Land Plane vs Box Blade

[BlueRidgeRunner]

Hi All,

I recently posted asking opinions on land planes and got great responses. I have a gravel road that gets packed down turning the winter freeze/thaw cycles. I need something to dig up the gravel and level some bumps. I was looking at a 4 ft land plane for my 23 hp BX machine. A friend suggested looking at a 4 ft box blade saying it would do the same thing as a land plane but be more versatile for other things. I have no experience with either implement and would appreciate your feedback.

Thanks

Blueridgerunner

 

[SDT]

Hi All,

I recently posted asking opinions on land planes and got great responses. I have a gravel road that gets packed down turning the winter freeze/thaw cycles. I need something to dig up the gravel and level some bumps. I was looking at a 4 ft land plane for my 23 hp BX machine. A friend suggested looking at a 4 ft box blade saying it would do the same thing as a land plane but be more versatile for other things. I have no experience with either implement and would appreciate your feedback.

Thanks

Blueridgerunner

Either will work for your purposes but the land plane will work better albeit at higher cost and with less versatility.

 

[McMXi]

If you're only going to have one or the other then a box blade would be my choice and maybe most here would agree. I have a box blade, rear blade and land leveler (grading scraper, land plane etc.) and they all excel at different things, but the land leveler is definitely the one trick pony of the group, but it does that trick better than anything else (in my experience).

Scarifiers are your friend and you can buy a land leveler and even a rear blade with scarifiers. They're pretty much standard on box blades. Hydraulic scarifiers are the bees knees but it's a lot of extra cost for that convenience and functionality.

 

[Blue2Orange]

Have a 48" box blade that I have used to maintain the driveway and some other uses. Trail maintenance, wild blackberry control, ..... For only driveway maintenance and cost no issue. Personally I would go with the land plane. For Land Pride consider the 15 v. 05 series. 05 has fixed blades that look to be set relatively aggressive. Plus it has those wonky pita clips vs. pins for the shanks. I replaced the clips on the box blade shanks with L shaped "wedges".

For grading and leveling the driveway I ended up tilting it so the rear facing blade was dragging like a reversed back blade would. Front facing blade just would clip off the top of any humps and worked great for flattening the excessive crown on the driveway. Just required careful attention. A few oOHs. Image of the condition of the driveway on March 31st. 80 tons of blue rock was added last Spring. No roller to pack it. Just box bladed "smooth" and driven on. Snow covered again.

We have the options for limestone , typical road grade, or blue rock gravel. Blue rock is the better choice. Packs down to an even hard base that percolates water even from a hard rain without channelling if you have the proper underlay. Mechanic at the dealership suggested land plane over box scraper for "idiot" proof use. He just zips along his driveway without needing to tend much to the 3pt control.

 

[jaxs]

I concur with those above in saying landplane excels on driveways,especially in the hands of inexperienced.

What I've never agreed with is ripping road up before grading. I've roamed backroads of Tx,NM,OK,AR and LA never once seeing unpaved roads being torn up before routine maintenance,,,,,,unless there was truck, spreading material, water truck,sheep's foot and roller right behind machine tearing roadbed up. Texas alone has over 250 types soil,add other states and I'd say you have a reasonable example. If you drop rippers on a Blackland prairie road without following up with lots of material and extensive prep, you will not get over it with 4 wd ,much less sport car after it rains. Is there one here living on Blackland Prairie that rips before grading?

 

[Bearcatrp]

Glad this thread was created. Learned something new today. Watched some videos to get a better understanding of a land plane. This would work great on my gravel driveway.. Thanks for posting this thread.

 

[KKBL]

It depends on how long of a driveway or road you need to grade. For less than 1/8 mile a box blade with scarifiers would probably be fine. We have maintained a 1/2 mile gravel drive for 35+ years in northwest PA and use both a box blade and land plane with scarifiers. The box blade is used first to rip up and fill any real bad areas and pot holes, but would take lots of time to make the entire road smooth and level. The land plane levels everything perfectly and quickly.

 

[PaulL]

I had the same problem. I got a box blade as I also want to lay some lawn and wanted something that would move material from place to place. But so far I'm underwhelmed on the driveway. It levelled it, but it didn't surface the gravel to the extent I see a land plane doing (admittedly in videos online). Now I'm not sure whether there's just not enough gravel there to do that, or whether it's not something a box blade does, or whether I'm doing it wrong.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

I had the same problem. I got a box blade as I also want to lay some lawn and wanted something that would move material from place to place. But so far I'm underwhelmed on the driveway. It levelled it, but it didn't surface the gravel to the extent I see a land plane doing (admittedly in videos online). Now I'm not sure whether there's just not enough gravel there to do that, or whether it's not something a box blade does, or whether I'm doing it wrong.

I tend to agree with @PaulL ……. so far I am “underwhelmed”.

I have a box blade and my “main purpose” for it was/is gravel driveway maintenance.

In all fairness, I am fairly inexperienced so maybe that is the problem, but I kinda wish I would have chosen a land plane instead.

In my personal experience, dropping the scarifiers did nothing but dig up “ankle breaker” sized stones that were buried. Took me a month to pick them up (most of them).

