• Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page. We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy. Thank you!

shop made scare-ifyer! cat scarifier on a road plane

fast_st

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
1,468
Location
Mass
Occupation
IT systems admin
So we have a Road Boss road plane think its out of Texas. Good construction, scarifier blade up front and a smoothing blade in the rear, 3 pt hitch mounted unit. This was decently built and if our road was like any farm/field road, this unit would work great. Our issue is the road is about 6-8 inches thick of dense graded base, 3/4 - crushed with some calcium chloride treatments now and again and a lot of traffic to pack it down well. The rain is the big enemy so at times we need a little rip and tear repair, this surface was hard enough that the 3pt hitch grader would just hop and skip along without doing any real work, hard enough you can't kick up any material with your boot toe.

Utility-model-18-inch-side-pans-e1483216985458-300x225.jpg
 

fast_st

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
1,468
Location
Mass
Occupation
IT systems admin
We had removed the 3pt hitch attachment and just added a couple simple bucket hooks to the leading edge of this road plane in order to get a bit of down force, this controlled the hop and allowed the OEM tooth edge blade to just wear right the hell out in an afternoon. A half hour of hard facing rod application would last but ten or fifteen minutes of road repair. Because of the extra downforce it was also tough on the skid shoes, they were built up with some more hard face and that seems to help.


So the works begins! we have a plan, its not a good plan but still a plan. First a trip to John Deere in Pelham NH to pick up some road grader scarifier edges.

C51nhb8dRZNumBEtggK-IApdxXfxJkK_CkwzrgLiGVlw93iQIO3ShT2FilpY0E6c_9vAwoibS8L1NkPFWDAkknFK8X3eDTLSJEv2aRHxKxY2lm6Da-KMM6N02fZpbm3d1rvx7q54TP62PR5CzUN_bpXUj2Vwcf1QuoovgyXX2N5Bp2XwCTITfV8ugvjPv8VxmSQBaSylW_vTpk_fAO_DuwgAqftIpOivdTxrgONv6FlJsWdtSKIZOnHt9OJOUZYCkr_BUnKVvYS806DjlqnUCZ5OYlm4Z7VU_HaOl4ofH7KYTk7GfcGGZOT4gZXJ-pUiI16GbRcb8gX9XOdQNSQUoK5395lYCVwfMIVNHCjnrq_UvEOow-b0ZmrrmmtRHqzwEr16IKDwHBdSVDepAn0Y-4r7lXl8qHeh3y0HOZhzaE388ImAuC56gSh5mU61tBJTR6tRc53tsKyMnnFngpKGua0JPHyU1R-UOfOQLEL5xm6y_KFPx_7VpAPLxHUReDV2C_cXKDO7SK2GVkzaEoqJ0-YdokmYd48M0_-SZBlivT3tZIeO965HKotoOq6cNSkXQi7Ks-xB1-I2pomOZ7SBHiiGH7c0dCrnW1u_YA8FIQXV5RpyERve57wcwR01kBDZrkI_01I4quf20ckT9257DbJuNQme7pg=w1218-h913-no


Then to do some minor hole drilling, add a doubler to the factory blade support and then hammer in some 40 Kennemetal rotating carbide inserts and presto, version 1 of the modified road plane.


upload_2019-5-6_7-15-49.png


First pass, this works pretty darned well, the bits are rotating and most of the material is moving between the bits as everything turns, the one issue is the greater force is causing the backer to twist some. On a real road grader the blade is well supported by an engineered and center driven mount point. Well, the torque generated by the taller edge to bolt mounting is causing a bit of twist, The rear smoothing blade is doing just wonderfully but the front blade is going to need a little help. My initial thought is a piece of 4-5 inch wide by 3/4 thick flat bar, with standoffs maybe 3 inches made from 1/2 inch steel bridging to a piece of 4x4 1/2 inch wall square tubing. The standoff gap would allow for getting the nuts on and off as well as accessing the bits for changing, and to make a truss type arrangement between the 3/4 plate and the 4x4 support.
 

fast_st

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
1,468
Location
Mass
Occupation
IT systems admin
Market that and become a BILLIONAIRE! We will wait here and hope your parents taught you to share at a young age. ;)
Yeah, like that'll happen!! it would be a doozey of a task but I really like welding stuff together but its tough on my sneakers! Okay, the plasma cutter is fun too! The funny part is the scarifier alone is almost 2x the cost of the road plane.
 

fast_st

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
1,468
Location
Mass
Occupation
IT systems admin
Well... the extended tooth relative to the heavy duty angle iron turned the angle into wrought iron in a hurry, It worked for an hour but at one point there was a hump and well, Tiny didn't slow down a lick and bent the bajessus out of the tooth support angle.

So time to build a new support, 4x4 tubing as a spine, 1/2 inch wall, spacers from 1/2x4 flat bar and welded to a 4x3/4 flat bar that's the bolt support for the tooth edge plates. Side plates on the scraper body have been doubled with 1/2 inch plate welded and bolted and 1/2 inch plate to tie the ends of the new bar together. The new assembly is about 500 pounds but has a pretty decent truss to it so it should be able to handle the torque, time and inspections will tell for sure!

