Posted: 2/25/2026 5:22:59 PM EDT
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I have a 47 hp Yanmar tractor and I maintain about 1300 ft of gravel driveway. Should I buy a landplane or a box scraper ? Also I have 2.5" rear wheel spacers to allow clearance for chains , putting my wheel width at about 78" . They were about 72" stock . Should I go with a 72" implement or an 84" implement ? TIA |
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Personally, I'd go wider than the tractor just to cover my tracks and a little more. Just keep that in mind as you go along so you won't hit a stump with the box that your wheels missed. I've done it and my box blade is a little warped to prove it. Not sure what a land plane is, but I like my box blade. It has the plow teeth for digging that can be adjusted or removed. |
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I was actually leaning towards slightly wider by about 3". Also leaning towards the land plane that also has scarcifiers on it . From what I can gather the box blade is better at moving more material and the landplane is better at grooming roads . It's also heavier which is good for a ground contact implement. I found one I can save abot 800.00 if I buy it today , but I dont like being rushed . |
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Boy that’s a good question…boxblade vs land plane. For strictly gravel driveway work it’s supposed to be much easier to do a nice job with the land plane due to its length and design. That said I have a box blade, a Woods 60” that just covers my tire tracks y a couple inches with my 1.5” or 2” spacers. It’s a heavy pig and does good work but it takes me a bit to get the driveway where I like it. I keep the box blade on the back of the tractor as my counterweight to the loader (except when mowing). It makes an excellent counterweight on the three point. I wouldn’t use a land plane as a normal ballast because it’s simply longer and makes the whole package ungainly. I’d surely knock in to stuff like a happy labrador retriever beating his tail on everything on the coffee table. |
The only hyphenated names I like are cartridge names......30-06, 30-40, 38-55 etc.
| I have a back blade on my tractor, normally I use it for snow removal. if the road needs maintenance, I'll go over it with my blade, then a neighbor who has a box blade will finish it. |
America is at that awkward stage, it’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards....Claire Wolfe
| I would think the land plane would make the smoother driveway. If you have one with ripper teeth so you can disturb the gravel before you level it, that would be the optimal option. Second would be to use a box blade with ripper teeth, then level it with the land plane. As for width, I would get one at least as wide as your tractor as a minimum so you don't have to cover your tire tracks all day. |
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Originally Posted By gmtech: I was actually leaning towards slightly wider by about 3". Also leaning towards the land plane that also has scarcifiers on it . From what I can gather the box blade is better at moving more material and the landplane is better at grooming roads . It's also heavier which is good for a ground contact implement. I found one I can save abot 800.00 if I buy it today , but I dont like being rushed . I don't have a land plane, just a box blade. Your reasoning looks sound. The box blade is great for moving material and does a decent job on driveway grading. It's outstanding as a counterweight  There is a learning curve with the box blade.Now that my 3000' of driveway is finished and mostly settled in I'm looking to pickup a land plane for just maintenance. |
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Land plane does nothing to remove ruts and potholes on my driveway. Too light for my hard ground. Box blade is required. Much heavier and better ground engagement. I have to break up the surface and hump in the middle, and break up the bottom of the ruts/potholes. Once broken up, a land plane does a good job of spreading the material. Be different is I had a loose gravel driveway. But, mine is gravel packed hard into a heavy clay sorta soil. It's tough material. |
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Gravel driveways are meant to be packed, not torn-up and re-leveled. Never understood why someone would use a landplane to tear up a packed driveway. For repairs you should add material to the holes and dips etc and pack that, not rob good packed material. My boxblade lives on my 3 pt until I need another implement for something. Excellent counterweight, compact. I've added weight to it over the years and also a 2" ball for moving trailers. Hydraulic toplink makes it a very useful tool for many things. Mine is a 6' and covers my tires just right but doesn't protrude and grab shit as you go by. I have a set of scarifiers for it but have never used them in the 25 years I've had it. If I need to dig anything I have a middle buster, a subsoiler and a 2 bottom turning plow. Then the FEL comes into play. |
