LPGS sizing question

[Fallon]

I've picked up several grader blades cheap over the past year planning on an eventual LPGS. Looking at about 72-78" wide or so to match my 72" track & blades (some are bigger though).Probably aiming for 1,000lbs or so to match up with my 40hp & 5,500 of tractor. It will mostly be used for driveway maintenance, although land smoothing might not be out of the equation if I get any relevant gigs. I might be able to go wider, but I don't think I could go full driveway width, so might as well leave it a bit more manageable & maneuverable while planning on a minimum of 2 passes.

I was at the scrap yard they had some 15" tall C channel that was 5' long. Think it was 2-3" wide. There were some I beams of similar size there as well. Didn't grab anything, but may go back for em, or just head back from time to time to keep looking for better options.

What would you recommend for side plates? I was thinking about 7' long. Looking for big rectangular tube C channel rather than I beams I think as it will be easier to box in C channel to keep from carrying dirt around on the lips. Likely to weld some kind of skid plate to the bottom as well.

Any strong opinions on the angle to mount the blades at? Lots of washboard around here, so at least some angle would be good. I hear even with a fair bit of angle you don't get much lateral movement of material.

Build might be occurring this summer, if I end up foraging up the proper build materials for a good price before then.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

My 7 footer is 1400lbs, 84"long, 22" tall sides, 3/8" thick. My 5 footer is 800lbs, 72" long, 18" sides, 3/8"thick. Cutting edges on the 7 footer have an 18" angle what ever that works out to be in degrees? And are currently 21" apart. Pretty sure that if I ever get some time I will move the rear cutting edge back so it will be 30" apart on the 7 footer. My runner's are 2 & 1/2" wide. My angle to hold the cutting edges is 5/8" thick 4x6. These have been GREAT units for me, and have had no reason to want anything adjustable on them.

Yes you are correct in that the material migrates side ways very very little. I actually painted a stripe on the ground to watch how much it did actually move side ways. In my test it was less than 1" after going over both cutting edges.

 

[CADplans]

Material movement depends on the angle of the blades.
Most LP's have 15 degree angle blades, I set my blades at 20 degrees.

When I "lift" the side of the LP that has the end of the blade "back",
I get a lot of material moving sideways.

I made my sides out of 1/2 X 12 inch steel bar, 6 feet long.
My runners are 1 x 3 inch steel bar,,, lots of weight, will never wear out!! :thumbsup:

 

[crazyal]

If your driveway is long and straight then I would go about 6 foot long. If you have plenty of sharper turns then stay about 4' long. How wide is your driveway at it's narrowest? Mine is 6' wide and works well for me. That's about the right width for a 10' to 12' wide driveway. Anything wider would be too wide for me. I would add ripping shanks to it. You'll have to buy them but they are worth their weight in gold when it comes to breaking up packed gravel. I try to do my road maintenance after some rain but in the summer that's not always an option. Rippers make short work of potholes. Just be careful if you have fabric as they also rip it to shreds.

I would make the blade height adjustable. Mine has a frame that the blades mount to that sits inside the main frame that has the rippers and skids. I go between a half inch lower than the skids to about a half inch above. In the spring when the gravel isn't compacted and baked it's real easy to loosen p. Once it is the skids sink into the loosened gravel and the blades will dig up too much gravel. Finally make sure you put some sort of shoe on the skids. The gravel will wear it down pretty quickly.

As for blade angle, mine are but I rarely move so much gravel that it pulls it to the center to create a hump. Maybe it's because I don't let the driveway get that far gone. Why would you? You have a tractor, who wouldn't want to spend a couple hours smoothing your driveway. After a couple of times you'll be able to make it smooth as pavement. People who live near you will be jealous.

For me typical maintenance is putting the rippers down and digging up all the spots that are the worse. I even shorten up the top link to let them get plenty deep. Once done I readjust the top link and raise them so I can start to move the gravel around. The blades are usually a 1/2" lower than the skids, this does a great job filling in any washboards and potholes. Then I raise them for the finish pass to smooth it out. Finally I'll use the bucket to back drag and really pack it down. I can do about a half mile of drive in about 2 to 3 hours.

 

[bcp]

I believe the main benefit of the angled blades on most LPGs is not movement of material to the side, but concentrating much more of the weight on the cutting edge when cutting a crossways ridge, such as a washboard road.

Here is a simplified diagram



Bruce

 

[Fallon]

My driveway is 8-10' wide & pretty straight, but 30' x 60' or so near the house. I do side tractor work, so will be dealingbwith other driveways as well. I use the rippers on my box blade & sometimes it takes a couple passes with just them touching & some scrap chained to the top. Will likely be rigging up rippers on the LPGS to deal with our baked dry hard ground around here. My 72" King Kutter works, with some effort & multiple passes. Something heavier would be better & a LPGS should be faster, easier & hopefuly slightly better results.

