"Made It Myself" Grader Shapes Up Gravel Roads

"Made It Myself" Grader Shapes Up Gravel Roads MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Earth Movers 33-5-35 "It has 3-pt. depth control which allows on-the-go adjustment," says John Copple, Cedar Vale, Kansas, about the road maintainer he built to shape up driveways and pasture roads. The 11-ft. wide road maintainer is 6 ft. wide with a V-shaped nose on front. Three 8-in. dia., heavy wall pipes are spaced 2 ft. apart. A top link-mounted hydraulic cylinder is used to change the angle of the entire grader. Retracting the cylinder pulls up the back of the grader and causes the nose to dig in and move gravel away from the center of the road. Then the pipes smooth out the gravel. "It works slick because it doesn't jerk up a lot of big rocks like an ordinary blade does. Instead it just slides over them," says Copple, who built the grader three years ago. "It works great for moving gravel crowns away from the center of the road. By adjusting the hydraulic cylinder I can make the nose dig in as deep as I want. I don't have to move the cylinder very much to change the angle of the nose. I spent about $1,000 on materials." Copple says he's looking for a manufacturer. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, John Copple, P. O. Box 75, Cedar Vale, Kansas 67024 (ph 620 758-2954; sjcopple@sktc.net).

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