This guy made me feel a little better

[etpm]

I have a Yanmar YM2310 and it came with a 4 foot wide box blade. My skill level using the box blade would be best described as Un or Barely. But today I feel a little better after watching a county employee operating a Deere tractor similar in size to my YM2310 with a 4 foot box blade. The guy was attempting to use the box blade to smooth an area that had been dug up for some reason or another. And the poor guy just couldn't get the hang of it. So now I know there is someone out there that is even worse than me when it comes to using a box blade. It was probably the guy's first time operating the blade. I hope there was somebody attempting to teach him how to use the thing. We all gotta learn sometime. I'm sure he was frustrated trying to get the hang of using the box blade, I know I was when I first started using mine.
Eric

 

[BackRoad]

Seat time is the best teacher.

A key area for mastering the box blade is adjusting the top link length to modify the attitude of the cutting blade for either agressive digging or spreading spoils.

 

[scootr]

Trying to operate a box without hydraulic top and tilt was the most frustrating experience I had on a tractor. You want one angle for forward and another angle for reverse.

 

[RobertEH]

I have only used mine for about 3 years, but the epiphany for me is exactly what is mentioned above - angle of attack of the cutting blade with the top link is critical. At one extreme it smooths things over beautify , at the other extreme it chews things up quite well - especially if the rakers are down. Both settings are pretty useful at different points in the job. Tilt has been very handy to try to smooth out high sides (so it digs more on one side than the other) or to protect/create road crown. I am still working on road crown techniques - got a ways to go.

I invested in top and tilt hydraulics for the 3 point as I make subtle changes to my box blade constantly.

 

[5030]

Nice to have a depth sensing draft setup which I have. I just set it for the lightest possible actuation and let the mechanism set the depth of pull. No hydraulic top link needed are required. In fact I've never had one and don't want one either.

Of course draft sensing isn't available on smaller tractors anyway. Best they have is position control which does nothing for controlling depth or setting the pull height automatically. You only get draft mixed control on larger units and I use mime a lot.