Box Scraper How much weight to add to 5ft box blade

[bigrich954rr]

I have a 5 foot box blade on a Branson 4720h
It痴 not cutting real well and Is losing traction on the rear tires how much weight would be the minimum to put on the box blade to make it work better?

Thinking about building a metal box that I will fill it with concrete but I want to keep it off the top of the blade a little bit so dirt and stuff can still come over the top

 

[ericm979]

More weight on the box blade won't help the traction problem. Maybe try lower tire pressure. Or fill the tires. Mine was ordered with filled tires so I don't know how much difference it makes, but it'll be some. Perhaps someone who's done before and after tests will chime in. Adding weight to the BB will make it cut more aggressively.

You can also adjust how aggressive the BB cuts with the top link. Shorter top link puts a steeper angle on the blade so it cuts harder/deeper.

 

[4570Man]

None because you already can’t pull it.

 

[bigrich954rr]

Itsｴ not filling up and getting stuck when I lower the blade it sits mostly on top of the rocks and tires start to spin to much weight over the front end of the tractor

 

[bigrich954rr]

If I catch a root with one of the cutting teeth and pull the box blade up a little it stops spinning the rears and pulls right though the sand and rocks

 

[Jaylegger]

Blade will start digging into hard compact concrete type gravel effectively at about 125-150 pounds per foot of blade.

 

[4570Man]

If I catch a root with one of the cutting teeth and pull the box blade up a little it stops spinning the rears and pulls right though the sand and rocks

Which is transferring weight on the tractor. If the tires aren’t already loaded start there. I’ve got a 5” box blade that’s probably above average construction but a far cry from a half ton Gannon and with the rippers down it would bring my L3240 to its knees. Adding more weight to the blade would be useless if not worse. You need more weight on the tractor.

 

[jeff9366]

I have a 5 foot box blade on a Branson 4720h
Itç—´ not cutting real well and Is losing traction on the rear tires how much weight would be the minimum to put on the box blade to make it work better?

Itsï½´ not filling up and getting stuck when I lower the blade it sits mostly on top of the rocks and tires start to spin to much weight over the front end of the tractor

If I catch a root with one of the cutting teeth and pull the box blade up a little it stops spinning the rears and pulls right though the sand and rocks

Box Blades for compact tractors are not for road construction in tough conditions. Box Blades for compact tractors are more of a pothole treatment and smoothing tool for completed dirt and gravel roads.

Road builders use bulldozers for initial road construction. Box Blades utilized by road builders for secondary preparation, such as Gannons, may weigh 500 pounds per foot of width.

Waiting until your road site is moist after a soaking rain will decrease draft force resistance load on the tractor by 50%.

Do you have scarifiers? Have you tried making several passes with the scarifiers only in dirt contact to loosen the rocks, before engaging the Box Blade cutting edge? You must be prudent in the load you put on the scarifiers. Scarifiers can be broken individually.

Try pinning the INBOARD end of your Top Link is the several pairs of paired adjustment holes available. These adjustments will vary the angle of attack of the Box Blade in slightly different ways from adjusting length of Top Link alone. Most likely one of the two lower pairs of pin holes will be optimal. ( PHOTOS 1 + 2)

I concur with your other advisors that adding weight to your Box Blade will not help if your tractor tires cannot maintain traction.

 

[TripleR]

Efficient use of a box scraper is not as simple as it looks. As mentioned, proper weight of the implement as well as the tractor and of course angle of attack must be right to get the best effect; oh and of course skill of the operator. We have them from 4' to 7' along with a 10' drag scraper.

I only use the drag scraper and 1100 pound Land Pride HR3584 with my L5740HSTC with filled tires and added wheel weights or our M8540HDC. Used properly both tractors and implements work well, if not they will leave either spinning the wheels anchored in place.

Sometimes skill will make up for less than optimum equipment; sometimes not.

I have used these things for years and I'm still learning with the advice of some really skilled TBN members.

