Back blade issues for BX owners

   / Back blade issues for BX owners #1  

proudestmonkey

Gold Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2006
Messages
439
Location
Cottage Grove, Minnesota
Tractor
Kubota BX 2230
A few days ago, I wrote the following about my back blade in response to someone's question. I thought it might be helpful to others on this forum thinking about buying a back blade issues for the BX's.


I did buy the standard (not BX, not "Professional Series") 60" King Kutter blade at TSC. I paid $215 for it.

My final decision was based on the following considerations, most important first:

Price, size, weight, features. Price was great. Size (60") seems about right for a BX. I worried that anything wider would result in sliding to the side either way. Weight was what cancelled out the BX blades. This blade weighs 250 lbs. Just the right amount, along with liquid in rear tires (80 lbs per tire) for a good amount of ballast to offset the weight of my FEL.

There are two features I wish it had that it doesn't. The first is tilt. Tilt allows the blade to be leaned forward and backward. This is important on a larger blade attached to a BX because the BX's stance in relation to the ground is low enough that, in order to get good height for the blad in the up position, you have to use a shorter length top link. This wouldn't be a problem really, if you were going to keep the blade straight (perpendicular) to the rear tires. However, with the short top link, once you lift the blade off the ground a little, and then angle it one way or another, the blade is no longer level from side to side. You kind of have to see it to know what I mean. The first of the attached pics shows the side-to-side angle at a lower position. The second picture shows no angle when blade is straight out.

My dealer told me tilt was important, but he wanted $575 for a Bush-Hog blade with Tilt. I didn't want to pay that much money. Knowing what I know now, I agree that tilt is important for a larger blade on a BX, but I am still not convinced its worth a three fold increase in cost. This would not be a problem on a blade that didn't extend as far back as my blade (like the Estate Series blades sold by Woods). My fix--I extended the top link about a total of 3-4 inches, and that pretty much solved the problem. With the top-link extended, the only sacrifice is that the three point hitch doesn't raise the blade as high now in full up position, but I adjusted the top-link two or three times until I had a good compromise between angle without too much offset, while still being able to raise it enough to avoid hitting the ground on hills (mostly). In full up position, the blade probably sits about two feet off the ground (before extending the top-link, it probably raised to about 3 feet off the ground. If you live on pretty level ground, reducing the amount of height at full up position shouldn't be a problem at all.

Like I said, for the money I saved, and given the perfect weight and size of the blade, I have no regrets about buying it. If I had the money, I wouldn't even have messed with a blade for snow removal. I would have just bought a rear mount snowblower (new is about $1,200). That with an FEL has got to be the PERFECT solution for snow removal. I might still get a rear snowblower when we have more money. I will still be glad to have the blade though. Over the past two days I completely re-graded the gravel in the driveway, courtyard and my tractor trail to the shed. Last time I did that (when we bought the house almost two years ago), I had to pay a guy over $300 to do it. So, the blade has already paid for itself.

I also wish my blade could be offset. I don't mean having it longer on one side than another. That, I think, would be useless on a BX. They are too light. I think you'd lose traction right away, and slide toward the side with the extra lenght. By offset, I mean that the blade could be angled so one side is lower than the other. With this feature, the shorter top-link wouldn't be as important. Also, I use the blade to maintain my gravel driveway and I'd like to crown it, which is a major hassle with a blade that doesn't angle from side to side.

My blade does offer 7 forward positions, and 5 reverse, and you can spin it to your heart's content without removing it.
 

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   / Back blade issues for BX owners #2  
as for your offset question- is there an adjustment on one leg of the 3 pt? on my old L175 there is- like the adjustment on the top link. I haven't tryed it, but I have to think it would give you some, altho limited slope.

Hope this makes sense, and helps
 
   / Back blade issues for BX owners
  • Thread Starter
#3  
goaliedad said:
as for your offset question- is there an adjustment on one leg of the 3 pt? on my old L175 there is- like the adjustment on the top link. I haven't tryed it, but I have to think it would give you some, altho limited slope.

