Grouse Feathers
New member
Lifetime Member
Equipment
BX2370, FEL, Snowblower-BX5455, Homebuilt Forks, LP RB1560, LP GS1548
Last year was unusually wet and our driveway never dried out enough for the grading contractor to grade and fill. There were a couple of weeks it got dry enough and then it would rain before I could get the grader here. The driveway got more rutted and potholed all summer and there was standing water nearly all summer.
I bought a BX2370 in December for snow blowing and began to read threads on driveway grading. The only grading I have on my property is the driveway and I don’t need to move a lot of material so I decided for ease of use to buy a grading scraper in the spring.
In April this year we had the typical inch or two of slop in the driveway as the snow melt was trapped on the surface by the frost still in the ground. I had bought a cheap rear blade to help with snow removal and I started using the blade to move the slop around and fill the worse holes. I also started digging pits along the driveway to drain off the water. It was slow going as the fel (with piranha) couldn’t penetrate the frost. I would scrape the surface and come back a couple of days later and scape another couple of inches. I decided I could do better with the leveling with a better rear blade and found a used Land Pride RB1560. The weight and strength of the Land Pride blade made a huge difference in my ability to grade and add some crown to the driveway.
To explain some of the conditions here the soil is defined as glacial till, that’s sand and rock. For driveway and dirt road building they add clay to the glacial till for a mix of about 10% clay. The only gravel we have is on the hill. The hill is 40 feet high and a grade as high as 9 degrees or 16%, and the gravel is stonemix, crushed limestone with the fines. The stonemix packs well and the delivery truck will make several trips over the leveled driveway to pack or some contractors use a road compaction roller. The hill is well drained and the only problem on the hill is erosion during downpours. Gullies will form even in the packed stonemix when the rain is heavy enough.
By April 22 the driveway was dry enough for serious grading; this was amazing based on the driveway conditions the previous year. My wife at this point quit referring to my tractor as a toy.
While drying up the driveway was still a little rough, but I knew it would be difficult to to impossible to maintain the driveway with a rear blade on a BX so I bought a Land Pride Grading Scraper GS1548. Before the grading scraper the tractor bounced around on the driveway in low gear and I would have to slow down. After grading twice with the grading scraper I can run the tractor, with the GS lifted, on the driveway full speed in high gear and not bounce. With all the dips and bumps out of the driveway it is now easy to use the rear blade for crowning. I just drop the blade to the depth I want and drive the tractor, no need to constantly attend to the 3 point.
Fast forward to June and last weekend we got between 1” and 2” of rain. The rain stopped Monday night and Tuesday morning the shared roadway which I am just starting to work on had standing water plus the neighbors’ hills had gully erosion. On our driveway there was not a puddle of water and no erosion on the hill. YES SUCCESS!!!
Now I can work on the neighbors’ hills and the shared roadway to get them into shape. If I had only know what was possible I would have bought this tractor 7 years ago when we retired and moved up here. You don’t know what you don’t know.
I bought a BX2370 in December for snow blowing and began to read threads on driveway grading. The only grading I have on my property is the driveway and I don’t need to move a lot of material so I decided for ease of use to buy a grading scraper in the spring.
In April this year we had the typical inch or two of slop in the driveway as the snow melt was trapped on the surface by the frost still in the ground. I had bought a cheap rear blade to help with snow removal and I started using the blade to move the slop around and fill the worse holes. I also started digging pits along the driveway to drain off the water. It was slow going as the fel (with piranha) couldn’t penetrate the frost. I would scrape the surface and come back a couple of days later and scape another couple of inches. I decided I could do better with the leveling with a better rear blade and found a used Land Pride RB1560. The weight and strength of the Land Pride blade made a huge difference in my ability to grade and add some crown to the driveway.
To explain some of the conditions here the soil is defined as glacial till, that’s sand and rock. For driveway and dirt road building they add clay to the glacial till for a mix of about 10% clay. The only gravel we have is on the hill. The hill is 40 feet high and a grade as high as 9 degrees or 16%, and the gravel is stonemix, crushed limestone with the fines. The stonemix packs well and the delivery truck will make several trips over the leveled driveway to pack or some contractors use a road compaction roller. The hill is well drained and the only problem on the hill is erosion during downpours. Gullies will form even in the packed stonemix when the rain is heavy enough.
By April 22 the driveway was dry enough for serious grading; this was amazing based on the driveway conditions the previous year. My wife at this point quit referring to my tractor as a toy.
While drying up the driveway was still a little rough, but I knew it would be difficult to to impossible to maintain the driveway with a rear blade on a BX so I bought a Land Pride Grading Scraper GS1548. Before the grading scraper the tractor bounced around on the driveway in low gear and I would have to slow down. After grading twice with the grading scraper I can run the tractor, with the GS lifted, on the driveway full speed in high gear and not bounce. With all the dips and bumps out of the driveway it is now easy to use the rear blade for crowning. I just drop the blade to the depth I want and drive the tractor, no need to constantly attend to the 3 point.Fast forward to June and last weekend we got between 1” and 2” of rain. The rain stopped Monday night and Tuesday morning the shared roadway which I am just starting to work on had standing water plus the neighbors’ hills had gully erosion. On our driveway there was not a puddle of water and no erosion on the hill. YES SUCCESS!!!
Now I can work on the neighbors’ hills and the shared roadway to get them into shape. If I had only know what was possible I would have bought this tractor 7 years ago when we retired and moved up here. You don’t know what you don’t know.
