefarm · Nov 4, 2005

I am no expert but I would try:

1)Taking the boxblade and loosen the packed mounds.

2)Use my disc and drag a heavy fence post, or 6" plastic pipe 5 or 6 foot long fill with concrete, heavy piece of angle iron, behind the disc.
Go back and forth, across and angles.

3) Use your tine harrow to smooth once finished with disc.

4) Drag a section of chainlink fence for final smoothing.

At www.horsestalls.com they have arena rippers and harrows.

You may also look at TBN's new site horsesbynet for opinions.

deerefan · Nov 4, 2005

Had the same problem at my place. I used my box blade (no teeth used) and kept passing over the high areas and dragging the excess dirt into lower spots. I set my box blade in a fixed position where it caught the high spots well but would let the excess dirt trickle out from underneath. This procedure took about half a day but I finally ended up with a nice smooth arena with no high spots. The dirt in my area is a sandy, red clay.

hudr · Nov 4, 2005

best thing I ever got for leveling was a wheeled drawbar box blade. It sets back from the tractor on a long tongue and height is adjusted with a remote cylinder. It is far enough back it not affected as much by the tires rolling over high/low spots. It cut the time in half (at least) that I spend smoothing my driveway.

BigDogues · Nov 4, 2005

How about putting some gauge wheels on your box blade? Quite a few members here have done that with rather good results. There is an active discussion about that here.

EquipmentJunkie · Nov 5, 2005

Have you ever tried a ring groomer? I don't know much about them other than I know that they exist.

Here is a link...I hope.

www.millcreekspreaders.com/spingroomer.asp

owenf · Nov 5, 2005

I too had this problem after having the arena installed at our horse boarding facility. We have a lot of english riders and very concerned about the constant depth and level-ness of the arena. We have a compacted base with 3-4" of sand on top. It is a 100x200 arena with lights that I put in a few months back. I tried everything then bought the millcreek spin-groom 6' with the rake, our local JD dealer sold them. I don't have much time to mess around with the arena or desire too, but the spin groom works the sand perfectly, level and smooth everytime with just a few passes. I found many other groomers that were very expensive and may do a much better, faster job, but the spingroom works great for me and the price was right. If you are ever close to MD come by for a test run. Owen.

tjkadar · Nov 6, 2005

One of the problems with a three point hitch attachment and trying to level ground is that as the tractor moves over the undulations, so does the implement. That is why a wheeled/towed type blade is much more effective.

We actually had our arena leveled via a road grader. Gave the operator three roosters and he graded our drive and arena. Now that is a deal you can't beat! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

meledward23 · Nov 7, 2005

Thanks all.....

Well I have jsut about all the toys and gizmos mentioned. Only one of the arena aurfacers mentioned that I dont have. I dont forsee it doing anything differently than my others. Dragging an areana is easy enough. My indoor arena is 15 years old and the subbase is out of alingment. I tried earlier this year to drag all the sand to the center and then blade the high lows on out. Looks like I am going to suck it up and do that again. Probably about the only way to get this thing level again.

My main outdoor arena is about 15 years old and has none of the problems the indoor has. Has been flat since day one, and still is. It is just about 15" lower now than it was 15 years ago. It would be a nice farm if it werent for the horses always tearing things up...

JGibson · Nov 9, 2005

I had the same problem and I got a Hoelscher RB-6R with a wheel kit. It worked good because it works independent of the tractor. You don't get the affect of when the front of the tractor goes down the scraper does not go up. Check it out at www.hoelscherinc.com Commercial Products.
Hope this helps!