Using Box Blade w/o Scarifiers?

[newcountry]

I've got asphalt millings for my driveway which have cured for 6 months and compacted nicely but have some pretty bad potholes. When I first started using the box blade the scarifiers would cut little paths but not really pull up the surface (not surprising). So I decided to take them off, which seemed to work pretty good, as I had added some extra millings and got a decently smooth surface. I think I did a pretty decent job for it being my first shot with the BB. But now I've been reading all these other ways to use the box blade and none mention removing the scarifiers--did I just add to my work? Also, if I put the scarifiers on backwards would that have alleviated my problem with BB rising and falling with the tractor?

 

[ronjhall]

In the raised position my scarifies clear anything I am trying to grade. Leaving the scarifies on BB gives more weight to BB. You may need to add more weight to BB to get it to stop rising. Another adjustment would be to adjust length of top link to get desired operation of cutting edge. Lengthening will pull dirt forward and level. Shortening will make cutting edge dig in and stop rising of BB.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

In addition to what my good friend Ron wrote, there is a way on many brands of blades to have the weight of the scarifiers but none of the risk of them digging the ground. Some brands will allow you to mount the teeth UPSIDE DOWN. You get the weight, but not the bite. This is a good method IF your teeth won't adjust up high enough to clear the ground if you have the top link short so the blade is dragging for leveling.

 

[KiotiJohn]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( This is a good method IF your teeth won't adjust up high enough to clear the ground if you have the top link short so the blade is dragging for leveling. )</font>
If you shorten the top link, you raise the rear of the boxblade, thus raising the inside rear blade off the ground, but make the scarifiers lower in the front for more aggresive digging.
Adding weight and shortening the top link with the scarifiers all the way down may help it to dig into the asphalt better. Once you have the stuff torn up to your needs, lenghten the top link to lower the rear blade back down for dragging the material into low spots. As you drag, you may have to ease the hitch up to allow the material to fall out where you need it. If you still have low spots after the first pass, you can lower the box, and push back with the rear outside blade. It takes a little practice, but does a good job once you're used to it.
John

 

[Bob_Skurka]

<font color="red"> If you shorten the top link, you raise the rear of the boxblade, thus raising the inside rear blade off the ground, but make the scarifiers lower in the front for more aggresive digging </font>

I was not very clear in my writing, the method will work IF the scarifies are in upside down. Some of the box blade brands have rectangular side plates, for those that do, it is not a particularly good method because the side plate can cut into the ground. But if the scarifiers are upside down so they are poking up, and you shorten the top link, the angle at which the rear blade contacts the ground is more perpendicualar to the surface, it won't dig in as much and the scarifiers are out of the way, but still providing the weight. Sorry if my initial post was not clear.

 

[newcountry]

Thanks Everybody!! This is why I love TBN- I didn't even think about the weight (and those scarifiers are not light /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif)

I can put them in upside down and in fact now remember seeing them this way before but didn't make sense to me at the time.

Will putting them in right-side up but backwards be a way to regulate the depth and have the box blade follow the contour of the ground instead of the up-and-down of the tractor? If I have the 3pt all the way down isn't in a float position? Whereas if I raise the 3pt a little it is a set height in relation to the tractor. Is this right?

 

[KiotiJohn]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Will putting them in right-side up but backwards be a way to regulate the depth and have the box blade follow the contour of the ground instead of the up-and-down of the tractor? If I have the 3pt all the way down isn't in a float position? Whereas if I raise the 3pt a little it is a set height in relation to the tractor. Is this right? )</font>
Putting them on backwards is only going to put the cutting tips facing the back and they'll just drag over even worse than they are now in my opinion. Unless you're going to try to back up with them down, which I don't advise, you'll do better to simply adjust the top link shorter to make them dig in better facing forward.
The 3pt is always basically in float as there is no down pressure. Putting it all the way down will help to some degree depending on what you're doing, but if the front of the tractor goes into a depression and the 3pt is all the way down, the depression can still cause the BB to come up out of the dig and return after the front levels out. The inverse is true as well, but the 3pt will push up in that case.
John