We just put in a large stonedust dry lot. I’ve leveled it a lot with my loader and a harrow drag, but would like it more level.
I’m looking for something not very expensive to use either with the tractor or pull behind it. I don’t have a box blade currently just a loader and the harrow drag. The harrow works well for the sand arena, but it’s old and bent so the teeth do not dig in for when stonedust hardens up.
Can you rent or borrow a box blade? Or a blade thingy (which I have but don’t know what it’s called) which can smooth dirt, goes from one diagonal to the other and works in a 3-point? I’ll look it up.*
As far as I can tell, it’s called a blade. It is attached at the rear, and works like a box blade except it can be used straight or on a right or left diagonal.
A back blade?
Are you looking for something that you can work the stone dust with, or is this a one time event?
I only ask because I also have a stone dust dry lot and did have stone dust as arena footing for a while - and it will pack very hard like a parking lot very quickly. If you’re looking for a tool to level it with before that happens - you might be better off hiring that to be done.
If you’re looking for a tool that will help you loosen and level it, that’s another issue altogether. I use a York rake in my dry lot, but it will not loosen the stone dust except in optimal weather e.g. after a drenching rain, and before it dries.
A box blade requires some skill to operate, and a tractor large enough that you can pull a full box without the tractor stalling. If you have to lift the blade so the tractor can continue on, it leaves a hump that is hard to smooth out. It’s easy to make it too thin in one place, and too thick in another.
The kind of blade without the ends of a box blade is called a “grading blade”. It’s easy to screw something up with one of them too. I have an 8’ one that’s hydraulically controlled inn swing, and tilt, and has a tailwheel. It works close to as good as a motor grader, but also requires a strong tractor and experienced operator.
I’d suggest hiring a motor grader to start with, and get something to drag that will stir it up without moving it around.
Thanks for the replies.
I was thinking about something that would be able to smooth out unlevel areas and keep the top kind of loose with the wear of the horses. I was planning to maintain it fairly regularly to prevent complete compaction since it is not level. We were able to turn the drag harrow around with the tines digging in, weighted it and got a lot of the lumps out. Still not totally smooth, but it is also not on flat level ground.
I guess I was thinking of getting a new tool that could work with our arena, stone dust paddock, pastures and driveway. I can do a lot with the FEL and drag, but don’t really know what I will need to do with this paddock yet. I’m aware of machinery like the TR3, but didn’t want to spend that much.
http://www.redmasterharrow.com/red-master-harrow.html
This is what we use on the arena where I work. It “fluffs” and levels, and is fairly simple to operate properly without a lot of tractor experience.
Just remembered–one of my former neighbors used a railroad tie–ran long bolts through it, and attached a chain. Hardly high tech, but it did knock down the bumps. IIRC, he had a little Korean tractor that took 4ft three-point attachments.
As far as drags go, I have a 4 ft drag that is relatively smooth on one side, then flips over to use as a harrow. I pull it with a riding mower, and use it to drag the pastures. It cost about $200, and there’s nothing to wear out.
I use a landscape rake for my ring which also gets pretty hard (a crushed shell sand). It works fabulous most of rhe time, sometimes over the summer if I’ve not been good about the dragging (esp after a hard rain when it dries to concrete) we pull out every other tine and rhe larger gaps allow it to really dig down.
Oh and I drag it backwards, forward it gets too deep.
In the past I’ve used a harrow drag (not chain link fence) with the tines up for smoothing out the footing in the arena, but it does nothing for leveling. We also have a DR power grader and that’s what I’m using right now and it works pretty well in that it takes sand away from the high spots and deposits it in the low spots. It also has teeth if you need to get into the materials a little bit.
this is what we use…it does a great job of breaking up the sand and leveling everything out (ignore my barefoot child…).
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