Grading Cat 0 or 1 box blade and rake for a 2305?

[OffTheFarm]

I've moved off the farm and built a house on the edge of town - will be taking delivery of a new 2305 in a couple days to keep from driving my wife crazy. I've read many posts on this great site to help make that decision and really appreciate the information. The tractor is coming with a 62MM mower, 200CX loader, weighted tires and ballast box.

I understand the shortcoming of the limited Cat 1 three point but haven't actually experienced it yet. I need to pick up two more attachments right away - a 48 inch box blade and 5 or 6 ft. landscape rake. Might also pick up a back blade later if it seems like I needed.

For these two attachments am I better off with the Cat 0 "XB" line from King Kutter or should I go with the heavier full Cat 1 attachments? I'm not inclined to tear things up and won't be doing any commercial work, but don't tolerate junk, either.

With the different geometry of the Cat 0 tools, can you raise them higher so that it's worth paying the same or more $ for a lighter tool?

I'll be using them to landscape a two acre building site that is currently bare clay subsoil (topsoil has to be hauled in yet, but it's been brought to rough grade and our house is finished) and to maintain about 250 feet of fairly level gravel driveway. Thanks in advance for your help.
Dan

 

[daBear]

I don't know anything about the 2305 but if it were me I would go with the heavier Cat 1 box blade just because of the weight. Some folks even put a piece of railroad track on their boxes to help it dig since almost no CUT's have down pressure on the 3 pt. Also, I just put top and tilt on my tractor to use with the box and it is worth the money a couple of times over.

 

[gunmaker]

Buy the Cat 1 implements. Always try to get the heaviest duty implement your equipment can handle, it will save you money on repairs later on, and retain a higher resale value if you move up in equipment size.

 

[mred]

I just went through this when looking for a rake for my 2305. I was worried about the lift height. My dealer was nice enough to get a Land Pride Cat 1 rake (I think an LR1560) and put it on a machine on the lot. It raised the rake 8" which I think is 4" lower than the low profile. The Land Pride Cat 1 is significantly heavier (>100 pounds) and the dealer recommended I go that way so I went with it. I have tried it, I like it. I still have a lot to learn about rakes even with the training wheels on.

 

[davkir]

I have the Frontier BB2048L box blade(48", limited cat. 1). It's about 100lbs. lighter then their BB2048 cat. 1. I occasionally have to hang suitcase weights on it.
I haven't tried a full sized cat. 1 BB on it but the tractor doesn't lift mine very high, especially with the scarifiers all the way down.
You may want to check that out if you get "full sized" implements.

 

[orlo]

Get the Cat 1. I have a 2305 (and a 3720 also). I can imagine with something like a post-hole digger lift height might make a big difference but for me in using a chipper, 72" blade, 60" rake, etc. the only time lift height as been an issue on the 2305 is if I load it on a trailer. Going up the ramps may be an issue. If so, tighten up the top link and angle the implement up if you do that.

Also, if you extend the arms with something like Pat's easy change system you'll gain a little bit of height.

 

[450r]

I just went through this with my 2305....get the Cat1 inplements as the Cat0 XB line has cat1 pins with cat0 spacing resulting in excessive sway in your implements. There is not enough adjustment on the sway links of the 2305 to compensate for the cat0 spacing.

 

[VABlue]

I have a 5' cat 1 blade for my 2305 and it works fine. The only issue is when you go through a dip or valley, like a small ditch. The blade can bottom out when the front goes up, so be aware of that and take the dip on an angle if you can. Otherwise, the machine has plenty of power to pull it along and work with it.

 

[OffTheFarm]

Thanks for the feedback.

It's raining here and too wet to do anything else, so I'm headed to town to pick up a 4 foot Cat 1 box blade.

Landscape rake next on the list.....

 

[Ray2210]

I have a 2210 and the only xb type attachment I have is the KK subsoiler/middle buster. I had to extensively modify it to fit my I match though. Everything else I have is Buhler made equipment and is standard Cat 1. I have had no problems but as stated you have to watch it going up and down a trailer with an implement on the back or when backing down into a ditch or such. When I put the I match on even that situation improved quite a bit as the extra length raises the implement a bit. On my Buhler Farm King Tiller it has two sets of Cat 1 pin holes and using the lower set gets the implement up some as well.