Is there a way NOT to float the 3ph

[Spiveyman]

OK, I did do a search and I couldn't find this out there. And please excuse the question if this is rediculous.

I finally found some lift arm pins I could use with an old land pride grater blade that was my grandpa's. It doesn't use the normal draw pins. Anyway, so I wanted to smoothe out a roadway on my farm where it crosses a small creek. There's a culvert there but the mud and rocks above it have baked and hardened into a nasty little rut. Last year was crazy wet, this year's the opposite.

This was my first experience with a grater blade and I wasn't getting much bite because the ground was so hard. I'm going to get a box blade, which will probably better address things like this in the future, but I just added bolt on cutting teeth to my FEL order, so the $460 for the TSC box blade is a little ways out.

I tried messing with the draft lever to see if I could get some pressure from the 3ph on the grater blade, but it seemed to float in all 4 positions. My question, is there a way to get downward force out of my 3ph? I have a Ford 6610 II if that matters. Maybe I don't understand what the draft lever does, but I thought I could get some downward force there. Instead I just made about 14,000 passed and eventually got the roadway smoothed out like I-75. OK so maybe that's not a great example around these parts.

As always, thanks for your help.

 

[Dave Shepard]

Typically most tractors have a large internal one way hydrualic cylinder that rotates the lift arms. It relies on the weight of the arms to lower, so you probably can't get any down pressure on your tractor unless it is designed differently. I added a couple of old tractor weights to my box blade to help with this problem.


Dave

 

[Willl]

Nope. No down force from your 3 point.

 

[RalphVa]

Just use your FEL in curled down mode with the teeth down. Raise the front wheels off the ground and steer with your brakes to break up the hard soil. Then smooth it with your rear blade.

Ralph

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Your particular tractor doesn't have 3-point down pressure, but a few industrial tractors will have that capability. Usually the way folks overcome that lack of downpressure is by adding weight to the implement of choice.

 

[MarkV]

Besides adding weight, how you adjust your top link has much to do with the way the blade will bite.

MarkV

 

[Spiveyman]

Thanks for the info. I thought about adding weight to the blade, but didn't have time to fool with that last night. I have read about adjusting the tilt on a box blade to get more or less bite. The best option seems to be to use the FEL or wait for the box blade that is more ground engaging.

That will be interesting using the FEL like that and having to steer with the breaks, but I've had to do that with a little MF moving round bales on the 3ph with no front weights. Not the most comfortable feeling, but pretty cool that you can do that.

 

[JerryG]

Your particular tractor doesn't have 3-point down pressure, but a few industrial tractors will have that capability.

Belarus is the only current production tractor that I knew about that still produced down pressure three point hydraulics. What current industrials have down pressure?

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Belarus is the only current production tractor that I knew about that still produced down pressure three point hydraulics. What current industrials have down pressure?

They're a few years old, but I believe still a current model. (414E) My employer has a couple Cat industrial loader tractors with hydraulic pressure hitches. I'm fairly certain Case offers the same.

 

[flusher]

They're a few years old, but I believe still a current model. (414E) My employer has a couple Cat industrial loader tractors with hydraulic pressure hitches. I'm fairly certain Case offers the same.

Like this JD industrial tractor, I suppose.