Ripper teeth?

[Suess]

I have a couple of streets that get so hard the heavy pull type grader won't cut in. I'm thinking of building a ripper bar using shanks found on box blades less the box blade. How would these work on hard gravel streets. I could build it with alot of weight if needed. I see agri supply sells the shanks for about $14 each. I don't need to go very deep but need to brake up the gravel a bit so I can work with it. I was thinking 3 shanks 25 to 30" apart not sure how many a 7610 Kubota will pull or if the shanks would stand up to the other tractor a 80 hp 4wd. Any advice and or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[RonR]

Check out the shanks on a pulverizer. They are simply angle cut flat bar, which should be thinner than the tip of a shank.

They would wear down quickly on gravel, but would be cheaper to make, if you have the tools, than buying ripper teeth.

my two cents.
ron

 

[HomeBrew2]

I was able to do pretty much what you want with my BX and box blade rippers. It worked well but is slow rough work. Rough, because , I found, on bulletproof baked clay and/or with gravel encased in clay, you have to get the rippers to chisel the ground to start ... it won't really rip till you bust thru the surface. I had to tilt the box way forward so the ripper points were near 45° when contacting the ground. I had to take a few passes in-line with the road ... it may have cut in 1/4" is all. Then, I would make several passes doing a zig zag (sine wave) pattern. The rippers would start hooking on the slight cuts made previously. The chiseling action and zig zag, at a crawling speed, really seems to have done the trick. BTW, the chiseling action, especially on embedded gravel, will drive you insane after a few hours. Once you get down a couple of inches it will really go faster though. My box blade only weighs 430# ... I think the job would have been easier if I didn't have a baby tractor and if I had a 4000# blade. Attached is a pic showing, very subtley, how the ground is starting to break up after a lot of scratching. After taking this pic, I was able to rip the whole thing 6-8" deep.
Cheers!

 

[3RRL]

Whatever you do, don't pull them with your 80 hp tractor! Mine is only 55hp and didn't slow down too much when I hit BIG rocks and BIG roots. See picture.

Of course these are not the ones from Agri Supply. I bought them to replace these. We'll see how they hold up. If you don't get too much resistance, like a giant rock or big root, they should hold up better. However, I did get some bending (not breaking) when I pulled slightly at an angle, instead of straight ahead. There is no support sideways and they give. Always lift your rippers when turning. My sideways pulling was a result of tilting the boxblade way up to create a decent angle for cutting my gutters. This results in one lower leg being way up in the air and the other down. When this happens, the boxblade was not sitting "square" to the tractor anymore and that's how I bent them. Their breaking off was a result of big obstacles.

 

[3RRL]

Like I said earlier, I bought the Agri-Supply ones to replace the broken, bent ones. Although their design is different, with the hole through them instead of a slot, I still wanted to add support to REDUCE their bending and breaking. I'm going to give this a try by adding 5/8" thick side and back supports for them. This picture shows them tacked in place, ready to weld. They are in the retracted position but will extend down about 4" to 6" when ripping. I would recommend you doing something like this to support them in your project.

I'm right in the middle of a project to "beef up" and improve my boxblade. This is one of the steps. My plan is to strengthen the boxblade and also add a hydraulic ripper system that is gear driven (rack and pinion). It should add approx 350 lbs. to the blade. Some of it is really tough to get it all together at camp, and make it work! I'll post pics when I'm done.

 

[HomeBrew2]

Hi Rob! Neat project! We are talking about tractors with 25HP or less. Can't say I've heard of anyone tearing off shanks with our size tractors ... and I've snagged some pretty big stuff ... but I guess it's possible.
Keep up the great work.
Cheers!

 

[HomeBrew2]

Back on topic, I have long contemplated a separate ripper bar, as opposed to the standard box scraper implementation. My thoughts, in line with Rob's, is the ability to add full length gussets to the back of the shanks, if needed, to control bending, breaking, flexing of cheap shanks. Most of us are stuck with cheap shanks. When you don't have to allow for the shanks being retracted thru the box blade tube, there's a world of possibilities ...

 

[PILOON]

I made what you are describing using some shanks that were given to me.

I used a 26" length of 4" X4" sq tubing 1/4" wall and cut slots on 2 faces to accomodate the shanks and then capped the ends with 1/2 flat that had cat 1 pins installed.
I then added a pair of 1/2" X 2" flats predrilled for the Cat 1 upper in center of my 'ripper'.

