Took me a minute to figure out the cut marks around the ripper mount holes, and realized the bosses for the level pins weren't there any more. Was wondering why a modification would have been necessary there. Then the light same on. I think the fact you cut them with a torch instead of a cut-off wheel on a grinder is what threw me off.
I think you'll appreciate the weight you added too. The BB1248 I have is just a little on the light side for just blading. Then when I lower the rippers, I normally find an economy sized root that makes me glad I have a seat belt. It's usually a nasty jolt. What I like about what you did is you didn't really affect the mechanical strength of what the rippers torque against.
Instead of holes like your ripper tines have, though, mine have notches in the front edges of the bars, and some kind of silly spring clip that has hit me in the face more than once when it comes flying out of the pliers it takes to get them out. It's really just a spacer to keep the notch on the tine engaged in the box beam. There's an art to getting them out, especially if using water pump pliers (some call's 'em, Chaneloks, I call's 'em water pump plier, mmm-hmm). As much as I hate the hairpin style keepers in pins, it would have been a lot better than the spring clips on my rippers. I much prefer lynch pins, but they're not always compatible or practical. I'd have to fill the notches on my rippers and then drill a hole in the top for a pin. My shop capabilities are a little more limited than yours, and this would probably take me a while longer to do. What I like most about this change, though is the fact that the ripper depth isn't in fixed increments. You can adjust it like you want, not to mention, on the fly, and peel a root off a piece at a time.
Well done indeed.
