Scarifier Shanks

[Harv]

Okay, I want in on this discussion --

My 5-foot HOWSE boxblade has 5 rippers that are so hard to deal with I avoid using them, which is too bad 'cuz I have a lot of need for some ripper action.

My shanks have the notches in the back, but they are supposed to be held in place with these L-shaped pins dropped into the same slot in front of the shank (see attachment). I say "dropped" but the fact is, it's quite a struggle to get them buggers in at all. Once in the pins are secured by one of those locking clippy things (my wife says they look like bobbi-pins).

What's harder than putting them in? You guessed it -- taking them out. All in all, it's a most unsatisfactory arrangement.

Bird - you said you have a similar box blade. Does it have the same shank system? If so, how do you deal with it? Can I substitute something else for the pin?

Anybody?

 

[JerryG]

Harv,
My rippers mount just like yours. After you use them a while they will loosen up. I know this to well. I am now in the position to need to figure out a way to make them tighter. There are several different ways to do this and I haven’t decided which way would be the best.
JerryG

 

[glennmac]

Ahhh, the boxblade. The useful, user-friendly uber-implement.

Harv, I can't contribute to this discussion other than to be a pest, but your shanks look upside down and one looks backwards.

Here's what I have learned about boxblades. In order to be effective they have to be heavy, preferably more than 800 lbs. In order not to drive yourself mad and sterile from the constant putzing with the toplink, you have to get a hydraulic toplink. In order not to drive yourself mad and sterile from trying to adjust the incomprehensible scarifiers, you have to get hydraulic scarifiers.

Hello, $2,500 implement.

Maybe boxblades are made in China./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Bird]

Harv, mine is exactly like yours. The first thing I did was put all those little hairpin clips in a box in the shop and quit using them. The L shaped pins drop in from the top and I didn't see any way I was going to loose them, and I haven't. The second thing I've learned is to see if you can get hold of the lower end of the shank, wiggle it a little, and lift UP on it and then the pin lifts out easily. And when you start to put the pin back in, push or pull UP on the scarifier so the center of that rounded notch is in place instead of the top of the notch. That's usually all there is to it; however, sometimes when I've been pulling hard, got dirt in the notches, etc., then start to pull the little pins, one or more of the scarifiers may be a bit jammed. Just a little tap or two with the hammer in the toolbox under the seat cures that./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif The last box blade I had used square pins instead of these round ones and each one had a short piece of chain welded to the pin with the other end welded to the frame so you couldn't lose one.

Bird

 

[Harv]

Glenn -

<font color=blue>I can't contribute to this discussion other than to be a pest</font color=blue>

There's a lawyer joke in there somewhere ... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

<font color=blue>your shanks look upside down and one looks backwards</font color=blue>

Like I said -- it didn't come with a manual.

Like the old joke about the customer who brought his new chainsaw back to the dealer, complaining that it cut slower than his old hand saw -- when the dealer fired it up to check it out, the customer jumped back, saying, "What's that noise?" /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

<font color=blue>In order to be effective they have to be heavy, preferably more than 800 lbs.[/b]

Heavier is certainly better, but depending on what you're soil is like (mine is soft and rock-free, remember?), it still gets the job done. I actually have plans to make it heavier, but I will never admit that in public.

<font color=blue>you have to get a hydraulic toplink.[/b]

Wouldn't that be a cool thing to have, anyway?

<font color=blue>you have to get hydraulic scarifiers.</font color=blue>

That would be nice
So would HST.
So would a folding ROPS.
So would more horsepower.
So would a backhoe.
So would tax relief.

 

[Harv]

Bird -

Thanks for sharing your experience with the box blade.

One at a time, those clips are already finding their way to the bottom of my toolbox. I'm also working on ways to carry stuff along -- like a small sledge hammer.

I guess that my complaint is that the shanks have to be perfectly clean and perfectly aligned before you can put the pin in. I've seen your picture -- you have the same number of arms and hands that I do, so you must find it just a tad inconveniet, too. JerryG says that they will loosen up with use, so maybe I should just bite the bullet and use it.

The one thought I had (my quota for the week) was that the pins should be eliptical rather than round. That way you should have some extra clearance front-to-back while you insert them and then give a 90-degree twist to tighten them up with a little cam action. I actually started grinding one of the pins just to see if that would help, but that was just too much grinding for my little grinder.

 

[glennmac]

Harv,

Some miscellany.

