Box Scraper First significant box-blade use.

[lcrans]

Picked up a 60" KK standard box blade a few days ago, and when it stopped drizzling I used it on our short drive hill leading to the house....this strip had washboarded, had UPS and FEDEX wheel-spin depressions, runoff areas, and snowplow damage. It did a fine job on this short experiment with minimal adjustment, and gave me the nerve to 'attack' a portion of our main access road.

Today I spent about 3 hours going back and forth on the access road, about 12' wide and 1/2 mile long between our drive and the uphill portion at the other end. It was pretty badly potholed, and unfortunately a few larger depressions were still pretty wet and puddled (I tried to avoid these mostly). I didn't use the rippers at all, being afraid of the probable larger stones under the gravel surface......and now and then adjusted the top link to raise or lower the inner cutting edge. Initially, on the first pass, it sort of skipped on top over the glazed surface, but then it started to cut in and load up the box. I kept it adjusted so that it pulled the box half full to full, and occasionally raised the 3pt a bit to drop stuff into the bigger holes. Using my JD-790 I had no problem pulling (2nd gear 1700 rpm) and think I could have gotten the 72" box instead.....at least for this job. It did a magnificent job!!! I was afraid I would also have to spread a bunch of new gravel, but looking at the finished job all the holes are filled and the road is nice and level.....Great!!

Question: For the uphill portion which I hope to tackle in a couple days, I'm not sure whether to go up or down the hill, or to change the box attitude in different directions. This section is also very potholed, and has sections with larger stones closer to the surface. Also, it is more heavily wooded, so the road stays more moist (not wet). Any tips for this area would be very welcome.

All in all, I wish I had gotten this thing long ago!

 

[Gizmo2]

Thats sounds great, however, where are the before and after pictures?
From all the talk about how good box blades are I'd have to say if I even thought I might need one I'd buy it. I bet it beat the heck out of doing it by hand and it probably turned out better.

 

[lcrans]

I'll be sure to take pics of the hilly portion....I realized that someone would climb on my butt for poor documentation!! Forgive me....!! By the way, just had a UPS delivery, and while chatting with the driver he said "What did you do to the road, box blade it? I bitched all the way down the hill until I got to the flat part."

 

[Gizmo2]

From what I can tell, it's a rule on here. No pictures, it didn't happen!

 

[dangerdoc]

I'm sure there will be many opinions but I've always had better luck working when the road is dry, preferably with some time to drive on it before the next rain. I touch up the road with a rake in the spring but like to wait for July or August to hit it with the blade.

Don't get too aggressive with the blade, moving less material with more passes will give you a better result and fewer dips. If you have a regular dirt blade, turning it backwards is a good way to spread loose material and packs it down a little, it will also help you prevent dips.

As far and working up or down, I usually like to work up, moving the material up hill as it tends to get moved down hill by weather and driving. I can't say the results are better, but it tends to keep more rock on the road over time that way.



Good luck.