BOX BLADE :: PHOTO comparision of brands

[Bob_Skurka]

There have been lots of questions about Box Blades lately and the lovely Mrs_Bob asked me to go to town yesterday so I made a couple stops on my way home at a couple dealerships to do a little photo comparision of Box Blades.

ALL OF THE BOX BLADES are manual adjustment blades, I didn't want to include any that have hydraulic control for the scarifiers because that is a differnet class of blades.

I took 3 pictures of each, I tried to show a front picture, a side picture and a detail picture of how the scarifiers adjust. All the photos were taken with my camera-phone so some are a bit rough.


The first Box Blade is one of my MIDWEST EQUIPMENT blade. This photo shows the side. Midwest is the only company I know that makes
a trapazoid shaped side plate with the bottom edge sloping upward from the back to the front. I like this feature as it allows for the blade to be tilted forward without the side plate digging into the ground, most other brands just have the corner cut back about 2" or 3".

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is another view of the Midwest blade. Notice how many attachment points hold the "A" frame to the blade (8 points), also notice that the lower link pins are the captured type.

The rear of the blade is CURVED. Several brands had straight back panels.

Midwest makes blades for several implement dealers under their private name (Corrihier is one of those) and they also make blades for Kioti.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is a detail of the pins that hold the scarifiers. The pins are large and easy to grasp even with gloves, tool free adjustments.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is a BUHLER blade. This is a nice heavy blade. Side plates are rectangles with cut leading corners. The scarifiers are held between 2 pieces of flat steel instead of in a square tube. Scarifier adjustments are easy to do without tools with gloves. One nice thing is that the lower link pins are the captured type and the reinforcement goes all the way to the back of the blade.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Buhler photo #2

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Buhler photo #3

This is a very well made blade and was priced lower than some of the other brands. The A frame assembly was VERY heavy steel. The back plate was a flat plate.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is a Hiniker blade. This is an American made unit. It has a curved back blade, just like the Midwest blade. It has an odd clip that holds the scarifier teeth in place. I could not adjust the teeth by hand without a pliers. This is a heavy blade but I didn't like the scarifier lock arrangement.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Another shot of the Hiniker. Notice the side plates use the cut corners.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Hiniker Photo #3, this shows a detail of the little clips that lock the scarifier teeth in place. What happens when you drop one of those little clips in the grass???

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is a Frontier blade. This is a 48" blade but it only has 3 scarifier teeth??? It was lighter built than some of the others. I wonder if this model is designed for the Sub CUT size John Deere 2210?

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is a detail of the Frontier pins for locking the scarifier teeth into place. The pins are a smaller size than the other brands, it would be hard to adjust these with gloves on.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is a side shot of the Frontier.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is a big heavy duty WOODS blade. This is a beast. The steel is noticably heavier than the other brands. It has an interesting locking system to adjust the scarifier teeth in place. It was sturdy, and could be adjusted without tools, but I would have preferred a simple pin lock. I would say this is the best made blade in this group.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is another shot of the WOODS blade.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

This shot shows the WOODS system for adjusting the scarifier teeth and holding them in place.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

This is a WORKSAVER brand blade. I did not like this at all. It was lightly constructed, the A frame was made of noticably thinner steel.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is another shot of the WORKSAVER blade.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I should have pointed out in the previous photo, the Worksaver blade used only 3 scarifier teeth on their 48" blade. This is very similar to the Frontier blade. I suspect this blade would be more suitable to be used on a Sub-CUT than on a CUT.

This photo shows a detail of their scarifier adjustment pins. These pins are smaller and lighter than most of the other brands, they compared with the Frontier blade.

With a pair of gloves on, there is no way I could adjust the scarifier teeth because the pins were small (and way too light for an implement that is designed for fairly rough work).

 

[gmsssi]

And your recommendation? I just ordered a Midwest "72"....

 

[Bob_Skurka]

For the money, I think that MIDWEST and BUHLER offer excellent quality at modest prices. For the most heavy duty, at not too much more money, the WOODS blade was the winner.

I didn't get to the dealer that sells Land Pride so I was not able to include them in the photos. If anyone else has a different brand, perhaps you could post photos???