FG9QofiVYO6fcrhTI1_L_AZuZs8HO5boqR0QMROJFK1oCaLBPmLIPCzOV4rPwRlVqNu1XhF0-GwMIv73kaMpCLF45VWrV2oJNcUZS3csWmWSvJj1dgOpkHdBANBTWgK5G6YA6_rCXDkaxB5caeQD-tmTe3SHLw0u_nMbGKYL4MwwIZNpUrhNIRZ-Dmqyfx67-u82TJ5Zxm0D_AM-xy3KG6n7yNCtiCqtiNi_oPjmrMj41AZezt6PTSnrZq-bOFPBH4Azsu_lSjKaM8tAxPxnEtPwAtkrL8v8EmOs__wv8KIEJnK5HR-tfmGc52OupWfhQn2aEEXAQkIVnvCGDb2fm53ltUz2pBIAYGlsmREaLHMyTB-B_O15--mcQLo2mhaimuM0eEAT3Dp3ku4_6csd8SL4jTUfYNL6Y6hzLY-xNAkpT1LE87WeHxg7FOYOS3Y2Hs1Pny5yoOD87fP03llFGS21e8PSEhW7N3OKNGrqSa9ROfoFHv_ktZtkm-nwE14V6zUzGUz-oJbNyP88w7FyPp1nTausdAEwvhUYasNkQWeruaz_1zsJbUiXfsc0wVQY49Im4CuV9OpADDA9KTATCt-Jg6e2aqpXLD_6v2CyISuNvjHQbW3q7cl-ElnCUjGVp-1K4k0KSgB9Ujc7gWV2kTPUVoNoecAtkguFhfCbwZeT493puCsrR5E=w642-h855-no
 

aighead

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
2,541
Location
Dayton, OH
This is interesting... Am I reading correctly to think this is for de-lumping and smoothing gravel roads?

If so it leads me to a question for you. I have a 300 foot gravel driveway, that is fairly packed down, and a backhoe. I've been tempted to just go out with the loader bucket and scrape it, losing the grass crown that I kind of like. I'm not sure how well that'll work or if I then end up attempting to fix the mess I just made. My thought is that I have a 6' wide, old busted mower deck for a tractor that I've been thinking of cutting teeth into, similar to what you have here (though on an exceedingly limited budget, meaning free), then lowering the leveling wheels so the toothy edge floats just within the top maybe half inch of gravel.

Does my design make sense in text? Does it sound like I'm wasting my time? I initially thought of doing this to smoothing out my rutted yard (and still may) but it may not work at all!

Another thought I've had but keep forgetting I've had is to fabricate a similar toothy setup as I see here but set it up like a bolt-on edge (like a literal bucket attachment) for the FEL bucket lip that I could then float down the driveway, in reverse.
 

DIYDAVE

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Messages
2,410
Location
MD
This is interesting... Am I reading correctly to think this is for de-lumping and smoothing gravel roads?

If so it leads me to a question for you. I have a 300 foot gravel driveway, that is fairly packed down, and a backhoe. I've been tempted to just go out with the loader bucket and scrape it, losing the grass crown that I kind of like. I'm not sure how well that'll work or if I then end up attempting to fix the mess I just made. My thought is that I have a 6' wide, old busted mower deck for a tractor that I've been thinking of cutting teeth into, similar to what you have here (though on an exceedingly limited budget, meaning free), then lowering the leveling wheels so the toothy edge floats just within the top maybe half inch of gravel.

Does my design make sense in text? Does it sound like I'm wasting my time? I initially thought of doing this to smoothing out my rutted yard (and still may) but it may not work at all!

Another thought I've had but keep forgetting I've had is to fabricate a similar toothy setup as I see here but set it up like a bolt-on edge (like a literal bucket attachment) for the FEL bucket lip that I could then float down the driveway, in reverse.

Don't think a mower deck will have enough steel in it, to take on a packed driveway, plus stuff will build up, under it...
 

fast_st

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
1,468
Location
Mass
Occupation
IT systems admin
Yeah, gotta agree, mower deck isn't really an ideal implement for dragging. Now you mention its a 6' deck for your tractor? A while back I picked up a full manual 3pt grader blade, 5' or such for $75, works like a champ. I mean I do like the three way hydraulic 9' monster grader blade on the big tractor.
 

aighead

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
2,541
Location
Dayton, OH
Sadly, not for my tractor (mine doesn't exist!). It was for the neighbors tractor but he has since sold it, along with the disc implement that may have been my best bet.
 

fast_st

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
1,468
Location
Mass
Occupation
IT systems admin
well, what's the condition you're trying to correct?
 

aighead

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
2,541
Location
Dayton, OH
Just trying to fluff up the gravel a bit, maybe fill in some holes. Nothing major. It's not causing any problems now other than near the house where it's likely the wrong type of gravel and my car shoves it around a bit.
 
Top