Pull type box blades?

[Rmart30]

Anyone using a pull type box blade? I have found a 8 and a 10 for a tempting price. Would be mainly for road repairs that never end (over 50 miles of road).
The back wheels can be manual or hyd. I know you couldnt berm roads with it. but with the guage wheels seems like it could be a good first passes implement to get everything smoothed and then use another tractor following it with implement for ditching and berming.

 

[jeff9366]

There is no standard nomenclature for this implement.

Searching with alternative terms will produce more results from the TBN Archive.

Here are searches for SCRAPER BOX and PULL SCRAPER:

scraper box site:tractorbynet.com - Google Search

pull scraper site:tractorbynet.com - Google Search


I would consider a HEAVY Land Plane Grading Scraper with a hydraulic lift rear moldboard. before finalizing on a drag scraper. With fifty miles of road you need speed. A LPGS will level fast, is a simpler implement and easier to turn around. But, the price you are seeing may be irresistible.

 

[bcp]

Many do tilt. On some, the whole axle will tilt. Others tilt by having one trailing arm adjustable.





"Drag scraper" gets the most uncluttered Google image hits, where I found these photos.

drag scraper - Google Search

Bruce

 

[oosik]

If you need to move material from here to there or anything more serious than washboarding then the drag scraper is your tool. If you are dealing with smoothing and/or washboarding then a very heavy duty land plane grading scraper will do the job.

Honestly - if you are dealing with 50+ miles of gravel road that needs year-round repair. I'd be looking for an old non-motorized road grader or even a motor-driven one.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

At the Goodyear proving grounds in Texas, they have literally thousands of miles of dirt roads. They do their general maintenance with a Road Boss LPGS.

They have 4 motor graders. They sit idle unless there is a washout.

The Road Boss is used all day everyday.

This info was given to me by the guy ordering a hydraulic top link for the 6000 series John Deere that they use to pull the Road Boss.

No gimmicks, just a simple implement that does the job well.

 

[fried1765]

Anyone using a pull type box blade? I have found a 8 and a 10 for a tempting price. Would be mainly for road repairs that never end (over 50 miles of road).
The back wheels can be manual or hyd. I know you couldnt berm roads with it. but with the guage wheels seems like it could be a good first passes implement to get everything smoothed and then use another tractor following it with implement for ditching and berming.

The nearly perfect tool for your 50 mile grading needs would seem to be a Huber Maintainer.
There is currently one listed on E-Bay (item# 231894839529) that has been completely refurbished.
I believe the latest ones may have been built in the late 90's, or may even still be being built.
The Huber is essentially a stretched tractor (very long wheelbase) with a 9' all hydraulic belly blade.
Used Huber Maintainers are reasonably inexpensive.
They have been around since the late 40's.
They are a great machines.
There are several also listed on MachineryTrader.com | Backhoes for sale, skid steers, excavators, dozers.

 

[countrybumpkin]

I took a 3 point box blade and made into a killefer blade like your wanting, I’ve used several for grading and smoothing, work really good

 

[kthompson]

I have used a 3 pth box blade and found it very terrible for road work. I bought a 10 foot pull box blade and to use for grading pond sides and it had worked great on short dirt road across our property. It is hyd operated and the right wheel can also be raised or lowered by itself to allow either to cut less or more than the other. I was surprised how well it did to the crown road. No comparison to a 3 pth for leveling due to the pull box blade wheels are riding on graded ground while the tongue moves it away from the tractor and the rear wheels which mover with the rough ground being graded. Much like road grader design. I have used rear blade that rotates left to right and also the angle of the blade. Neither the 3 pth leave as smooth ground as the pull type does. Have never used a land plane. Do not seem to be very popular around here. Might have seen one on a implement lot.

 

[bdog]

I have a 10’ one. I really like it. It is kind of tricky to set so it doesn’t get too full. If it gets full you are going to need a lot of HP and weight to keep it moving. I pull mine with a 130hp 15,000 lb tractor with dual rear wheels. You don’t need that much grunt for light use if it is not full but load it up and you will want that much and more.

