Boxscraping Basics

[gerard]

Not too well, you'll pretty much scrape up the muddy stuff but it doesn't "flow" out the back well because it clings together too well. One thing I learned the hard way was it's a lot easier to do your work in DRY dirt. I tried some of my initial grading after some rain and just made a mess. After that I never even tried until things had dried out and it was like night and day. (Of course that assumes the area you want to work DRIES out once in awhile

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>Re: soft, moist, clingy soil</font color=blue>. I guess that depends on your definition. Soft, slightly moist seems to work best for me, but if this black clay I've got is a little too moist, i.e., wet, you can forget it. It sticks to everything including a box blade and you can't shake it loose. You have to use a shovel or hoe to dig it off the blade.

Bird

 

[TomG]

I lower the scarifiers one notch to cut sod. After cutting, the sod comes off with the blade, although the box fills up fast. It takes a lot of traction to pull the scarifiers through sod, and with my turfs, I sometimes have to make several passes.

A shallow v-trench could be cut by using the 3ph levelers. I mostly use the levelers when building or maintaining a crown on a road.

 

[TomG]

I find that the first thing I have to do to make a smooth grade is cure any bumps and holes that are larger than the tractor wheels. Unless that is done, the scraper keeps dumping its load or digging new holes. It's handy if bumps are near holes. It's handy if bumps are near holes, because the rear cutter can be used to cut bumps into holes. Otherwise, material has to be brought in with either the loader or box.
Of course, the same problem exists at the top and bot++++of hills, but there's no alternative except to adjust with the 3ph.

As mentioned, getting the right 3ph adjustment at the right time takes a lot of practice. I suppose cutting, dragging and spreading can be controlled on the fly with the 3ph. However, it's far easier and much better with a hydraulic top link.

There have been a few discussions on scraper use in the archives here and on CTB.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Have any of you guys used box blades for landscaping? I install septic systems and need a better and faster method to level the land prior to seeding! The front loader takes awhile and it is very difficult to obtan a level surface. Any suggestions?

 

[Will]

I've found that it is pretty easy to peel off the dirt from the high spots and dump it, more or less evenly, in the low spots. Where I run into problems is when I'm trying to flatten out an area and I've got a combination of hard dirt (freshly scraped high spots) and soft dirt (all the stuff I've dumped). The soft stuff just doesn't want to stay still. I've gotten my best results by repeated grading on the diagonal and by lightly skimming the surface while going backwards - it's just easier for me to keep the height right while going backwards.

 

[Billc]

Best advice I've gotten on using the box blade is to go slowly. This past Spring I cleared an area for a pole storage barn (40x60) and a fifth wheel house (16x40). I hopped on the tractor and went to work. Within minutes the fella with a big CAT track loader I'd hired to clear a path for my fence line stopped me. He told me I was using my box blade all wrong. I had always thought by going a little faster the box blade worked better. He proved me wrong in a big way. He hopped on my tractor, put the tractor in low 2 (I have a gear drive tractor) at just above idle and accomplished more 5 minutes than I'd done in 45 minutes. So go slowly! Much better results.

As for getting good with the box blade, I agree with everyone else, know the basics and then you just have to use it alot.

 

[TomG]

Here, in ag & logging country, dealers say 'Box scraper? Oh yeah, landscapers use them.' Scrapers are a pretty standard tool for leveling land--anything better gets real expensive. However, when I hear 'prepare for seeding,' I think of a landscape rake. I don't have one, so I'm guessing that a scraper is better at leveling and moving dirt around, and a rake is better at smoothing and preparing a seed bed.

I also hear that dragging an I-beam with chain link fence trailing behind is pretty good at smoothing and preparing.

 

[Bird]

Jon, the father/son team that installed my parents' septic system had backhoe/loader they dug with and moved dirt back with, but then they also had an old Brown tractor with a big, heavy box blade that they used for the smoothing, leveling, etc. and they did a really good job. Like a lot of things I guess, if you have enough experience, it's amazing what you can do, and these two have been doing that kind of work regularly for over 20 years, so they're good and they're fast. And of course, my brother and I have used my tractor and box blade for all the landscaping we've done (since I don't have some of the other nice implements like a rake); we're just slower at it.

Bird

 

[Harv]

Holy Cow!!! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

I go camping for a couple of days and you guys set some sort of record for the number of posts over a single weekend. Ye Gods!!! I was up half the night trying to catch up with you.

I loved it. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

The last thing I did before I jumped into the car was to start this thread, and boy has my question been answered. I think Gordon summed it up the best -- especially that part about "practice, practice, practice". Somehow I knew that there would be some practice involved.

Now that it is much clearer to me what a boxscraper is intended to be used for, I think my ditch-digging project might be a little in the using-a-screwdriver-for-a-chisel category. I will still try tilting the blade and making a V-cut, but clearly this is not the primary function of the scraper. The rippers, however, do sound like the way to start, no matter how I wind up digging the ditch.

The good news is that besides the ditch-digging I have a lot of ground-smoothing to do, and with all the tips posted here I can hardly wait to get back up to the property and "get to work". /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif