Box Scraper Beginners guide to using a box blade

[johnk]

Johnk: I also ended up with the hinged back for the same sort of reason. Dealer ordered the wrong one but it ended up being the heavier duty model so I decided to keep it (about 100lb heavier).

It may be that my top link is not long enough to get to the point where the front blade does not cut.

How much weight is on your blade when you are doing this? Is your 3PT all the way down or are you adjusting it to only keep some weight on the surface but not all.

I lower the blade with the top link extended just so the hinged part has a little pressure on it. Experimentation is the key but that is a start for you.

 

[johnk]

The one thing you didn't list as a learning is that the heavier a box is the easier it is to get good results with it. That far outweighs (no pun intended) the hinge / no hinge aspects. The only time that isn't true is when the tractor can't pull the box!

Now get off the 'puter and start tractoring!

How true. The heavier the blade the less bounce as it's pulling through the material. I actually welded a piece on my box blade and I added 120# of front weights from my other tractor I had to the rear blade.......

 

[dangerdoc]

daBear. The float - the obvious fact that the 3PT does not have any down pressure, somehow escaped me. Thanks for pointing it out. It is pretty obvious now that I think about it of course

This may be a silly question but does anyone know which tractors have down pressure?

I'm pretty sure that years ago I had a farmall with down pressure. I bent about three toplinks when blading.

 

[Kendrick]

one more question, how do you guys go about compacting the surface? Do you just drive over it?

I order a load of kero or propain since he is the one ruttin my drive its only fair that he be part of the solution.

for my tractor it has 2 levers for the lift arms. i have position and draft controal on it. havent quite worked either out but got my drive well enough in a couple passes. Im not to worried about makeing it level just removing the ruts and spoiling the water raceway. the question of what to do with the last load of the bb is simple drop it at the verry end of the drive way so that the neighbors shared drive doesnt leak in to yourse in my case after the drive leaves a 300+ foot flat space on my property it goes up hill to the shared drive. when it all rains since im at the bottom and the shapes of the drives all the runnoff goes straight for my drive. i made a speedbump at the line so that all that runoff gets ditched in to the grass and doesnt continue on to my property and mush my drive.

the biggest thing is to keep a slight crown on the road no dip to collect water. if you gently shed the water it will not realy turn to much mud. if it collects in the ruts your in for a pigpin...

 

[santacruzer]

Thanks a lot all you guys. I'm new at this, so new I really didn't know what questions to ask about the box scraper. This gives me some great places to start from.

Again, many thanks for your time and effort!!!!

Paul

 

[JerryG]

This may be a silly question but does anyone know which tractors have down pressure?

I'm pretty sure that years ago I had a farmall with down pressure. I bent about three toplinks when blading.

At one time, several models of tractors had down pressure and one of them was the Farmalls. Now, as far as I know the only tractor that is being producted with down pressure is the [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Belarus[/FONT].

 

[dangerdoc]

At one time, several models of tractors had down pressure and one of them was the Farmalls. Now, as far as I know the only tractor that is being producted with down pressure is the [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Belarus[/FONT].

I've had three tractors since the farmall. All of them bigger, heavier and with more horse power but none of them can blade like the farmall. I could tilt and angle the bade and cut ditches. With my newer tractors, I can stratch at the dirt but not really cut in.

I might have to get it back someday to rework my drive.

 

[Charlesaf3]

great thread, really educational.

 

[Lewiston]

Because our tractors have always had draft control, I can't imagine leveling a drive without it. While the float position will follow the contours of the ground, the draft control uses resistance to scrape the high spots and fill the low.

Creating a level surface without draft control takes a great deal of practice and skill. If you use a box scraper, disc, or plow, that minor upgrade is a huge time saver.

Rik

 

[jmc]

wnsllc,

So when the resistance gets too high, the 3 point hitch automatically raises until the original resistance is restored?

And if the resistance gets too low, the 3 point hitch drops?

John