L2501 blade sizing

[stillhunt]

Hello, just bought a new L2501. Dealer is adding 1.5" wheel spacers to each side (for chain clearance) and ballast to the rear tires. I need a box blade to maintain around 650' of gravel driveway. I "think" that with spacers that puts the rear at 66" wide. It seems like one can find 66" box blades but they're less common than whole feet. Is 6' too big for a 2501 to pull?

Planning to add third function and a front snow blade. With a 30-degree pitch, my trig tells me I'd need a 76" wide blade to cover the full wheel tracks at max pitch. Is an 84" snow blade too big for the L2501?

 

[s219]

I pull a 6' rear blade behind my L3200 for snow removal and it's always been fine. Front blade is probably more of a load because of the location and they are usually larger surface area than a rear blade. My gut feel tells me an 84" front blade is too big for an L2501 but I have no real data.

I have a 60" box blade, and when it fills up with heavy material it can drag things to a halt. So I am betting a 66-72" box blade would stop an L2501 dead in its tracks. But I don't always load up with material. For much of my box blade work, it's generally 1/3 full or less and is just fine. You control the aggressiveness and material load with the top link length, which sets the angle of attack of the cutters. Shorten top link to dig, accumulate, and move material, lengthen it to smooth and distribute material.

Be reasonable with expectations with box blades. I would try to go on the smaller side rather than larger, if you can. It's a very versatile implement when used skillfully.

 

[sven1277]

If you can plow with the storm, Then 84” front blade will be fine. If you wait till the end and it’s a big storm then you will be in trouble

 

[RickB]

I had a 7 foot power angle Meyers frame mount plow on my 42 PTO hp David Brown. I needed the width to cover the tracks when angled but it was a handful in a big storm in upstate NY.

 

[TheWedge]

I get about 100" of snow a year - all types, wet and dry and have hills. For this I have an L3301 with a Landpride STB1572 (6') front blade for my loader and you end up trying to manage the physics of the blade on the tractor when angled at 30 degrees (I also have a 3pt blower for when snow depths make blading impractical). With light, fluffy snow it isn't too bad. Get any quantity of wet snow and the force will push your tractor to the side. This, even when I am chained up on all fours (I too have 1.5" spacers, heavy duty ice chains on rear and v-bar on front) and weighted rears and the backhoe on, will push your front end all around at max angle so you end up having to push more straight away (or take smaller bites). The front blade (at least mine anyway) is a significant amount of weight on the front end even at 6' - I wouldn't want a 7' on the front. If you are plowing without chains even a 6' front blade when full of wet snow will stop you in your tracks - forget about angling the blade and maintaining control. Loading the blade going uphill is a sure fire way of making little progress.

Just as an aside, I love my tractor and does what I ask of it - sometimes it just takes a little longer under certain circumstances.

 

[Bob Thielman]

I ran the numbers on this in choosing a blade for my L2501 and came up with something like 64" tread width (That's to the outside of both wheels) with 2" spacers (R14's: same size as R4's). So yours, with shorter spacers. might be more like 63". (If I find my calculations, I'll give you the exact number.)

I bought a 72" rear blade (Land Pride RB1672), which has adjustable offset, which might help if you wanna deal with that adjustment (on a cold winter's day). The 7-foot blade is only 19 pounds heavier, so that might argue FOR buying it, but the real factor is the weight of stuff that extra foot of blade is going to push (with 24.9 horsepower!). Another thing: if your leave the blade on - as ballast, say - that big 7-foot blade is gonna tangle with SOMETHING down the line, I would think. Sort of like trying navigate through Walmart with a 2x4 strapped across your butt.

I stayed with the 6-footer. Was that the right thing? No idea. We'll see when the tractor gets here. If I find those numbers, I'll post them here. (You have R4's.I assume?)

Oh, and I paid an extra $350 (x*^^#@!!) for a set of shoes for the blade. Here too, I have NO idea if that made sense.

UPDATE: Found my numbers: I calculated 64.1 inches (outside of one tire to outside of the other) with the 2" spacers. That's 45.1 nominal treadwidth (to the center of the tire) plus 15" (additional tire widheth) plus 4" for the spacers (mine once again are 2", so you would have an inch narrower tread). That's the best I coould come up with.

Oops. Your looking at a FRONT blade. MAYBE my numbers are useful.