My NX6010

[TSO]

Both implements will follow the terrain if you float the 3-pt hitch and let the implements ride on the ground. And both can create irregularities out of phase with the front wheel if the 3-pt is holding them up, to the point of whatever downforce the implement creates. What I mean by that is that if your front wheels hit a bump, the rear blade (either one) will dig down and make a dip. If your front wheels go into a dip, the rear blade rises up and will deposit any material as a new bump. It doesn't take much of this before you turn a minimally bumpy road into a more bumpy road. So I almost always float my box blade and my rear blade unless I have a reason not to.

The main difference is that the rear blade is capable of moving material laterally when angled, for instance from side to crown. The box will not. The box, however, is great at redistributing material as it collects in the box. It will shave off material from high spots and fill in low spots. A box is great for distributing gravel (even coarse gravel like #3) or smoothing dry topsoil (damp topsoil tends to clump and stick; if that happens I go do something else for a couple hours while the sunlight drys out the soil a little).

A box is a lot more rugged than a rear blade, though there are HD rear blades that are pretty stout. But still, the construction of the box makes it like a bulldozer of sorts.

The only time I have had occasion to angle my box side to side is when cutting a ditch. A reinforced rear blade with offset and angle would be the best tool for that, but a box will do. But otherwise, I almost always have my box level side to side for grading, smoothing, and moving material.

I had some deep logging ruts on my property, left by skidders when the land was logged in the early 90s. In fact, the ruts are visible on google earth in some shots! We had to cross one set for our driveway, and all I did was fill them in with #3 gravel before compacting and topping with road base. In another area, I used the box blade to shave off about 12" of loamy topsoil before putting down #3 then road base, and it worked very well for that.

Where the box isn't so great is when there is a lot of debris in the soil (roots, sticks, rocks, etc). It ends up getting caught in the box and disrupts the smoothing/cutting action of the cutting edges. You will periodically need to stop and empty the box, then push the debris off to the side.

You may be able to yank out roots with the box blade rippers, but don't be surprised if you run out of traction or grunt, even on a heavy tractor. They can be like arresting hooks in some cases. Running a box blade with rippers down is as intense as tilling, without the benefit of rotating machinery. I could bring my old tractor to a standstill with rippers down in heavy clay soil or soil with a lot of roots, by loss of traction. My new tractor runs out of steam before it runs out of traction in the same conditions. Where the rippers work well is in clear soil or gravel.

The biggest trick for grading with a box blade is adjusting the angle of attack with the hydraulic top link, especially for boxes with dual forward and rear cutting edges. It lets you tune the angle of attack for both cutting edges. This gives the ability to dig or smooth, in forward or reverse (though note the 3-pt arms are not made for excessive pushing in reverse, so I generally limit reverse work to smoothing only).

Going forward, lengthening the top link makes the box less aggressive at digging and better for smoothing, as the front cutter rises up and the rear cutter feathers (in the limit when the front cutter is off the ground and the rear cutter is fully feathered, it provides very gentle smoothing). The opposite happens when you decrease the top link length -- the front cutter will bite more and more. Opposite action when going in reverse.

Exactly my experience as well

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Meanwhile, the day at the tinkerage began with draining the coolant.

Then I chased off to the store to find a close enough match for the stock Kioti NX thermostat, where among other things, we used math skills.

Which I then confirmed function and total length when open.

In the following video, I explain the problem I'm attempting to overcome.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Part 2

 

[grm61]

Eric, I admire your determination, I'm pretty sure if you cut coils off that spring it will make it stiffer.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Eric, I admire your determination, I'm pretty sure if you cut coils off that spring it will make it stiffer.

Yeah, I'm thinking about how to use some heat to detemper the strength of the spring.

The bypass is made for a 3.9L V6 and likely opens at 3,000 rpm to protect the radiator from over-pressuring, whereas Kioti's engine maxes at 2700 rpm. I think the new T-stat opens at 5 pounds and Kioti's at maybe a pound-and-a-half (which also helps explain why the engine will not warm up under a mild load either).

At the end of the day, I'm kind of temped to just throw in the new T-stat stock, without modification to see what happens because I think I'm over-thinking this problem.

 

[Malibu 496]

Are you sure the engine can produce enough heat at idle? Being a ford tech and working on ford diesel's they don't produce much heat at idle, the 7.3's you could let idle all day and they would not open the thermostat. They even had problems with the valves sticking in the cyl head on trucks that idled a lot in cold weather because the cyl head wouldn't heat up enough at idle. The 2008 and newer ford diesel have a electric heater core added in to aid in heating the cab because of this reason. Just a thought.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Are you sure the engine can produce enough heat at idle? Being a ford tech and working on ford diesel's they don't produce much heat at idle, the 7.3's you could let idle all day and they would not open the thermostat. They even had problems with the valves sticking in the cyl head on trucks that idled a lot in cold weather because the cyl head wouldn't heat up enough at idle. The 2008 and newer ford diesel have a electric heater core added in to aid in heating the cab because of this reason. Just a thought.

You may be right, but I intend to find out.

Winter is coming!

 

[Green Power]

Did you take that photo recently Eric?

 

[s219]

Heh, that photo brings back memories growing up in New England. Was always a little of a shock to open the door and see what looked like another "dutch door" made of snow.

 

[fieldman12]

Have you tried bumping the idle up to around 1300 rpms? They dont really recommend to let these diesels engines idle for long. I do that on my tractors and it works fine.