Aggressiveness of a BoxBlade

[mrlullabye]

I am fairly new to the tractor experience, but I have a 39 HP 4wd tractor with a front-end loader. When I bought it I thought I would be able to back drag with the FEL to smooth out soil. I quckly learned that that whole back dragging idea while sound just does not yield good results. I am sure someone will respond that they can backdrag until it is like a skating rink, no offense, but I can't.

So I decided to buy a rear blade or scraper. I ended up getting a quite used 6' Gated Boxblade. Not knowing much about a boxblade I did not pay much attention to that "Gated" part. This boxblade is old and rusted and seems to weight more then my old Ford Ranger. It's heavy as ****. It's rusted as ****, it's ugly as ****. It is super heavy duty though it looks like 3/8th steel sides and the hitch parts are 1/2. It's super duty. It does look like it sat in the gulf of mexico for a year though everything that looks like t should move is rusted shut. It took me about an hour to wrestle the old hitch pins off.

So anyways I get it hook it to the tractor and head to the mess of a spot I had made trying to backdrag a sandy washout bottom. Let me tell you it works great for smoothing loose material. I cannot imagine anything being easier to smooth loose soil with. It is perfect for that.

However back to that gated part the back door of the box is hinged and looks like it should be possible to move some pins and have it either swept forward or backwards. It is rusted backwards so when you are towing forward it basically is like a 600 pound broom. It is amazingly good at smoothing.

Now that sad I intended to use it to drag a shallow drainage 'ditch' I was going to just pull a rut several inches deep the width of the blade for about 300 yards to direct some water. The way it is though it won't even break the grass up. I can mash the grass down with it real good but it won't dig. I tried pushing backwards and it does slightly better but I am affraid I am going to damage my 3 point. It just does not seem like it is built to really bulldoze backwards.

So I guess my questions are.

Is it ok to bulldoze backwards with a boxblade? If so how much. I know with the FEL you can twist it up pretty good if you push on one corner too hards I imagine the same is true of the boxblade.

Should I look for a non-Gated boxblade? It seems like if the angle of the boxblade was cutting instead of sweeping this would work great. I really do not think it would be possible to get the gate on this one unstuck enough to kick it back forward.

I have thought even though I like the 6 foot boxblade, it does seem like a smaller blade might cut more aggressively.

A scraper blade is a lot cheaper and since I already have a smoother I thought about just getting a scraper. The area I want to cut is sort of a V shape now, and it sort of looks like that scraper might not be as tough as the boxblade when it comes to pressure on the outer edges.

Sorry about the long windedness.

 

[texasjohn]

The question is... can you bulldoze backwards with your box blade.

My answer is no. I have seen posts where people report that doing so they have bent their 3ph lift arms.

That said, I DO use my box blade pushing backwards to distribute LOOSE material. I think this works fine.

What I think is a problem is trying to dig hard material in reverse... which is what you are discussing.

I have a box blade with two blades.. one facing forward, one facing rearward. The angle of attack for either is set by the length of the top link and height of the lower arms. Ideally, you should dig by pulling forward with the forward blade set to dig into the ground....

If you can at all get your gated blade to move so you can set it to dig while going forward, I think you will be exceptionally happy with your box blade. I like PB Blaster as a penetrating oil to loosen up rust... might to put it on liberally multiple times a day for several days... try heating, etc...

 

[Treemonkey1000]

PB blaster is a good idea. Maybe a torch to heat up the hinge points as well. When I bought my Kubota I talked them into tossing in the demo 72" boxblade with it for a few extra bucks. It has ripper teeth that I can raise and lower. Now those were worth their weight in gold when tearing out a huge blackberry patch at my Mom's. They shredded the hard soil enough to get the rootballs out. Now I will lift the ripper teeth up and use the boxblade to scrape out the ground and collect all of the surface rocks.

 

[greg_g]

Is it ok to bulldoze backwards with a boxblade?

No experience with the "gated" type, I'll leave that to others. But I push loose material with my BB all the time. Anything more aggressive than that can damage the tractor lift system. So I guess the short answer is; push, ok. Bulldoze, no.

//greg//

 

[MarkV]

Did you try adjusting your top link? It sounds like the box was in a level position making it great for smoothing soil but for digging you would shorten the top link so the front blade is angled to dig in. It is also hard to make a box dig in thick sod. The sod will catch under the blade and keep it from digging. You might want to try and remove the sod with your FEL and then attack the area with the box blade.

MarkV

 

[carpenter383]

I didn't know there was any harm in pushing backwards with a box blade. I guess I shouldn't rip trees out this way anymore then. Too bad because it works way better than using the FEL. I can take out a 5" popular in about 30 seconds with my DK40 by pushing it over then backing into it's base with the box blade, when I make contact I raise the 3ph and rip the whole root ball out.

 

[Redneck in training]

I did exactly what you want to do today. I dug a shallow ditch to prevent puddles and standing water behind our house. I have a regular BB with two blades on the back wall. One facing forward and the other backward and five adjustable rippers on front cross beam. The ground was grassy, dry and hard clay. On the first pass it looked just as the BB collected some grass and didn't bite. But after several passes the rippers loosened the soil enough that the BB bit in and pull some material. Then I adjusted the BB in desired angle and cut the ditch. I dug about 130 ft of the ditch and it took me about three hours including spreading and smoothing removed material in another place that I needed to elevate. I will take few pics and post them when sun comes up.

 

[Redneck in training]

Pictures of my shallow ditch work.

 

[Steve C]

I don't know where you are located, but if you are lucky enough to be near a TSC store you may be able to buy a new box blade with the adjustable ripper teeth and the fixed double direction, pushing and pulling rear edge cutting blades (2) for $199 for the 5 foot and $249 for the 6 foot. They seem to be a exact copy of the King Kutter equipment except for the gun metal grey paint. TSC has some old stock "Dark Horse" brand equipment laying around and is clearing it out at very good prices. They seem to be a exact copy of the King Kutter equipment except for the gun metal grey paint. I cecently bought the Dark Horse middle buster plow ($49) and the chisel plow ($49) and most recently the 5 foot box blade for $199. I used the box blade to move compacted recycled asphalt from areas of my drive that are no longer needed to create a parking area near one of my barns. The ripper teeth do a great job of digging in on hard or grassy surfaces. Without them the blade just rides along on top

 

[texasjohn]

Certainly, properly used, a box blade is a dandy tool.

The OP wondered if it was OK to bulldoze backwards with a box blade.

I say push backwards to smooth loose material = OK.

I say bulldoze backwards into hard clay with rippers down and pointing backwards with rear blade cutting in = very high problem probability. Has anybody done this, for hours, successfully?