Selecting a box blade for a subcompact
- Thread starter ejb11235
- Start date
Thank you for this detailed reply. This is really helpful. And anybody who uses the word "tertiary" is immediately going to get my attention.I love all the thought that is going into this. I am technically new to tractors (<2yrs) but as an automotive Master Tech i have to know how everything works to be able to diagnose and fix it, so I didn't just buy a tractor.. I looked at damn near everything that was out there, tried to reverse engineer how every thing worked, bought a tractor, and then proceeded to test every bit of 'conventional wisdom' I could to find the holes and what people are missing. It's been a fun journey so far!
Anyway, my box blade experience is very relevant here because I pull a 60" box blade with a B6100, which is smaller and lighter than most of the BX series and has only a 500lb 3pt lift capacity.
Width: With 4wd, FEL adding its weight to the front tires, rear diff lock, and a gear transmission that can spin all 4 tires without stalling the engine or going into pressure relief, I can pull a 60" box blade with this tiny tractor. However, it DOES require constant attention and can be finicky. As you alluded to, a smaller box blade would require less operator interaction or a lower level of it to function and therefore could be more or less fun depending on whether you enjoy being challenged as an operator, or are just trying to get something done. I personally would be loathe to go all the way down to 48". I think 54 would be a sweet spot.
Weight: I can see two main uses for weight of the box blade. The obvious one is ripper penetration. The less obvious one is how far you have to roll at the beginning of a 'pass' for the rear blade or rippers to 'feed' into the ground and begin to cut. I have not looked up the spec but i believe my 60" blade is in the 300-350 lb range. I had no problem with its function at that weight, however.. I added a 113lb 54" loading dock bumper to the back (the thing made out of old tires that semis bump their trailers into at loading docks) so it is now in the 400-450lb range. It DOES function better on both the points above. However, it's brought me perilously close to my 3pt lift capacity. Before I added the weight, there would occasionally be times I couldn't lift a full box blade to dump it because enough material was 'stuck' to the box that it was way over my capacity, in which case i'd have to back up while lifting on the 3pt to release the material and be able to raise the box. After adding the weight, I'm hitting that point a lot more often. Since I modify everything i plan to increase the 3pt capacity instead of removing the weight, but that may be a path you have no intention of going down, in which case I would err towards <350lb blades to give you more 'headroom'. You can always add weight to it later, like i did. I do feel like a curved 'moldboard' rear wall of the box could be useful here because the churning of the material against the back wall would discourage as much material adhering to the box as you try to lift it.
Side wall thickness: I don't think it matters a lick unless you plan to use the thing on rock/gravel for a LONG time, in which case you can wear away the bottom front of the side walls in a number of years, in which case thicker would be better. But I personally don't see it as an issue. Plus, you can make 'skids' for the side walls out of some lightly modified pieces of angle iron, and if you wanted to bolt them to the side walls i'd rather be drilling through 3/16 side walls than 1/2 side walls.
Number of Shanks: I feel that 5 is better than 4. I only feel this way because with 5 you have the option to run ONLY the center shank lowered and use it as a rock/root ripper, or a tiny trencher, and have more intuitive 'placement' of it and load the 3pt evenly when trying to pull up and pry a rock out or rip a root. If you are running all the rippers down, then with a BX or something tiny less rippers would be better in the sense that you can run less rippers deeper, where you would have to run more rippers more shallowly before running into traction/pulling limits of the small tractor. So i would say 5 is good, 3 is probably just as good as 5 if not better for such a tiny tractor, and 4 is fine but minorly complicates the fringe use case of using only one ripper as a '3pt prybar in the dirt'.
Clevis vs Pin: I see it as a non-issue when pulled by the size of tractor we're talking about. I have stalled my tractor (movement, not engine) with my box blade many many times. Sometimes many times in the space of 20 feet. I have never distorted those mounting points. I don't think my tractor can pull hard enough to do it. PLUS, here's the kicker... I had one of my rockshaft arms fail (due to a loose bolt backing out, nothing to do with box blade weight etc) while travelling FULL SPEED (9-11mph for me) and drop one side of the box blade in the dirt like dropping anchor in the dirt. That was a hell of a test of the box blade construction, and my pin mounts STILL weren't damaged in any way. I think it's a non-issue on a tiny tractor.
3pt frame attaching to rear wall: I agree that it's preferable to have the 3pt frame not JUST attach to the ripper bar and also attach to the rear wall, but i also suspect it is a non-issue on this small of a tractor. One tertiary issue of whether the 3pt mount extends all the way to the rear wall is it might make it easier or harder to build YOUR OWN stuff in that area. IF you wanted to build some kind of weight rack, tool carrier/box, etc in that space, it may be simpler if it was wide open, or it may be preferable to already have some structure there you could attach to. So that minor factor just depends on whether you think you'd modify the box blade down the line.
