Grading Anyone used a box blade on a John Deere 455?

[iowa]

Am I allowed to ask questions about a John Deere 455 mower or is too small for this message board?

If it's okay, I was thinking about getting a box blade for my 455 and was wondering if anyone has used this combo? Considering that I won't have any down pressure for the box blade will I be able to take 5" off of a very compacted gravel driveway?

Thanks folks!

 

[JDFANATIC]

iowa,

If you get a shallow boxblade (such as used for the sub-CUTs) and work it a little at a time, you probably can do what you describe. I think you'll be traction limited though. It might be worth considering renting a larger machine for the initial work though.

 

[ovrszd]

Am I allowed to ask questions about a John Deere 455 mower or is too small for this message board?

If it's okay, I was thinking about getting a box blade for my 455 and was wondering if anyone has used this combo? Considering that I won't have any down pressure for the box blade will I be able to take 5" off of a very compacted gravel driveway?

Thanks folks!

I have a 455 with bar tires and fluid. I built a 4ft box blade back when I had a 322. The 455 pulls it like it was made for it. I've moved a lot of material with it. Traction is always the limiter as the 455 has gobs of HP. Also the 3pt is very controllable. My Son built a 2500 sg ft shop and I used the 455 to drag and level the gravel fill for pouring concrete. Works very well. Sorry I don't have pictures of my box blade.

I don't have scarifiers on my box blade so I don't know how it would cut a compacted driveway. But if it had scarifiers, I don't think it would be any problem at all. The 455 is an awesome SCUT and will handle the task.

 

[iowa]

Thanks for the replies.

ovrszd, what are bar tires?

Did you need to weight on the front end of the 455?

Any guess to how much the box blade weighs?

 

[kennyd]

Considering that I won't have any down pressure for the box blade

Just a note...Very few tractors have down pressure on the 3PH, they just "float" up and down. The down pressure comes from the weight of the implement.

 

[jcmseven]

I have had a 485 and a 595 both of which would pull a box blade. The 595 would pull one full of gravel up and down my 20% driveway in four wheel drive easily, but I would say would not have in two wheel drive. Both machines would do fine on flatter ground with "bar" or ag style tires loaded and would do better with weights on top of that. One really cannot weight these machines down too much as they have a lot of horsepower for their size. My opinion is that if your terrain is not too steep, you should be able to do this task without much effort.

John M

 

[ovrszd]

Thanks for the replies.

ovrszd, what are bar tires?

Did you need to weight on the front end of the 455?

Any guess to how much the box blade weighs?

I'm attaching a picture so you can see the bar tires (AG tires).

I've never had the front get light with the box blade. The 455 is heavy in the front end. I also have a front blade and carry the bracket for it on the front which adds a little weight.

I can't pick up my box blade. It uses a piece of grader blade for a cutter. I'm guessing 200 pounds.

 

[iowa]

Nice pictures ovrszd. Thanks.

Is that a category 1 or 0, 3-point hitch on your 455?

 

[ovrszd]

Nice pictures ovrszd. Thanks.

Is that a category 1 or 0, 3-point hitch on your 455?

Category 0. I've built a tilt tote box, box blade, grader blade and a tandem disc for Cat 0 that I've used for several years.

 

[qstott]

I have a KK 5' box blade that I have used on my 445. It weighs at least 200 lbs. It has 5 rippers. I replaced the cat 1 pins with cat 0, and turned them towards the inside. I had more success when I replaced the rear tires with bar treads. My drive has small round river rock in it. I could pull a full blade of it with limited tire spinning. My drive slopes upward from the road, and I would sometimes have to make use of the diff lock to make it up the hill. I graded several spots in my lawn that were grass covered. I had no problems at all. I was suprised at what I was able to do with the blade. I also built a shop and graded my clay fill for the floor. It was very nice to be able to work inside the concrete forms in a 24' by 24' area with the small 445. Overall, it worked much better than I expected.