Sunstar belly/grader blade

[Biggin]

I couldn’t find any info about a belly blade for the Sunstar so I figured I’d ask here. Is there one available? Or will it be a homemade? I prefer the belly blade to help maintain my gravel drive. I have one on my Wheel Horse but would love one for the Sunstar. 

[Talntedmrgreen]

I do not believe any such thing was offered, but I share your preference for a mid mount unit.  
 

I kept my eyes peeled for a Deere mid blade and finally nabbed a cheap one at a local consignment auction. This is 54” and should work well under a Powermax (or sunstar/Legacy).  I see these often, but typically for more $$ than I am willing to spend.  I hope to fab some adapter brackets that will prevent me from modifying the unit, and then add the missing hydro angle cylinder. 

 

[SmilinSam]

I engineered a grader for my Sunstar.  I tried several arrangements and this is what seemed to work best.  not everything I wanted, but compromises had to be made.

The hitch is like a normal center blade hitch, but has some mods..  this one is a little longer, for two reasons. One - to keep the blade out of the front tire when angled, and two- to add in a center side to side pivot.

 

The pivot offers me a slightly deeper cut if I want. However it creates its own problems when raising the blade. Not much clearance on a Sunstar to lift the blade off the ground.  So.. when pivioting like this I have to get where I want to start the cut and then level it out at the end of the cut to get it off the ground far enough to travel. I rarely pivot it this way however.  There is enough slop in the hanging system that you cant usuall y push the leading edge down with your foot and keep pressure on it to make most cuts needed. I use this blade to primarily build and maintain the crown in the center of my my 600' driveway. That and maintain the drainage system for the driveway and lot.

To be able to use this blade it had to be 60" wide to stick out beyond the footplates and tires.. I used a wear plate from a rear farm tractor 3 pt blade. To reach the blade with my feet for operating down pressure I used a pair of dula brake pedals from a John Deere 300 series with a few bends placed in the one and some brackets welded on to bolt to the blade.

One compromise I had to make was that I can only angle the blade one way and cut from one side of the tractor. This is because to reach the ends of the blade the leading edge on the blade has to have the pedal angling back towards the operator....

The one at the trailing edge has to be angled forward towards the operator...

 

 Sio you cant really angle the blade from left to right without having a second set of pedals cutstom made to bolt on in place of the others every time you switch angles....

I am lifting with a chain at present. Tried solid lift links before for down pressure, but doing it that way there is no real control over where on the blade you are cutting. IE no way to use it to crown the drive way effectively.

You about need some sort of foot pedal or "stirrup" setup to have any control over the bl;ade when cutting. Even Josh arrasngement above would likely end up needing such.  Careful thought needs to go into designing and using such - as severe injury can occur if you slip your foot off the blade or pedal when moving along. ( Probably why Simplicity quit making grader blades long ago..way too much liability)

Thats my solution for a grader blade for my own use. Not perfect by a long ways but does the job.

[PhanDad]

@SmilinSam

Nice fab work on the belly blade (as usual for your adaptations).

 

[spi]

Just to give you an idea, I made a belly blade using an old snow plow cutting edge.