When the box blade digs...

[brian3180]

I'm at a lost as to why this is happening. It seems obvious on a few areas of my driveway that dip and look low. I can have a full box of skimmed driveway material and when I go through these supposed low areas the box blade digs and accumulates more material. I'm expecting for the box to empty onto these low spots but the opposite is happening. Right now I just know what I THINK I am doing right. I don't really know what I am doing wrong. I have a few ideas that seem obvious as to why this is happening but in my mind I feel that gravity is not doing its part. I can't get past that.

If I can get this figured out I feel I can be at a position to start posting about everything else that is wrong with my driveway. Thanks for any input.

 

[mopardude318]

Do you have hydraulic top & tilt cylinders?

 

[RNeumann]

It’s blade angle or softer material. A box needs hydraulic top and tilt to really grade though. If you don’t want to do that check out the land planes by Everything Attachments or Land Pride. Those will tune a driveway without needing the top and tilt.

 

[ustmd]

brian3180,

There is a great thread under projects or attachments about road work with a box blade (BB)--it is several years old, but it helped me tremendously. I did a quick search but could not find it

There could be a couple of things going on. First, you most likely need to lengthen the top link for the BB to reduce the aggressiveness of the blades as the engage the ground. Since you are not trying to "scoop up" material, you want the top link long enough that the blades are no longer cutting.

Second, because the sides of a BB are short, it was very susceptible to the bumps and unevenness of the road the tractor wheels are going over. If the front wheels of the tractor start to go up a bump or a rise, the BB will dig in more aggressively as it flexes at the hitch. You need to look at the areas before and after the low spots to see if the road rises around them. To help mitigate this problem, raise the BB up so it is not in contact with the ground when you are in that part of the road--you will also need to make multiple passes.

Third, Raise the BB all the way up to dump the material you collected. Drop the BB and then go in reverse to to push the material, using the BB, into the low spots.

You did not mention the type of material you are working with...most of the time, you do need to break the material in the problem area with the rippers before you add new material, otherwise the problem will quickly reappear.

We do love to spend other people's money, but I have 3/4 of road to maintain and the best implement I bought was a dual beveled box blade--also called a land plane. Made road work significantly easier.

 

[ustmd]

Found this one:





https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/214590-how-use-box-blade-2.html

And this one:

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/122762-beginners-guide-using-box-blade.html

 

[rangerfredbob]

blade angle, a box scraper levels across it's width and is NOT a grader to fill in dips lengthwise. As soon as the front of the tractor is higher than the rear the angle of the blade compared to level ground and will dig. If you added gauge wheels to your scraper 4' behind it, then it would grade lengthwise... that's where a belly blade comes in and why graders have the blade between the wheels.

 

[RoyKing]

Switch to draft rather than position control, and then adjust the top link length. It takes awhile to be good with a box blade and a lot of sitting sideways so you can watch the blade. For my new cab tractor I'm mounting a backup camera

 

[brian3180]

Do you have hydraulic top & tilt cylinders?

I do not. I'm still learning how to use the top link and the tilt adjuster.

 

[brian3180]

Found this one:





https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/214590-how-use-box-blade-2.html

And this one:

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/122762-beginners-guide-using-box-blade.html

Thank you. I read the first few post on both links and know they will be helpful. I have been reading several on here but I have not seen these two. Thanks again.

 

[Citydude]

Ustmd gave good advice.
As a former very experienced dozer operator, having the working end of a dirt mover on the rear of a machine was hard for me to get favorable results. You will get it. It takes time. Its just dirt...

 

[brian3180]

Switch to draft rather than position control, and then adjust the top link length. It takes awhile to be good with a box blade and a lot of sitting sideways so you can watch the blade. For my new cab tractor I'm mounting a backup camera

I was trying to figure out how to use DC a few days ago. I was wondering if DC could prevent the BB from digging when driving at different elevations.

 

[RoyKing]

DC Makes so you can move a full load without it digging more, and it allows you to scatter a load rather just drop it. A good starting point for top link is lower the BB and adjust the link so the box is level. Then depending on what you want do shorten the link will make it dig, It won't take much to start it digging. My DC has adj up and lower stops, lower is set dig until box gets full, up is set to scatter it.

 

[Fallon]

A hydraulic toplink or taking the time to work the manual one is required to really make a box blade work. Tip the front up to smooth & deposit material. Drop the front without the sides digging in to much to cut more. I use my hydraulic toplink more than the 3pt lever when I'm grading. Letting the blade be more or less aggressive while leaving the 3pt all the way down eliminates a fair bit of the issues with the box blade raising or falling when the tractor goes over a bump.

Ripping ground up before you try to grade makes your life a lot easier. Especially if you have a lighter blade.

Filling in low spots often doesnt help. The loose dirt or gravel you put in divots ends up popping out. Generally you need to rip up the area around the divot as well as the divot itself. Then level things & pack it all down.