Price Check Used B26 TLB or New Kioti CK3510

[Jim Nelson]

I usually agree with rScotty but on the box blade I have to disagree, I use a 6' behind my B7800 all the time and the only time I use the 54" is for ripping. My 6' came with my 1st Kubota, a B7100,worn out when I traded for it but pulled the 6 footer fine as did my next tractor, a B7200. My 6' box blade was fabricated by the previous owner who was a landscaper and I have pretty much rebuilt it with reversible cutting edges on a heavier moldboard so it may very likely be heavier than a factory model. As for back dragging, when I was younger and working as a heavy equipment operator it was called "okie dozing" and really frowned on. After having top and tilt on my B7800 I would never have another tractor without it. In the construction business it is pretty much standard on all skip loaders, which is what a grading tractor is commonly known as. What we call a box blade is usually referred to as a Gannon ,which is actually a manufacturers name, and for years about the only game in town.
Any decisions have to be made by you as to what works best for you. The most important part is time in the seat to become proficient, there is no substitute and every thing you read or see on videos is useless without it.

 

[rScotty]

I usually agree with rScotty but on the box blade I have to disagree, I use a 6' behind my B7800 all the time and the only time I use the 54" is for ripping. My 6' came with my 1st Kubota, a B7100,worn out when I traded for it but pulled the 6 footer fine as did my next tractor, a B7200. My 6' box blade was fabricated by the previous owner who was a landscaper and I have pretty much rebuilt it with reversible cutting edges on a heavier moldboard so it may very likely be heavier than a factory model. As for back dragging, when I was younger and working as a heavy equipment operator it was called "okie dozing" and really frowned on. After having top and tilt on my B7800 I would never have another tractor without it. In the construction business it is pretty much standard on all skip loaders, which is what a grading tractor is commonly known as. What we call a box blade is usually referred to as a Gannon ,which is actually a manufacturers name, and for years about the only game in town.
Any decisions have to be made by you as to what works best for you. The most important part is time in the seat to become proficient, there is no substitute and every thing you read or see on videos is useless without it.

Jim, I've no problem with that & certainly don't have a problem with disagreement. Done reasonably like you tend to do, how could I mind?
Like using a box blade, maybe it's mostly in the operator.

I still think it's the more the type of ground that makes the largest difference in ground engaging implements. I know that the same tool works differently in Nevada's sand, rocky soil, the clay of west Texas, or Kansas dirt. Never have worked the loamy ground inland from the east, west or southen coastal bottoms, but I bet it's different too.

Here in the Rocky mountains it's the rocks in our thin granite-based "soil" that change everything. About the best we can do is to hope the blade can can tumble them out of the ground - but doing that on a straight pull makes a box blade jump and skip so that there are foot deep divots and mounds.

We still have three box blades, that just sort of accumulated through the years. Along with a few basic angling back blades from 5 to 8 feet that must have just sort of must have crawled here on their own. One is a bizarre pink paint that nobody would have chosen deliberately. Chances are that one crawled here somehow under it's own power when I wasn't looking. Now it lives in middle of the line of all the other abandoned implements that so horrify my wife. But old pinky is apparently happy being there. Put all of them together and the whole motley group couldn't hold a candle to the old heavy Gannon box blades you mention.

In our rocky ground we end up using the smallest box just for ripping and a newish heavy 3-way angling back blade with end caps for grading. The 3-way blade has the upstream end capped and slightly tilted up so it doesn't stub a rock, and the downstream end of the blade is open. In use, it's like a box blade slightly tilted and with the blade part of the box set at just enough angle so that it will spill off the end. If all goes right - and that's rare - then at least some of the rocks that are pulled up work their way off the end of the blade to accumulate in windrows instead of causing the whole rig to bounce over them.

There are a couple of big downsides to that 3way blade, though. One downside is that to be any good the whole implement has to be really rigid and seriously heavy without being so wide that when it hits a rock that it bends or causes the back of the tractor to slide sideways. Number two downside is that making it rigid and heavy also makes it expensive. Our small six foot one cost about a little over two grand many years ago without the caps or runners that make it work right. Add hydraulics to that and it needs another set of remotes to work the angling as well as the two for top and tilt.

Shucks, working 4 or more levers while looking over my shoulder would make me feel like a juggler trying to play the accordion. So instead, we slow down and go with manual adjust. That way we get less work done which means more time spent enjoying it - which was the whole reason we got a tractor in the first place. There's nobody paying us by the hour anyway.

However, I'm with you that at some point old reliable simple manual adjustment begins to look a little too much like real work.
That usually happens about when I go back to adjust the tilt and realize that my favorite wrench is missing. Which means it either vibrated out of the tool box and got plowed under... or it's back at the barn with the coffee I also forgot.

That's when simply backdragging with the FEL slightly angled down to push at least some of the rocks back down begins to look like being worth a try. It's free, it's handy, it's done mostly facing forward, and is where extra weight of the heavier TLB type FEL & bucket really helps. I wonder how it would work with an extra thousand pound rock chained in the bucket? That might be a lot like using a box blade in reverse - and box blades are made for that. Haven't tried it yet, but will give it a go next time.

Writing this makes me realize just how much of what we TBNers do comes down to soil type, weight, and traction - which are exactly the three things that the owner needs to experience on their own land before buying. No wonder our first time buyers get confused.
rScotty

 

[Jim Nelson]

I was born and raised up in Salida,Co. so I appreciate what you are talking about. I never owned a tractor when living there but as a youngster used several old Johnny Poppers working for local farmers in their hay fields. That was where I started operating heavy equip.,in the mines at first then later in general construction and there is nothing quite like working rock. The only places I saw grading tractors up there was in the cities where they were used in landscaping and finishing in tight spots around housing developments.

When I moved to Ca. I thought I was a pretty good hand and did fine working in rock quarries but when I went out into general construction I found that I was in a whole new world and it was like starting all over again. As you said different parts of the country are completely different.I didn't get my first Kubota until I had bought a 5 1/2 acre place with all dirt roads and met a guy who was retiring due to health reasons and traded me an old worn out B7100 for an old Ford Bronco with a blown engine that I didn't have time to work on.I used that little tractor to rebuild all the roads in the area often dragging the 6' box blade and carrying a bucket of de-composed granite for fill and it did a good job.
Great experiences.

 

[jeremymayf]

So much great info, thanks guys, I'm gonna try answer in specifics, hope it doesn't get too wordy:

Carl_NH: good solid advice--work with neighbors, get some seat time and feel out what implements to acquire over time. The Bro Tek
ripper definitely looks interesting and noticed they also carry rear 2" spacers for the B26--something I have seriously considered given the slopes
on our property. A wider rear stance might be a good idea.


rScotty and Jim Nelson: appreciate the different perspectives on 3pt. and box blades. I think you guys came to the correct conclusion that
more often than not, terrain will inform the implement you choose for ground engagement. When we met the previous owner, I mentioned to her how beautiful
her property was and how jealous I was of all the cool rocks and rock features she had. She loooked at me like I grew horns, and replied I could take all the rocks
I want if I buy the tractor. One man's trash... The point is, is that our property just has very few rocks.

Up to this point, I have been "okie dozing" as Jim put it repairing dirt road/driveway. While I love that term (both sides of family from Oklahoma), like Jim I was taught
that is not the best way to grade. Back in the stone age when I was a kid, I worked for small excavation outfit--got to run alot of old Case 580 2wd backhoes and the like.
We used the 580's to backfill trenches and such, but we always brought in dozers for actual grading projects. It just seems that everyone who gets remotes with TNT finds them indispensible
after using them for awhile. And our property seems like a good candidate for it since we have a lot of grading to do on an already sloped hillside...


rScotty: you said "single remote with the ability to be set for constant flow,
it can be used to power as many hydraulic circuits as you like - three on a
multiple valve stack is common - until eventually the added flow resistance
makes it all too slow."

I need to learn more about this-I really don't fully understand remotes/3rd function...etc. I've read a little about them, and understand
their utility with implements, but physically installing them, the types to choose, whether to go OEM or aftermarket...I am at a loss. I recall
reading some threads about Kubota remotes having some issues...leaking?

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[RichT]

Jeremy
You're gonna love the B26. Had mine since 2008. Still going strong. The best implement, by far, that I've found is a pallet fork front QA. Invaluable for moving around heavy stuff. No need to worry about a ballast box with the backhoe sitting back there . Currently building a 3pt frame for a PTO genset.