Box Blade Use

[RobS]

Hi all, I'm anxiously awaiting my first "real" tractor project this weekend as I put in a culvert at our propert. I just picked up my box blade last night. Just thought I'd double-check my thoughts on it's use... Seems to me if I want to knock the high spots off to smooth the road I should raise the front (lengthen top link). This will let the tool ride more on the rear facing blade (non-hinged). If I want to cut more I should lower the front (shorten top link). TPH all the way down in float? I've heard they are hard to control with position? All this seems to work (in my mind) until the tractor pitches in a rut or depression. That will change the blade angle causing a gouge or high spot. Is there a way to minimize this (other than gage wheels)? I know all this will become obvious for me once I'm out there working, but I appreciate any input and tips from the experts. Thanks ahead of time.

Rob

 

[Bird]

Rob, I think you've pretty well got the idea; just takes a lot of practice to get good at it. I'm still hoping I'll get good at it someday./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird

 

[Billc]

Rob, when I'm cutting a new drive, or taking some of the lumps off of a drive, I lengthen the top link. When I'm moving dirt I shorten the top link.

Another thing I do is go over an area with the box's scarifiers down. This breaks up the surface. I concentrate on the high areas. Once an area is broken up, I raise the scarifiers, and move the dirt from where it isn't suppose to be (high areas), and put it where it is suppose to be (low areas. Then I drive back and forth over it to pack it down.

Hope this helps.

Bill Cook

 

[TomG]

That sounds like the basic idea. To other posts, I'll add that I sometimes have better luck cutting down wash board by holding position control rather than float. Material in the box doesn't spread into the lows on wash board that well. There's a tendency for float to take out the wash board by lowering everything to the bottom of the ripples, and you may not want a surface lowered. However, material in the box can be spread fairly evenly in a second pass.

Of course, how the scraper works greatly depends on what it's cutting. For example, I almost always have to hold position control when on loose gravel. Even with the top link fully shortened, the rear cutter just sinks into the loose gravel, and the front cutter spreads nothing quickly picks up a full box.

For cutting things that qualify as rises, or bumps, I often have better luck cutting with the rear cutter like a dozer, than scraping with the front cutter. Dirt usually comes off the ends of the blade and leaves two rows. I just go back and pick half the end pile and one row at a time with the box and spread it into low spots. The rear cutter also works for shallow excavations and is great for back filling trenches.

Other tricks: I just finished putting a decent crown on my drive by using the lower link leveler to put a tilt on the scraper blade. For compacting, I set the box on the ground and fully extend the top link (easy with a hydraulic link) so the box rests of the back of the rear cutter and then drive forward. I also compact by setting the loader bucket fairly level and lowering on the ground until most weight is off the front wheels. Back dragging the bucket then, gives decent compaction. With this method, there is very little steering, and break steering has to be used.

 

[RobS]

Mission accomplished, and I must say it looks great. I was most impressed with the little 790's dirt moving capabilities. Bucket was able to dig into pile of fill left over from road construction. This I hand tamped over the culvert pipe. Had 16 yards of additional fill delivered and the box scraper went to work. Makes a pretty decent bulldozer in reverse. Moved all that dirt around in less than an hour. I did use the box for some grading on the rest of our path and it worked well. And I did have to resort to position control to prevent picking up the whole field (strong little tractor!)

Here's an unrelated tip for those like me who need to haul water periodically. I needed about 10 gallons for concreting in some posts for a gate. I ended up using our camping cooler. With the lid latched, it kept most of the water in for the drive and the drain was pretty handy for filling a bucket. Now how to haul 100 gallons for watering the trees???

Rob