Boxscraping Basics

[W5FL]

Harv, Glad to see you are actually using that new tractor!

Practice with the box in three positions, front edge just cutting, box level, and front edge about 2 inches high. This will cut deep, cut shallow, and grade nicely. A hydraulic top link improves productivity, but won't work any better, but you can adjust it quickly and get a cut going forward and another going back.

The tilt lever on the 3 point lets you adjust the cut and slope your cuts for drainage. A heavy (1000#) boxblade works better, but you can add a lot of weight to a 500# blade and see definate improvements. I make most cuts with the scarfiers down since my soil is pretty dry and hard. I have 8 scarfiers and this lets the soil be loosened and cut in a single pass.

 

[Harv]

Wen -

Thanks for the additional tips. I feel like I just entered tractor kindergarten, and the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Actually, I'm almost in a worse state of mind than I was during my shopping phase. I haven't been able to go visit my new 'Bota since that first weekend. First, the family camping trip and now it looks the coming weekend is being pre-empted by my daughter's soccer games and girl scout functions. They didn't buy my argument that the tractor is now a member of the family and requires just as much quality time with Daddy as everyone else. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

I just heard today that my long-ago-ordered culvert pipe will "probably" be delivered next Monday, so I'm planning to take a couple of days off and head up to the property by myself to get that project going. I finally found a guy who had actually heard of that crushed limestone stuff which sounds like the perfect backfill. That will be delivered this Friday so I might actually have a shot at finishing at least one of the 3 planned culverts next week, assuming I can develop enough tractor skills to get the job done.

I will once again try to take pictures for show-and-tell on this board. It slows me down a little to do so, but I want all the feedback I can get on my tractorin' projects, and pictures tell a better story than I can. I just hope I can force myself to take pictures of my inevitable screw-ups as well as my successes, since they may serve to help someone else avoid simalar problems in the future.