Help Needed

ritchieb · Jun 2, 2015

New owner of a Kubota B2620 and need to know if there is a way to position control a rear blade as far as smoothing out stone, dirt, etc.. My rear blade is either all the way up or all the way down, is there a way to control how far down this blade or any rear implement will travel other than the limit stop? Also, I have adjusted the flow rate of he blade drop so it goes down slowly but to my surprise it does not control how fast it raises, is this normal to only operate as it comes down? I was so used to a "friction" type 3 point lift I just guessed the Kubota would be the same. It was very easy to "feather" dirt and stone with that type of a 3 point lever but either I am not doing something right or there is no real way to friction adjust the lever on my model Kubota. Would a front mounted blade be more suitable for my needs to do this better? Thanks

sandyc · Jun 3, 2015

Not sure about the three point hitch info but a front blade (I used to have a 2620) will require a sub frame which is fairly expensive (over $1000). This frame raises and lowers the plow using the fel controls which are pretty easy to control. The plow can be optioned to have a hydraulic angle feature which also runs of the fel control. I guess which ever you choose should be based on the jobs projected for your implement. As an aside, the sub frame and the loader cannot be on the tractor at the same time as there is not enough room nor hydraulic controls for both.
To get an idea of actual costs you might want to visit the Kubota site and do a build my tractor adding the sub frame and plow as options. The blade is a B-2765.

Egon · Jun 3, 2015

Install gauge wheels on the blade.

McREBEL · Jun 3, 2015

ritchieb said:
My rear blade is either all the way up or all the way down, is there a way to control how far down this blade or any rear implement will travel other than the limit stop?

You should be able to stop the blade at any position you want with the 3 point control lever.

ritchieb said:
Also, I have adjusted the flow rate of he blade drop so it goes down slowly but to my surprise it does not control how fast it raises, is this normal to only operate as it comes down?

Normal. The adjustment is to keep an implement from falling too fast or, if closed all the way, so the implement will not slowly leak down.

s219 · Jun 3, 2015

ritchieb said:
New owner of a Kubota B2620 and need to know if there is a way to position control a rear blade as far as smoothing out stone, dirt, etc.. My rear blade is either all the way up or all the way down, is there a way to control how far down this blade or any rear implement will travel other than the limit stop?

The B2620 does not have position control, but you can certainly make the implement move slowly and stop in any position you want. It has a "quarter incher" setting for the lever that lets you raise implements slowly. There should be a stop for that, which can be manually adjusted if need be. The idea is that each time you move the lever to the stop and return to neutral, there is about 1/4" of rise of the implement. But you can also just hold the lever anywhere between neutral and the stop to get very smooth slow raising. To be honest, I felt that type of setup on my B2920 (same as B2620 except for engine) let me have better slow fine tuned control when I had to raise an implement carefully and creep it up to where I wanted, versus position control on my L3200, which depends on me moving the lever slow if I want it to raise slow. So it should definitely be doing what you want and be giving you very good control.

I'd suggest playing with the lever -- drop the implement all the way down, put lever in neutral, and then slowly move the lever away from neutral until the implement begins to creep up slowly. Hold the lever there and observe that the rate stays the same. Now move the lever a little more. At some point, you will go past the quarter-incher point and the valve will open full and implement will raise at full speed. That ought to help you identify where along the travel the lever switches from quarter-incher mode to full mode. If need be, you can adjust the stop to that point. It should be there, but perhaps the dealer forgot to adjust it.

I remember being able to get great feathering with my box blade using the quarter-incher on my B2920, and you should be able to do the same thing on the B2620. No need for a front blade at all, just take some time to learn the behavior of the 3-pt control lever and valve. Good luck!

jim44 · Jun 3, 2015

I wish my MX5100 had that "quarter incher" setting. That has been my pet peeve about Kubotas for as long as I have had one. There is absolutely NO fine control of three point attachments. About the best I've been able to get is bumps of about 3" up or down, and that is not much help when trying to smooth something out with a box blade or angle blade. I have often thought that it would be a good investment for Kubota to buy a John Deere tractor, take it apart and see exactly how their controls work, and then COPY it exactly.

About the only way I've found for smoothing operations is to use the loader............

s219 · Jun 3, 2015

jim44 said:
I wish my MX5100 had that "quarter incher" setting. That has been my pet peeve about Kubotas for as long as I have had one. There is absolutely NO fine control of three point attachments. About the best I've been able to get is bumps of about 3" up or down, and that is not much help when trying to smooth something out with a box blade or angle blade. I have often thought that it would be a good investment for Kubota to buy a John Deere tractor, take it apart and see exactly how their controls work, and then COPY it exactly.

About the only way I've found for smoothing operations is to use the loader............

Not always a cheap option, but I have found a hydraulic top link is even better for smoothing/feathering with a box blade. Top link length is really the key when working with a box blade, and being able to adjust it smoothly on the fly really adds a lot of capability/control.

ritchieb · Jun 3, 2015

Thanks guys for your help and Jim44 that is about the best I could do trying to smooth out some #57 driveway stone! I had to use a hand rake to smooth the 3" bumps back down. I will have to play with the stops and try the "quarter inching" thing and maybe get good with the lever. I just wish it was a friction type 3 point lever. Guess there will be a learning curve or dish out the $$$ for a front blade. Thanks very much for the help.

s219 · Jun 4, 2015

ritchieb said:
Thanks guys for your help and Jim44 that is about the best I could do trying to smooth out some #57 driveway stone! I had to use a hand rake to smooth the 3" bumps back down. I will have to play with the stops and try the "quarter inching" thing and maybe get good with the lever. I just wish it was a friction type 3 point lever. Guess there will be a learning curve or dish out the $$$ for a front blade. Thanks very much for the help.

Yeah, you'll figure it out. I established our 700' driveway with my B2920 and box blade, and then maintained it for a year before trading up to an L3200. The B did just fine without position control, and I found I could feather the box blade height just fine with the standard valve. I don't see much advantage, if any, to having position control on the L3200. I suppose if you're used to one or the other, it make take time to adjust, but it's doable.

Don't forget that top link is crucial -- with the right setting, the box will smooth a whole lot better, and will empty out on it's own very smoothly and continuously, so you don't even need to worry about feathering height. I read about a lot of people here who play with height a lot, but I use my box down in float almost all the time, and set the top link to make the box do what I want. I very rarely need to control height or feather.

If you do want better control over the box, consider a hydraulic top link -- that will be cheaper than a front blade, and in my opinion, would be superior for grading. To me there is no better general purpose grading tool than a box blade, especially once you add hydraulics.