Hope this makes sense, and helps


Good point, and yes it helps. It will be a bit cumbersome, but there is a height adjustment arm on the right-side lower arm of my 3 pt. hitch, which allows me to have that arm higher or lower than the left side. I should really only need to adjust it once for the winter, and then leave it until spring grading time (if I don't adjust it back, then the blade will be slanted when it is in the straight on position).
 
   / Back blade issues for BX owners #4  
I tried to mod a KK 6ft rear blade to work on my BX, and gave it up.

First, it was an old style 3PH, with the pins on the blade only available to mount outward. My 3PH arms wouldn't go that wide to catch them. So I welded on some brackets to install my own pins. To make it work right, I would have needed to adjust the top link geometry as well, but I didn't really need the rear blade anyway, so I gave it up and cut my brackets off.

Plan to sell the blade this winter to someone that has a bigger tractor.

ron
 
   / Back blade issues for BX owners
  • Thread Starter
#5  
RonR said:
I tried to mod a KK 6ft rear blade to work on my BX, and gave it up.

First, it was an old style 3PH, with the pins on the blade only available to mount outward. My 3PH arms wouldn't go that wide to catch them. So I welded on some brackets to install my own pins. To make it work right, I would have needed to adjust the top link geometry as well, but I didn't really need the rear blade anyway, so I gave it up and cut my brackets off.

Plan to sell the blade this winter to someone that has a bigger tractor.

ron

Strange, my BX 2230 3 pt. hitch arms do go wide enough to get around the pins on the blade.
 
   / Back blade issues for BX owners #6  
proudestmonkey said:
A few days ago, I wrote the following about my back blade in response to someone's question. I thought it might be helpful to others on this forum thinking about buying a back blade issues for the BX's.


I did buy the standard (not BX, not "Professional Series") 60" King Kutter blade at TSC. I paid $215 for it.

My final decision was based on the following considerations, most important first:

Price, size, weight, features. Price was great. Size (60") seems about right for a BX. I worried that anything wider would result in sliding to the side either way. Weight was what cancelled out the BX blades. This blade weighs 250 lbs. Just the right amount, along with liquid in rear tires (80 lbs per tire) for a good amount of ballast to offset the weight of my FEL.

There are two features I wish it had that it doesn't. The first is tilt. Tilt allows the blade to be leaned forward and backward. This is important on a larger blade attached to a BX because the BX's stance in relation to the ground is low enough that, in order to get good height for the blad in the up position, you have to use a shorter length top link. This wouldn't be a problem really, if you were going to keep the blade straight (perpendicular) to the rear tires. However, with the short top link, once you lift the blade off the ground a little, and then angle it one way or another, the blade is no longer level from side to side. You kind of have to see it to know what I mean. The first of the attached pics shows the side-to-side angle at a lower position. The second picture shows no angle when blade is straight out.

My dealer told me tilt was important, but he wanted $575 for a Bush-Hog blade with Tilt. I didn't want to pay that much money. Knowing what I know now, I agree that tilt is important for a larger blade on a BX, but I am still not convinced its worth a three fold increase in cost. This would not be a problem on a blade that didn't extend as far back as my blade (like the Estate Series blades sold by Woods). My fix--I extended the top link about a total of 3-4 inches, and that pretty much solved the problem. With the top-link extended, the only sacrifice is that the three point hitch doesn't raise the blade as high now in full up position, but I adjusted the top-link two or three times until I had a good compromise between angle without too much offset, while still being able to raise it enough to avoid hitting the ground on hills (mostly). In full up position, the blade probably sits about two feet off the ground (before extending the top-link, it probably raised to about 3 feet off the ground. If you live on pretty level ground, reducing the amount of height at full up position shouldn't be a problem at all.

Like I said, for the money I saved, and given the perfect weight and size of the blade, I have no regrets about buying it. If I had the money, I wouldn't even have messed with a blade for snow removal. I would have just bought a rear mount snowblower (new is about $1,200). That with an FEL has got to be the PERFECT solution for snow removal. I might still get a rear snowblower when we have more money. I will still be glad to have the blade though. Over the past two days I completely re-graded the gravel in the driveway, courtyard and my tractor trail to the shed. Last time I did that (when we bought the house almost two years ago), I had to pay a guy over $300 to do it. So, the blade has already paid for itself.

I also wish my blade could be offset. I don't mean having it longer on one side than another. That, I think, would be useless on a BX. They are too light. I think you'd lose traction right away, and slide toward the side with the extra lenght. By offset, I mean that the blade could be angled so one side is lower than the other. With this feature, the shorter top-link wouldn't be as important. Also, I use the blade to maintain my gravel driveway and I'd like to crown it, which is a major hassle with a blade that doesn't angle from side to side.

My blade does offer 7 forward positions, and 5 reverse, and you can spin it to your heart's content without removing it.

Thanks for the pics...

Musclford
 
   / Back blade issues for BX owners #7  
I have a generic BB I bought for $150 used. The pins are 29inches apart and I can get that on my 1500. I only open the arms to 26inches, slide in one side and then the other. I could get them a few inches wider if I wanted. My was six feet that I cut down to 5. If I had it to do over, I would have bought the KK XB back blade. Yes, it is lighter, however you can always add weight. The geometry is better for the BXs. I recently bought an XB box blade and glade I did. If I had bought standard, I would have been very dissappoint with the lift height.
 
   / Back blade issues for BX owners
  • Thread Starter
#8  
kwolfe said:
I have a generic BB I bought for $150 used. The pins are 29inches apart and I can get that on my 1500. I only open the arms to 26inches, slide in one side and then the other. I could get them a few inches wider if I wanted. My was six feet that I cut down to 5. If I had it to do over, I would have bought the KK XB back blade. Yes, it is lighter, however you can always add weight. The geometry is better for the BXs. I recently bought an XB box blade and glade I did. If I had bought standard, I would have been very dissappoint with the lift height.

I looked at the XB. If all I planned to use it for was to push snow, it would probably have done the trick, and like you say, the size is better for a BX tractor. But, the metal on the blade is thinner, and so is the hitch metal. I plan to use (have already) the rear blade for snow and regrading my driveway, tractor path, and trails through the woods (the driveway and tractor trail alone are about 1/4 mile. There is no way the BX would have held up. The one on display I saw already looked banged up good from shipping. Imagine what it would look like after dragging class 3 to class 7 gravel.
 
   / Back blade issues for BX owners #9  
OK I;ve been looking at box blade and grade blades for my BX2230.

I want something or things that can do concrete driveway snow removal, light landscape dirt moving and use it on a basball fileds for pushing sand....

I'm still worried about weight and height lift for the BX2200.

Can a BB do all I'm asking for or do I need both. I'm looking at KK BX series at TSC, A& B Eagleline (not far from the house), LandPride ($$$$$) andfew others.

I'm still researching but need to select soon.

LPP
 
   / Back blade issues for BX owners #10  
I saw what you are talking about after mounting my 6' KK blade on my BX2350. It all came down to height when carrying the blade. You are right, the BXs stance is low and with everything unmodified, you have to shorten the top link to be able to carry it with some clearance.

What I did was create the clearance I needed by adding another lift position by drilling another hole in the lift arms where they attach to the lower links. Another hole gave me the clearance I needed to clear the swayles in my back yard. I got a bit more out of the 2200...if i remember right, another hole 2" higher bought me 5". On my 2350 I think the hole was 1.75" and that got me 5 as well with the longer reach of the KK. (on my 2200 I had a 60" Worksaver)



BTW, the KK blade mounts just fine on my BX, even with the pins facing out.
 

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