Box Blade help

[Hoserman]

Hello all, Call me Hoser, I'm new to the forum and I have a question for some of the more experienced operators here. Last year I bought a brand new Kubota BX2380 with mowing deck and FEL. This year I put together a carry all deck and just bought a used Land Pride box blade. Never used one before and I have a crushed limestone driveway. I tried it out a week ago and it did a good job other than it left a few spots pretty much untouched. I'm still trying to learn how this thing works. Today it rained pretty hard and I thought it would be good to loosen up the hard pack to blade out. Should I have waited for it to dry out a tad before grading it? Seemed not to flow too well in the box. Like I said, I'm new to this and would greatly welcome any advice. Thanks ya'll.

 

[D2Cat]

Welcome, Hoser. By adjusting the toplink you determine the amount of material you drag. If you extend the toplink the rear blade will catch more. The length the scarifers are set will determine how much the material is loosened up before the blade.

 

[jimh406]

A box blade is fairly difficult to get good at with a driveway. Just take your time and don't try to do too much at a time. Only use the scarifiers if you really need to. Otherwise, you'll have a mess to clean up.

If you've thought about adding a grader/scraper, I can tell you they are super easy for gravel driveways in comparison. You just put it down and drive.

 

[NCL4701]

First time I used a boxblade I had no clue what I was doing and was glad there was no one around to tell me what a doofus I was. I told myself enough to cover for at least two experienced hecklers so I didn’t need any help with criticism. Spent about 8 hours doing a 3 hour job but by the time I was done I had a pretty decent idea how to run a boxblade. Toplink setting is the most critical thing and it’s really a matter of experimentation to get the feel for how to set it to get the cut you want. If you’ve adjusted the toplink and no matter where you set it, it just isn’t cutting, drop the rippers.

To work well, the material needs to flow, so dry works better than wet. If it’s washed rock, doesn’t matter much because it isn’t sticking together anyway, but if there’s dirt, fines, sand or anything that will clump when wet, dry works better.

Probably the only good advice I got that wasn’t intuitive: if you want smooth, don’t go slow. If you go really slow, the blade can float up and down with the undulations of the ground so it doesn’t do a great job smoothing it. Get a little speed on and it can’t float fast enough to follow the little bumps and dips so it takes them out.

 

[OntheRidge]

 

[Hoserman]

Thank you very much for the replies. That's all-great info for me to use. As I said I'm new to using things like the box blade but I am learning. Where this implement will shine is spring for me. We live basically in the woods on a private gravel road that is maintained by a local excavating company. In spring when the snow and ice finally go away the road is a mess as there are fifteen people living along the road. It is pothole central until the grader finally comes to smooth the road. I plan on doing some of my own grading to make it better till they arrive. I am so very much impressed with this little tractor. It has exceeded my expectations.

 

[Vigo]

If the box blade has one blade facing forwards and one blade facing rearwards, then:

The front blade actually cuts the most when the box is level.

Tilting the box forward changes the front blade angle but if you are on any kind of hardish surface at all you quickly end up with the front side walls riding on the ground and holding the rear blade up, rather than getting a more aggressive cut. The front blade sticks below the side walls a bit and actually cuts deepest with the box level.

If you tilt the box rearward, the front blade cuts less and eventually disengages, and you begin 'backdragging' with the rear blade, although you are going forward. This is good for smoothing soft/loose material.

If you go in reverse, the angles have different effects. Having the box level usually results in the rear blade not cutting in much while reversing, which is fine because it is difficult to cut in reverse with a small tractor as the resistance against that rear blade tends to lift weight off the rear wheels and cause traction issues.

Tilting the box forward results in less rear blade engagement in reverse.

At any point, if the box loads up so much that it stops the tractor from moving, lifting partially on the 3pt will usually get it to move again. You don't have to pick it up OFF the ground, just use the 3pt to transfer some of the weight of the box against the ground (friction) to weight on the rear wheels (traction). You will be surprised how little material will fall out of the box with it ALMOST totally lifted off the ground. You will have enough traction to pull the full box around by doing this if transporting that material from one place to another.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

The longer the driveway, the sooner you'll get the 'hang of it'.... I'd practice on the 'private gravel road' unless your driveway is say 200+ feet long.