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Originally Posted By 22skip: Gravel driveways are meant to be packed, not torn-up and re-leveled. Never understood why someone would use a landplane to tear up a packed driveway. For repairs you should add material to the holes and dips etc and pack that, not rob good packed material. My boxblade lives on my 3 pt until I need another implement for something. Excellent counterweight, compact. I've added weight to it over the years and also a 2" ball for moving trailers. Hydraulic toplink makes it a very useful tool for many things. Mine is a 6' and covers my tires just right but doesn't protrude and grab shit as you go by. I have a set of scarifiers for it but have never used them in the 25 years I've had it. If I need to dig anything I have a middle buster, a subsoiler and a 2 bottom turning plow. Then the FEL comes into play. Every single road crew tears up gravel roads with a grader to resurface them. |
"Byte My Shiny Metal Brass"
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Originally Posted By VaultTec: Don't know how often that happens, but yeah, I had to tear up the road to my barn. Too many rock filled ruts and washouts made it uneven. Originally Posted By VaultTec: Originally Posted By BMSMB: Every single road crew tears up gravel roads with a grader to resurface them. Don't know how often that happens, but yeah, I had to tear up the road to my barn. Too many rock filled ruts and washouts made it uneven. The dirt road we are on is refinished by the county multiple times a year. Ill refinish our private one once or twice a year, and patch bigger holes as needed between refinishing. |
"Byte My Shiny Metal Brass"
| That's cheaper than buying the material to repair properly. Around here, they leave a berm of that gravel along the side the road after grading and effectively make the road a ditch. Then, after a few years they have to send out backhoes etc. to get rid of those berms and ADD more chert to repair the road AND still have to run the road grader to spread the new chert. Overall they could have spent the money for more chert up front and graded it AND raised the road surface for better runoff instead of making a ditch of the road. |
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Originally Posted By 22skip: That's cheaper than buying the material to repair properly. Around here, they leave a berm of that gravel along the side the road after grading and effectively make the road a ditch. Then, after a few years they have to send out backhoes etc. to get rid of those berms and ADD more chert to repair the road AND still have to run the road grader to spread the new chert. Overall they could have spent the money for more chert up front and graded it AND raised the road surface for better runoff instead of making a ditch of the road. What is normally done is move gravel from one side of the road to the other, then the next time pull that gravel back to the other side, filling in holes in the process. Our township maintains about thirty miles of gravel. It gets beat up from log trucks, farm equipment, and Amish buggies. It probably gets graded ten time a year at least, depending on rainfall. They generally like to grade after a rain, it packs better. |
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I have a quarter mile driveway and use a 7' land plane, usually a couple times a year. When the frost goes out in the spring I always end up with some shallow ruts. I usually use a 3 point blade to pull in loose gravel off the edges, then hit it with the land plane. Then late summer, early fall hit it again if it needs it. |
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Originally Posted By Equator: I don't have a land plane, just a box blade. Your reasoning looks sound. The box blade is great for moving material and does a decent job on driveway grading. It's outstanding as a counterweight There is a learning curve with the box blade.Now that my 3000' of driveway is finished and mostly settled in I'm looking to pickup a land plane for just maintenance. Originally Posted By Equator: Originally Posted By gmtech: I was actually leaning towards slightly wider by about 3". Also leaning towards the land plane that also has scarcifiers on it . From what I can gather the box blade is better at moving more material and the landplane is better at grooming roads . It's also heavier which is good for a ground contact implement. I found one I can save abot 800.00 if I buy it today , but I dont like being rushed . I don't have a land plane, just a box blade. Your reasoning looks sound. The box blade is great for moving material and does a decent job on driveway grading. It's outstanding as a counterweight There is a learning curve with the box blade.Now that my 3000' of driveway is finished and mostly settled in I'm looking to pickup a land plane for just maintenance. If a box blade is too light to be a good counterweight then it’s too light to be a good box blade.  Unfortunately they make fly weight box blades. |
The only hyphenated names I like are cartridge names......30-06, 30-40, 38-55 etc.