I can get better results with it than I can with my road boss but I use my road boss more because it is easier to connect to my skid steer and is a lot more mobile. If you have long straight always which it sounds like you do the. It may work for you. For small areas it is a pain to turn around.

 

[ovrszd]

Never owned one, but have borrowed several. Definitely want hydraulic tilt. Great tool to move a lot of material and shape the fill area.

 

[Rmart30]

I would consider a HEAVY Land Plane Grading Scraper with a hydraulic lift rear moldboard. before finalizing on a drag scraper. With fifty miles of road you need speed. A LPGS will level fast, is a simpler implement and easier to turn around. But, the price you are seeing may be irresistible.

price was the attention getter. Ideally a motor grader would be the ticket but this is a hunting club and there is no budget for that. We may look into a land plane. Currently for yearly maintenance we use grader blades to pull the ditches and keep up a high crown. We try to have at least a 1 ft drop from center of the rd. About every 3 years we will rent a small dozer and work the worst spots.

 

[fried1765]

price was the attention getter. Ideally a motor grader would be the ticket but this is a hunting club and there is no budget for that. We may look into a land plane. Currently for yearly maintenance we use grader blades to pull the ditches and keep up a high crown. We try to have at least a 1 ft drop from center of the rd. About every 3 years we will rent a small dozer and work the worst spots.

It is good news that you understand the need for a high crown.
Many do NOT!
A land plane will likely serve to decrease your crown over time, though if you have significant crown to begin with, it may last for a good while.

 

[BHD]

I have a 8' foot killefer blade, made by John Deere, in the 1960's is my guess, it has a fe features if one want to use them, the wheels can be flipped around for building dikes or pulling up stuff out of ditches,

I have leveled what look like a moonscape, the mounds were 8 to 10 foot high, after they dug out the old farmstead, with pot holes 5 foot deep, would back up on the hills with the blade, and put it down and into the pot holes and then use d the hydraulics to set the wheels and leveled it to like a parking lot smooth,

I use it to level the yards of the farm and clean the corrals, and a bit of road maintenance, the only drawback is, it is straight, and there are ends so to grade and move rocks off the road is not an easy thing to do, (have seen a model that the blade could tilt and one end remove for grading,

with the blade straight if you get it bouncing it will wash board the road,

it is a great tool for filling holes and leveling (at times it would be nice if it longer wheel base),
but not the greatest for general grading as a drag would be better for that,

 

[npalen]

I very much agree with the long tongue and rear gauge wheels on a box blade. Only thing better is one that can be angled and best is one that can be angled up and down and swiveled side to side on the go. I modified an old York landscrape rake to have these capabilities. It has a drop-down blade that runs in front of the tines for moving dirt or snow.
I think the secret to about any kind of leveling is swiveling the blade as on a motorized road grader. That is one of the secrets to a land plane also.

 

[jenkinsph]

The pull type box Blade would be fine for the initial smoothing imo. But a good land plane grader scraper would be my pick for the long term. I often use my lpgs to smooth up rough spots and while not as aggressive as a box Blade it is fast enough. For an existing road it would be my choice.

 

[airbiscuit]

I am lucky enough to have one of these.

 

[airbiscuit]

Here's a clever design, but not sure if they are still around.

 

[airbiscuit]

Another clever design.

 

[sixdogs]

We used a pull type road grader to do our 3/4 mile of bank run gravel road years ago and it did a great job. As already noted, it takes a lot of HP to pull if there is any amount of fill in it. For maintenance, however, we had great results with an heavier duty 8 ft wide landscape rake and a tractor with draft control. We could do the road quickly and it nicely filled, levelled and knocked the small high spots down. By angling and pitching, it kept a nice crown to the road.

The grade blade was absolutely needed but the landscape rake did almost as much.