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.