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OK, USA
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I just use my box blade to "grade" my driveway & gravel road that's mixed. some got a 2" & 3" gravel/rock chip for base in red clay that is topped/dressed with 3/4" chip, and some is just chat that the property owners(townies) bought cause they want "smooth" (waste of funds since w/o 2"/3" gravel/rock chip base the 3/4" & chat sinks deep into red clay mud in soaking rains). It (boxblade) works well keeping the bar ditches cleaned up too. With a bit of use "practice" you'll find it can pull/drag, rip, smooth & push a lot of material. Tractor fel has a float if I feel like "dressing up/smoothing" the gravel/dirt etc I graded. I don't own one, but have used land planes lots of times through the years at jobs that wanted gravel/dirt dressed/smoothed up nice like blacktop. |
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Just filling potholes often doesn’t work for long. I guess it depends on your road bed. If your driveway road has no underlayment geotex then it can sink in to what ever soil base there is depending on the soil type. Often a pothole will just keep reappearing in the same spot because of the soil and or water. I keep my scarifiers on for extra weight but they’re inverted in the holders, so usually they do nothing. If I did need to work a pothole up I’d certainly use them down. I think the last time I used them was when we got an rain/ice storm over snow and my steep driveway had frozen to a sheet of ice before I got off work. I used the scarifiers to rip up the 1+” of ice. Leaving my hill ice or even hard packed glazed snow is not acceptable. Doing a flat spin going down hill with a drop off on one side will make you pucker. |
The only hyphenated names I like are cartridge names......30-06, 30-40, 38-55 etc.
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Originally Posted By 22skip: Gravel driveways are meant to be packed, not torn-up and re-leveled. Never understood why someone would use a landplane to tear up a packed driveway. For repairs you should add material to the holes and dips etc and pack that, not rob good packed material. My boxblade lives on my 3 pt until I need another implement for something. Excellent counterweight, compact. I've added weight to it over the years and also a 2" ball for moving trailers. Hydraulic toplink makes it a very useful tool for many things. Mine is a 6' and covers my tires just right but doesn't protrude and grab shit as you go by. I have a set of scarifiers for it but have never used them in the 25 years I've had it. If I need to dig anything I have a middle buster, a subsoiler and a 2 bottom turning plow. Then the FEL comes into play. Hard packed potholes filled in will always come back. It doesn't work long term. You have to tear it all up, smooth it out, and repack it uniformly. |
Gotta enjoy the little things.
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Originally Posted By PA452: Hard packed potholes filled in will always come back. It doesn't work long term. You have to tear it all up, smooth it out, and repack it uniformly. I'm not an expert, but that's what my limited experience shows as well. |
"When you need it and ain't got it, you're singin' a different tune..."
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I don't get potholes in my 800' driveway. When I started this driveway 20 years ago, I started with removing several inches of topsoil off and put down creek gravel, leaving the larger rocks in there too and let construction vehicles pack/sink it for me into the clay soil. I kept adding the creek gravel until it quit sinking and then had MANY loads of Benton Co. chert brought in (famous for its' packing ability). Used that for a couple of years but the white glare was unbelievable (made you snowblind) so I added a fairly thin layer of finer creek gravel on top to cut the glare. After a few years I brought in MANY loads of limestone crusher run - made a good, thick layer of it, maybe 5-6" deep overall, more in some areas, several feet deep in some additional turning/parking areas. I used my F250 diesel as a packer, hours at a time sometimes. Has been several years now and I have an excellent driveway with very little maintenance required. I did every bit of this work from the beginning with my 40 hp Mahindra with a 6' boxblade and 6' FEL bucket. The main key is I've made and kept my ditching and surface run-off correct. During gullywashers I might have to drag a little gravel back into place on a spot or two but overall the driveway is set. I definitely would not want to "unpack" any of this work I have done over the years. If I lose a little gravel (crusher run) from runoff I'll buy a load and put it back but I don't see that happening on a regular basis. I've done what works for me at my location with materials that were available to me. |
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Originally Posted By 22skip: I don't get potholes in my 800' driveway. When I started this driveway 20 years ago, I started with removing several inches of topsoil off and put down creek gravel, leaving the larger rocks in there too and let construction vehicles pack/sink it for me into the clay soil. I kept adding the creek gravel until it quit sinking and then had MANY loads of Benton Co. chert brought in (famous for its' packing ability). Used that for a couple of years but the white glare was unbelievable (made you snowblind) so I added a fairly thin layer of finer creek gravel on top to cut the glare. After a few years I brought in MANY loads of limestone crusher run - made a good, thick layer of it, maybe 5-6" deep overall, more in some areas, several feet deep in some additional turning/parking areas. I used my F250 diesel as a packer, hours at a time sometimes. Has been several years now and I have an excellent driveway with very little maintenance required. I did every bit of this work from the beginning with my 40 hp Mahindra with a 6' boxblade and 6' FEL bucket. The main key is I've made and kept my ditching and surface run-off correct. During gullywashers I might have to drag a little gravel back into place on a spot or two but overall the driveway is set. I definitely would not want to "unpack" any of this work I have done over the years. If I lose a little gravel (crusher run) from runoff I'll buy a load and put it back but I don't see that happening on a regular basis. I've done what works for me at my location with materials that were available to me. Is your driveway sloped or flat? |
Gotta enjoy the little things.
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All but about 50' is sloped and that wide, 50' area isn't perfectly flat - wouldn't check the oil in an engine sitting there. Fall of 2024 I FINALLY got my 32'x32' carport concreted and it's the only flat spot on the property pretty much (10 acres). Took years to finally get the water to run off the driveway without much damage. I also had to increase ditch depth & width and line with rip-rap for erosion control. I hand laid about 10, 22T dump truck loads over a couple of years. This was class A rip-rap, softball to medicine ball sized limestone. Was pretty tough work being in my late 60's and 70 years old but hell, I needed the exercise anyway. |
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Originally Posted By 22skip: I don't get potholes in my 800' driveway. When I started this driveway 20 years ago, I started with removing several inches of topsoil off and put down creek gravel, leaving the larger rocks in there too and let construction vehicles pack/sink it for me into the clay soil. I kept adding the creek gravel until it quit sinking and then had MANY loads of Benton Co. chert brought in (famous for its' packing ability). Used that for a couple of years but the white glare was unbelievable (made you snowblind) so I added a fairly thin layer of finer creek gravel on top to cut the glare. After a few years I brought in MANY loads of limestone crusher run - made a good, thick layer of it, maybe 5-6" deep overall, more in some areas, several feet deep in some additional turning/parking areas. I used my F250 diesel as a packer, hours at a time sometimes. Has been several years now and I have an excellent driveway with very little maintenance required. I did every bit of this work from the beginning with my 40 hp Mahindra with a 6' boxblade and 6' FEL bucket. The main key is I've made and kept my ditching and surface run-off correct. During gullywashers I might have to drag a little gravel back into place on a spot or two but overall the driveway is set. I definitely would not want to "unpack" any of this work I have done over the years. If I lose a little gravel (crusher run) from runoff I'll buy a load and put it back but I don't see that happening on a regular basis. I've done what works for me at my location with materials that were available to me. +1 on the white stone in driveways. I hate it. Up north iirc it came cheap out of the zinc mines. It was bright enough you could see the driveways with it in the dark. I forget what they call the mix here that I buy and am due for some more. It’s basically #2 mixed with crusher run. Together it packs well for me. I went for number 2 and they talked me in to the mix at their quarry. |
The only hyphenated names I like are cartridge names......30-06, 30-40, 38-55 etc.