Building a road on contour with box blade

3RRL · Oct 2, 2007

Hi kvmapr,
I've been reading your thread trying to figure what you can do with what you have. Using what you have, I like the idea of digging with the bucket sideways to the road. Of course the toothbar would help doing that. But even without it, you could dig a "V" shaped trench on the high side of the road probably better going downhill. The pile that bucket of dirt on the low side of the trench. Move over and do it again until you get a good sized groove...like what you tried to do with the middle buster. Now you can go parallel on the road with you uphill tires in that trench and use the fel bucket to cut the hump out. Take that dirt and move it to the low side of the road to build it up. That way you don't have to dig so deep.

You will probably have to repeat digging the "V" shape trench over again to get the road level, so give your self plenty of room to start on the uphill side so that trench wall is not too steep. It will take time, but you can do it that way.

As far as the tooth bar, a boxblade would be the tool for your job, like you saw in my thread(s). Consider that for a little more money (for a not so heavy duty model) you could get the boxblade instead of the tooth bar. You can use the rippers (scarifiers) on the boxblade to loosen your soil before digging with the fel bucket or moving dirt with the boxblade. It is a valuable tool and you will use it for who knows how many other chores. If you plan on a lot of dirt work, both would be recommended.

And ultimately, a heavier boxblade is much better than a light one if you can swing it. But you can always add weight to the lighter ones too. I know Spiveyman is always pimping my ability to make stuff, but it comes out of necessity. If I had his money I would never have to modify anything.

tommu56 · Oct 2, 2007

kvmapr

I know you don't have one but I dig a trench with my hoe for my tires to ride in that is close to level and then make the cut with my bucket to level the whole thing out

tom

jbrumberg · Oct 2, 2007

3RRL:

I consider you to be the "Master of Boxblades", you give good advise, and I quote your signature often with good effect

. Now you are probably going to get Spiveyman all worked up

! Jay

Spiveyman · Oct 2, 2007

Well I can't just sit back and watch all of this happen without throwing my hat in the ring. Gees, you try to give someone a compliment...

Have you ever been impressed with someone who could do something really well that you pretty much stink at? I'm pretty much pathetic when it comes to mechanical stuff. The only things I know how to fix or modify are the things that I've broken. So these days that list does seem to be growing at a steady pace, but I wish like crazy that I had the ability to turn my tractor into one of those battle bots like Rob could. I was genuinely impressed. If you are going to set the bar so high you can't get offended when newbies like me look up to it.

I'm also really glad that you finally figured out that I'm filthy stinking rich so that I can stop with all of the pretences. (well, two out of three ain't bad).

I'm sure my wife could attest to the filthy stinking part after coming in from the barn tonight.

Now if you don't mind I need to go count my money and get to bed...

3RRL · Oct 3, 2007

I'm also really glad that you finally figured out that I'm filthy stinking rich so that I can stop with all of the pretences. (well, two out of three ain't bad). I'm sure my wife could attest to the filthy stinking part after coming in from the barn tonight.

Now if you don't mind I need to go count my money and get to bed...

LOL ... LMOA

3RRL · Oct 3, 2007

Jay,
Thank you for the compliments (you too Spiv) I am humbled. I'm sure there are tons of guys out there who have way more experience with the boxblade than I do. But I have managed to get it under control and use it effectively now.
Hope your health is doing great!

npaden · Oct 3, 2007

I always keep my eye out for used implements for sale in the local free newspaper (thrifty nickel here) and craigslist and I do an ebay search for farm implements listed based on distance showing the ones closest first.

I haven't flat out stolen anything yet like some of the deals I've heard on here (well the 14' grain drill in working condition for $250 might have been a steal) but I've gotten several pretty decent deals that way. You can't just go buy what you need that day but by keeping my eyes open and buying stuff when I see a good used item for sale I've saved 40% - 60% off of what most would have cost if I had just bought them new. Implements like a box blade, back blade, tandem disc, etc. are pretty hard to wear out so I don't mind buying them used at all. I bought my rotary cutter new and will probably end up buying a post hole digger new because the gear box on those does wear out and if they are abused it is hard to tell sometimes when the gear box will go out.

Just my 2 cents.

Nathan

kvmapr · Oct 3, 2007

Wow. Turn my back on a thread for a few days and you guys really jump on it. Gonna take me a while to respond to all this good advice...

Dentonsisk, that advice on a gutter is a good one. Eventually I will have a box scraper and I will be able to do this road right, including a gutter to direct run off and put a crown on this thing.

Skunkwerx, I agree, if there's anything I want more than the box blade at this point it's that tooth bar. I'm holding out for a few good checks on my birthday later this month, so it may happen. Just not soon enough for this little project, I plan to be back at it this weekend. But I do have another half mile of road or so to build on similar slopes in the future, so lessons learned now will definitely pay off. One thing I've already learned is how to make better use of that middlebuster technique. First off, I didn't have it set as deeply as it could go, so my uphill trench wasn't as deep as it needed to be. My second trench was parallel to the first, and just down hill. Then I over did it and cut a third trench a little further down hill. All that did was make the down hill side much softer under my right tires and I lost any "levelling-effect" the uphill trench might have created.

3RRL, your advice is well taken, and this weekend when I work at it I'll try both techniques, cutting a trench as you suggest, and also try to create a flat pad. Just picturing it in my head, both will require a lot of digging. Unfortunately, I'm limited on the uphill side by a buried phone cable. Otherwise I would make that up hill cut a lot shallower and get back in there with the middle buster to make that top trench deeper.

tommu56, mmmm.... backhoe.... someday (when the wife's not looking).

npaden, yeah you're talking my language. The only thing better than a new implement, is a new, used implement for a good price. Around here's it's the Pennysaver and Craigslist. And by coincidence, I'm driving 60 miles tomorrow to check out a scraper blade that I found on Craigslist. The guy has two and tells me this one is heavier duty than the one he's keeping. He can't tell me the manufacturer, it came as part of the used Kubota package he bought. I'm just hoping it's not one of the low end blades from Tractor Supply. If it's anything better than that, I'll feel like I'm getting a good deal at his asking price, $150.

Thanks all, and I'll get some pictures of round two on the farm road build to post next week.

jbrumberg · Oct 3, 2007

kvmapr:

Good luck on the scraper blade. You need a heavy blade be it a scraper blade or box scraper. Jay

3RRL · Oct 4, 2007

kvmapr,
Yeah, there is a lot of digging involved indeed for what you are doing.
I know you have your heart set on getting toothbar first, but I wanted to stress how useful the boxblade would be to you now vs the toothbar. You can always move dirt with your fel bucket after you loosen it with the boxblade rippers. As a matter of fact, you can move dirt with the fel and boxblade at the same pass making for a quicker job. I do that all the time. You can contour with the boxblade by tilting it and use it as a dozer blade in reverse where it will really dig and cut the high side out. You must be careful not to cut too much in reverse to avoid bending your drag links like I did.

I just wanted to point that out that even though I can dig with the toothbar, I still usually loosen the dirt first with the boxblade rippers. I find the tooth bar real handy for popping out trees, rocks and brush easier. But I do my real road work more with the boxblade.
You can pop rocks out with it too very easily...lol...even when you don't want too.

So my suggestion is to get that boxblade first since it's an immediate need and get the toothbar later, because it is so useful too. Of course it's you call and you know better what you will be using all this stuff for. Either one is a great addition to your arsenal of "needed" tools.