Using a box blade on mature grass

[bxowner]

I've never used a box blade. I have a 2320 and a friend has asked me to come over Friday to help him put in a bluestone patio in a fairly level area. Another friend has a box blade... I figured it would be good to use the box blade to scratch up and drag the grass, as opposed to trying to cut and scoop the grass out with my loader. I mean, I will use the loader to remove the piles...

Just wondering if this is an appropriate use of a box blade? Or just an aggravation and a waste of time (I would have to travel to two friend's houses, offload the tractor, hook up the box blade, reload - twice, since there's the return).

His place is clay, mind you. So, it's dense. And I have turfs on a 2320. So, I'm not working with a lot of power to simply say the loader will do it, "no problem" (mind you, the 2320 really hasn't let me down before).

 

[Marveltone]

I've used the scarifiers on my box blade to break up mature sod. It's about the best way I've found to punch through that stuff. My Ford 1510 only has 20 HP and turf tires, so I think we're running comparable enough machines. The biggest problem you'll run into is the grass will clump and roll, which will be your cue to lift the blade and clear everything out. Just take your time, take shallow, multiple passes and it will work out fine.

Joe

 

[SandburRanch]

Use the scarifiers at least twice, 90° the second pass. If the box blade still doesn't want to load hit it again with the scarifiers until it does.

 

[JD 4520]

Since you say that you have not used a box blade before, the key to success is the adjustment bar on the 3point. You'll want to try a couple of different positions' perhaps front down initially to assit with the scoffers and digging the sod, then the front higher to achieve the leveling that you will be looking for.

 

[JimRB]

I leveled a place in the field for a barn with a box blade. I probably dug out 3 feet on one end of the site. A box blade should work fine. Angle of blade can be important as mentioned.

 

[radioman]

hmm, I don't see why you can't use the FEL. I have used low gear,4wd,turfs on BX. I just start cutting by angling a little bit to "cut" the grass then curl upp and start pushing forward. Just take your time and pretend it going to take 10 mins to make adjustments on the first cut and scoop to make everything perfectly flat when scooping. This is important as once the rear tires touches the scraped dirt, it will determine the levelness of the area you are clearing. I always take 2 ft or less of sod up at a time. Any further just sucks the bucket down deeper making it unlevel in clay.

 

[beenthere]

And I've also found that a 3 ph rototiller really works well. I use that to work up sod covered black dirt for transporting where I need fill dirt. The mixed grass roots aid in starting the new grass. But if no tiller available, then the box blade scarifiers should do the trick very well. And anything to help the FEL bucket will be good.