|
Hi, Not sayin I'm an expert, but here's how I maintain my gravel driveway with my ford 2N and 3pt blade. 1. The bar that connects the top of the blade to the tractor should be adjustable. Mine's threaded. If you don't have an adjustable top link connector, get one. Making the top link longer will cause the blade to dig in more into the ground, shortening it will cause the blade to grab less material. 2. On my tractor the 3pt arm on the right side adjusts with a crank, use this to level the blade, or to cause one side of the blade to dig in more by lowering it. The easiest is to start with the blade level. If you lightly touch the blade down on a level surface like a paved driveway or garage floor you can quickly see which way you need to adjust to get the blade level.. 3. On my driveway the gravel tends to get pushed out towards the sides of the road so I start by setting the blade so it is level using the method described in point 2 above, and setting the top link out a bit so it cuts into the ground some. I angle the blade and make a pass down the road pulling gravel from each edge in towards the middle. This should leave you with a couple of inch high ridge of gravel in the middle of the drive. but will fill in the wheel ruts on each side as you go.. To finish the job I set the blade to be straight across the back, and shorten the top link so the blade doesn't dig in so much. Now you can lightly drop the blade on the ground and make a pass to level the middle of the drive. Some suggest that if your blade can be turned around to face backwards dragging it with the back of the blade facing forward will actually leave a smoother finish and kinda packs the gravel as it goes.. The trick with the smoothing pass is to have the blade ride lightly on the ground or even 1/2 inch above if your tractor can accurately control the depth. Depending on the width of your drive a couple of additional passes to smooth material may be required.
Hope this helps, good luck.
Lyle.
| 
