Prices on offset Backblades?

daTeacha · Sep 11, 2007

I was asking around the county fair looking for a rear blade that could be offset to the side, kind of like a trail mower. I found 3 dealers who could supply one. Two had prices -- JD with their aftermarket line for $1700, and I believe 550 (unless that was the weight as I sneaked a peak at the book over the guys shoulder) for one through the Deutz dealer. They both said they could get me more details after the insanity that is our fair is over and they could check back at the store. All three said the blades were for tractors pushing 100 hp and were pretty heavy. The 3rd guy was trying to close a deal on a big ZTR and I didn't want to bother him too much.

Does anyone here have one? If so, is it as useful as it looks and what do you think is a good price?

radman1 · Sep 11, 2007

I am not sure what you mean by offset. Do you mean the blade is offset to the side, such as a 7' blade has 4' to the right of center and 3' to the left?
Or do you mean, that the entire blade after the its attachment to the 3 pt can be angled/offset behind the tractor? I have seen them both ways.
Generally, it is the bigger and more expensive blades that can be angled/offset behind the tractor 3 pt. I have a landpride blade that can be angled/offset manually but a cylinder could be added if wanted. I rarely use it that way because it takes a larger and heavier tractor to keep the front end from being pushed around by the offset.

JSharp · Sep 12, 2007

I'm curious about this too since I've been looking at rear blades. Most of them have a method of offsetting the blade but the Landpride is the only one I've seen that allows the rear part of the frame to angle for the offset.

I'm also curious about how much tractor is needed for a given width of blade. The specs aren't much help as the listed ranges for a given blade are so wide.

radman what kind of tractor do you have and how wide is the blade you're using?

I wonder if this thread wouldn't be more active if it were in the attachments section...

daTeacha · Sep 12, 2007

Well, I can't move it, but you're probably right about that. I just usually visit this forum plus the NH ones so put it here thinking no one would see it over there. Maybe one of the mods will pick it up and move it.

What I'm thinking of is a blade that has a pivot point just behind the 3 point "T" section, allowing the whole blade to move to one side or another. Further back, there is another pivot that allows angling the blade. The one that I thought was $550 was a Frontier 6 way. It offsets to either side at a point about 15" behind the 3 point frame, angles parallel to the ground like a regular blade at another point further back, and also can be set at a third pivot point in the back to about 5 different positions allowing one side or the other to bite deeper or fit into a ditch while the tractor is on more or less level ground. My plans are mostly for snow duty.

I've taken an unused 3 point carryall and welded wings on it so my QA loader bucket can be replaced by the carryall. Then I made up a bracket on the carryall to hold the blade from my existing rear blade, giving me a 6' wide blade in front that I can manually turn left-right and raise & tilt by working the controls for the FEL. I figure adding the offset blade on the back would allow me to be more efficient in moving the snow to the side of the driveway, moving half of it with the front angled one way and the other half with the rear offset and angled the other way. Ditch work will come later.

If I remember correctly, the guys I talked to said these blades weigh about 500 lb and can handle up to 90 or 100 hp. The weight should serve almost as well as power down on the 3 point when working with a washed out gravel driveway.

MarkV · Sep 13, 2007

Hi teach, I’ve got a 6-way blade that is 6’ wide and made by a regional company called Rollins. The blade will off set left or right, angle both directions as well as spin around to a reverse setting and it will tilt to several different settings. I’ve had it for about 10 years and don’t exactly recall what it costs but it was around $500. My primary use was to clean ditches and as you mentioned it allowed me to stay on the road by off setting and tilting the blade. It was used mostly on a 21 hp Kubota B21.

I don’t have ditches to clean any longer so it has seen little use the last few years. The adjustments were functional for me in a number of different tasks, heavy grading was not one of them. You must remember that with the blade off set you exert a lot of side leverage to the 3pt components. I broke several sway adjustment turn buckles by hanging the blade on a root or rock. It would also try to push the tractor’s front end around when off set. Those problems may have been lessened if mounted to a larger tractor but I am not sure my inexpensive blade would have held up to the power of a large machine.

As I recall there was a lot of time spent on adjustments when changing the blade settings. When off setting the blade I normally had to adjust one lift arm to level the blade in its new setting. Top and Tilt would have been great for those situations. The tractor 3pt did not have enough lift for the blade to clear the ground when at full tilt which might not be a problem on a larger tractor.

No snow here in Georgia so I can’t say much about snow removal. What comes to mind is traction when pushing snow with a combination of front blade and off set rear blade. The other issue would be steering with the leverage of the off set blade trying to push the front of the tractor to one side.

MarkV

daTeacha · Sep 13, 2007

The blade I have now, when mounted on the rear of a B7100, would push it around some if the snow was more than about a foot deep. On either end of the DX29 it doesn't affect the tractor, at least with the snow we've had in the past couple of years I've owned it. When I have it rigged on the front I have about 900 lb on the 3 point.

If the snow gets really serious like it does every once in a while, I can always use the bucket to dig a path, but usually I get the day off due to school closing when we get a big storm so I can hit it as it builds up.

Thanks for the info on the blade and price. That sounds like exactly what I want to add to my implement collection.

schmism · Sep 13, 2007

my landpride RB3572 offsets to each side. the entire frame swings.
but ive seen others were you can slide the blade back and forth on its mount to accomplish sorta the same thing.

i like useing mine offset because i can reach out past the edge of the wheels to grade stuff (or deposit stuff) but it does kick the backend of my little TC around some. (no loaded rears)

gordon21 · Sep 13, 2007

Kingkutter has three that are only about $150-180 more than the regular blade. It will offset either way 12" and also tilt. Models RB-OT-60 RB-OT-72 Rb-OT-84 RB=rear blade OT=offset & tilt ##=width before offset
They all have 5 forward and 5 reverse settings

King Kutter Incorporated for details
Check the TSC site for local pricing in your zip code

tractorsanmore · Sep 13, 2007

I have a rb3584 landpride blade , 84" . Bought it new around 10 yrs ago . Paid 750.00 . I use it on a ford 2120 4x4 with loader . Rear tires are loaded ag's with 2 weights on each side . Blade is used mostly for grading gravel drive and grading , moving dirt / manure etc . Blade weight is 533 lbs . I would buy it again , if I ever manage to break it

radman1 · Sep 14, 2007

JSharp said:
I'm curious about this too since I've been looking at rear blades. Most of them have a method of offsetting the blade but the Landpride is the only one I've seen that allows the rear part of the frame to angle for the offset.

I'm also curious about how much tractor is needed for a given width of blade. The specs aren't much help as the listed ranges for a given blade are so wide.

radman what kind of tractor do you have and how wide is the blade you're using?

I wonder if this thread wouldn't be more active if it were in the attachments section...

I have a used landpride RBT4096 on my JD3720. Lots more blade than tractor can handle but I have other larger tractors if needed. Weighs around 800lb. Rated for 100hp. I like it for moving dirt. I do use it sometimes in snow but I just skim the surface when used for snow or turn it around backwards. I mostly use a lighter blade for gravel, snow etc.