box blade v. grader blade

[LMan1967]

Stupid question, sorry, but what can a box blade do that a grader blade cannot? :ashamed:

 

[milkman636]

Carry material over distance. A grading blade will trail spoil on one or both sides.

Some better brands of grading blades offer end wings and guage wheels that are bolted on to perform like a box. Woods has them for their HBL series of blades.

 

[crazyal]

When you say grader blade, do you mean a rear blade or are you talking about a grading scraper?

 

[familyman]

If you mean an angling rear blade, the box blade is a heavier, tougher tool. Will move more soil, faster and better than a rear blade. Because they can angle, rear blades can be faster at spreading gravel and clearing snow, but not for grading. A boxblade is also better at resurfacing a rutted stone drive because it carries the material and spreads it into the low spots.

 

[schmism]

A boxblade is also better at resurfacing a rutted stone drive because it carries the material and spreads it into the low spots.

I disagree with the last part. Proper gravel road maintenance is done by cutting the entire surface off, rolling all of the material over thoroughly mixing both larger and smaller aggregate and re-spreading the material over the road. This is what a road grader does with a single blade.

A rear blade can be angled and tilted and can windrow the material. Great for cutting ditches, plowing snow, and grading driveways.

A box blade is great for cutting high spots and carrying that material to be deposited at a low spots. A box blade basically becomes useless once the box is full of material.

 

[bcp]

A box blade basically becomes useless once the box is full of material.

When it is full is when it is doing the job, moving material. Is a bucket useless once it is full of water? When they are empty is when they are useless.



Bruce

 

[LMan1967]

Thanks for the info. I guess I mean a scraper, an angled blade (like a road grader) to fix roads. Sorry, I'm still learning the nomenclature...

One of my primary tasks will be to maintain the roads/trails around the perimeter of my property...they are all dirt, although I would like to gravel them in the future. If I only get one attachment or the other, I want to get the one best suited for my task.

 

[s219]

A box blade basically becomes useless once the box is full of material.

That's the whole point. It will still be ripping/cutting when full, but also redistributes material at that point. A good box blade will have a rear cutting edge that you can run it in reverse if you do not want to be moving material in the box, making it fairly versatile.

The rear blade and the land plane (grader) are better for many things (for instance, I'd choose a land plane over anything else for finishing a gravel driveway). But the box blade has a wide range of capabilities and is best if you really need to dig, rip up, or move material. It's structurally configured and braced for that kind of thing, where the others are not.

 

[DKCDKC]

I have a mile gravel drive. I have used a box blade as a primary tool to keep it in a nice, smooth condition for 10 years, and it works fine. I have observed graders working and would certainly agree they can do a better job, for a lot more money. I have looked at land planes, and they too offer some real capabilities, for a lot more money. I picked up a regular rear blade a year ago for nothing, had it fixed and use it primarily for snow. I may use it once a year on the drive to bring some gravel back into the road bed, but that's all.

For a single tool for a gravel drive for someone trying to keep costs down, a box blade is the way to go. If you learn to rotate it a bit, you can do a lot with it. I rotate it forward and put the tines down fully to till my garden. Works.

I have added a Ratchet Rake for some brush control, but found it is also for minor grading jobs on the drive when I don't want to go hook up the heavy box blade.

For an old country boy like me, getting the job done as cheaply as possible is key. And for that I like my box blade.

 

[horsinaround]

A box blade is great for maintaining a driveway.
You can also drop the rippers to really work it up.
They will generally be a lot tougher than a grader blade.

 

[greg_g]

Take this story FWIW. I bought a small farm. I bought a tractor. In my ignorance, I thought a rear scraper blade was the right tool to maintain the gravel roads. Turns out it was a bad choice. I traded it in on a box blade and a landscape rake. No comparison whatsoever. Compared to the progress I was making with the scraper, they got the job done in nothing flat. That was 16 years ago, and I've never once thought about buying another rear scraper blade.

//greg//

 

[gwdixon]

The OP stated that the roads he need to maintain are dirt (for now). Dirt roads generally get tire ruts and potholes that need to be filled. For dirt roads the box blade would be the most advantageous. Scrape up enough material and just drive along letting the material fill the holes. The rippers can be used to loosen the dirt if it is packed. This can take some practice and fine top link adjustments but it can be very rewarding when done correctly.

Gravel tends to "slide" off of crowned roads and leaves bare spots. The bare spots could produce holes and ruts. A rear blade (or landscape rake) at an angle is useful to move the gravel back to the center. Top link and side link adjustments can fine tune the process - a Top & Tilt is a luxury worth having for this.

A grading scraper for roads is like a finish mower for lawns. It puts the final touch on that makes the road look professionally done.

GS25 Series Grading Scrapers | Land Pride

 

[Gordon Gould]

^^ Very well stated gw.

There seems to be alot of dislike for rear blades. I love using mine. It is the universal road tool. That is not to say there is anything wrong with a box blade. They are just a different tool.

For existing roads:
If you need to move material along the direction of travel i.e. move material washed to the bottom of a hill back up the hill. Use a boxblade.
If you want to move material across the direction of travel i.e. move material from the side to the crown or move material humped on either side of a wheel rut back into the rut where it came from. Use a blade.

For building a new dirt road generally both tools are extremely usefull. If I were grubbing out small roots, filling holes, or doing cut and fill where the material had to be move down the road. I would use a box blade. For side hill cut and fill, adjusting the final road contours, putting in water bars, and ditching. I would use the rear blade. The fact that you can angle the rear blade sets it apart from the box blade.

This, of course, is just my opinion and an over simplication of two tools whose function overlap tremendously.

 

[crazyal]

The OP stated that the roads he need to maintain are dirt (for now). Dirt roads generally get tire ruts and potholes that need to be filled. For dirt roads the box blade would be the most advantageous. Scrape up enough material and just drive along letting the material fill the holes. The rippers can be used to loosen the dirt if it is packed. This can take some practice and fine top link adjustments but it can be very rewarding when done correctly.

Gravel tends to "slide" off of crowned roads and leaves bare spots. The bare spots could produce holes and ruts. A rear blade (or landscape rake) at an angle is useful to move the gravel back to the center. Top link and side link adjustments can fine tune the process - a Top & Tilt is a luxury worth having for this.

A grading scraper for roads is like a finish mower for lawns. It puts the final touch on that makes the road look professionally done.

GS25 Series Grading Scrapers | Land Pride

This spring I decided I didn't have the time to make my own grading scrapper and ended up buying one. After shopping around I wouldn't recommend the Land Pride. While it looks well built the ripping teeth are optional. Also the 6' model is less than 600lbs. I did find a dealer that had them in stock but about 150 miles from me, they gave me a price of $1400. I looked at the Woods but nobody local carried it and the two dealers who gave me quotes were almost $2k shipped. I ended up with a Befco shipped to me for less than the LP. It weighs over 100 lbs more and it includes the ripping shanks.

I'm not sure where you get a box blade that's half price that's of equal weight. Weight matters. Unless you can keep your drive from getting potholes I would get the ripping shanks. With them you can rip up the gravel or dirt before leveling it. I also have to disagree about the box blade being the most useful on a dirt road. I have used the rippers on the GS to loosen up the high spots and then just used the front bucket to move the dirt to the low spots. I found that usually works better than trying to move dirt with the box blade. Once you've loosened the gravel after your first pass it's now much harder to get traction to pull a box blade full of gravel back up a hill on the driveway.

 

[jenkinsph]

I don't think there is a definative answer to this question, you will need more than one of these tools to get good results for most new operators. If I had to pick one to smooth up existing roads or trails it would be the landplane. I would likely wan't to add a rearblade and boxblades asap. Being able to work the side ditches and throw up this material in order to raise the road would be important to me before the rain season set in. This reply is based on having all of the above mentioned tools and I can tell you I get more use out of the landplanes than the boxblades, rearblades and landscape rakes.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I am like jenkinsph and have all of the different grading implements. I maintain over 2 miles of roads. I would not be without my land plane grader blade. As has been mentioned, Top and Tilt cylinders for the 3pt hitch will make all of your grading much much easier and faster to do. :thumbsup:

I would like to comment that any and all grading implements are far more useful the heavier that they are. This is best when the implement is built heavy with thick material. The best rule of thumb that I can recommend for grading is to always get and use the heaviest implement that you can afford and that your tractor will handle in most conditions. If you have little or no experience, then TBN is about the best place to get that info.

Just my :2cents:, good luck with your decision.