Rear Blade - Heavy Duty

   / Rear Blade - Heavy Duty #1  

Haoleguy

Platinum Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2005
Messages
793
Location
SE Connecticut
Tractor
JD 5325; Landini Mistral 50
I could use some input from this group on a heavy duty rear blade for my JD5325(66hp). Thus far I have used info from this forum, manufacturers/dealers websites, and dealer visits. From this I have narrowed the considerations to Land Pride RBT3596 & RBT4596, Bison NVH-240-XHD & NHVH-242-XHD, and Frontier(Bisons slightly modified) RB2308. I will be using this to complement my Gannon boxblade to build(1500ft) and maintain gravel drive(3000ft) with specific use in crowning, ditching, and snow removal(low-mod snowfall). The weight of these blades runs 750-1150 lbs. There are differences in tilt angle(e.g. 15 deg vs 23 deg), offset distance(e.g. 18 in to 35 in), and moldboard height(e.g. 17 in to 19 in). My question to this group are any of these differences significant for the operations I wish to use it for? For which of the three angles(tilt, offset, angle) should I consider to add hydraulic over manual control?......Thank you, Gary
 
   / Rear Blade - Heavy Duty #2  
Gary, nice to see someone looking at some quality blades to start with. :thumbsup: I would go with the LP RBT4096 or equal of the other brands that you are considering. I know that the RBT3596 is rated for your tractor, but you are on the upper end of its capabilities and if you are going to be working it hard, why chance damaging it. The RBT4596 is way to big for your tractor and is a waste of your money in my opinion.

Do you have Top and Tilt for your 3 point? If you do, then there is no need to get the tilt hydraulic for the rear blade. Otherwise get the hydraulics for the angle and the offset. I highly recommend getting "TnT" (Top & Tilt) for your tractor, it is the only way to go if you are going to be doing much grading and it sounds like you will be. "TnT" works wonders when grading with most grading implements.

I have a Land Pride RBT45108 that I use with my Mahindra 75204x4. My tractors weighs in at a little over 12,000lbs and my tractor is on the lower end of the RBT45's capabilities, but any of the lighter duty blades are just to small. I had thought about getting a 40 series, but I'm am over it's weight rating, thus the 45 series. My opinion is that the Bison blades are better than the Land Prides as their price reflects, but I would have had to wait about 3 months to get one and didn't want to wait that long. If the Frontiers are really just Bison's, then that is a good thing.:thumbsup:

What are your price differences? When I was looking, Land Pride was less than Bison and Frontier. I put on my own hydraulics because I don't care for the tie rod cylinders that come on most of the rear blades. I have welded cylinders, didn't really save much money by supplying my own, just have better cylinders in my opinion.

Oh, do you already have rear remotes and how many if you do? And get the skid shoes, I could hardly believe how well that they work. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Hope that some of this helps, good luck with your decision.
 

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   / Rear Blade - Heavy Duty
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Hi Brian - Thank you for the very thoughtful response. My intention has always been to buy good quality products from the start and I have not been disappointed yet.

I do not have TnT as of yet. Noticed and read many posts here but did not register on how it worked until you mentioned it and I took a closer look, thanks. Most dealers, including mine, know little about the merits of TnT. Seems like this would add 2 functions(side tilt & rear tilt) to my box blade that would extend the use of that attachment for road edge material recovery and gradual material release. I have 2 rear remotes(wish I had gotten 3). As I understand it for TnT I could add toplink and sidelink cylinders and would be there, yes/no? Seems like I would use TnT for boxblade and gain benefits but for a rear blade it provides me with no advantage if I choose to control angle and offset with hydraulics...right? If I'm wrong can you lead me through the setup for the box blade and rear blade?

As you can imagine my local tractor dealers do not carry heavy duty attachments and thus everything needs to be ordered. In some cases a shipping charge will be applied..e.g. Bison is not found in our region and would need to be ordered from midwest or west dealer. Right now my prices are preliminary with only an LP RBT3596 being priced at $3275 with 2 hydraulics and skid shoes. Based on feedback from members here I will focus down to a few and get hard numbers. My guess right now is that I will see prices from $2400 to $3500 without hydraulics and probably $600 to add hydraulics. Next week I plan to make a concerted effort to get prices & delivery times.

Cheers, Gary
 
   / Rear Blade - Heavy Duty #4  
Gary,
I would consider what you can do to add an extra hydraulic connection or two if possible. A rear blade to be fully seat controlled needs four circuits as you already know. Most implements need far less, I have three rear sets and would still need another for full rear blade control. The simple solution is to pick the blade function you use the least and is the easiest to change manually and leave this one without hydraulics. My guess is the offset function could be left manual.

