Toplink Hydraulic Top Link on Gannon Box Blade

[W5FL]

Well today I ordered a Hydraulic top link from the local Kubota Dealer. It will be here next week.

The boxblade that I bought is a Gannon. It replaced a 6 ft Rhino, that I never was able to use very well. The Gannon is only slightly wider at 76 inches. The box blade is really made well from laser cut 1/2 inch steel end plates on the box to fully captured lower 3 point link pins - it is really built rugged. It has 8 scarfiers and they are engaged or disengaged with a lever. The front and rear blades are standard reversible grader blades. One of the nice things on the Gannon (now owned by Woods - but don't confuse with the Gil owned by Woods also) is they space the front and rear blade far apart and continue with the arc from the blade all the way up the box.

The rear blade does a good job of backdragging because the boxblade weighs 1000#. By setting the front blade about 1/2 inch above the surface, the back blade smoothes and the front blade only cuts high spots.

Gannon also makes a model that engages the scarfiers hydraulically, but I run out of spigots and the lever can be reached from the tractor seat to engage the scarfiers. Can't reach far enough without a rope to pull them back up though.

It was a lot of fun watching someone who had used a box blade for 15 years with the hydraulic top cylinder. He would make 3 passes on a stretch of road in a couple of minutes and by simply adjusting the length of the top link, he would cut going forward and in reverse. After that demonstration, I decided that $300 was a wonderful investment for the hydraulic top link.

 

[TomG]

Yep, I have more like 15 days experience, but I'm convinced. I graded a pad for a mobile without the hydraulic link and then built up the pad with gravel with the link. What a difference.

I may not have gotten the link had it not come with my 3ph pallet forks. Then, I would have spent a lot of time and gotten my exercise by hopping on and off the tractor fiddling with the top link. This is a lot better. Besides, I have a baby 6' backhoe for getting that sort of exercise. Sometimes I'll probably wish my scraper weighed 1000 lbs, but I'm happy its at least is almost 600.

 

[Cowboy]

Wen
You should really enjoy the Hyd. top link. I have the H.T. link on my 480LL. it works great with the Gannon 4x4 Box or the Roadmaster.

Cowboy
BigBoyz Toyz

 

[_RaT_]

Wen, to me, Gannon is the best of box blades. I use a 72" Gannon with the hydraulic rippers on a friends tractor. Besides having lots of weight approx. 1200lbs which is good for not only getting work done since there is no down force on the 3 pt., just gravity, but also to add much needed ballast for front loader work. They are also great for anchoring the tractor for whatever reason. I would never have a tractor without TNT (top n tilt). It is the only way to go. Rat...

 

[Budinohio]

How do you get more information on Gannon/Woods ? I've tried searching Gannon and Woods with no results. I am interested in there top links and box graders. Thanks in advance, budinohio.

 

[JerryG]

Bud, The link to Woods and Gannon is http://woodsonline.com JerryG

 

[W5FL]

Yeah, I wished I had the tilt after I climbed off the tractor several times and cranked the blade angle back and forth. Too expensive if you only have one set of hydraulics. The dealer told me they fixed one tractor up with a set of hydraulic switches to operate four things, one at a time and that it was cheaper to do it that way, but the switch assembly was pretty expensive. Gotta have money to play with the big boys. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[roysallis]

WEN,
Since I am still in the market for a box blade I checked the Woods web site and found a Gannon dealer in my area. They are asking $1800 for the HD215 (6' high back model which they say lists for $2015) and $1748 for the H220 (6' low back with list of $1955). You must have got the HD315 but do you think the $ for the HD215 is about right? I have priced a Tufline Model TB272 (6', 7 scarifiers, 625#, 21 cu.ft., hinged reaer blade) for about $550. My brother-in-law has had a Tufline for years and is very satisfied with it. I have seen the TB272 and my dealer and it is a well made piece of equipment. On my budget I can't justify $1200 difference in the blades even though the Gannon specs indicate it may be much better than the Tufline. If the Gannon dealer's price was closer to the Tufline price maybe I could justify it.
Thanks

 

[W5FL]

Mine was a 76 inch Gannon Model H320 for $1775. It operates all eight scarfiers with a single lever. The hydraulic operated one was about $300 more and heavier, but I ordered the top link hydraulic kit for $300 instead. Mine didn't have the high back, but would have preferred that as I managed to spill over the top on this one, however, you are pulling over 3000# when that happens. I had a light box blade the first time and there is really a big difference in construction and performance. Most equipment price is kinda by the pound. About a dollar a pound gets pretty close.

The Gannon has to be made MUCH stronger because there can be no brace between the scarfier holder and the back of the box blade, otherwise you couldn't use the lever. Another really neat combination is the roll over box blade, which is what I really went to get, but they didn't have it in a 76 or 84 inch and 72 is really too small. The end plates of nearly all of these are 1/2 inch steel and that helps both weight and strength.

 

[_RaT_]

Wen, while at the rental yard I noticed all the big tractors had Gannon 4X4 box blades, 96" wide. End plates were 5/8" steel and hyd. rippers. Weight of the box blade must have been close to 3000lbs.
I'm curious why a rollover would interest you versus a box blade. I can't particularly see an advantage or disadvantage to a rollover. It would appear though that the rollover has less capacity. I remember looking at a Danforth rollover thinking it was pretty ingenious, but now, can't particularly see a bonus to it. Can you shed some electro magnetic high frequency (light) on the subject? Rat...