Trying to figure out what attachments to get

[rjman]

I added some reinforcements to my boxblade yesterday since it was only medium duty and now I suspect it is somewhere between a medium duty and a heavy duty. I figured I needed to do this because it would be encountering a lot of rocks on this job and some of them are fairly large up to 18" in diameter and perhaps a few even larger than that. By the time I got the boxblade ready, it was getting late in the evening, so I only had time to make a couple of test runs. It seemed to be working okay, it just fills up so fast and tends to roll over the larger rocks instead of collecting them. I am thinking strongly about getting a landscape rake and removing every other tine so that it won't fill up with too much material. Has anyone tried that with the landscape rake or would it not be necessary to remove every other tine? They just look like they are too close together.

 

[8N Ren]

Adjust your top link on th 3pt, should tame the rolling up and over rocks a bit. Get more backward tilt to the box blade.

 

[/pine]

I did not see where you mentioned the use of scarifiers (rippers) on your box blade...they can be very effective for digging up embedded rocks etc. and loosening compacted earth...

Position control helps...but...

Of course a hydraulic top link makes it so much easier and also gives you hydraulic advantage of being able to roll the scarifiers up under rocks then tilt the blade back for gathering without digging...

Good Luck...

 

[s219]

Yes, top link length is *everything* when using a box blade. It allows you to set the aggressiveness of the rear cutting edges. If you're rolling over or dragging stuff, try changing the angle of attack of the rear edges and see if that helps (shorten it in this case). With my box blade, I use the position of the lock nut on the top link as a mental notation of "zero" and then eyeball adjustments from there. I do plan to get a hydraulic top link at some point, but for now I hop off and make the adjustment. For normal grading, I know just where the right positions are for initial and final grading.

 

[jenkinsph]

I just cleaned up an old apple orchard with the similar problems of small sticks and roots to deal with. I found that the landscape rake with every other tine removed worked pretty well with about 75' of maximum travel. I would rake for approximately 75' (before I had too much dirt being collected) then drop it. Move over the width of the rake and make another pass, do that working across the field. I would then scoop up the windrows with a rock bucket, shake the dirt out as best I could and pile this stuff up to burn. Any thing that was small enough to pass through the land scape rake or rock bucket was ground up by the rotary tiller. Left a smooth finish with an occasional small stick showing.

 

[oosik]

I've opened two five acre "patches" in one of my meadows. One turned into a rock garden and I will be working on clearing it for a couple more years. I manually load the rocks into my FEL bucket and am filling a draw with the rock. This is a PITA but no implement I have can remove/gather/pick up the rock from this patch. Its just me, my sore old back and a heavy pair of leather gloves. I think a landscape rake would get torn to bits in this patch.

The other patch is a true blessing. I'll bet there was not 6 rocks in the entire area I opened. I have scarifier teeth on two implements - roll-over-box blade and land plane grading scraper.

I used the scarifiers on the ROBB to loosen the soil and then the box with scarifiers up to move major amounts of dirt, leveling and filling holes, small valleys, draws etc. I used the LPGS for final leveling, breaking clods and smoothing.

Unless the roots are presenting some kind of problem - let them be. They will rot away and the blueberries won't give a darn about them.

BTW, nice looking soil.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I tried the landscape rake on a small section of pasture that I had disked up and turned up hundreds if not thousands of small rocks. It didn't work very well due to grass clogging up everything. On your bare ground it might work better, but I doubt it. I also tried removing every other spring tooth but it didn't help. The only thing it might do is windrow up the surface rocks so you can pick them up with FEL and by hand. A rock bucket for your FEL will likely be your best bet for getting the below ground rocks. Find one with small spacing between the tines and it will work better.
Since you are putting in blueberries, you may not be concerned with the small stuff anyway but just wish to remove the big ones so you don't plant a blueberry bush on top of one. In that case a wider spaced rock bucket would work best I think. Use it in combination with your scarifiers on the box blade. NOT CHEAP for sure. I wish I had one for working my garden spots, but for the area, it isn't practical to spend the money. I used my box blade to uproot some of the rocks last year and will need to do it again this fall. I broke two of the scarifiers when I hit big rocks but I had it on my LS P7010 and 4 WD so it didn't stop real easy when it hung a big rock that didn't want to come out.

 

[radioman]

In this case -- you need to listen to old advice. you get what you pay for- same with little elbow grease goes a long way. You might be able to get by with just picking up the rocks and be done with it. but will the land be smooth for you? will the roots be in the way when you plant bb bushes? will the land be smooth enough 5- 10 years? will the soil be too packed choking the plants? I dont know since the picture is too small and its hard to tell what type of soil you have.

 

[Carl_NH]

I figured I needed to do this because it would be encountering a lot of rocks on this job and some of them are fairly large up to 18" in diameter and perhaps a few even larger than that..

Well those are big - first get rid of the big ones by bucket or by hand and I suspect you will just generate more rock the more you dig - at least that's the way it is here in NH.

I would scarify the compacted areas with your BB to loosen up the soil and you have a few rental places in St Johns that have a Skid Steer with a rock bucket and rent it for a weekend for maybe $200 or so would be $ and time well spent.

If you have a QA attach FEL you could maybe just rent the rock bucket too. As you have said once you plant the bushes you it will just be maintenance I presume like mowing between the bushes? So I would try to not to disturb those buried rocks and get the surface clear for now.

 

[kfxgreenie]

By hand......just got done with 30 acres of a pine plantation we cleared 4 years ago. We too had an excavator dig the stumps, but there is a lot of the root ball left. We have disc'd it 4 times with an old bush hog heavy 10' offset, but every time it brings more to the top. Hand just plain works the best for the little stuff. A skid steer rock bucket would do ok on the big stuff but "little" stuff falls through. If you don't want to work, hire it done like you did with the excavator.

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