I need a Box Scraper, I think?

[scesnick]

I have a very long driveway I have to maintain. (2.5 miles)
I have a yanmar 2000 I also have a backhoe but it doesn't do what I want it to do as far as smoothing the road goes.
My road is mostly red dog shale and it gets very packed in the summer when we have hot, dry spells. Softer in the spring. Can you offset it to crown a road?
Will a box scraper smooth out my road and fill in the potholes? I am not familiar with them at all.
I thought they were mainly for landscaping yards.
It seems to me that the scarifiers would just barely scrape the surface.
Forgive my ignorance on the box scraper knowledge but, how exactly do these things work, and will one work for me ?
thanks. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[jcmseven]

Yes. A box blade is a nice tool for your purposes. The nicest thing about a box blade is that the teeth will dig up tough terrain and the "box" will let you pull material from where you do not want it to where you do. Most BB's have adjustable teeth, so you can set them however you want. Also, for all they would do for you, they are relatively inexpensive. There are lots of nice brands and a comparison was done about four months ago that you can access on site.

John M

 

[scesnick]

I think what concerns me most is if the teeth will actually dig into the road. I could easily see it just skim the road with the teeth and be nothing more than a good sled to pull things with.

 

[Highbeam]

Oh yes, they'll rip as much as your tractor can pull.

 

[scesnick]

even on a very packed road? it would just seem like it would have to weigh a ton in oder for the teeth to dig and not just scrape. Maybe i will rent onefirst and give it a whirl .

 

[jinman]

Weight of a boxblade is very important. Some of the more expensive ones will weigh 1/2 ton or more. The cheaper ones will weigh 500 lb (more or less). I have never seen any material that cannot be penetrated with the scarifiers except concrete. You don't have to use all the scarifiers or you can set a couple to dig deeper than the others and get the most out of whatever weight the box is.

Another thing about a boxblade is that you can push and scrape in reverse. That makes your tractor much more efficient because you can pull materials forward and immediately push them back and spread them evenly.

If you set the tilt on your 3PH correctly, the boxblade will pull material from the outside shoulder of your road and deposit it on the center to help create a crown. You may need to make several passes, but I don't know anything I'd rather have for road maintenance than a boxblade... unless you can get your hands on a road grader. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[scesnick]

Thanks jinman,

So I guess it is possible to crown a road with one of these. I'm not totally sure if my Yanmar YM2000 has a tilt feature on the 3pt. I have not tried that yet.
Are there any " rules of thumb" for buying a Box Blade to fit your tractor?
Thanks for all the great info.

 

[millsnhills]

You can probably buy a new toplink to help with the tilt if you don't have one but not sure if you could do the side tilt to create the crown. I believe the box blade is definetly one of the best implements I have. I would caution you it takes some time to master though. Boy did I make some big messes before figuring out how to work it.

I do quite a bit of driveway work and for potholes and bad ruts you really can't just fill them in to fix them you need to dig them out. You could do this with the teethe on the blade.

For sizing at a minimum make sure you get one that covers your path and maybe a little wider. Can not recall the measurements on your tractor but a 4 ft or 5 ft should do. The 5ft'er will have the extra weight and help out a good bit however if your tractor is only 2WD it may give you some problems.

Another thing I was thinking short term if you have a 4-in-one bucket on your backhoe simply open the bucket up, tilt down slightly so that it cuts the ground and run backwards to smoothe the drive.

Good Luck

 

[RonR]

A box blade might be the right tool to refurb the driveway, but if it were me, I'd buy or build something I could drag the length of the drive 2-3 times a month to keep it maintained.

I tried to find a link to one--I've seen several at farm shows--but I came up empty. The ones I've seen have basically two "blades" inside a box beam type implement. They have the ability to angle the front blade to move dirt to the high side, while the rear blade smooths it. If there is too much dirt, it simply goes over the top of the blades.

You should be able to pull a wider one of these than you could a box blade, so you could easily cover your tracks. With the top link, you should be able to make it more or less aggressive on the cutting.

They are pricey though, so building something would be a cheaper way to go.

Ron

 

[sweettractors]

Is this implement what you were thinking of?--Ken Sweet