Will definately look for something at least 6', preferably 7' or so long as that seems to be a consensus.

 

[jenkinsph]

I have built two lpgs so far and would recommend heavy construction and long skids. I prefer the box tube skids as these do not hold gravel to drop on the grass. Longer skids of 6' would be good for straight runs imo. I would look for some drop pieces of larger rectangular tubing maybe 2x12, 3x12 or larger. You could fill them with sand or concrete for cheap added weight. A non flexing frame work with lots of weight is important, along with good grader blades properly angled to cut cleanly.

For driveways a lpgs ideally should be about half the width of the driveway. For smoothing larger areas such as pastures and parking lots wider is better. Most of my work is pasture smoothing in New Mexico as I find the gravel driveways and roads seem to stay in good shape and only need an annual touch up.

I recently built a heavy roller with 3ph and will soon try it out on a few projects. This roller weighs about 400 lbs./foot of width using 18" pipe sections filled with concrete. The segments allow for tight turns with little scrubbing. I took the pictures when I was testing it out. Wanted to be sure I could pick it up before continuing. The welding sucks, I did this before having cataract surgery, couldn't see what I was doing. Have to get the other eye done soon, recover from it before resuming any welding projects.

Here are pictures of my lpgs and roller.

 

[KyleH]

Looks good jenkinph, thanks for sharing.

 

[airbiscuit]

What did you use for bearings on your roller?

 

[murphy1244]

I really like that new roller Idea Steve. What do you think the total weight is?

 

[jenkinsph]

Looks good jenkinph, thanks for sharing.

Thanks Kyle.

 

[jenkinsph]

What did you use for bearings on your roller?

No bearings, the center shaft (2 3/8" drill tubing} has grease in it with small holes where the roller wheels run. The rollers have 2 7/8 drill tubing for centers which turn on the smaller pipe with grease zerks.

I did put a piece of 1 1/4" pvc pipe capped on each end inside the axle tubing. This reduces the amount of grease needed in the cavity.

 

[jenkinsph]

I really like that new roller Idea Steve. What do you think the total weight is?

Thanks Murph, the roller weighs about 2600 -2700 lbs. Having two rows gives full coverage with the slight overlap and makes it easy to hook up. I cut corners and eliminated the usual hitch pins and went for quick hitch attach with welded in place bushings (cat 3). With this much weight that was a good choice imo. Cheaper too.

The roller wheels have about 3/16" of movement on the axles so if you have a rock sticking up that is persistent you can run the roller over it (centered) and push it down with the weight of the entire roller. The roller casing is 18" diameter with 1/2" wall with spokes inside to strengthen and hold the concrete I was busy the past year so the concrete had a full year to cure. Hopefully it will hold up to rolling about 15 acres a year for my laser grading jobs.

I will get to try it out in the next few weeks on a pipeline job I just completed.

 

[GoldenCityMuse]

Really like your roller system. Looks like the cat's meow to me.

 

[jenkinsph]

Really like your roller system. Looks like the cat's meow to me.

Thanks it is working out well for my work in the Hondo Valley.

 

[Piston]

Steve, that roller looks like it will work excellent!

 

[oosik]

Wow - Steve. I'm a little more than envious. That roller IS the cat's meow. Where did you come up with that design?

 

[jenkinsph]

Wow - Steve. I'm a little more than envious. That roller IS the cat's meow. Where did you come up with that design?

I was walking through a friends scrap pile and saw the 18" diameter drops in a pile. I was not thinking "roller" that day as I was looking for steel for my laser tail wheel assembly. But, a week or two later it dawned on me and when I returned to the pile I bought seven of them all 11.5" in length. Designed the roller frame and the next concrete job I filled the spools with left over materials.

The separate spools made sense because I have to turn quite a lot between borders (terrace rows) that are close together. The two rows was an advantage for the quick hitch since the frame is up right with no jacks or stands to deal with. Being compact is important for me since I trailer my equipment often.

I have about $160 in this so that is cheap enough it can sit for long periods without use. Should be great for rolling and firming tilled fields for leveling and will be the major use for it.

 

[jenkinsph]

I should add that for smoothing large areas after tilling or discing I use these three implements I built for a little more than $1000. total cost. If you can build some of the tools and implements it can save you some money.

8' land plane $610
8' spike tooth harrow $250
6 1/2' roller. $160

Here are pictures of the spike tooth harrow works great for seeding and covering Fescue and similar grasses.

 

[oosik]

Additionally - they all look to be super tough and you have the skills to make implements that can be found nowhere else. Thanks for the followup.