ATTN: Heavy BOX BLADE Experts.....Give us your opinions please.

[ovrszd]

I appreciate the links and photos' as I am gathering materials for this right now. I would prefer to use the drawbar to pull the box as it is closer to the axle than the 3ph linkage. I will build this with a tilt cylinder in addition to the rear height control cylinder, both of these circuits will be operated through a proportional electric solenoid valve tied into a Topcon automatic machine control setup. I had been playing with the design some and pictures showing how to clear the raised scarifiers really helps save some time. Currently I have three rear remotes, one for the tongue, one for the scarifiers and the last for the two proportional valves working together. This way I can unplug the topntilt cylinders and raise the IMatch up and out of the way with the rockshaft, then plug in the boxblade and go.

The Topcon equipment and Sauer Danfoss valves are definately causing me some financial strain so anything I can do to cut the cost on the boxblade whle doing this is important.

I think I'll go with the tongue on the 3pt and two cylinders setting the rear wheels to get tilt. One thing I know from 20 years of grader operation. You need the cutting edge of the blade as close to being centered between the rear wheels on the blade and the rear wheels on the tractor as practical. The one pictured is way off from that and won't cut off high spots and fill dips nearly as well as if centered. So for me, the tongue needs to be as short as possible and the wheel brackets then built long enough to center the cutting edge.

 

[npalen]

I think I'll go with the tongue on the 3pt and two cylinders setting the rear wheels to get tilt. One thing I know from 20 years of grader operation. You need the cutting edge of the blade as close to being centered between the rear wheels on the blade and the rear wheels on the tractor as practical. The one pictured is way off from that and won't cut off high spots and fill dips nearly as well as if centered. So for me, the tongue needs to be as short as possible and the wheel brackets then built long enough to center the cutting edge.


That's just the opposite of what I've thought since the wheels on the rear of the blade are running on smooth dirt close to the desired elevation. The tractor, on the other hand, is running on rough unleveled dirt. The detrimental effect of vertical movement of the tractor over rough dirt is minimized by having the implement wheels immediately behind the blade. This detriment is reduced as the tongue length is increased.

 

[npalen]

I appreciate the links and photos' as I am gathering materials for this right now. I would prefer to use the drawbar to pull the box as it is closer to the axle than the 3ph linkage. I will build this with a tilt cylinder in addition to the rear height control cylinder, both of these circuits will be operated through a proportional electric solenoid valve tied into a Topcon automatic machine control setup. I had been playing with the design some and pictures showing how to clear the raised scarifiers really helps save some time. Currently I have three rear remotes, one for the tongue, one for the scarifiers and the last for the two proportional valves working together. This way I can unplug the topntilt cylinders and raise the IMatch up and out of the way with the rockshaft, then plug in the boxblade and go.

The Topcon equipment and Sauer Danfoss valves are definately causing me some financial strain so anything I can do to cut the cost on the boxblade whle doing this is important.

I appreciate the links and photos' as I am gathering materials for this right now. I would prefer to use the drawbar to pull the box as it is closer to the axle than the 3ph linkage. I will build this with a tilt cylinder in addition to the rear height control cylinder, both of these circuits will be operated through a proportional electric solenoid valve tied into a Topcon automatic machine control setup. I had been playing with the design some and pictures showing how to clear the raised scarifiers really helps save some time. Currently I have three rear remotes, one for the tongue, one for the scarifiers and the last for the two proportional valves working together. This way I can unplug the topntilt cylinders and raise the IMatch up and out of the way with the rockshaft, then plug in the boxblade and go.

I agree with your thinking about the drawbar being a better pull point as it is "closer to the axle". This minimizes the effect when the tractor wheels, including the front wheels, bounce over uneven ground. This is similar to a road grader where the pull point is usually a ball joint just behind the front grader tires.

Edit: The road grader, on second thought, may not be a good analogy. The blade positioning on a grader is dictated mostly by the space required to maneuver the blade into various configurations while still clearing the front and rear tires. It does end up nearly centered between the front and rear tires, probably for that reason.

 

[jenkinsph]

ovrszd and npalen,
You both make some good points, might be a good idea to make a telescopic tongue and move the rear wheels further back. Where I have the room for larger turns I can extend the tongue.

 

[bcp]

Everything else being equal, the farther behind the blade the wheels are, the more the blade will respond to tractor motion.

Wheels far back:
Imagine a 12 inch ruler. Lift one end(hitch) two inches. Six inches farther back(blade), the ruler will lift one inch.

Wheels close to blade:
Imagine a 7 inch ruler. Lift one end(hitch) two inches, Six inches farther back(blade), the ruler will lift only a small fraction of an inch. (Someone else can calculate it. )

In the first example, this is better for leveling because it will cut high spots and fill low spots better, even though the blade responds more to tractor motion.



In the second example, this is better for smoothing (but not leveling) land, since the blade responds less to tractor motion.


Depends on what you want to do.

Bruce

 

[jenkinsph]

When you add laser guided control and consider response time I am curious which way would work the best. I can smooth a field with a land plane but that isn't necessarily the same as getting it level or properly sloped to spec's. I plan to have a laser receiver mounted over each end of the blade. When you make turns it can them follow the slope you set on the laser. That makes a good case for having the wheels fairly close to the blades I think. I am open to suggestions though.

 

[bcp]

All the laser land levelers I've seen use large drag scrapers-wheels right behind the blade. When the level is set by the laser, you don't need the long wheelbase to take care of the low and high spots.

Bruce

 

[npalen]

When you add laser guided control and consider response time I am curious which way would work the best. I can smooth a field with a land plane but that isn't necessarily the same as getting it level or properly sloped to spec's. I plan to have a laser receiver mounted over each end of the blade. When you make turns it can them follow the slope you set on the laser. That makes a good case for having the wheels fairly close to the blades I think. I am open to suggestions though.

A laser setup, that's very interesting! Hope that you can post some pics and info as you progress on the design and build. I would enjoy building a unit like that.

 

[jenkinsph]

A laser setup, that's very interesting! Hope that you can post some pics and info as you progress on the design and build. I would enjoy building a unit like that.

Right now I am gathering up the parts for all of this, seems expensive to me for what it is. I will be adapting my Gannon 7' boxblade for this task and that saves me a bunch right there. I have 90% of the steel on hand but need spindles, wheels, implement tires and hydraulics.

I will post pictures of the build and we will see how it works out.

 

[npalen]

I'll be interested to see how the servo valves tie into the tractor hydraulics and whether they require closed center.