Box Scraper Please help with box blade decision.

[alextassos1]

Just picked up a 5ft box blade for my 2018 JD 2025R because it was on sale for the price of the 4ft. Now I’m worried it’s too wide. I can swap it for a 4ft model but it’s exact same price. The 5 ft is a much better made piece of equipment but it won’t help me if I can’t use it. I need to decide quickly before I get it dirty.

 

[KennyG]

I have a 5 foot box blade on my 2320 (very similar to your 2025) and would not want it narrower. Yes, you can dig deep enough to stall the tractor, but you could do that with a 4 foot wide one also. Having the blade wider than the tractor gives you some flexibility when working around obstacles.

 

[alextassos1]

Thanks. I have been stressed out about it but I just took it out and scratched it up. Worked great. It’s all mine now. I agree. I like the extra width. It pulls a full box fine. Haven’t tried dropping the scarifiers but I doubt I’ll use them much anyways and if so not at full depth.

 

[oosik]

The five foot box should work out just great. You will just have to practice and learn how deep and in what type soils. I've got a seven foot box on my M6040 and I can sure stop it and have all four wheels digging if I go too deep. In my soil type - cutting between two to three inches per pass works out fine.

 

[atsah]

I would keep the 5ft. the 2025 should pull it okay. I pull a 5ft blade with my SCUT GC Massey no problem..

 

[alextassos1]

I don’t have any complaints. It worked great. Everything is wet here but I wanted to try it out anyways. Full box of damp dirt and it pulled it great.

 

[s219]

I think 48" would have been too small, a 54" would probably have been perfect. I imagine 60" will be fine as long as you're not planning to do aggressive digging with the box or make frequent turns while grading.

Remember that the top link has a huge effect on how the box works and how much load it puts on a tractor. You should experiment with a whole range of top link settings to get a feel for a box and truly understand what the tractor can manage. It's all about varying the angle of attack of the rear cutting edges, which determines whether the box will dig/fill or distribute/feather. You can drag a large box when feathered or going straight. The same box can stop the tractor dead in its tracks if the rear cutting edge is set for aggressive digging, or if you attempt to make a turn.

 

[Rich B1]

^^^^^^what he said!

Only thing I can add is learn your travel speed. IME the box blade works best at slow and steady.

Once you learn what the top link does (digging, spreading, or moving) and get your travel speed where it needs to be, you can do a lot of work with a box blade.

It isn稚 a race

 

[alextassos1]

Played with top link and was able to get it to cut a little at a time going very slow. Also while feathering/adjusting 3pt lift as I would go up and down grade. I Filled the box several times with no wheel spin even in sloppy conditions. Adjusted side link to even up some terrain I was grading. Does an amazing job but I see where a top and tilt kit would really make you efficient. To really make it give you the results you want you have to make constant adjustments. Overall I was impressed with how good of a finish it left as well as how good the little tractor handled it. I was concerned with the weight of a full box but am very relieved I got the 5ft size.

 

[atsah]

I have found as a rule of thumb that when I buy something for the 3ph, I go beyond the width of the wheels a few inches, the only attachment that I have that is the width of the tires is a rototiller and reason being is they take a lot of pto hp the operate.