The good news is that I actually don't care about tax relief. The bad news is that because I have spent so much time over the past three months obsessing over tractors, shopping for tractors, returning tractors, re-shopping for tractors, actually tractoring, and spending an addictive amount of time on Tractorbynet, I have had no time to earn any taxable income.

Since I am on a terminology binge this week, I hereby declare that your golden ground can be "rocky". In New England, ours is "bouldery". (We could have called it "big rocky" but that would confuse things with all the deli owners around here.) My current theory -- which is always more fun and rewarding than having actual knowledge or facts -- is that a boxblade works well on ground that is "friable". Run that through your online OED and let me know what it means. So I do not accuse your soil of being soft, only friable. (Mr. Gore, are you soft on crime. No, but if polls warrant, I am friable on crime.)

I am going snorkeling in about 7 hours to try and install my culverts. When you piled your sandbags, did you have more than one row of bags going back from the end of the pipe. Did you overlap them on top of each other. Did you drive anything through them to hold them together, like a nail. Did you fill the soil up as high as their top edge, or higher or lower.

Glenn

 

[scruffy]

Harv, question for you. Would it be of any benefit to grind the pins to a wedge shape (viewed from side) on the long part of the shank? It would seem to offer the easiest method to get them started, and the quickest to knock loose.

 

[Harv]

Glenn -

My American Heritage Electronic Dictionary defines "friable" as "Readily crumbled; brittle". Doesn't sound like my soil.

However, it defines "rocky" to be "Consisting of, containing, or abounding in rock or rocks". That sounds like it covers us both. Your soil "consists of" and mine "contains".

To further belabor the issue with pictures, here's a couple that show my ditch digging effort for culvert #3. The top photo shows the beginnings of the ditch after I dragged the larger rocks off to the side for use on the face of the culvert. Some of those are shown in the lower picture. I maintain my soil "contains" rocks./w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Forget the snorkel -- I can loan you my full scuba outfit, complete with an underwater video setup so you can share with your online buddies. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Not to be discouraging, but I did find some information on at least one kind of pipe anchor. Non-trivial for a home project. Take a look at:

http://209.238.37.62/harnessdet.html

<font color=blue>did you have more than one row of bags going back from the end of the pipe</font color=blue>

Nope. Pretty much just one row. I did jam some bags behind my face rocks for added support, but then just built up the layers from there.

<font color=blue>Did you overlap them on top of each other.</font color=blue>

I didn't pay as much attention to overlap as I did to filling all the voids and forming the backsides such that they should have a hard time sliding off the bag beneath. Pretty simple arrangement, actually. Maybe I should have been more scientific.

BTW -- Not all of my sandbags are filled with concrete mix. For economy's sake I used the concrete bags where I thought they would do the most good -- the ones closest to the pipe itself. But when I needed more, I just started filling bags with the limestone.

Which reminds me -- just to be clear on fill that I am using, I call it "crushed limestone". The place I bought it from calls it "non-spec'ed limestone". Like I said earlier, it contains so much of the "fines" that it looks more like sand at a glance, but oh, boy, does it pack down solid.

<font color=blue>Did you drive anything through them to hold them together, like a nail</font color=blue>

No, I didn't. But I am now considering Keoke's suggestion of driving lengths of rebar through them to tie them together. Unfortunately I am leaving first thing Saturday morning to head back up to the property -- no time to buy rebar.

<font color=blue>Did you fill the soil up as high as their top edge, or higher or lower.</font color=blue>

So far I've only covered the pipes about 6 to 8 inches. My plan is to bring in enough soil from around the property to build the coverage up to a foot. That will bury what is now my top layer of bags, but I might add another row of sandbags (not concrete) to help define the edges. I'm already having nightmares about dropping one of my big wheels off the edge. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif Actually, that's not a problem as long as I'm going forward, but a couple of times when I was doing some tractor work near one my "finished" culverts I backed up onto it a little hastily and got much closer to the edge than I care to admit.

So let me remind you, Glenn -- I ain't no expert on this stuff. This is my first try, and I'm learning pretty much at the same time you are. You might want to check with a higher form of intelligence before taking anything I say or have done as good advice. [end disclaimer]

Gotta catch a few winks before my long drive.

Good luck.

[HOLY COW, Glenn! We're having this discussion in the "Scarifier Shanks" thread!

Blasphemy!!!]

 

[Harv]

Scruffy -

Grinding the pins to a wedge is not out of the question. Thanks for the idea.