Grading/leveling: rock bucket w/ teeth vs box blade

[Homebrew]

I've been working clearing out brush/rocks/small trees from 4 wooded acres. To dig out rocks and trees, I use the mini hoe. To move rocks, logs, and brush, the grapple bucket is used. I've also been using the brush cutter after the big obstacles are removed. I'm also trying to grade and level out some of the areas where there are holes and bumps. The grapple bucket with teeth does this reasonably well, although I am not very practiced with it yet. I don't own the box blade, and I've never used one on any type of tractor. Any thoughts on if this would be a useful implement for me? Is it worth it for what I gain over using the bucket?
Thanks!

 

[PABenz]

I bought a used box blade and just love it for my 300 foot gravel driveway. I only use it about 5 or 6 times a year, but it really does a great job at leveling the driveway and pulling gravel back from the edges where the gravel tends to get pushed. I have not used it for much more then that, but I have cut and leveled some soil with it. I have also used it as a scoop to pull some silt from a creek bed. It did much better then the bucket at that job.

If I was leveling a large area, I would use the box blade over the rock bucket because I think it would pick up rocks and keep it in the boxblade much better. When I use it on the driveway, it will collect some of the larger stones and I can easily discard them.

I don't think has the strenght to replace a rock bucket, but it is a nice additions to ones tool set. Like the forks, the box blade is very handy when you need it and it's my 3 most used attachement behind the mower and the snow plow. Hope that helps some.

 

[Homebrew]

Thanks for the info. I guess that answers another question I had: can the box blade be used to plow snow. If one of your other most used implements is the snow plow, I'm guessing the box blade isn't so hot for pushing a little snow? Do you use chains for plowing snow? I've actually been thinking about getting the snow plow. I have the ag tires and I've been wondering how they'd do trying to plow snow on a concrete driveway.

 

[KentT]

If you're thinking about getting a box blade, I suggest you look for a used 48" 3-point one, and then just weld a QA plate to it. The 3-pt boxblades will be much heavier constructed than the PT one, and weight on a boxblade is goodness -- it allows you to use that weight with the lift arms in float, to cut down humps. Otherwise, you'd have to use hydraulic down-pressure to achieve the same result -- and it's very tricky to control that down-pressure to get a smooth (and not scalloped) surface. At least I have a hard time doing it -- just like I have a hard-time trying to back-drag a smooth surface using the bucket edge on the LM bucket...

I added a QA to the King Kutter 48" boxblade that I'd bought for my old Kubota (replaced by the PT-425) at Tractor Supply. I haven't used it a lot, but it works real well. Those rippers, controlled by the bucket tilt, are really handy for pulling out rocks, roots, etc.

You can see some pics of it here:
Mods & Custom Builts

 

[ponytug]

i would second KentT's suggestion on the 3rd party box blade. In particular some third party box blades allow hydraulic control over the rippers so you can easily adjust the depth and more importantly you can use the ripping function separately from the box blade function which is hard to do on the PT version. And again, as KentT noted, the PT version is lightweight, when weight is a real advantage.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Homebrew]

Thanks for the suggesstions guys. What brands offer hydraulic control of the rippers? I haven't seen those. Also, for a PT-425, any feeling on what's the widest box that could be used effectively? Finally, am I ahead to just buy the QA plate from PT, or do you think a fabrication shop could easily make the plate and weld it on?

 

[MossRoad]

Thanks for the suggesstions guys. What brands offer hydraulic control of the rippers? I haven't seen those. Also, for a PT-425, any feeling on what's the widest box that could be used effectively? Finally, am I ahead to just buy the QA plate from PT, or do you think a fabrication shop could easily make the plate and weld it on?

I would not go larger than 48" on a PT425. That will cover the tire width and the PT425 is not real good at ground engaging implements, so anything wider may be too much.

When I had a large box blade on my large tractor, I never worried about hydraulic control of the rippers. It would be nice for someone that uses it a lot, but for me, it would be money I could have spent on something more useful... like root beer! It only takes a minute to manually adjust ripper height on most machines. With that said, however, cool toys are cool toys and if I could swing it for little $$ I would do it. :laughing:

As far as QA plates go... I only bought 1 when I bought my PT. If you have access to steel cutting tools, steel sheets and a welder you could most definitely make them for WAAaayyyy under what PT sells them for. Buy one and take it to a local shop and see what they'd charge. Or take one of your existing implements to the shop. They can measure it.

 

[woodlandfarms]

When I researched the PT I ended up with a Woods box blade. It is apparently the best (or really darn good) but also expensive.

Instead of welding on an adapter plate directly to the box blade, I purchased a 3pt adapter and welded a plate to it.

This allows you to purchase other implements at a reduced price (used) and use them (landscape rake, bottom plow....). Harbor Freight makes an adapter but I am not sure how to weld on the PT adapter plate to it.

Anyway....

 

[KentT]

I've found with my boxblade that I can simply use the bucket curl function to control the rippers. I drop them down a notch or two, and when I want to rip, I curl the boxblade up and let the weight of the boxblade push the rippers into the ground. When I want to use the blade with it set up this way, I just curl the boxblade back down to a point that the rippers are above ground level. It doesn't cut as well with the rippers down (you can't get as good an angle on the cutting edge with it curled) but I can compensate with hydraulic down pressure, plus I'm typically using the rippers to loosen things up anyway, and don't need it to really cut that well...

For finish grading, I move the rippers back up and use the weight of the box blade in float position with it setting level, like you typically would.

 

[KentT]

When I researched the PT I ended up with a Woods box blade. It is apparently the best (or really darn good) but also expensive.

Instead of welding on an adapter plate directly to the box blade, I purchased a 3pt adapter and welded a plate to it.

This allows you to purchase other implements at a reduced price (used) and use them (landscape rake, bottom plow....). Harbor Freight makes an adapter but I am not sure how to weld on the PT adapter plate to it.

Anyway....

If you use a 3-pt for a heavy boxblade on the front, I suggest that you make sure that stay chains/stay bars are VERY tight. You don't want that amount of weight shifting side to side when you have the boxblade raised up in the air -- I can curl mine and raise the back of the boxblade about 7 to 8 feet high. I've used it like that to grade down the slope of roadbanks and smooth them out, so that it's easier to keep them mowed without hitting stuff...