Landscaping implements

[WVBill]

I guess it's all an acquired skill. I have both a FEL and a box scraper on my B6100DT with filled rear turf tires. I tried several times to use the scraper to scrape off the top layer of sod to prepare a planting bed. Rippers up or rippers down, I just couldn't get the blade to bite through the turf even if I cut a "starting notch" with a shovel. The side plates on the box scraper just wanted to ride on the top of the turf.

So I tried with the FEL. Cut the "starting notch" with a shovel and carefully put the FEL lip into the notch with the bucket rolled just slightly below level. Down pressure adjusted according to the hardness of the soil from "just making the front end light" to "lifting the front wheels off the ground". I then drive forward feathering the bucket curl and down pressure so that I get the bucket level about 2" below ground. The sod just rolls up into the bucket in one long bucket-wide strip. When I have a bucket full, I just raise it and drive it over to my "spoils pile" or where ever I want to put it. I'm thinking that if I had mastered the box scraper, I'd have to turn around and pick up the sod with the FEL to haul it away, so I save a step with the FEL method.

Geeze - I think I made it sound like I know what I'm doing /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif.

I will need to cut a drainage swale along my driveway in the spring so I'm sure that me and my box scraper will get to know each other real well then...

WVBill

 

[Bird]

WVBill, I'm curious about your box blade. Don't the blades come down below the sides of the box? And then if you have it tilted just slightly forward, I would expect it to cut in. However, sounds to me like what you're going with the FEL is quite likely the best way anyway.

Bird

 

[WVBill]

Bird: I think I just got frustrated with my new toy and didn't spend enough time with it. As I recall, it seemed that when I tilted it back enough for the blade to contact the ground before the side plates, that the rear blade was in contact with the ground and tended to hold it up (like it was "back blading" with the rear blade on the box). I think that rear blade is supposed to swing free but it doesn't seem to. My Father in Law stored it outside so maybe it's rusted.

I'll play with in the spring but I don't know how useful it's going to be. It's only about 40" wide.

WVBill

 

[Bird]

Aaah, you've got a hinged blade, and I wasn't thinking about that. I'm accustomed to just using one with the fixed front and rear blades.

Bird

 

[TomG]

I rip sod by putting the scarifiers all the way down and holding the scraper up with the 3ph. The side plates don't touch the ground unless I start up a hill. Sometimes I have to ride the 3ph or use the diff-lock, but the traction is mostly OK. I'd put more weight in the loader or take out several scarifiers if I couldn't manage the traction. The weight of the box acts as rear ballast when the 3ph holds position control and improves traction.

A second pass with the scarifiers up, the 3ph floated and the front cutter fairly neutral picks up the sod and caries it in the box. At least that worked for a 15' x 50' area for a trailer pad I built this summer. It took me a number of box loads to carry the sod to the end of the pad. Each time the box was full, I tilted up the front cutter (with a hydraulic top-link) so it wouldn't pick up more sod.

I haven't actually seen a hinged rear cutter. However, I believe their advantage is that they can swing up so they don't interfere with front cutter operations. I think that can be an advantage in both cutting and spreading operations. However, I frequently tilt my scraper down so it rides on the back of its rear cutter for compacting gravel. A hinged rear cutter wouldn't let me do that unless the cutter could be locked in place somehow.

 

[WVBill]

As you can see from my earlier posts, me and my box scraper have not yet become "friends" so please excuse what may be a real dumb question.

Tom: in your post you said your box scraper "...picks up the sod and caries it in the box." I've heard others talk about carrying loads in the box scraper too. Is the box really not just dragging its contents along the ground?

My difficulty with this concept on my tractor is that I don't have position control on my 3ph. It's either "up", "down", or "catch it in the middle somewhere". So it seems if I do manage to "fill the box" that I'm most likely to raise it all the way up (or too high anyway) and lose the load if I try to "carry" it anywhere. Even if I did have position control, I can't picture "carrying the load" very far as some leakage would almost certainly occur.

Maybe I'll just practice in the snow the next time. Maybe I can get better with my "catch it in the middle" 3ph.

Any technique hints would be welcome. Thanks

WVBill

 

[Bird]

WVBill, you're right about "carrying" the dirt; you're just dragging it along, and of course, position control is a big help (I didn't have it on my B7100), but even without changing the tilt, usually the box will get full enough it just quits picking up anymore and you can continue dragging to wherever you want it with the blade all the way down (float).

Bird

 

[TomG]

As Bird said, carrying a load in a scraper is just dragging stuff around. It works pretty well, and there isn't as much leakage as you might think.

I end up using the hydraulic top-link for controlling action of the scraper more than the 3ph. For picking up the sod, I would have mostly floated the 3ph. With a hydraulic top-link, the box can be tilted up so the front-cutter picks up material. Then, the box can be tilted down until the front cutter is higher than the material. The box can then be dragged without picking up more material and dumped. The box had to be tilted down quite a bit to keep it from picking up more sod chunks, but less for material like gravel. If the 3ph isn't floated when a load is dragged, then the load is dumped when the tractor goes over a rise, or it digs in when it starts up a rise.

I really don't use position control that much. I do use it for dozing with the rear cutter, for dumping a box and for spreading gravel. In loose gravel, a floated box just fills up and sinks down irrespective of the cutter angles.

If I want to cut a small rise, the hydraulic link is handy for being able to drive along without cutting, adjust the box angle to starting cutting, stop cutting when the box is full, drag it to a low spot, adjust it again to start spreading. Of course, if a rise is close to a dip, I just doz the rise into the dip with the rear cutter.

The point I'm making is that I use a hydraulic top-link much more than the 3ph. I have position control, but you probably can get by with your hitch, especially if there's a hydraulic top link to use. I guess your hitch is one of the centre position types--pull it and it lifts as long as it's held. Push it and it lowers. Actually, such a hitch might work better than OK for the way I use a scraper.

 

[WVBill]

Hmmm... Up 'till now I've been following the "Hydraulic Tip & Tilt" discussions with sort of detached interest thinking it couldn't really be useful or do-able on my little old B6100.

But maybe...., just maybe....

WVBill

 

[TomG]

I'll be thinking about add a hydraulic side leveler if I do much more crowning drives or cutting level pads into hillsides. I can live with climbing on and off the tractor to adjust the side leveler, but hydraulics would be nice. However, since I adjust the top link on the fly, a hydraulic link is an essential for me.