blade -> box blade

[shade2u2]

I was considering having side plates fabricated to mount on the sides of my Lands Pride 7' blade. My idea is to have something close to a box blade setup for times when I want to "move" more dirt while preparing our property. Has anyone done this or seen it done? Are there problems with this idea? I know that withour the scarifers, that this would not function like a real box blade, but thought that it would work better.

 

[MChalkley]

I've got side plates on my 8' Landpride Series 35 blade. They're extremely useful. Most of the time, I leave the right side one off and the left side one on, so I can pull gravel from the outside of the road to the inside to crown it. But, when moving a lot of material, it's nice to have them both on and use it like a very big box scraper.

Mark

 

[W5FL]

I have both a 8 ft rear blade and a 76 inch box blade. The box blade will do a lot more than the rear blade, but can't see that adding plates to the ends would help very much. When moving dirt with the box blade there is usually nearly 3/4 yard of dirt in the box and sometimes it spills over the top of that.

If I were going to add anything to a rear blade, it might be a heavy duty gauge wheel that would run about 6 feet behind it to better control the height of the blade and keep it from digging in. Unfortunately, a Grade Master seems to work a lot better, so probably will do nothing to my rear blade except use it to dig ditches as I can't find much that it does very well.

 

[W5FL]

Mark,

Maybe the problem I have, is that the blade only adjust in fixed increments in azimuth and tilt has maybe 3 notches each side. There is no fine adjust except on the 3 point which doesn't help once you let the 3 point all the way down.

The rear blade has already paid for itself just in digging drainage ditches, but crowning a road is possible a good use if someone can describe how to do it with the existing gravel rather than just deposit more new base to crown the road with.

 

[MChalkley]

Wen - I supposed I neglected to factor in the impact of the trailing hydraulic gauge wheel. With it, you can control overall depth of the blade very accurately. Then, with the hydraulic top and side links, you can set the blade to any angle of tilt forward and backward and side to side. To change the angle of the blade so it's isn't perfectly parallel to the tractor, i.e. so the right edge leads and the material you up with it flows toward the left end with the side plate to assist in crowning the road, you have to use the lock pin mechanism on the blade.

What I have found with most roads that need re-crowning is that the raised center gradually washes to the sides, where is usually stops in the first few inches of vegetation on the shoulder. To re-crown the road, you have to lead the right edge of the blade at a fairly sharp angle into the first few inches of shoulder. The right edge should also be a couple inches lower than the left. It will then cut the fines out of the shoulder, and they will flow toward the center of the road as they travel back along the blade. A side plate on the left side holds it there to keep you from leaving a pile of material as it flows past the end of the blade. On badly flattened roades, I like to drop an inch or two of gravel down the center, they pull the fines on the shoulders back up to the center in the manner described to fill in around the stone and stabilize it to keep it from rolling.

Mark

 

[W5FL]

Thanks Mark,

Always glad when someone will share the details of how to do something very useful to all of us that have gravel roads to maintain. I have seen lots of very poor roller coaster roads, so there are a lot of people that can benefit. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[RobertN]

I have a roll-over Gannon scraper. With it in the forward facing direction, it is almost like what you describe. It can not be angled like a plain blade though.

It works nice for keeping up my drive. It's nice to run it with the blade reversed; it really back blades nicely.

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

 

[W5FL]

I have a Gannon box blade. Although I had previously owned a 6 ft Rhino box blade, I never understood all of the different ways you could set the top link to get a good back blade action, to set the front blade so it would level and back blade, raise the hinged back blade and become a deep scraper, etc. As others share their uses and applications, some of us find better ways to use the implements we have.

p.s. I was looking to buy the roll over but got the lever operated scarfier version of the Gannon 76 inch box blade. It is also very heavy and as in your roll over, the weight plays a VERY important part of the operation. The roll over will do one thing that none of the others can do, though - it can fill the box while going either forward or reverse. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[jgh]

2000-07-08

Would you guys elaborate on your Gannon rollover and box scrapers? I did not see a Gannon rollover scraper in the catalog, did see their HD box blades.

I was going to go with the Bush Hog RO 720 (their stuff is so well made and the phone contacts have been great), but have talked to Roadboss (Krauss) and am having a FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) attack /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif.

Do I recall correctly that someone has commented that Roadboss does a better job on parking lots than on roads?

TIA

Jim

 

[RobertN]

Didn't Woods buy the Gannon line? Look at the Woods website maybe. Bushhog has them too.

I have only used the roll-over box; this is my first tractor expierience, and the rollover box came with it.

I do know it is better at pushing stuff than a box scraper, and with the blade facing back while pulling forward, it smoothes our road and arena very nicely.

Sometimes it would be nice to just barely rip while scraping, like a regular box blade.

I think the box blade is maybe a better all around piece.

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif