Floating Tailgate BoxBlade Finally!!

[EverythingAttachments]

Here is the first look at our new Everything Attachments floating tailgate box blade.

A quick rundown of the details so far:

The first model that we've made is a 72". It weighs over 900 pounds!
Category 1&2 quick hitch compatible.
Extended sides on the rear, which will make backfilling easier.
Higher capacity than our current Severe Xtreme Boxblade.
Sizes will range from 72" up to 96".
Will be accepting orders in the next 1-2 weeks.

The introductory price for the 72" model will be $2,195 shipped to a commercial business or supporting freight terminal within 1,000 miles of Newton, NC.

More details, pics and product video coming soon!
Travis

 

[BukitCase]

Where's the lockdown for the rear blade? Steve

 

[murphy1244]

And the Scarifiers..

 

[breadtrk]

And the Scarifiers..

They are in the picture and look like they have replaceable teeth.

 

[murphy1244]

They are in the picture and look like they have replaceable teeth.

Good catch! I couldn't see them at first.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Where's the lockdown for the rear blade? Steve

When we started designing this blade, which is a lot like the back of a Gill/Woods SR series(one of my favorite blades), the first thing I thought of was how to lock the rear gate because there are uses for it locked and unlocked.

My problem is that I haven't thought of a good way of being able to lock the tailgate without having to reach under the blade to undo many bolts or pins. Pins would be lost and both are unsafe for the user if done in the field without jack stands, etc. It is easy to come up with a solution on the sides and I didn't want to picture this customer's boxblade because it is one of the toughest, well known boxblades ever built, but if you look closely, it is easy to lock down and will take a lot of push from the back, but it has no extended area on the rear for backfilling and, unfortunately, if you look close, you will see that the rear gate is bent outward in the middle due to catching on something when moving forward in the locked position. Keep in mind that these boxblades go on tractors up to 100hp. We feel like our tailgate is as strong as any, with a fully rolled 1/4" thick 1 1/8" circle at the top making the whole gate extremely rigid. The trick would be how to lock the blade down in the middle safely without having to reach underneath to accomplish it. Just about any locking mechanism protruding from the outside will be destroyed with a 100hp tractor clearing small trees. We would like to have this feature as much as you guys do, but we truly want it to be bulletproof, safe and easy for the customer.

Please send me your thoughts/pics/drawings of how you would do this. It is still in the prototype stage, so we can change anything pretty easily.

Here is a pic of the gannon I am referring to:


Ted

 

[EverythingAttachments]

And the Scarifiers..

We are looking into some new shanks and will post up pics when everything is finalized.

 

[BukitCase]

Your pic of the Gannon could have easily been mine, except that the lock tabs on mine were partially broken off up til this year - my Gannon had been (ab)used by a road crew in Nevada somewhere before I got it thru the local branch of Western Power.

I finally got tired of the blade not doing all I needed and fixed the lock-downs - and even without the longer end panels it was NOT fun to get at and weld. I finally just cut everything off inside, made up two pairs of ears, drilled 1/2" holes in them after MANY measurements/trimmings, bolted them together with a washer between, reached up underneath and tacked them, then flipped the rear blade up out of the way and finished the welds.

Instead of bolts, I found some 7/16" "pto locking pins" - so far they've held, and no tools required - it's not perfect, but (to me, anyway) this is a NECESSARY feature so I live with it.

Thought I had pix of the repair, but they must have gotted deleted/mis-filed - sorry.

I don't envy you the job of figuring out how to accomplish this with even MORE things in the way... Steve

 

[bcp]

Add a heavy angle anti-bend reinforcement, flange down, on the floating blade. A heavy rod with several latch hooks goes from side to side, with some center supports and latches as well as the ends. The rod is rotated to lock and unlock the rear blade. A plate or bar on the end of the rod can provide a lock pin location and/ or leverage to operate the latch. This system could also provide additional support for the center of both the front and rear blade, if fitted to do that.

Bruce

 

[EverythingAttachments]

And the Scarifiers..

We have found that they just don't make scarifiers like they used to.
I've been talking to Ted about this and, for this boxblade, I think we're going to make our own, rather than settling for "off the shelf" shanks.

The details, as of now:

1" thick x 3.5-4" wide T1 Steel with AR400(abrasion resistant/400 tensile strength) tips. We're talking STOUT and long lasting.
To our knowledge, this is something that no other mfg has offered, past or present.

Travis

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Thanks for the ideas concerning the locking tailgate. Please keep them coming.
We are listening!
Travis

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

Travis and Ted, that pic you posted is a pic of my box blade that I posted here in response to your other thread on designing/building the prototype. I don't know what you're seeing in the pic, but I don't think the tailgate on my box blade is bent. I'll check it with a straight edge the next time I'm over at my property.

In any event, I think you're spending a lot of time, energy and brain power trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist - at least with the Gannon. I don't know how thick or strong the tailgate of your box blade is, but I can tell you that bending the tailgate on my Gannon is not something I'd ever spend any time worrying about. I don't ever recall reading any posts about bending a tailgate. I think something else would fail before the tailgate would bend.

Please don't take this as criticism. I salute you for going the extra mile to try to make sure your equipment is as bullet-proof as possible.

 

[94BULLITT]

I like it.

Is a lock out for the tailigate that important?

 

[Piston]

Nice details with the extended sides for backfilling. :thumbsup: It's coming in at a good weight, and as we all know, the heavier the better. Are you going to offer hydraulic scarifiers? Once you go hydraulic, you never go back

 

[EverythingAttachments]

I like it.

Is a lock out for the tailigate that important?

Thanks!

That is a good question and we're kinda wondering the same thing.
Travis

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Nice details with the extended sides for backfilling. :thumbsup: It's coming in at a good weight, and as we all know, the heavier the better. Are you going to offer hydraulic scarifiers? Once you go hydraulic, you never go back

Thanks for your comments.

I'm sure the weight of these boxes will be appealing to many. The design, weight, factory direct price, along with the superior ripper shanks made in our factory should separate us from the competition.

Yes, hydraulic and manual scarifiers will follow, hopefully in the near future.
Travis

 

[skytracker]

I like it too. I have the Gill SR30 with floating tailgate. Generally I don't think I need the lockdown, but there have been a few occasions I could have really used the feature.

John

Thanks!

That is a good question and we're kinda wondering the same thing.
Travis

 

[Piston]

Although I really like the option of locking down my floating tailgate, I have to admit I've never ACTUALLY locked it into place. But, then again, the major reason for this is because I would have to get off the tractor seat to do it. Being inherently lazy, if I had some sort of remote operation which would allow me to lock it, then I would probably use it often. However, that's a pretty stupid idea. :laughing:

 

[MinnesotaEric]

I don't know if you're still thinking about the pins to hold the tailgate down, but a guy like myself hopes to use the CAT2 quick hitch feature, and then, among other things, use the forward and reward blades to pop 6" and smaller root balls out of the ground in 4x4 mode. So the CAT 2 needs to be able to handle the repeated pounding of 9,000 total pounds from a 60ish hp CUT moving in low or medium gear coming to a complete stop repeatedly without fail. Something else to think about that I've noticed on my computer controlled HST (and maybe true for all eHST designs), although they have some power loss through their transmissions, when the tractor gets hung, the transmission tries to give the wheels max torque, up to the point where the engine management system backs the transmission off in order to keep the engine from killing. My point is that on impact, there is a greater torque hit than a simple mass in motion equation suggests. In practice, the tractor is tooling along, gets hung, and as soon as it tries slowing down due to a hang on the blade, the engine management system and transmission computer basically say eff to trying to hold the tractor and peg out the fun meter trying to keep moving by pumping any reserve power at any given engine rpm the operator had not been using through the drivetrain. The effect is something like knowing you're going to hang on a gear tractor and going to the boards with the throttle only to back off just before the engine dies.

Something Everything Attachments may want to consider as an accessory (if you guys dont already) is CAT2 to CAT3 shim rings that are long enough to properly space up the CAT2 pins on the box blade to CAT3 so it fits in a Quick Hitch without needing to custom cut down a second set of SpeeCo CAT2 to CAT3 shims.

Hydraulic scarifiers sound great! Next spring?

 

[Piston]

Erik,
It seems like you really thought this through! I'm curious about a couple things though...

I don't know if you're still thinking about the pins to hold the tailgate down, but a guy like myself hopes to use the CAT2 quick hitch feature, and then, among other things, use the forward and reward blades to pop 6" and smaller root balls out of the ground in 4x4 mode.

I found this a bit confusing, why would the pins to hold the rear tailgate down, have anything to do with a quick hitch system, or popping small stumps/roots out of the ground? If popping stumps by going forward, you will be using the fixed cutting edge, not the hinged rear blade.
Likewise, when popping stumps going in reverse, the locking pins for the rear "tailgate" blade are a non issue, since you will be applying all the force against the stops anyways. The only advantage of having the locking pins, is when you want to extend your top link, lifting the front of the box blade, and lowering the rear, and use the fixed tailgate to help smoothly spread, and slightly compact the soil being spread. Without the rear tailgate locked, you really can't do this, as it will just hinge upward and all you'll have is the weight of the hinged tailgate itself to apply pressure.

So the CAT 2 needs to be able to handle the repeated pounding of 9,000 total pounds from a 60ish hp CUT moving in low or medium gear coming to a complete stop repeatedly without fail.

I think the main concern with the forces being apply in reverse, as in, when backing into a stump, is going to be your 3 point linkage. It will be the week point and likely fail before anything on the box blade fails. Most likely, you'd lose traction, or bend your 3 point hardware, long before bending a beefy box blade, or the mounting brackets.

Something Everything Attachments may want to consider as an accessory (if you guys dont already) is CAT2 to CAT3 shim rings that are long enough to properly space up the CAT2 pins on the box blade to CAT3 so it fits in a Quick Hitch without needing to custom cut down a second set of SpeeCo CAT2 to CAT3 shims.

Are you referring to reducer bushings?
It appears this box blade isn't designed for Cat 3 tractors.

Hydraulic scarifiers sound great! Next spring?

:thumbsup:


By the way, what you have done with your tractor is truly impressive, and I'm envious of that nice machine you have worked so hard on! :thumbsup: