Grading Box Blade woes and floating

[YLee Kioti]

Guess I still haven't learned to read very well.
You have a L2501.
I don't see draft control as part of its normal retail feature. If I missed it apologies.
OK, having said that another point about BB adjustment.

Your response valve under the seat; can be adjusted to lower implement much quicker.
This means that it will respond to undulations much quicker and reduce those washboard affects.
I learnt that from the Dave knows how show.
He did a good job with the demo.
Here is one for set up: how to set up a box blade, the angle of the dangle! - YouTube

Here is part one of two on the BB ripple affect:
The Ripple Affect Secrets Revealed! Part 1 - YouTube

"The Ripple Affect" Secrets Revealed part 2 - YouTube

Once I understood the principles of BB operations it was a big help. I graded a swale following the natural erosion contours and graded from where it drains into creek and went uphill and slowly opened the narrow channel into a six foot wide 4 inch deep swale for about 4 to 5 hundred feet. (just a guesstimate)

Still have about two horse type sway backs or dips but not gonnah get OCD about it.

You'll have a great sense of satisfaction when you look back on your work.

 

[StevenR]

Sounds to me like the first thing you need to do is lengthen your top link to change the angle on the blade so it isn稚 cutting in.

If you are really desperate and the driveway pretty rough, put some material down and then push it in reverse using the back of the box like a dozer blade. That helps to mitigate for how the angle of the box changes with the contour of the driveway (that痴 the part that makes box blade work tough to master and why some areas you are cutting and others dropping material) because you are driving on a graded surface. You値l get a crick in your neck though.

I honestly hate box blades because they are hard to figure out. I致e spent a fair amount of time in a skid steer on construction sites so I just use my front bucket for almost all my grading needs. You can use the weight of the machine and angle of the bucket to cut or feather as needed. Don稚 have to change rear implements as often either.

 

[CMV]

For me a big part of learning to grade my gravel/dirt road with BB was NOT just following direction of travel. With either BB or front bucket, angles help a huge amount. Instead of just running parallel with the road, hit the trouble spots like dips from different angles. That will do a lot for you if just running down the road in one pass, turning around, and making another pass 180* from the first. This is exceptionally helpful filling ruts and "smearing" material into them with bucket.

Also note when your BB does deposit material into a low spot like a rut, it is "fluffy" material. You need to get a back tire over that several times from different directions to compact it, then let the BB deposit more. Will look good w/o that, but first rain and the rut/hole is back.

Setting the angle is a little tricky too. With tractor just sitting there and BB dropped to ground, you eyeball the front-to-back level of it and think you have what you want. Then you move forward, take slack out of 3pt, and now you are tilted a little more forward than you thought you were. Same for if setting up to push in reverse, but you will tilt back a little more than you thought and cut in a little. This isn't a dramatic amount of movement, but enough to make what you thought was a level BB angled enough to cut.

You said it was dirt. So that makes a little more of a challenge vs gravel. Depending on what type of dirt and how much moisture is in it makes a HUGE difference in how you can work it. Too wet it wants to smear, tire spin makes worse ruts than what you just fixed, etc. Too dry and sun baked can be so hard it makes your BB want to climb over and not cut off a high spot. If you have a curve, low spots, some shady areas, you might also be fighting a lot of moisture content variation in different sections and that's giving you the variable results you're seeing.

I think scarifiers down is going to make everything worse. You might make it "pretty" just leveling out loose dirt everywhere - until you drive your truck over it one time or get a good rain.

As is customary here, you are also getting lots of advice to use things you don't have. TnT sounds great - until you realize your L2501 didn't come with rear remotes (unless you did upgrade) so although it might help a lot with your problem, it's a pretty expensive upgrade - probably >10% of what you have in the tractor.