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Thanks for the info, @308savage you see this?

 

Got it, just need to use it more! Thanks!

 

What sort of company would you call to get a grading consult?

I can rent a 5' box blade for $50 for the weekend and pull it with the NH TC40DA. I want to have a solid plan in place and be sure I don't need any more material etc.

 

I would search your area for small grading companies, get 2 or maybe 3 to look and see what they say. I doubt they all say the same thing. That would give you a starting point.

 

I haven't had a chance to get it out of the shed and serviced yet. I don't expect any fitment issues. Filters can be tricky if you don't want to use a Kohler. Everybody says you can use a Fram 3614 or equivalent, but it'll rub. Mine is an XT1 with the 46" deck and 22HP Kohler Twin, pretty decent running machine. I haven't really tinkered with it other than have to replace the deck belt per-maturely. That one was my fault completely Keep plenty of grease in the front wheels, the plastic bushings won't take much abuse. My machine is under 20 hours and they already have some play. Might have been due to my old yard was pretty bumpy. We'll see on the new place.

 

Once you mow with a ZT you will never want to go back to mowing with a GT.

 

How did you tear up the deck belt?

My yard is also pretty rough. I noticed the front wheels don't have actual zerks. It looks like it is just a piece of tube with a flare at the end to accept a grease gun. That is cheap and obnoxious seeing as a zerk fitting is like 30 cents.

I would have loved to go up a step to an XT2 to get bearings but they were unavailable locally and the cost starts to get out of hand.

I'll have to see how long they last for me. I think that they will either be a consumable item or I'll investigate a bearing upgrade in the future.

 

I caught a piece of conveyor belt that locked the deck up completely and then even shut down the engine. Lasted a couple weeks after that, but I'm pretty sure that was the root cause.

Mine was built late 2019 I think so it has grease zerks in the wheels. Didn't know they did away with that.

 

depending on what you are grading a land plane may be better suited than a box blade, just tossing the thought.

 

Put some pictures in here too, we may be able to give you some guidance

 

I have hit a lot of stuff over the years -- the worst was a steel cable dog tie out. Ever notice the damn things are generally Green, kind of like the grass, who the thought of that brilliant idea??
Rusty >><< Marketing Nitwit

Naturally it was an in town lawn so I didn't have many tools with me. I put the mower 1/2 up on the trailer ramp and worked on untangling that mess for 1/2 an hour -- bleeding and swearing all the way.

 

My dad bought a new push mower back in the early 80's which was not normal cause we were poor, the first day he hit a big rock and bent the crank. He kept mowing with it and hit the car axle shaft he had buried for the clothesline anchor and it straightened itself out and quit vibrating.

 

I only ever bent one crank. I hit a piece of 4" pipe with a little cast aluminum deck Snapper V21 built about 1971. It was my all time favorite mower, so wonderfully light and never clogged no matter how wet the grass -- and I paid $20 for it. I found a replacement engine at a flea market for $20 & back at it.

 

I'll get a pic of it tonight. I didn't inspect that closely, just while I was wiping the excess factory grease off so it didn't sling everywhere.

I have one portion about 500' that is like a roller coaster. We had road scrapings dumped with high clay content and some fist sized asphalt chunks and before I could get the piles distributed properly, we started to drive on it. So wherever a pile was dropped there is a wave. I'd love to distribute this material evenly, so I was thinking box blade and let the rippers dig deep. We had someone try to fix it with their skid steer with tooth bucket but it didn't get deep enough to really redistribute material like it needs to.

The second portion is a slope towards my front door where water runs off the driveway, into the front yard, and then to the front step where it pools during moderate to heavy rains. Water gets trapped in the tire ruts (think farm laneway) and just funnels down.

I'll get some pics of this as well.

I called one local company. They're coming out tomorrow to assess the project. If their labor is reasonable I'll just have them do it and do it right and be done with it. I think this is the root cause of a lot of our landscaping problems so this will be worth it.

If I could, I'd regrade and gravel the whole 1/4 mile driveway, but I think the cost on that would get out of hand pretty quick. I'll just focus on the big problem areas.

 

If you do decide to do it yourself, instead of renting a box blade I'd buy one. You'll use it more if you have it than if you don't

 

I definitely considered that. A Countyline 5'er is $1100. I figure renting one for $50 for the weekend is easier to explain to my wife.

 

See if you can find a good used one on c-list or marketplace

 

What is the deposit if you don't return it?

 

Water comes down the driveway, washing it out, and also fans out into the yard to the right. You can see at the bottom of the picture, there are debris lines.

My thought is, to grade everything so it slopes more left and off into the tree line.

At the top of the driveway, you can see a W shape that forms a gutter.

Slope is hard to describe and even harder to get right in a picture.



Weird grease tube that isn't even sealed at the end.

 

I wish I only had your slope to deal with. I have water washing out my driveway in multiple spots.