Box Scraper Changing angle to use rippers only

[Bob Rooks]

Tilting a standard box blade forward enough to use the scarifiers like the OP wants changes the angle of engagement and actually defeats the down pressure effect of the scarifiers so they have the tendency to just bounce when they should be digging. What the OP really needs is a hydraulic box blade, otherwise just get used to resetting the scarifiers as needed.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Well if we are going to show ripper tilt, here is ripper tilt:
View attachment 733125

I use it tilted this way to scrape dirt off of the roots on pushed over trees:
View attachment 733126

Thats just cheating

 

[jimglassford]

A box blade combines two functions in one. It breaks up the soil to a SHALLOW depth in front of a leveling blade. If you really want to just rip to any real depth, you need different tools. My neighbor keeps wanting to borrow my tractor to till his garden before planting. I keep telling him a box blade is not a tiller.

 

[Vigo327]

Tilting a standard box blade forward enough to use the scarifiers like the OP wants changes the angle of engagement and actually defeats the down pressure effect of the scarifiers so they have the tendency to just bounce when they should be digging.

Conceptually you might be right but that has not been my experience at all. I was doing this exact thing two days ago and the rippers were pulling down into the ground. I had to take the 3pt out of float because the rippers would pull down until the blade was touching and if i didn't want to be digging a 60" wide hole i had to stop the 3pt with blade at or a little above the ground to keep the rippers from pulling it in further.

I'm not trying to be argumentative but i see this as one of the major benefits of having a power top link on a box blade and it's working great for me. I would encourage anyone who already has the equipment to just give it a try sometime and see how it goes.

 

[Xfaxman]

Well if we are going to show ripper tilt, here is ripper tilt:
View attachment 733125

I use it tilted this way to scrape dirt off of the roots on pushed over trees:
View attachment 733126

Thats just cheating

But it works and no 3 point hitch!

 

[s219]

Tilting a standard box blade forward enough to use the scarifiers like the OP wants changes the angle of engagement and actually defeats the down pressure effect of the scarifiers so they have the tendency to just bounce when they should be digging. What the OP really needs is a hydraulic box blade, otherwise just get used to resetting the scarifiers as needed.

Finally someone said the right thing. Yes, you can try to use tilt to engage the rippers but at best it’s a shortcut hack. If you want the most benefit from the rippers, lower them and set the angle so that the main shanks are vertical.

I do a lot of box blade work and have hydraulic top and tilt with a huge range of motion. Even though I can set the angle to engage the rippers, I rarely ever do that. If I need the rippers they get lowered.

if you happen to be in soil that is amenable to ripping and you angle the box to engage the rippers, pretty soon the box will want to collect material. If that’s your goal, fine, but it will make for much less efficient ripping and waste a good bit of power/traction that could be going towards ripping.

The primary purpose of angle on a box blade should be to control the angle of attack and engagement of your rear cutting edges. That’s how a box blad was designed to operate.

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

This is the model of box blade I have and because the sides taper up from the lower back corner I can get the scarifiers to dig a few inches in without engaging the blade. However, with square cut sides it may me close to impossible. The OP can modify his box blade so that the bottom edge tapers up a few inches and achieve what he wants. It may cause the blade to leak a little dirt out the sides when moving it, but I never found it to be a significant problem

 

[jimglassford]

This is the model of box blade I have and because the sides taper up from the lower back corner I can get the scarifiers to dig a few inches in without engaging the blade. However, with square cut sides it may me close to impossible. The OP can modify his box blade so that the bottom edge tapers up a few inches and achieve what he wants. It may cause the blade to leak a little dirt out the sides when moving it, but I never found it to be a significant problem

Take a look at pictures of new Rhino BX60 box blades and you will see that the sides are square. What you have is a very worn box blade that has been used for too long tilted forward.

 

[Vigo327]

Finally someone said the right thing. Yes, you can try to use tilt to engage the rippers but at best it’s a shortcut hack. If you want the most benefit from the rippers, lower them and set the angle so that the main shanks are vertical.

Yall are making me want to rip two passes with the shanks angled and straight and see if there is actually any difference i would care about. Maybe im missing out on ripper shank action so good it's worth getting off the tractor and resetting 5 shanks every single time.

Makes me wonder if box blades that have hydraulically rotating ripper shank bars have some kind of physical stop or maybe limit on the cylinder that makes the shanks stop at vertical. Would be a shame if they stopped before or after and resulted in some kind of.. ripping inefficiency. All the effort saved by moving them hydraulically instead of manually would be wasted.. by.. something. Somehow. I just want my rippers to rotate hydraulically so they can knock clumpy stuff out of the box for me. So i dont have to.. get off the tractor. I guess i'm more on the lazy side than the picky side when it comes to hucking dirt, which might even be the whole reason i bought a tractor.

 

[Bob Rooks]

Yall are making me want to rip two passes with the shanks angled and straight and see if there is actually any difference i would care about. Maybe im missing out on ripper shank action so good it's worth getting off the tractor and resetting 5 shanks every single time.

Makes me wonder if box blades that have hydraulically rotating ripper shank bars have some kind of physical stop or maybe limit on the cylinder that makes the shanks stop at vertical. Would be a shame if they stopped before or after and resulted in some kind of.. ripping inefficiency. All the effort saved by moving them hydraulically instead of manually would be wasted.. by.. something. Somehow. I just want my rippers to rotate hydraulically so they can knock clumpy stuff out of the box for me. So i dont have to.. get off the tractor. I guess i'm more on the lazy side than the picky side when it comes to hucking dirt, which might even be the whole reason i bought a tractor.

If you want to find an easy way to do a job, you hire a lazy man............