 

[Rock Crawler]

I have a Titan 60" that I have 250 lbs on each side of, or 500 lbs added. I can pull it pretty dang well unless I grab a large buried concrete chunk or set of steps with it. I'll tear concrete block and such out of the ground with it and rarely stop the tractor. Heck, I am ripping the cross pin brackets off of it from catching so much immovable buried junk in my land fill area that the tractor works! Using it without the 500 added pounds.... useless. It bounces over the buried asphalt and concrete chunks and often just slides aver the ground making a bunch of noise and accomplishing a bunch of nothing.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I have a 5 foot box blade on a Branson 4720h
Itç—´ not cutting real well and Is losing traction on the rear tires how much weight would be the minimum to put on the box blade to make it work better?

Thinking about building a metal box that I will fill it with concrete but I want to keep it off the top of the blade a little bit so dirt and stuff can still come over the top

I would start with filling your rear tires. My tractor was delivered with Rim Guard in the rears already, so I can't give you a "before and after" report illustrating the difference. But my bare tractor weight is slightly heavier than yours (less than 100 lbs difference, 4118 lbs yours, 4195 lbs mine), but with FEL, bucket, loaded rear tires and a 6' box blade, mine weighs 7100 lbs (I weighed it on a CAT scale).

I can pull my 6' box blade with a full load of material without losing traction normally. This is with R4 tires as well. The only issue I've had with traction on my 6' box blade was when I was pulling a full box, had the scarifiers down, and hooked a tree root. That stopped me (I started just spinning the one back tire). But by engaging the front diff and switching to HST 1 range, I was able to continue. Once I got done with the scarifiers, I was able to disengage the front end and go back to HST 2 range without any further problems.

I would either fill your rear tires, or add rear wheel weights if you don't want fluid in your tires. I went with the Rim Guard because of it's low freezing point, and it's heavier per volume than water. In this instance, weight is your friend.

 

[wagne223]

Others have already covered my thoughts so I wont repeat.

It would be nice to have more details of your project and issues.
As always photos of your equipment and ground will help get you more detailed assistance.

Finally, this guy on You Tube explains in detail how to set up and use a box blade.
I learned a lot from watching his videos.

how to set up a box blade, the angle of the dangle! - YouTube

 

[bigrich954rr]

Ok thank you guys for all the info I just called about getting rear tires filled . Trying to get that done Friday. They said they use beet juice.

I値l try to get pic the hosting or posting is the hard part for ,

The river normally gets to 6 feet on spring flush we had a rushing 8-9 ft this year Dumped a bunch of river sand and gravel on parts of the alfalfa field trying to scrape some of that off some spots 2 ft deep but not a huge area. I just want to Spread the sand out but remove the rocks

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Beet juice is normally called "Rim Guard". That's it's commercial name anyway. Don't know if it's sold under any other name.

For pics, if you click on the little square with the tree in it at the top middle of the reply box, a pop up comes up that will allow you to upload a pic to this website directly from your computer. That's how I normally post pics on this site. Some sites don't allow you to upload pics directly, so those must be hosted on a 3rd party pic hosting website.

Good luck.

 

[Rebeldad1]

Are you trying to use the box blade and rippers at the same time?
May try the rippers first and come back with the box blade alone?
Are you using the 4 wheel drive?

 

[bigrich954rr]

Yea trying to use both at the same time .

I use 4 wheel drive sometime it does pretty good in 4wheel but I want to Inprove it because I feel like the front wheels are doing most of the work right now.

The tires will be filled tonight I will most likely take pictures and work on it Friday or Saturday and I値l post some up here

 

[edgarrian]

We had a built a house 3 years ago. I did the grading of my yard before sowing with seed. I have a 1705 massey and used my box blade to level out the yard. I had a few good knobs. In indiana the soil is mostly clay. I was having a hard time with traction. How I solved my issues. Were I put material in my FEL bucket. Made a world of difference.

 

[oosik]

I'm sure that one of the MAJOR reasons my roll over box blade works so well - my Kubota M6040 weighs - 10,100#. However - I can, quite easily, turn this operation into four spinning/digging tires. Just take too aggressive a cut with this implement.

Successful, efficient use of a box blade is an art requiring many hours of practice. I am still a novice.

 

[bigrich954rr]

Well I loaded the rear tires I should have done that a long time ago. It digs a lot better . I Noticed another issue I知 only using one rear tire to drive if I step on the rear Diff lock it has amazing pulling power. But that痴 another issue I posted in the Branson forum.

Hoping tomorrow to try some digging in the backfield

 

[Deere Dude]

I found that for extra traction, keep the FEL bucket full and in 4WD.