With the top n tilt you could use the manual adjustment top link instead of the top hydraulic cylinder. The advantage to topntilt is as you say it can be used with a multitude of implements including the boxblade. I use the topntilt for my landplane/grader too and with Imatch it makes changing implements much easier to do.

On cab tractors a diverter valve might be a solution to gain more hydraulic ports. On open station tractors you may find you can have a multiple valve arrangement similar to a 210LE landscape loader or Case 480 landscape loader. These loaders have a gang of four or five spool valves in a row for adjusting tilt, offset, angle, and blade pitch.

On my 4520 cab without a front loader and no interest in the future I simply replaced the front couplers with 4' hoses and rerouted to the rear hitch and use these for the topntilt, the third outlet I use to work the hydraulic scarifiers. For a rear blade I use the topntilt as is and am adapting the third cylinder setup to blade angle. My blade does not have offset but my next one will.

Using the topntilt with the Gannon boxblade provides you with a lot more control than you have previously had, you will like this upgrade for sure.

Here are some pics from last year of the topntilt with the Gannon boxblade.
 
   / Rear Blade - Heavy Duty #5  
Shipping may kill getting a Bison rear blade.:( I bought my LP blade from our local JD dealer. Instead of paying for 1 week delivery, I waited for 3 weeks when LP made their standard deliveries out this way and was not charged any delivery charge. :cool: I'm considering an RBT3584 for my smaller tractor, and they are right around $3500 with the hydraulics, so your price on the RBT3596 is a very good price, although a little small for your tractor in my opinion. I paid a little more than $3600 for my RBT45108 without hydraulics a couple of years ago.

You will find that you will use "TnT" with your rear blade also, anyway I do. When working on a road, you will tilt the blade to shave off a little more material on the outside edge of the road. I usually use the Top Link cylinder for transport to get the blade up higher, but it helps to have the front-back tilt right also and that is a lot easier with a hydraulic Top Link.
It is very common to heavily use a hydraulic Top Link with a box blade. The top link controls how much cut you get with either your front or rear cutting edges. It is something that you would use quite extensively I would think. Do you have hydraulic scarifiers for your box blade?

If you noticed in my action picture, I only have my angle cylinder on right now and no offset cylinder. My tractor only has 3 rear remotes and I need 4. I am going to install a double after market valve for my "TnT" so that I will have 5 rear remotes, just haven't done it yet. :ashamed: Sort of makes me mad that I haven't installed them yet, have everything to do it except time. The offset cylinder & hoses are ready to go also, just no control valve for it yet.
 

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   / Rear Blade - Heavy Duty #6  
Gary, something else that you should consider is a grader blade. With 3000' of road to maintain, a grader blade sure does work good for general maintenance.
 

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   / Rear Blade - Heavy Duty #7  
Brian,
I guess we both need to get to four rear remotes:) My 110tlb has the diverter valve allready and I have contemplated using the third fel function and moving it to the rear which would give me four outlets. If I buy a grapple though I would still need it up front.:( Got to decide what to do soon though, good luck getting yours hooked up.



Gary,
Heres another pic showing the tilt function.
 
   / Rear Blade - Heavy Duty #8  
Brian,
I think most people who haven't used a grader blade don't know what they are missing. Definately something that gets regular use in my work.
 
   / Rear Blade - Heavy Duty #9  
Steve, I have the same mono block setup that I put on my 3215 and was thinking that I would just mount them on the fender, just need to DO IT.
 

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   / Rear Blade - Heavy Duty
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Steve & Brian - Eventhough my head is swimming a little bit I think I get it. Best 2 have four rear valves so that you can use 2 for the TnT and 2 for your attachment if needed. In my case I do have hydraulic scarifers on my box blade so as I see it I would use 3 remotes(2 TnT for tilt & curl/pitch + 1 bb for scarifers). For a rear blade I would use 4 remotes(2 TnT for tilt & curl/pitch + 2 rb for offset and angle). My JD5325 is open station with 2 rear & 3 mid remotes(grappler) and a power beyond for my backhoe. It seems I could use the power beyond to run 2 more rear remotes. By the way thanks for the pics and explanations.

Is best to add the 2 rear remotes from a kit or separates? For the TnT cylinders how does one try to match length and strength to their specific tractor...or... is it weight of heaviest attachment?

Brian - Thanks for the feedback on Land Pride price as this guy seems like a good dealer(Kubota). The RBT4096 weighs in at 848lbs and with 30in offset. Bison NVH-240-XHD is 926lbs and 18in offset. And finally, the Frontier RB2308 is 1139 lbs and 19in offset. Any thoughts on staying above or below the 1000lb mark?.

Thanks again guys, Gary
 
 
 
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