Is a 6' box blade too much for a compact?

[IndyJay]

I bought a 6' blade for my GC2610 because it was a bargain. While it will rip my drive, it stalls out if the material in the box becomes 1/2 full. I'd gladly trade someone for a 5 footer and may someday get around to cutting it down, but it does the job I need it to.

I have a 5' Land Pride that I would trade for your 6' box blade. I'm in Kansas so just bring it along next time you're down this way.

I have a 5' blade I will trade for 6' as well and I'm only half as far as @npalen...

 

[SmallChange]

Forgive my ignorance, but those who are talking about "stalling out", what do you mean? Stalling the engine? Isn't that remedied by choosing a lower gear? Or do you mean losing traction?

 

[somanytractors]

You can always add wheel weights if traction becomes a problem with the smaller tractor, as long as you don't start over working the motor and transmission.

I use a 600 ford for my driveway. It's done in crushed concrete which gets pretty hard. For me, I use a scraper for moving materials, and then the box blade for finishing work. The box blade doesn't really do well with the crushed concrete alone.

 

[marhar]

Yes, "compact" gives you a lot of room to move around in size and weight of tractor. Technically my tractor is a "compact", but it's also really heavy for it's class size. Bare chassis weight is 4200 lbs and with FEL + bucket + box blade + filled rear tires it weighs 7100 lbs.

I have no problem pulling a 6' box blade full of dirt or gravel even with the rippers down all the way. Now if I was working with a "compact" tractor at half my weight, then I don't think I would be able to pull a fully loaded 6' box.

I agree, I have a 50hp Farm Trac 60 and use a light duty 7ft scrap blade. To clean up a gravel road or level a dirt pile

 

[DonE0929]

I run a 1526 HST mahindra with a 6ft box blade... heavy one at 600 pounds... handles it fine even with a full load in the box. If I have a full load of wet dirt I need to run low gear where I normally run in middle gear.

 

[TractorTYMe]

I've got a 6' boxblade on my TYM T474 (48.3Hp), it is 4600# and I do not have juice in the tires.

 

[OhioCowboy]

I am clearing land with a 2638 Mahindra. I would like a 6' box blade to further reduce the cost of having someone do the finish work.
Next year, I am thinking a smaller compact will maintain the drive and clear a tree on occasion. IF that puts 5-10k back in my pocket, then I will do so.
(if the economy holds, I am guessing I can pretty easily trade down with someone unhappy with a compact)

So, the question is, can a compact handle the 6' or should I temporarily live with a 5' blade.

Thanks for any advice.

I've been using a 5 foot box blade with my TC33D 4WD, 33 HP, with nothing in the rear tires and that is about all I would want to pull. It'll pull it but a lot of my time would be watching the box to see how full it is cuz I know if it gets too full I'll start spinning or just bog down and stop. I've been using it for gravel & soil for 20 years maintaining driveway, horse trails, landscaping, contouring grassed waterways etc. Depending on your projects, a 6 ft land plane would work ok vs a 6 ft landscape box. Good luck.

 

[Snowlan]

I just spent a day with my 6’ box blade on Bobcat CT2025 (25hp) reshaping my roughed in driveway - dragging highs into the settled lows. It was built with free fill, but I was lucky in that a lot of it was from a parking lot so a good mix of gravel and clay.

I have to break it out in low gear only because I know there are a lot of buried large rocks and I’m going slow to ensure I don’t break anything when I come up solid. Once I have piles of dirt to work with I have no problem moving full boxes around in medium range going both up hill and down.

The Bobcat is about 1000lb heavier than LX2610 and JD 2025R and I have the larger rear wheels filled so if you’re trading down it will depend a great deal on which brand/model you go with. Even though the engine hp of these 3 models is about equal, the Bobcat has a detuned 35hp engine with about 30% more displacement so I assume it has a better torque curve as it has 2.5 - 4hp more rated PTO output (JD is very low in this department at 18).

I was a bit worried about the 6’ box blade because of many things posted on the topic, until yesterday when I worked on this project and I’m very happy with the size choice.

 

[Torvy]

I have a 5' blade I will trade for 6' as well and I'm only half as far as @npalen...

Maybe I missed something, but British Columbia is closer to Kansas than Indiana.

 

[IndyJay]

Maybe I missed something, but British Columbia is closer to Kansas than Indiana.

My bad, for some reason I was thinking BC was in N.E. Canada.
Learn something new everyday.