Grading Rear drag blade: offset vs sliding, 5' vs 6'

[Gordon Gould]

I have a borrowed blade currently so there is no hurry. I like your blade, looks heavy duty enough for my needs! I see that it can be offset but I'll need to add the "rotating" feature. Looks like you got the TnT feature, I'm so jealous!! Someday I'll get mine from Brian............

PM me with specifics and let's see what we can work out.

Thanks.

By rotate do you mean tilt ?? You can get quite a bit of tilt on a plane old blade. Try this: Put the blade at an angle. Then shorten ( or lengthen ) your top link. Notice how the blade tilts with the top link adjustment. I maintained a mile long gravel road/driveway for 10 years with just a light ( 300 lb ) but decent quality 6' blade. My tractor is 5' wide 30 hp with loaded tires and weighs about 5000 lbs with the loader. I used to set it up like this to crown and grade the road: I would set the blade straight and hang it just above the road surface and adjust my right link so the blade was level or parallel with the road surface. Then I would angle the blade to the position I intended to use for crowning. I would then shorten the top link to tilt the blade to the crown angle I wanted. So with the blade angled either way I would have the same crown angle to move material from the ditch side to the center of the road. I could travel in either direction and on either side of the road just by angling left or right. I could decrease the crown angle by decreasing the blade angle. I did not constantly fool with the top link. When I wanted to flatten the berm that was built up in the middle of the road from the crowning cuts I would put the blade straight and it would be level. I did all this before I knew about TBN and the advantages of heavy blades and TnT and land plane graders which are all great improvements but like Terry says you can get it done with a less expensive lighter blade. And with the 300 lb Land Pride RBT1572 blade I have to wait for the right weather or moisture in order to be efficient cutting the packed gravel.

If I was starting over I would get the heaviest 7' blade that I could afford.

gg

 

[alia176]

By rotate do you mean tilt ?? You can get quite a bit of tilt on a plane old blade. Try this: Put the blade at an angle. Then shorten ( or lengthen ) your top link. Notice how the blade tilts with the top link adjustment. I maintained a mile long gravel road/driveway for 10 years with just a light ( 300 lb ) but decent quality 6' blade. My tractor is 5' wide 30 hp with loaded tires and weighs about 5000 lbs with the loader. I used to set it up like this to crown and grade the road: I would set the blade straight and hang it just above the road surface and adjust my right link so the blade was level or parallel with the road surface. Then I would angle the blade to the position I intended to use for crowning. I would then shorten the top link to tilt the blade to the crown angle I wanted. So with the blade angled either way I would have the same crown angle to move material from the ditch side to the center of the road. I could travel in either direction and on either side of the road just by angling left or right. I could decrease the crown angle by decreasing the blade angle. I did not constantly fool with the top link. When I wanted to flatten the berm that was built up in the middle of the road from the crowning cuts I would put the blade straight and it would be level. I did all this before I knew about TBN and the advantages of heavy blades and TnT and land plane graders which are all great improvements but like Terry says you can get it done with a less expensive lighter blade. And with the 300 lb Land Pride RBT1572 blade I have to wait for the right weather or moisture in order to be efficient cutting the packed gravel.

gg

By "rotating" I don't mean the kind of rotation you get by messing with the top link! I have a bar ditch on both sides of the road that I was hoping a tilt blade may help with, or at least in theory anyway!!! This is why an offset blade with a tilt feature would come in uber handy. As an example, this blade has the feature I'm talking about: Everything Attachments 6 Way Deluxe Scrape Blade for Compact Tractors with 25-50 HP V2.0

Realistically, it should be easy to add this feature by doing some simple fabrication.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Yes I understand. But try what I said you will be surprised but the top link Will tilt your blade. Maybe not enough but try it and see. Also use your side link adjustment.

gg

 

[Gordon Gould]

Another thought - If it doesn't tilt enough you can always buy a short Top Link for $20 at TSC.

gg

 

[alia176]

Let me try your suggestion to see if I can work with what I got. One thing that'd be nice to have is one of them chain binder adjuster for the side link vs what comes with the tractor.

 

[TerryR]

Yes I understand. But try what I said you will be surprised but the top link Will tilt your blade. Maybe not enough but try it and see. Also use your side link adjustment.

I agree with Gordon. I find the tilt adjustment on my blade generally sets the blade at too steep an angle. With the blade already angled to move the material out of the ditch, a small adjustment to the top link provides adequate tilt and allows a more controlled setting, so I've not used the tilt adjustment in years.