Skid Steer mount box scrapers

   / Skid Steer mount box scrapers #1  

MChalkley

Elite Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2000
Messages
3,239
Location
Eastern Virginia
Tractor
EarthForce EF-5 mini-TLB (2001)
Does anyone know of somebody who makes a skid steer mount box scraper like the one at this link that's heavy duty, at least 72" wide, and includes the gauge wheel and scarifiers?

MarkC
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   / Skid Steer mount box scrapers #2  
Mark, I've never even been on a skid steer machine, so the only thing I know about them is from watching others and from my brother telling me about using them. But I've been sitting here looking at that box scraper trying to figure out how gauge wheels in front of the blade would help. If you were already on level ground, as the guy in the pictures, and just spreading another layer on it, I can see it, but otherwise it seems the gauge wheels would ride over the high spots . . .. Oh well, I've never seen one or seen it used; guess it must be good for some purposes that I just don't understand.

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   / Skid Steer mount box scrapers
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Bird - I have the same concerns. But having 4 wheel steering, as opposed to skid steering would help. The guys who use attachments with front gauge wheels say they really work, but I doubt they work as well as rear gauge wheels on the back of a three-point-hitch. Better than nothing, but not as good as, I suspect. I did see a laser-level scraper with front mounted gauge wheels that did very well, but that's a bit different...

MarkC
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   / Skid Steer mount box scrapers #4  
I think if you use the bucket curl for adjustment it would work good.
 
   / Skid Steer mount box scrapers
  • Thread Starter
#5  
DDT - You sound like you've used one... You're right, that's the way you're supposed to use them: Get the gauge wheel generally adjusted for the job at hand, then fine tune the depth with the dump/rollback cylinders.

I think Bird's primary objection to the setup, and the thing I'm not too sure about, is the application of the gauge wheels on the ungraded side of the work as opposed to having them on the graded side. With my previous tractor I made very extensive and effective use of gauge wheels on a heavy duty blade, but I always thought the reason it worked so well was because the gauge wheel was rolling on the surface you'd just finished smoothing with the blade. I don't think it would have worked nearly as well if the gauge wheel was in front of the blade. Yet, with the skid steer design, that's the way they all work. That's why one of the enhancements I'm researching, at least, for the EarthForce is a gauge wheel that can be attached to the back side of the loader Quick Attach plate, so any implement on the front can have the benefit of a gauge wheel and, more importantly, the gauge wheel will ride on the already graded surface. As I said, though, all this is theoretical on my part, I haven't actually used a device with the gauge wheel in front of the cutting edge, so I don't know for sure, and would appreciate any input.

MarkC
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   / Skid Steer mount box scrapers #6  
I would tend to think the gauge wheel idea is simular to a road grader, where the blade is near the power wheels. The steering wheels are a certain distance forward of the blade, not equal. In railroading, we use a tamper to lift and line the track. The tamping heads are very close to the machines rear axle, which rides on finished track. The ratio of distance from tamping heads to rear axle/heads to front axle is 10 to 1, thus the front axle is 9 times the distance from the heads as the rear axle. In effect, each pass over the track will eliminate 90% of surface/profile defects. In practice, two passes will remove 99% of surface/profile defects. If the gauge wheels on the box blade were either moved forward on the Bobcat machine, or further back on a 3 point hitch blade, it would produce better results.

Paul
 
   / Skid Steer mount box scrapers
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Paul - That makes a lot of sense - the further away the gauge wheel(s) are from the blade, the less the surface irregularities disturb the blade as the wheel runs over them.

MarkC
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