 

[PaulR]

Great Thread thanks everyone.
(clueless new box blade owner)

 

[nbryan]

Great Thread thanks everyone.
(clueless new box blade owner)

One more little hint about the BB. The lowering speed is controlled by the 3-point adjustment knob under the seat facing forward. The hint about speeding up to help reduce up/down boxblade roughness only helps if the adjustment knob is set so the blade doesn't just "drop", or if over-tightened drop speed adjuster, lowering too slow.
I like to set it so it drops from full height to ground, when the position control lever is thrust forward, in about 1 1/2 seconds. That way it won't fall fast enough to exacerbate asmuch the "waves" that form behind on uneven ground as it won't fall quickly into low spotsas you move over them.

 

[OrangeKrush]

That way it won't fall fast enough to exacerbate asmuch the "waves" that form behind on uneven ground as it won't fall quickly into low spotsas you move over them.

I read all the threads on BB's because even though my drive looks better "mainly because it takes out the weeds and turns up the gravel" I still get the waves! For one thing I need to get a longer top link because I run out of threads. I can get it level front to back but can't get it to tilt far enough to drag/feather in the gravel with just rear blade. I raised it and see that the front blade is lower than rear blade. After reading above post I guess this is the way their made??

My problem is coming up to a dip and when the tractor goes into it.. it takes more out. Maybe I need to adjust my 3pt to raise and drop faster. Or maybe just save up for a driveway plainer.

 

[Henro]

The only thing I know for sure is that a hydraulic top link, which allows painless adjustment, while actually using the box blade, and watching what happens, works really great.

I doubt I would like my box blade otherwise. This is no help to someone who must make mechanical adjustments. Can’t imagine doing that myself anymore, but I might have in the early days of box blade ownership.

No doubt you will figure it out and find a way to get acceptable results. MANY people do. Just offering this comment as food for thought for the future.

A hydraulic top link raises box blade use to a different level. Add a tilt cylinder and it is even better.

 

[NCL4701]

My problem is coming up to a dip and when the tractor goes into it.. it takes more out. Maybe I need to adjust my 3pt to raise and drop faster. Or maybe just save up for a driveway plainer.
[/QUOTE]
When you have a dip/hole so big the rear wheels of the tractor drop in and cause the blade to make it worse pulling forward, that’s a good time to use the blade on the back of the box. Get in front of the dip and back up to push material into it to fill it. Once you have it near to leveled out, then you can smooth it further pulling forward as part of the rest of the run.

 

[OrangeKrush]

My problem is coming up to a dip and when the tractor goes into it.. it takes more out. Maybe I need to adjust my 3pt to raise and drop faster. Or maybe just save up for a driveway plainer.

When you have a dip/hole so big the rear wheels of the tractor drop in and cause the blade to make it worse pulling forward, that’s a good time to use the blade on the back of the box. Get in front of the dip and back up to push material into it to fill it. Once you have it near to leveled out, then you can smooth it further pulling forward as part of the rest of the run.
[/QUOTE]
Tried that with not much success but I did get this today. I was running out of threads to get the box tilted enough to get the rear blade to do any good or anything for that matter. I haven't had a chance to try it but hoping it helps me out.. I think it will!

 

[OrangeKrush]

When you have a dip/hole so big the rear wheels of the tractor drop in and cause the blade to make it worse pulling forward, that’s a good time to use the blade on the back of the box. Get in front of the dip and back up to push material into it to fill it. Once you have it near to leveled out, then you can smooth it further pulling forward as part of the rest of the run.

Tried that with not much success but I did get this today. I was running out of threads to get the box tilted enough to get the rear blade to do any good or anything for that matter. I haven't had a chance to try it but hoping it helps me out.. I think it will!
View attachment 84691 View attachment 84692
[/QUOTE]
The new longer top link done the job for me.. I feel much better about it now, got the drive smoothed out and looks even better than before.

 

[NCL4701]

Tried that with not much success but I did get this today. I was running out of threads to get the box tilted enough to get the rear blade to do any good or anything for that matter. I haven't had a chance to try it but hoping it helps me out.. I think it will!
View attachment 84691 View attachment 84692

The new longer top link done the job for me.. I feel much better about it now, got the drive smoothed out and looks even better than before. View attachment 84726
[/QUOTE]
Nice!