My concern is setting the box blade with all this extra weight farther back may be more than my tractor can handle. I have been playing with basically the same tongue design as your pictures. I just decided to try out the 3 point hitch version first. When I raise the hitch the steering is touchy. Might have to double the front weights. That would help with my heavy roller too.
Finally built a laser grading rig using my box blade.
- Thread starter jenkinsph
- Start date
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My concern is setting the box blade with all this extra weight farther back may be more than my tractor can handle. I have been playing with basically the same tongue design as your pictures. I just decided to try out the 3 point hitch version first. When I raise the hitch the steering is touchy. Might have to double the front weights. That would help with my heavy roller too.
Spiros
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2012
- Messages
- 88
- Location
- Bartlett, TN
- Tractor
- Yanmar 2210, YM1900, 1963 Ford2000diesel, New HollandTC33
I am continually astounded by the depth of knowledge found here in these pages. Thanks for the education guys!
I appreciate your taking time to provide all this information. Certainly not an inexpensive project.
I modified a Landpride box blade as others have done by adding a hydraulic rockshaft to the rear but just pivot mounted and no parallel linkage and caster. The wheels are fairly close to the back of the box blade so no caster is needed even in 3PH mode. Your independent twin lift control sure adds a lot of capability to the package.
I used similar logic in determining the pros and cons of 3PH mounted versus tongue pulled and made a pin-on tongue so it could be used either way. Your flip-up tongue is more convenient and adds more weight for downforce when folded for 3PH use.
Would love to have the laser control but probably not going to happen with my hobby budget.
When I started these designs. A few years ago I knew then that the parallel linkage was the way to go. I looked at countless designs by others such as Level Best and just did not like the idea of the caster operating at an angle. It just made more sense to keep the caster swivel plumb for smooth turns at all height positions. I will post some better pictures showing the wheel carriers. They are heavy duty with no slop or play in the linkage.
Piston
Elite Member
That would be very much appreciated!
A friend of mine has a setup almost identical to what you built. He built his as well. Parallel linkage, and spectra electronics. He originally had two receivers but had problems with getting it to work right so now he just has one. He let me borrow it one weekend. Kind of crazy he didn’t even really show me how it worked but after thirty minutes of messing around I had it running. I laser leveled my roughly 100’ x 200’ parking area. The hardest part was getting the slope set right which I ultimately used my GPS to take measurements and calculate it. It is flat here or so we think but my land actually drops about 1’ in the 200’ direction and about 1’ in the 100’ direction. He had a dual slope laser so I set it up and entered the correct slopes and then it was just a matter of driving around. It works amazingly well and is super accurate. The hardest part if you are not trying to make something flat is setting the slope right on the laser.
npalen
Elite Member
I thought that I understood the reason for caster wheels and the resulting need for the parallel lift linkage but now I'm not so sure. Is the need for casters brought about because of the distance of the wheels behind the blade? When pulling in the trailing mode is there any issue with the rig running off center on a steep side slope because of the castering?
I understand that turning while operating would require that the blade or the wheels slide sideways but that wouldn't seem to be a showstopper. Just trying to understand the dynamics since my rig is set up with just a pivoting lift as are most soil movers of the type.
I understand that turning while operating would require that the blade or the wheels slide sideways but that wouldn't seem to be a showstopper. Just trying to understand the dynamics since my rig is set up with just a pivoting lift as are most soil movers of the type.
First of all I have not put the caster locks on yet. I was just trying out the new rig to verify the hydraulic and electronic operation.
On a steep side slope the caster locks would help when releasing the dirt in low spots. In high spots while cutting the wheels will raise up clearing the ground.
The casters help reduce the stress in sharp turns, I can definitely tell the difference as the turns are very smooth. Making the orbital movements between the borders as you work down a field can stress every part of the machine. I am hoping that smooth turning casters help with this but time will tell.
I will find out soon enough whether I will need to add a fan drive oil cooler in series with the return line. There are lots of these coolers available with DC fan motors. Such as the Cool-Line oil coolers that is a compact fan unit with flows up to 50 gpm. This is less than $500 and can really help lower the temperatures overall. Since the flow through the valve and the return line can be continuous this would help cool all the oil. Lower the temperature from heavy hydrostatic transmission loads would also benefit from this. Most of these newer tractors have a thick stack of coolers and accessories condenser coils and a cooler on the box blade would help with this.