"Live and learn" I suppose.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

curious, how often are you maintaining your driveway ? They are 'living' and need care ! late farmer across the road had 800' driveway and he 'graded' it every other Sunday after church, before lunch). It WAS a thing of beauty ! Level ,smooth, clean,weedfree. Guy who bought he place did NOTHING ,and in less than 2 years it was lumpy and bumpy and weedy...
I copied his 'grading', pulled a section of heavy bar with chain link fence behind to maintain my 100' driveway and 1000 sqft parking area. Sure looked pretty !

 

[BlueRidgeRunner]

All great responses, thanks, Let me be more specific as to what I need from the implement. As I mentioned in the post, the gravel on a section of the road, maybe 200 yards, gets packed down during the winter. It is very tightly packed. I get at least one load of gravel on it yearly. I think there is a deep layer of gravel there. I mainly want to dig up a few inches of the gravel so I don't have to pay the for gravel with the cost these days.

 

[McMXi]

All great responses, thanks, Let me be more specific as to what I need from the implement. As I mentioned in the post, the gravel on a section of the road, maybe 200 yards, gets packed down during the winter. It is very tightly packed. I get at least one load of gravel on it yearly. I think there is a deep layer of gravel there. I mainly want to dig up a few inches of the gravel so I don't have to pay the for gravel with the cost these days.

Hard to beat a land plane/land leveler/grading scraper with scarifiers if that's all you need to do. In a perfect world we'd all have a box blade, rear blade, land plane, vibratory drum roller, dump truck and gravel pit but sometimes we just have to make do with what we have.

 

[skeets]

It depends on how long of a driveway or road you need to grade. For less than 1/8 mile a box blade with scarifiers would probably be fine. We have maintained a 1/2 mile gravel drive for 35+ years in northwest PA and use both a box blade and land plane with scarifiers. The box blade is used first to rip up and fill any real bad areas and pot holes, but would take lots of time to make the entire road smooth and level. The land plane levels everything perfectly and quickly.

Anybody catching anything on the Elk ?

 

[KKBL]

Anybody catching anything on the Elk ?

Grandson caught his first Steel Head yesterday on Elk Creek. The creeks are always busy around here on opening day.

 

[chim]

Our driveway wasn't paved for the first several years we lived here. It was maintained with a DIY drag made from a pair of I beams bolted together like two capital "H's" so the four flanges were dragged over the surface. It could be adjusted to cast some material left or right. It did everything OK.

I bought a box blade with scarifiers to turn an adjacent corn field into a yard, then sold it when the work was done. Never used it for anything else.

 

[jimh406]

My neighbor use to maintain our community gravel road with a rear blade. It "worked". You can use a less efficient tool to get the same job done. Not as good as my grader/scraper and took him more time. A box blade would take more time, too.

I can produce results similar to McMXi's land plane for my 8 year old driveway. No new gravel has been added for all of that time. We also haven't had to add more gravel to our community road since I got my tractor a few years ago.

Land Pride's description of the GS15 is as follows.

Land Pride's GS15 Series Grading Scrapers have uses in applications such as landscaping, small farms and ranches, hunting camps, small acreages, and sod farms. The GS15 is extra user-friendly and a low cost alternative for road grading applications. Unlike a box scraper, they are not designed to transfer large volumes of dirt from one location to another and as a result do not require the additional horsepower that a box scraper normally requires. Nor does it require the tending of tractor 3-point lift controls to maintain grade that a box scraper might require.

Of course, feel free to use/buy what you want ... just make sure you understand what you are trading off.

 

[skeets]

Grandson caught his first Steel Head yesterday on Elk Creek. The creeks are always busy around here on opening day.

Yep we hit Elk and every other creek that dumped in to the lake to death for steelies and coho, We would leave work after midnight shift drive 3 hours, fish all day head back home and go back out on midnight shift. Life seemed to be a lot more fun back then

 

[Shawn T. W]

While the land plane may be a one trick pony, it does it very well ... The unique part of why it does such a good job at what it does, is that it rolls and tumbles the gravel to remix it, then distributes as it falls off the back ... Whereas a box blade or rear blade collects it in a pile, or dumps it off the side in a ridge, but doesn't really mix it ...

I may have posted this in the other thread, but here is mine mixing as I go ... A 14 second video ...

Land plane

If you already have a box blade ... I've seen others make runners for them, like the first picture in this thread ... https://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/threads/snow-skis-on-a-box-blade.67462/ it still won't really mix like a land plane, but will get smoother results than just a box blade ...

 

[Blue2Orange]

I sort of look at my box blade as the implement to use more for repairs. Land plane for routine maintenance. Had an abrupt transition from steep to mellow prior to last Spring loads. Box blade and loads in the bucket made for relatively quick fix. Took more than a few tons. Thinking land plane would make life easier. Hope is a used one in decent conditions will show up at the dealership. Might have to spend the $$$s on a new 1548. Scared to look at the price. Steel costs sounds like they have increased significantly.

JMHO, you need a relatively thick top coating of quality gravel over a decent and proper base for you soil conditions. With the blue rock gravel. One ton of gravel covers ~100sq ft with only a ~2inch coating. Then deal with any minor surface issues before they become significant issues. Haven't used the scarf blades on the driveway.

 

[trikepilot]

Box blade and chain harrow. Both bought used at CL or FBMP for a fraction of the cost of either a new land plane or a box blade. These two work different ends of the gravel spectrum but both do an excellent job