Box Scraper Beginners guide to using a box blade

[steve a]

Just finished up with the brush hog yesterday and good thing too; Major brush fire came right up to my south fence line today. Airplanes and choppers knocked it down in a less than 2 hours.....my boulders are painted orange now; talk about graffiti.

 

[Degolyerent]

Well now that you have made it a Texas vs. California issue, I offer this...

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/attachments/388229-beginners-guide-using-box-blade-ca-vs-tx-jpg"/>

That's really good! Go Texas!

 

[Indygunworks]

Thanks for the info 3RRL.... I came across this thread because I am going to start playing with my new box blade this month. No doubt this thread saved a lot of headache and shortened the learning curve tremendously.

 

[CanuckPT]

The Box Blade is no longer a virgin! I finally screwed up the courage to remove my backhoe to put on my box blade - it only sat on it's shipping palette for a year & a half!!

I worked on an area that's been eroding at the end of my driveway for a couple of years. I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with my first effort! There's great advice on how to use a Box Blade here on TBN!!!!





Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[ab4655]

When starting off with box blade, set the box leval for 1st run on a driveway as with compacted material the less you disturb the better, this way you only scrape high spots. If you need 2 cut deeper shorten top link a little at a time as you only want 2 move sufficient material 2 fill hollows. When I ordered my tractor I had a hydraulic cylinder fitted to near side linkage, this saves a lot of climbing in and out of seat to alter the angle by manual adjustment on other link. In a lot of instances it will be quicker to top dress existing drive sufficiently to fill ruts, compact and then finish with box blade.

Water is the biggest problem to effect any road or driveway therefore compaction and crowning to minimise absorbsion is critical and a vibrating roller hired for a day will considerably extend the road life,

A stick rake is ideal for mixing a few bags of concrete into loose surface prior to rolling and help with water resistance

 

[steve a]

AB4655, I read your post a few times, but not clear on your meaning re "top dress"; is this something done with the loader bucket?
What is "near side"?
How do you tell when box adjustment is "level"? on a Gear-All box.....I am having one delivered tomorrow.
We get about 2-3 inches of rain a year, so water erosion is not as much of a problem here....but rocks and half-buried boulders are. Can't get the big ones out, so have to fill in between with dirt from who-knows-where.

 

[steve a]

AB4655, I read your post a few times, but not clear on your meaning re "top dress"; is this something done with the loader bucket?
What is "near side"?
How do you tell when box adjustment is "level"? on a Gear-All box.....I am having one delivered tomorrow.
We get about 2-3 inches of rain a year, so water erosion is not as much of a problem here....but rocks and half-buried boulders are. Can't get the big ones out, so have to fill in between with dirt from who-knows-where.

 

[Fallon]

I'm assuming he means just replacing the adjustable side link on the 3pt with a hydraulic cylinder. Typically half of what is called a TnT or Top & Tilt kit. The other half is replacing the top link with a hydraulic cylinder. Actually its recommended to move the adjustable link to the other side & set it so the 3pt is level when the cylinder is half out.

Level usually means the implement square to the tractors axle. Usually accomplished by a calibrated eyeball or wild guess. Occasionally by adjusting the 3pt to be parallel to the ground when you are on a flat surface.

 

[Ford850]

Top dress means to add material on top to fill low areas.

 

[Harry Palmer]

I'm constantly finding new businesses and such where there used to be empty fields a few years ago. Crazy.

You can say that again. I moved away for a few years, then moved back. The town almost doubled in size. I live NW of Dona Ana and a lot of the farms have been sold and converted to housing. One of my neighbors just planted a cotton field with pecans, so he isn't planning to sell anytime soon. At least most of the "new" development is East of LC. I don't want any more neighbors close to me cause they always want to add street lights which really messes up my looking at the stars. I'm semi-retired and "raise" pecans and other fruit trees. Currently, I'm using my box blade to clean out the irrigation ditch so I can get water the one time allowed. The rest of the time, I pump it from the well.