Top O' the Line Box Blade????

[patrickg]

Top O\' the Line Box Blade????

Just got my box blade back from waranty repair. They replaced the square tubing that raises and lowers the scarifiers. That tube and the two arms that support it and let it swing both bent. The tube was bent slightly up in the center and the two arms bent near their pivot points. They bent enough to chip the paint off.

The attached picture is after about 4 hours use yesterday, some of which was in a light rain. No rocks, just dirt. I pull this behind a Kubota L4610HSTC. Note that the left support/swing arm is bent again and the square tube is bent again, just more so than last time and in the opposite direction. Seems like a real quality box blade except for the hydraulic raise/lower part.

My salesman (Kubota dealer) says you should be able to raise and lower the scarifiers while box blading without damaging the equipment. What do Y O U think?

Patrick

 

[Bird]

Re: Top O\' the Line Box Blade????

<font color=blue>you should be able to raise and lower the scarifiers while box blading without damaging the equipment.</font color=blue>

I would have thought so, too, but don't have hydraulically operated scarifiers. I think I'd be very disappointed in that box blade.

Bird

 

[treeboone]

Re: Top O\' the Line Box Blade????

I may be going out on a limb here, but it appears that scarifer bar is over rated for the tractor. From what I am seeing on attachments, if you want it to be bulletproof, it had better be rated at more than TWICE the horsepower on the tractor. My little 21 PTO HP Case IH used up a 30 HP back blade in short order. The Rankin thumb on my backhoe was another winner, NOT. I think the attachment builders would be ahead of the game letting equipment operators design this stuff rather than accountants (no offense to accountants, offense to the bosses wanting a good bottom line...)

 

[Mike_Dumond]

Re: Top O\' the Line Box Blade????

I think I'd be looking for a refund about now. No reason for that kind of damage, unless you were single handedly trying to lower the Rockies. If they are gonna attempt to repair it again, I would demand larger, stronger steel.

Keep the greasy side down
Mike

 

[glennmac]

Re: Top O\' the Line Box Blade????

What brand and model is it, so we can all avoid it. How much did you pay.

 

[patrickg]

Re: Top O\' the Line Box Blade????

May I have the envelope please? Lessee now, the options are: Get it rebuilt back to standard configuration, beef it up, trade up to a tougher unit.

What did the factory say? You damaged this by raising and lowering the scarifiers while using the box blade. Don't do that.

They say, now that their design has failed twice, come to a stop before raising and lowering the scarifiers.

Yeah, right! Next they'll have me in a clean room wearing a white coat and gauze mask with the blade in the air raising and lowering the unit so many micro inches per second. Wonder why they put a hydraulic ram on it strong enough to bend it all to S--t if you aren't supposed to raise it and lower it while in use. Sure could have used a weaker cylinder to raise and lower it with no resistance.

For only a litle over a thousand dollars more I can buy an industrial rated box blade from them. Nice of them to take the old one back at full value, huh?

Cammond, the top of the line!

I offered to be a beta tester for them. If they want to try to beef up the unit, I'll gladly try it out and report back, no charge for my time and inconvenience.

If they don't do something honest and fair over this, I'll give them a few thousand dollars worth of negative publicity. Hell, there factory is only 25 miles from me, I could picket the place. A one man protest march with a giant Lemon flag flying from the bent equipment. Ought to make the TV, papers, and any other form of communications in this backwater since nothing else is hapening. Local radio station has hour long phone in swap meet type shows for folks to advertise stuff for free. That indicates a certain lack of stuff to talk about.

Patrick (slowly coming to a boil)

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: Top O\' the Line Box Blade????

Well, my boxblade doesn't have the hydraulic scarifier option (manual/fixed), but the bar that the scarifiers are attached to is 4" (or 5") square. The one on your unit looks to be less than 2"! Also, my boxblade has a (very large) diagonal brace going back to the back of the box (and up to the top link).

The GlueGuy

 

[MarkV]

Re: Top O\' the Line Box Blade????

<font color=blue>A one man protest march with a giant Lemon flag flying from the bent equipment.</font color=blue>

Patrick, that reminds me of when I was a kid in Illinois. Someone had a new Corvette with a lemon painted on the door parked in front of the Chevy dealer. The lemon was lettered to say "this $6,500 lemon was bought from ***** Chevrolet". People walking the street would put coins in the meter so that the car would not be towed. Best I know, the plan worked for that guy.

MarkV

 

[patrickg]

Re: Top O\' the Line Box Blade????

Glueguy, The square tube you couldn't see in the photo is 4 in x 4 in and isn't bent. It takes the working force as yours does. The bent tube, you don't have the equivalent of, is 2x2 and just raises and lowers the scarifiers.

Patrick (more later in further posts)

 

[patrickg]

Re: Top O\' the Line Box Blade????

Latest update pending expected final resolution on Monday:

I volunteered to be a beta tester for their attempts to bullet proof my box blade until one of us (the factory or me) gives up or we succeed. The owner of the company is out of town and is expected back Monday. His staff will meet with him to see what he would want to charge me to upgrade to their industrial rated model. This second option would be just between the factory and me with the Kubota dealer out of the loop. This was all reported to me via my Kubota salesman who is truly a prince among men. It seems both options may be open but I'm leaning toward the industrial model in a slightly wider size. It is a chance to get one hell of a box blade for less $ than I could expect it any other way. I expect it to be significantly cheaper than the difference in the Kubota dealer's discounted prices for the two implements (what I have and what I would end up with). The Kubota dealer gives me great prices, very little markup and no freight (same town as factory in this case).

I'll post the resolution when there is one. Right now I have a very positive opinion of the way they are willing to handle this. My expert and I ASS U ME certain things not in evidence, i.e. I could operate hydraulic scarifiers while blade was in motion scraping dirt. Well no other user has had this problem but I had it twice. Maybe my expectations constitute abuse by there way of thinking. Anyway the waranty is good and they are willing to go beyond it, apparently.

Stay tuned,

Patrick