box blade

[Anonymous Poster]

can someone tell me how a box blade works? if it fills with dirt, how do you dump it?
i would appreciate someone explaining how many things that can be done with a
box blade. thanks.
william

 

[Knight9]

Good start to understanding the use of box blades would be to read the following two threads:

How to use a box blade

How not to make whoop-d-whoops with the box blade

Kevin

 

[MarkV]

William,
There have been many talks about box blades, so, if you do a search, I think you will know more than you may want to about box blades./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif If you don't find what you need, just ask. Although it is not for everyone, it is my most used implement.

MarkV

 

[gordon]

This is a repost that I did about a year ago.

I think the boxblade is one of the hardest to learn but once you do---watch out. One thing that is key to using the box is practice, practice, practice oh yea did I metion that it takes alot of tractor hours to get the hang of the box. One thing that is key to using the box is the three point height adjustment and being able to move it ever so slightly. Another key thing is the toplink adjustment to set the angle of the box. Sounds simple right---not!

Of course soil conditions will have alot to do with the way the box is used. If you have very hard compacted dirt and want to loosen it up of course use the rippers on the box guess that goes without saying.

If you want to cut just alittle off the top its best to have the box pretty level front to back so the box doesn't dig to deep two things are key here the toplink adjustment and also the 3pt height as to how deep you want to go. Remember at times it takes what seems like a minute for the 3pt to move up or down when boxblading but the key is move it in small increments or else you will raise the box to high or be cutting to deep.

If you want to cut deeper shorten the toplink. What this does is put the front blade of the box at a steeper angle going down and depending on your box and how the rippers are set they will be also cutting before the blade allowing to go deeper as well.

If you want to level you can make the top link longer so the front blade isn't touching and your riding on the backblade you can still move dirt but if you lower your 3pt you will be dragging and slowly raise it you will put out a nice level run of dirt.

If your not good with a box and want to look like a pro invest in a hydraulic toplink---best thing since sliced bread. If you can't afford one then you'll be making alot of fine adjustments with the toplink for different operations. With the hydraulic toplink you can go from deep cutting to cutting to leveling out with the backblade with out stopping in one sweeping run just by changing the toplink and leaving the 3pt height alone.

Guess thats some of the basics the key is toplink adjustment and small adjustments on the 3pt level. Just takes time thats all. Don't worry if you can't cut a perfect line with the box it takes hours and hours to be a hot cat with a box. Some days I'm a hot cat with a box and it seems some other days I'm not even tepid!
Good luck
Gordon

 

[GlueGuy]

Also check this thread that is going on at this time.

The GlueGuy

 

[Anonymous Poster]

thanks for all of the advice, but i still need to know how you dump the dirt out of a box blade.
also the reason i am using xxxxxxxx for a username is after i signed on i was told that my
username is in use already, of course i have a common name, so i guess this is why. but i was
not told how i could get around this so i just did the x thing. it sounds like the box blade is
hard to master. what i have is a drainage problem. when it rains hard the water comes in on
my carport, and i thought i could undercut the ground in front of it, and then put some gravel
in place of the dirt. has anybody done this sort of thing?
william

 

[Bird]

William, a box blade doesn't actually pick up the dirt, the blade cuts in and you're dragging a load of dirt with it in front of the blade. To just dump it, you just raise your 3-point hitch to lift the blade over it.

Bird

 

[cowboydoc]

X,
Yes Bird is right. For what you want you do I've done that before. What I would do is twofold though. I'd scrape off 4" or so of dirt to below your carport. Then I'd put in some tile all the way around there. Otherwise the area that you dig out and fill with gravel is just going to fill up with water again and spill onto your carport. That is unless the grade is already away from your carport. If it isn't you will need to tile it or grade the water away.

 

[MarkV]

X,
I agree with Richard on how to go about your carport problem. The only thing I would add is if you use the plastic drain tile, get the kind with a silt sock on it. Other wise it will not be long before the silt clogs up the tile.

MarkV