Box blade/ land plane ripper teeth

[crazyal]

Has anyone thought about modifying their rippers to accept teeth for a backhoe bucket? The fabricated teeth for ripping shanks seam to not last very long. I usually get 3 years out of them, maybe 15 actual uses in dirt before they are worn down and unusable. In the winter I use they 4 or 5 times to break up ice on the driveway. The last set I bought from a company that comes here often last fall have already gotten to the point where they will need replacing. They only seen one time ripping up the gravel in the driveway this spring. Everything else was ice this past winter. I didn't get a picture new but I do have showing one ripper that was only used on ice and another that has seen ice last fall and gravel once. I know the gravel driveway does get packed down pretty solidly so maybe I'm asking too much of them.

Yesterday I had a section of road that was very dry and hard packed. I didn't even bother trying to use the rippers. Instead I just used the backhoe and broke it up. I've thought about it before but never seriously but now I'm thinking of trying backhoe teeth. It should be pretty simple. The teeth are made for a shank that's 1 1/2" wide while the ripper shanks on my land plane are only 3/4". So it would just be a matter of adding 3/8" steel on each side and getting the angle right. Then simply drilling a hole in the ripper would allow the standard steel/ rubber pins to be used to hold the teeth on. The fabricated teeth are 1 1/2" wide while the standard 23 series teeth are about 2 1/4". So it would add a little surface area but I wouldn't have to go with a standard tooth. There are at least a dozen styles to choose from.

I have worn down teeth on my backhoe but never tot he point where they need replacing. Normally I'll be trying to break up ledge and actually break the tooth. The teeth currently on my bucket are 10 years old now and still have plenty of life. They see a lot more abuse than what the rippers would see. Has anyone tried this? If so did it work?

 

[boggen]

am wondering, if you are physically "sharping" the teeth. vs leaving the teeth "dull". dull teeth more likely last longer.

sharp as in knife sharp, will ding up and break quickly.

are you pulling them in the dirt, while turning? and causing them to bend and twist off?

are you running so hard and fast enough ground speed, that they are heating up to a point were they are in idea melting / easier to grind the metal off them as you drag them through the dirt.

how many miles you getting out of them? just like ground engagement in field equipment for farmers, those rippers be taken a beaten after so many miles within the ground.

do you have "to much angle" on the bottom of the rippers / teeth? and need more of a drag harrow spikes. so you are not wearing both bottom and top side of the teeth out?

do you have to much angle on the 3pt hitch, and causing both bottom and top of the teeth to get wore down a lot more?

 

[crazyal]

I don't sharpen them. Rarely turn, if at all. I would guess I put about a mile worth of use on that worn down one in the picture. Don't go fast so I doubt they are heating up (slower seams to help them dig deeper). The angle is set by the ripping shank. I will shorten the top link to adjust the angle to dig deeper but looking at the wear pattern it doesn't look like too much of an angle problem. I would expect that too much angle would show up with a different wear pattern. I suspect that this set of teeth was heat treated on the end of the tooth and once that wore down they are just going to quickly wear down. But that's the problem with a fabricated tooth. They are always going to wear down quicker than a forged tooth that's not welded.

 

[David_Kb7uns]

Put some hard facing on them.

David

 

[crazyal]

I did look into it but I haven't used a stick welder in decades and not sure how easily I could get one (most of the people I know have gone to MIG or TIG). That leaves my mig. It has the power to do .045 hardfacing wire but doing so doesn't look to be any cheaper. I did a quick search and it looks like it's about $50 for a 1 lb roll (not sure if a roll that small will fit on my Lincoln) with shipping. I kind of leaned towards the backhoe teeth simply because once converted changing a tooth would take a minute or so.

 

[CalG]

I tipped a set of box blade rippers by welding on short lengths of grouser bar.
Dura-Tuff Wear Products >> Grouser Bar

'Seemed to hold up well.

I sold off the box blade before they wore out.

250 yards of rocky gravel drive wears things in a hurry! ;-)

 

[sdef]

It is difficult to get a shovel full of soil anywhere on my property if it has not been previously worked. It is very hard clay and rock. Drilling with a tractor PHD is extremely difficult most of the time and is more of a drill down 6 inches, pull the PHD out and then go to work with digging bars to get out rock. Then back to PHD... continue the process until something breaks, the hole is complete or the auger is stuck.

I have a Dirt Dog 72" ROBB that has been used a lot to build the driveway and grade around the home site with no need for new shanks, other than one that initially broke- factory defect I assume and two are bent a little bit to the side from digging up small boulders, but are fully functional. Many hard hours of use and no issues with BB shanks due to wear.

 

[Leejohn]

Boy I hope they wear longer then what you are getting. I just put 12 on my wheeled box blade to fight the washboards on the road.

 

[mopardude318]

Wish someone would make 'em out of AR600...