Box blade to grader?

[magicheater]

I saw a local landscape Co. that put in lawns for new home bldrs., they bolted a pair of 4x6? or so oak skid "shoes" on the sides of their box blade, they were about 6' long. It worked like a carpenters hand plane, it would cut on the high spots and the long "shoes" would let it fill the low spots. Basically with it's long "wheelbase" it would kinda average out the grade. Very simple and not permanant. He may have had a steel runner under the oak because they put in a lot of lawns!

Great idea, thanx!

I like that!

Me too!

That's probably as simple and cheap as anyone could think of.

I agree

 

[smiley]

I think I posted it on the old Machine Builders site but that's under renovation and the photos are on a floppy disc and the laptop I'm using now doesn't do floppies, so I'll try to describe it.

About 15 years ago I converted my back blade to use for leveling blacktop by adding bolt on sides about 2" higher than the blade, to make it into a box blade, then 2" x 6 ft angle iron skids were loosely bolted to the bottom front of the sides. Then another piece of angle iron was slotted and welded on the skids at 90 degrees back near the blade. This way I could run a bolt through the slot and a hole in the side to adjust the skid up or down. It acted like the asphalt/gravel spreaders (drag boxes) we used to hang on the back of trucks to pave driveways, except it was on the back of a tractor. It does a decent job of filling the hollows and trimming the humps. Longer skids would be better just like a long wheelbase grader but you're limited by the tractor tire clearance.

Just for ideas, here's photo's and a link to drag a box spreaders. They simply hook to the back of the truck, they dump the material into it and drag it forward. An adjustable screed strikes it off at the desired depth. Drag-A-Box Adjustable Material Spreaders by J-Pyott & Associates The principal is the same if it had a 3 pt hitch on it, the front plate removed and material dumped on the ground.

 

[dirt ditch]

Here is a commercial unit made to use as a speed mover and a box blade. Just pull the pins to remove the tongue and axle. The second one is a home made unit that the tongue could be modified to be removed. It could also be designed so the axle could swing up and be pined out of the way when used as a box blade.