Gannon/Woods HD4272 hydraulic box blade

[DieselBound]

Thanks for the encouragement. Used it another 2 hours this morning and am starting to get the hang of adjusting it by ear as I move along. With the extra weight, I don't need the scarifiers. It'll cut off a nice 2"-4" layer with ease. It turns up good sized rocks and carries them along for easy dumping. So far, so good.

Yup! the weight plus the cutting edge will really get a bite started and then just keep pulling down. I've moved along making rolls of sod as I went (curling up and on to the front of the box blade, thereby adding more weight for more bite). Slow and steady is the mindset to use. Going slow allows you to make fine adjustments to the fore/aft pitch for a more smooth grading. I find that finish grading works best in reverse: and this REALLY requires one to go slow! Here's some recent work I did (I am grading in a drainage "V" at the back of the house as the ground at the back slopes down to the house [I used a manual landscaping rake for smoothing and surface rock removal]):

 

[biggziff]

A little video of the beast in action. I had forgotten to disengage the parking brake during this run. Seems to work very well. That high back box holds a lot of material. When it's loaded up, the tractor does work a bit, but I lose traction on the front wheels before I run out of power. I was only running around 2000 RPMs, Low gearing and pretty much wide open on the pedal. Next step on this driveway is angle the box to cut a pitch on this driveway to the left side (see photo) so water drains off instead of running the right edge of the driveway into the parking area.

Kioti CK4010 Gannon Hydraulic Box Blade Woods Excavator - YouTube

 

[BukitCase]

Congrats, and you've gotten some good tips on "living with what ya got" - I'm not sure what kind of soil you have, but I'll add another tip or two - BEFORE you get too carried away with letting the Gannon "have its head" and completely fill up, I'd recommend putting your FEL bucket back on and keeping it full (and low, like no higher than even with the grill) - the tractor I use my gannon on (same size, but older) doesn't have a FEL, but I have right at 600 lbs of weights on the front and a full load of mixed dirt and rocks will sometimes lift the front before it "releases" and dumps the box.

I don't know how much "re-shaping" you want/need to do, but if it's much more than just "driveway maintenance", I'm gonna disagree with those who don't already HAVE full TnT and advise you to start saving/learning; I put hydraulic top links on both my smaller (40 horse, 4-5000 lbs) a couple years ago, finally got the hyd side link on the Allis a couple months ago - all I can say is, "holy crap", shoulda done this a LONG time ago...

Sorry, no pics available just yet - I have a pair of hi-cube containers sitting side by side, destined to become my weld/machining area and eventually get a 60x60 roof over, fully enclosed and concrete slab on one side, but I realized AFTER the containers were placed and leveled, that I wanted more usable space on the uphill side - TnT allowed me to drive sidehill on the slope and cut a slight REVERSE slope in dry, rock hard clay in about an hour of seat time. (As in, I never left the seat to make any adjustments)

I'm a fan of Charleton Heston's view on weapons, but I'm pretty sure a TnT tractor would be at LEAST as hard to "pry out of my cold, dead hands"... Steve

 

[biggziff]

Congrats, and you've gotten some good tips on "living with what ya got" - I'm not sure what kind of soil you have, but I'll add another tip or two - BEFORE you get too carried away with letting the Gannon "have its head" and completely fill up, I'd recommend putting your FEL bucket back on and keeping it full (and low, like no higher than even with the grill) - the tractor I use mine on (same size, but older) doesn't have a FEL, but I have right at 600 lbs of weights on the front and a full load of mixed dirt and rocks will sometimes lift the front before it "releases" and dumps the box.

I don't know how much "re-shaping" you want/need to do, but if it's much more than just "driveway maintenance", I'm gonna disagree with those who don't already HAVE full TnT and advise you to start saving/learning; I put hydraulic top links on both my smaller (40 horse, 4-5000 lbs) a couple years ago, finally got the hyd side link on the Allis a couple months ago - all I can say is, "holy crap", shoulda done this a LONG time ago...

Sorry, no pics available just yet - I have a pair of hi-cube containers sitting side by side, destined to become my weld/machining area and eventually get a 60x60 roof over, fully enclosed and concrete slab on one side, but I realized AFTER the containers were placed and leveled, that I wanted more usable space on the uphill side - TnT allowed me to drive sidehill on the slope and cut a slight REVERSE slope in dry, rock hard clay in about an hour of seat time.

I'm a fan of Charleton Heston's view on weapons, but I'm pretty sure a TnT tractor would be at LEAST as hard to "pry out of my cold, dead hands"... Steve

I can see the TnT is a must have for my needs. I was at a friend's lake house this past weekend and before I was done I had a verbal contract to fix up the entire road around the lake, dig some drainage, spread stone, etc. It'll pay for the TnT and then some.

 

[BukitCase]

Cool - don'cha just LOVE it when "toys" pay for MORE toys??!? ...Steve

 

[biggziff]

I don't see any way to lock the tailgate on this box. Not sure why I'd want to lock it, but have watched the EA guy explain pros and cons of locking vs floating. Any input from the folks here?

 

[biggziff]

Cool - don'cha just LOVE it when "toys" pay for MORE toys??!? ...Steve

I have a habit of making my hobby my work.

 

[mopardude318]

Kioti says 1700 pound lift on the 3 point. This weighs 1140 according to Woods.

It cuts wonderfully even when taking small layers off. That extra weight is a big benefit. I just go slow so nothing gets jarred too much when I hit a big rock, etc.

Glad it's working out for you! I have a very heavy land plane behind my M7060, I have to be careful, it’ll stop me dead in my tracks! I do appreciate the value of a heavy ground engaging implement!

 

[BukitCase]

"I don't see any way to lock the tailgate on this box. Not sure why I'd want to lock it, but have watched the EA guy explain pros and cons of locking vs floating. Any input from the folks here? "

Looking at your pics, you may only have part of the pieces - at the bottom rear corners where the corner of the back blade and box are near, there should be two tabs; one on the hinged blade, the other on the box - there should be a removable bolt on each end of the hinged blade connecting those two tabs to each other; this locks the rear blade to the box.

I thought I had pics of a minor change I did to mine, recent computer crash may've got 'em - I replaced (and possibly rotated) the tabs on mine, they now are horizontal and the bolt holes align ONLY when the blade is in the locked position. Did this so I could replace the bolts with large PTO pins for quicker change. Since decided that was unnecessary (so far), because I haven't UN-locked the rear blade since I did that.

If you have the rear blade LOCKED DOWN, tilting the box to the rear lessens the aggression factor so if you're cutting too much, lengthening the toplink will allow the box to ride more on the REAR blade and take LESS of a cut with the front blade. Hyd toplink makes this an on-the-fly thing, and allows SURGICAL results especially if you're in "turtle" mode.

Letting the rear blade FLOAT can be useful if you have a box full of gravel; you can tilt box rearward a bit, raise position a bit, and let the rear blade strike off/smooth out what you're dumping. Again, in a LOT of cases, speed is NOT your friend.

The more you use the box, the more you'll develop your own way of doing things, dunno if you've seen this

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums...e-using-box-blade.html?highlight=beginner+box

But NOW you have ...Steve

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I can see the TnT is a must have for my needs. I was at a friend's lake house this past weekend and before I was done I had a verbal contract to fix up the entire road around the lake, dig some drainage, spread stone, etc. It'll pay for the TnT and then some.

If you want to be able to tilt an equal amount to each side, this is what you need. Pretty sure no one else provides this capability for your model of tractor.

$885 plus shipping costs for a complete top & tilt set.

20 week lead times, so get in line ASAP.