Yet Another Box Blade Question

[JonLeonard]

I have a suggestion, but unfortunately its alot of manual labor. I watched the crew at city park last summer put in a walking/running path. The process was pretty simple, and resulted in a perfectly flat, hard surface.


They used 1 by 4s on edge, held in place with 1 by 2 stakes driven in the ground. Level the top of the 1 by 4s and then filled with a very fine crushed gravel. Use a 2 by 4 to level the gravel in the "forms", then move dirt up to the sides of the boards. The result is a path, that is smooth and can be mowed across very easily since the boards do not extent above the surface when complete.

In order the reduce the amount of gravel used, they put the 1 by 4s about 1/2 way in the ground. That way less than 2" of gravel is needed.

If your ground isnt extremely hard, this should be simple and fairly inexpensive to put in. You can use your tractor to deliver the gravel where needed and to contour the dirt.

 

[RobertN]

Harv!
I'm guessing you need to "fix" that hinged rear blade. Otherwise, it is flapping out of the way, and then you are still catching your front blade.

You can borrow my roll-over scraper if you'd like(have'nt sold it yet). That is one situation where it works REALLY well...

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

 

[StanInCalif]

Glenn-
I'm certainly no expert, but can't resist jumping in. True, the heavier the better, but there are lots of guys moving dirt with the lighter ones. The trouble with the heavy ones, besides $$ is they usually have hydraulic scarifiers. Nice, but requires 5th SCV. Even with the heavy ones it is imperative to work the ground up with scarifiers first. I even scarify the fill areas as it makes a better bond. Also important is keeping some material in the box so you have something to drop in the low spots.
Top'nTilt - Essential
Microscopic Adjustments - I gave up trying to make fine adjustments with the rockshaft lever - I can't tell I've moved the box until the dirt starts falling out. I just bump the top link lever for this. Mine are spring loaded and return to "neutral" - don't know if they're all like this or not.
I once watched a guy running a grader that had a row of about a dozen SCV's and he would just go along this "keyboard", bumping these controls to make the blade and carriage do what he wanted.
A light box with fixed rear blade and a heavy box with hinged rear blade are two different animals. I only recently unbolted my hinged rear blade so it swings free, and so far I like it that way.
Never used a rollover - I bet Murf on CTB has.
High back holds more dirt- good if you have the hp and traction to pull it.
Landpride and gearmore both sell a boxblade with manually retractable scarifiers - one lever controls all the scarifiers in one move.
Also, I have found scarifiers on a box scraper to be usefull to break up the soil prior to rototilling - saves wear and tear on the tiller.
BTW - Harv - Maybe what you need is a landscape rake to get rid of those rocks. If you're like me, you don't need much justification to get a new toy. - Stan

 

[glennmac]

Stan,

Welcome to the forum. Your comments are helpful.

I am confused about the hinged back. Does it swing both ways? If it swings backwards, you couldn't "ride" the back blade. If it only swings forward (toward the front blade), I guess I could see some use for it. But it would only seem to make sense if you could lock it.

I am looking in a current Woods Landscape catalog. The high-end Woods, Gill and Gannon boxscrapers all seem to have lockable hinged backs. Some insight into the hinged back can be gotten from some blurbs in the catalog. Re the Woods HB scrapers: "HB series scrapers feature a floating hinged tailgate which allows the front cutting edge to operate more freely in heavy grading conditions." Re the Gill boxscrapers: "The large, hinged tailgate floats, freeing the moldboard to dig or draft for heavy grading applications. A pin locking mechanism fixes the tailgate in place for smooth, precision leveling." The boldface was added by me, and may be the answer to Harv's problem.

Of course, this is all theory to me, as I have yet to see an actual boxblade at any dealer in CT, except for one dealer who has a few fixed blade types made by United.

 

[glennmac]

To continue my entirely theoretical discussion with myself, here is how I hypothesize a hinged back box works and what Harv's problem is.

With a fixed blade box: when you are on the front blade you are digging/scraping. As you lengthen the toplink you increase the aggressiveness of the dig angle until such point that further lengthening rolls the box onto the back blade. With this back blade, so people claim, you can smooth.

With a hinged back blade: you lengthen thr toplink to increase the dig angle but you never roll onto the back blade because it swings out of the way. Thus, you get ever increasing scraping aggression until you roll the front blade off the ground and the box is on its haunches. This sounds like what Harv is experiencing.

By locking the hinged back, you can roll onto the back blade just as if the box were a fixed blade box. So, Harv should lock his back blade.

Does any of this sound plausible?



<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by glennmac on 07/16/01 08:31 PM (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[gordon]

Yup as long as he can lock it in place. Some boxes you can some you can't. Well Harv if you can't lock that rear blade looks like it's time to buy a welder and make up some pins to lock that rear blade in place./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Gordon

 

[gordon]

Harv can you lock your rear blade in place??? That is the key to using the box with it tilted way back. If you can't lock your gate then level is the way to go. I also posted that it's about time for a welder isn't it? That is if your rear gate doesn't lock at this time. With a welder it sure could easy enough.

Gordon

 

[glennmac]

Well, I'm still missing something. What's the purpose of a hinged back that wont lock? Wouldnt that be the same as having no back blade at all?

RobertN, are you selling your rollover box because it is deficient in some way compared to a regular box? I'm looking at a used Bush Hog rollover. I havent tried it. Seems that you can lower the scarifiers with a lever but you cant adjust the height. I think you also flip the box with the lever. I assume the rollover allows you to cut or smooth in forward and reverse. Is that right?

 

[Harv]

YIKES! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

First time I've posted a question in a while, and I'd forgotten just how overwhelming this board can be. Thanks to all for your valuable insights. Oh, and thank you, too, Glenn, for your uh... comments. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

GlueGuy -
<font color=blue>You failed to mention whether your rear blade was locked or hinged</font color=blue>

I've failed at a lot of things, but if you read the post slowly and carefully, I did mention that it was hinged. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif What I did not mention is that it is not lockable.

<font color=blue>I fail to understand the usefulness of the hinged rear blade.</font color=blue>

I'm starting to share your feelings on that one, Bill. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

GlennMac -
Your comments are cynical, sarcastic and unfortunately, right on! Wish I could express myself half as well as you do. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

<font color=blue>I am confused about the hinged back. Does it swing both ways?</font color=blue>
Do you? /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

You set me up for that one, didn't you? /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif Amazing that we ever exchange any real information here, like what you just posted about the Gill boxscrapers. That was downright useful. Thanks!

mdbarb -
From my extremely limited experience, I would say you need to loosen the soil more before you will get the leveling behavior you are seeking. If your box has scarifiers, go for it. Otherwise throw a tiller on there for a couple of passes. I did that to about an acre of property last month and it made all the difference in the world.

Bird -
Yeah, you and I have already had some conversation about our box blades. They are apparently almost identical except that your rear blade is fixed and mine flaps in the breeze. I can see where a fixed rear blade would give you the same effect as back-dragging the loader bucket. I wonder if the free-floating rear blade was meant to be effective only when running backwards, and just flip out of the way when going forwards.

mrolson -
As I indicated to mdbarb above, I agree with you about ripping things up before trying to level anything. I also think the rains can play an important role in packing things down. Unfortunately, I don't know if Mom will be able to do much walking at all next season, assuming she is still with us. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

MChalkley -
<font color=blue>Only 50 hours of seat time? You've got more time than that on your cup...</font color=blue>

That's not fair -- my Chalkley cup (two of them, actually) stay at the property full time, while I only get up there a couple of weekends a month. BTW -- the dual magnet approach has been working out flawlessly, and with the hot spells we've had here over the last month or so, I've drained all 52 ounces of Garorade 2 or 3 times a day out there, which fer sure has saved me from a world of hurt. Thanks for the concept, buddy! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

As for turning the box blade on end, I will file that idea under... well, I'll file it. Trust me. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

JonLeonard -
Thanks for the info on making a real path. There are several areas on the property where it would be nice to have what you described. I don't mind the labor as long as I can find the time... and the money. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

RobertN -
Hey, Pal -- I appreciate the offer 'cuz I know you mean it. Rather than hauling that sucker back and forth, maybe it would make more sense for me to stop by for a demo sometime. I'm at least half serious here, so maybe I'll be in touch. Who know? Maybe I'm the customer you've been looking for.

StanInCalif -
A landscape rake is already on my wish list, along with a dozen or so other things I can't afford right now.

Whereabouts in Californina are you, Dude? Anywhere near me, RobertN or Rat in the northern parts? We're sort of scattered between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe.

gordon -
No, my back blade has no locking mechanism. I'm gonna have to stop talking about welding and get serious about it. My desire may overcome my lack of time and money. Where there is a will...

 

[GlueGuy]

Harv,

Actually, I did read it carefully, but I didn't make my statement clearly. What I should have said was whether your hinged blade was locked or free. No reply necessary, but I get it now.

That said, I now understand the purpose of the rear hinge. When the box is tipped forward (shorter top link) it will go deep. When the box is tipped backward (longer top link) it will go deeper.

This is a bit weird, as my boxblade goes plenty deep enough without the hinge. However, the fact that your rear blade can't be locked seems a serious short coming. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

The fixed rear blade and smoothing operation is very very handy and useful. If you can come up with a locking design, one of my neighbors does welding for a living and is an A #1 ACE at it. Bring it on over to the west side, and we can fix you up. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

The GlueGuy