88" box blade on a 84.5" wide tractor?

[In.the.Piñons]

I found a used BB that I'm interested in, but I wonder if it's a little to narrow for my tractor. Used ones, rated for my tractor's HP, (with hydraulic rippers) don't come up for sale all that often. New, they are $5-6K, which is more than I'm willing to pay. So waiting for a used 96" BB to come up for sale, might mean scrapping some projects until next year.

I also have a 9ft, 6 way blade and a 8ft land plane (no rippers), so I won't need the BB to ditch or for finish grading.
Basically I'll be using it for re-shaping/rebuilding roads and spreading rock and gravel.

 

[jyoutz]

I found a used BB that I'm interested in, but I wonder if it's a little to narrow for my tractor. Used ones, rated for my tractor's HP, (with hydraulic rippers) don't come up for sale all that often. New, they are $5-6K, which is more than I'm willing to pay. So waiting for a used 96" BB to come up for sale, might mean scrapping some projects until next year.

I also have a 9ft, 6 way blade and a 8ft land plane (no rippers), so I won't need the BB to ditch or for finish grading.
Basically I'll be using it for re-shaping/rebuilding roads and spreading rock and gravel.

Since you don’t tilt box blades like you do straight blades, covering the wheel width is all that’s necessary, especially since you have your 9’ blade for when you need to get wider. I just gave an 8’ 6 way blade for mine, no box blade. I found that with my blade I really prefer it to a box blade for doing road work. If you need to carry material, I would consider adding removable wings to your back blade, and trying that before buying a box blade.

 

[In.the.Piñons]

My blade came with wings and I've used them to grade out a section of steep dirt road that was in very bad shape. It worked, but seem to take forever to get close to smooth. I've yet to use it to spread gravel though.

 

[jyoutz]

My blade came with wings and I've used them to grade out a section of steep dirt road that was in very bad shape. It worked, but seem to take forever to get close to smooth. I've yet to use it to spread gravel though.

Everyone’s road conditions are different. I sold my box blade after buying my heavy 8’ 6 way blade because I found that I wasn’t using the box blade. I think they are great for leveling ground for a shed or garage or punching in new roads, but the 6 way blade is so much more versatile for general road maintenance.