The rig looks like a "T" adapted for CAT 1 3-pt. with the shanks inserted in the slots.

This is used on a 20hp MT180D and performs very well ripping up compacted gravel and tough clay.
Bigger roots kinda act as an anchor as the MT is not all that heavy.
I have also used successfully yanking modest stones that pop up in the spring thaw.

Basically quite a useful tool.

 

[Birdhunter1]

I believe landpride has exactly what you arew wanting to build. if it's not landpride it's Woods. It is a scarifiar bar with rippers only and it has a quick hitch built onto the rear of it so you could hook up a boxblade or other item quickly and still have your scarifiar bar.

 

[Highbeam]

I've bent the bajeepers out of 2 teeth and ripped the tips off of three with 30 HP and a 5 foot box. I have had luck with heating them up and bending them back so I haven't had to replace them yet.

 

[HomeBrew2]

Here's the link. Cool idea!

 

[wushaw]

Here's another manufacture. Cammond

 

[PILOON]

The woods is closest to what I built, however I was given only 2 shanks so that is what I have.

My idea came from large dozers that generally have but one huge tooth to 'rip' the hardpan.

In real hard stuff I use only one shank.

Recalling that a dozer operator told me that ripping put lots of streatch forces on tracks as the rear tends to lift hence streatching the traction links because the dozer is now pulling from the front rather than pushing as was designed.

With that in mind our 4WD tractors would strain the front traction which is much weaker than the rear drive.

Thanks for showing the links guys as my 'ripper' is still under 4 ft of snow.

 

[3RRL]

I guess having a separate scarifier bar has it's advantages, but personally, I can't see why you'd want to spend the extra money on an implement that you basically already have. If you modify your boxblade and beef it up, it should work fine for ripping hard soil and even rocky areas. It just has to be strong enough and heavy enough to do it.

BTW...Using less teeth is a great way to get better penetration.

You guys are making me give you a sneak preview before it's complete, but this picture shows the scarifier bar idea combined with the boxblade...get the best of both worlds. Don't even think about asking to see the gear stuff or I won't have any pictures left to share when I start the thread about it! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif Anyway, you get the idea about the scarifier bar and the boxblade together.

 

[Highbeam]

"Recalling that a dozer operator told me that ripping put lots of streatch forces on tracks as the rear tends to lift hence streatching the traction links because the dozer is now pulling from the front rather than pushing as was designed."

You can't push a rope, there is only one (on each side) drive sprocket on a dozer that pulls on the track from the same point regardless of whether it is pushing or pulling. The rippers are dseigned to actually pull the machine down into the dirt to give more traction and pop the dirt upwards. I think you will find that if anything your front end gets light.

 

[Ductape]

3RRL,

That is gonna be one beefcake boxblade !!!!!

 

[dfkrug]

Wow, that's going to be a helluva box blade, Rob! Is that solid
1.5" barstock I see? With milled slots? Nice to have a Bridgport in the garage, no?

I agree that the BB does what a single-ripper attachment can do, but the BB does it better because it is heavier. I used my BB with only one shank in it to rip very hard "soil".

 

[3RRL]

Thanks guys, it will be HD for sure!
Yes Dave, that is solid bar stock. I've got a little time invested making these babies. Still got a ways to go before it's finished though.

Suess, do you know anyone having any experience with the ripper bar alone? I would imagine it needs to be very very heavy to get and maintain penetration? Unlike the dozers, my tractor has no downward pressure on the 3pt so it's all up to the weight to keep it down. For real HD ripping I thought about a subsoiler type implement. But using 1, 2 or 3 scarifiers in the boxblade should give me similar results, I guess?

 

[Suess]

I don't know any one having the bar alone. We don't have a box blade but I would think that would work as well. In either case I think it needs to be heavy, especially for what I want to do but along with weight I think the angle on the shanks can make a big difference. It sure does with my subsoiler. I've never tried my sub soiler on the streets. The wear points are far too expensive for that and I only want to go in a few inches. I plan to make a frame work I can either stack old manhole covers on, or mount plastic barrels on it and fill them with water or sand.

 

[Highbeam]

The dozer has down pressure on the ripper bar and that is good but the angle of the shanks also holds them down while it pops the dirt. The real big dozers, like D11s in quarrys, use a single ripper with down pressure and an adjustable ripper angle so that they can get the dang tooth in the ground before using it to pop up rock.

So for best penetration roll the box back but drop the shanks all the way. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Whoa, I just reread that and well....