DIY Grader from a Trailer Tailgate? 

I haven't even watched the video yet but I've been wanting to cut the tailgate off of my 8x8 trailer. Jackpot!

Use the box blade! Flip the rippers and lengthen your 3 point top link so the forward facing blade in barely touching, the rear facing blade will smooth out the material!! If want to it to scrape more just shorten the top link! You can also crown the material by adjusting the height of the right lift arm, making it longer(lowering the right side of the box blade). Your place looks great!!

Basically the same idea as what we use on baseball fields to smooth out the dirt. Drag a piece of chain-link fence behind a tractor with a little bit of weight on the end. Worked great! p.s. you could try the trailer gate again, but put some weight on it. Cement blocks, or bunch of wood. Might help...

Good idea, just needed more weight on the tailgate.

Ingenuity at work there. Once upon a time we had a piece of chain link fence that was dragged behind for grading.

Beautiful entry video moon, animals and mountain views . Perfect timing for the moon footage. ❤

Glad I found you guys. Great video.

Brian is a great job there with the gravel Looks professional

Look into ABI attachments. It's not a free solution but for critical access to your home and the decades of maintenance that you'll be doing to keep things civilized, it will become a valuable tool on the arsenal of tractor implements.

Perfect, I have a ramp to use!

Good idea for stablade. Research land plane. Then modify the tailgate into a land plane that will be more aggressive than the tailgate alone but less aggressive than the box blade.

Turn grate side down and put weight on it.

0:11 Oh that is beautiful!

DID GREAT JOB / U CAN ALSO PUT GATE BEHIND THE BOX BLADE TOO

Awesome scenery shots. Hope you don't mind me saying this but can't wait until you guys have some good snow so it will settle the dryness.

Having installed and maintained a 1320' driveway with some grades for 20 years. That box grader and a plain grader to keep the crown in the middle. Once down you can scrape the stones back to the top. They push back down in time. Just keep the water off so you don't get soft places. Blacktop is worth every penny.

My dad used to use a large oak pallet and drag it behind his Honda 4 wheeler. It worked great....

Drag the tailgate 90 deg from the way you had it. So all the bars cross the road instead of in line with the road. Angle iron down. The grate side down would work in sand.

I use a farm gate with a cattle panel wired to one side and pull it behind my SuperZ mower. No rocks needed. Works fine for my 225 ft gravel drive.

one of the things you can acquire kind of cheap if you look around is one of the parking stall curbs like you would see in front of a store that are under 1 ft tall and usually run the width of the parking space, look for some surplus ones online in your area Those curbs usually have two holes in them that go from top to bottom all the way thru, go to your local home depot or what not and if you can find them get two long at least 1 inch thick eye bolts that will go thru to the bottom, put and few washers thru and a good strong nut. You can then hook your chains to the eye bolts and pull the curb being the tractor. the curb will have a lot of weight so it will help with the driveway and it is also nice in winter because you can use it to take the snow off the driveway as well and the loose stuff off to make it easier to drive on. The guys that usually sell the curbs have eye bolts they use to pick them up and take them off the trucks as well so you could see if they will sell you some or Brain could always fab something up if you have some rebar pieces laying around My Dad and his Brother have been using that for years on the farm to keep the gravel packed down and to remove snow etc and to keep the dirt road packed down to the fields. Hope that idea helps!

I am curious about the feel of the geocell portion vs the flat area without the geocell. Is it noticeably more firm and smooth? Why did you choose to omit the underlayment? Can't wait to see the progress and Howe Ott hold up over the winter

The gate should work but you need weight on top of it. The land plane is the perfect drive tool and as much driveway as you have it may be worth the price. Check out a view video's on the land plain. All the best from Greensboro NC

Just put weight on it like rocks you got a couple of those lol

you need a land plane, check out Outdoors with the Morgans. Mike is great with gravel driveways.

What rock material did you put down? Any idea how durable it is? ie How quik does it bust up and become dust?

I tried just putting a chain through it and loading it up with cement blocks. I destroyed mine LOL

old use bed springs works the best

You try the tail gate with great down and lots of weight . See if that helps think base ball drag .GOOD LUCK

What you're looking for is a land plane

Great innovation. Check out Chris at Let's Dig 18 airfield series. He made the same with old rubber skid steerer tracks. You do need to be careful with the geotech grid. No pressure with all your viewers watching :)

8:25 I definitely don't know as much as Brian, but.. that should flatten any slight elevations in the road it needs to rain on that gravel to sink the smaller gravels down You should feel the difference driving on it Other than Brian's makeshift improvisation you'll need some sort of Zamboni Vehicle to do a better job The Tractor can't do that I don't know if there is a Tractor attachment that does the compacting for road gravel

You can do that with your tractor the bucket I have to do is float your bucket if that bucket

lower the bucket and spin the gate, then add some weight

I know you packed it down, but putting that gravel up against your foundation just gave water the perfect pathway to exactly where you DON'T want it. You need dirt there, sloped so that it sheds water away.

It might still work and some weight on it

Old bed springs with weight on them.

I use a tire and a fat girl. It don't work very good but at about 30mph I sure get the giggles.

YOUNG MAN , USE THE BACK OF THE LOADER BUCKET TO SPREAD

Need weight on top.

Put some more weight on it. Not heavy enough. Grate side down

Put some weight on it!

Youre going to lose your crown that way