I don't care about country of origin. I'd rather buy from China than feel like I am being priced out of a middle-class lifestyle, and that feels like a constant threat lately.
Lastly.. GET A POWER TOP LINK!! It takes a box blade from a bit of a hassle, to a very fun mental challenge. Rather than run another hydraulic circuit I installed an electro-hydraulic actuator as a top link (hydraulic cylinder with onboard electric pump) but that's an issue for another thread. But, GET A POWER TOP LINK
I've read that thread multiple times and have done online searches for Bobcat and nothing came up in my area. One thing I'm starting to wonder about is if there are farm supply places out there that sell products but don't have an online presence. I don't frequent these places so I have almost zero familiarity with what's out there.I didn't see Bobcat brand on your list, and I'll throw it out there for consideration. I have a thread I made recently about the quest to purchase a boxblade for my B2650, and the winning element of the Bobcat was that they were available.
Bobcat box blade? Or Titan or Southern?
Bobcat is owned by Dooson in South Korea. Daedong in South Korea builds Bobcats for Dooson and they are also known for making good products such as Kioti tractors here in the US. South Korean manufacturers have a good reputation for quality and I would expect them to subcontract implements to...www.orangetractortalks.com
I finally used it for the first time this last weekend, and I am OVERALL pretty pleased with it. I hope to update that thread today with the details. But it has a lot of the quality items you are looking for with it (clevis, scarifier numbers, no clips).
Oh this makes me laugh. Researching the crap out of it and then buying something from Harbour Freight. I acknoweldge that this could be a potential outcome for me. But as I said in my original posting, I want to know what I bought, and why I bought it. If I buy something cheap then I want to actually know what made it cheap.
BetterThanAShovel
Active member
Equipment
B2650, BH77, SG0660 grapple, pallet forks, Bobcat 60" box blade
I found it by Facebook marketplace. I was looking for a used BB, but that one kept popping up.
BetterThanAShovel
Active member
Equipment
B2650, BH77, SG0660 grapple, pallet forks, Bobcat 60" box blade
I found a local seller of new Titan Implements (not Titan Attachments) box blades, and they are definitely a contender.
Again, I use my 1260 PERFECTLY FINE.
Performed recent grading jobs where the box was full. If you know what you are doing, there is no problem. I got it partly because of price, but also to ensure I was well beyond the width of the rear tires...And when I up-size in tractor someday, I may not have to get a bigger BB.
Last edited:
Really the main thing you have to remember weather a 48 inch or 60 inch, is that you are going to do. Remember you have a SMALL tractor and you dont have the weight to get super aggressive with any 3pt attachment. Will the BX series work hard, darn right it will, will it do things that make people say HUH yes it will. Remember it is not a 988, it is a little tractor! Think each job through, be it with a Box Blade or back blade.
Thanks for the youtube link. I watched that video and a couple of others. I'm giving a lot of thought to my intended uses, because as you say, I think that's really important. If I were only going to be touching up existing driveways I would go on the wider side. I really like the idea of the box extending outside of the wheels. On the other hand, for digging up fresh soil, especially with roots and rocks, a narrower box would be better.
I'm going to be shifting gears from the abstract to what my actual purchasing options are. That will help focus my decision-making. Maybe a 54" will reveal itself to me.
OrangeKrush
Well-known member
Equipment
BX2680, LA344 with Piranha tooth bar, LP PF 1242, LP Rear Blade, KK 60" BB
My list of box blades is nowhere near complete, but I have the following 54" wide box blades:
Braber BE-BBR45G
Land Pride BB0554
Land Shark LS-SCMP-BB-EA-5.0-54
Land Shark LS-CMP-BB-EA-2.1-54
Woods BSS54
--eric
Just something else to consider. If you are going to be using the shanks frequently, the Landpride that you are looking at have spring clips to hold in the shanks. We have the 48" Landpride that uses the spring clips. If I had to do it over again, I would have purchased a BB that used pins to adjust the shanks.
Other than that, I like the Landpride, no complaints.
Other than that, I like the Landpride, no complaints.
Yeah, the clips on the Landpride are almost a showstopper for me. They can be replaced with rods, but I would be hard pressed to pay for a new one only to have to immediately fix something that should never have seen the light of day. If I found a used one for a good price then I would suck it up. Note that the bigger blades don't have them.
Ok, I'm in the process of shifting gears from educating myself to identifying my actual options and making a purchase decision. One last (maybe) question ... on a 4' box, what do you think of 3 scarifiers instead of the more common 4? One of my top contenders has only 3. One person mentioned that having an odd number of scarifiers can be good because it allows you remove all of them except the middle one, but I can't remember exactly why he said that would be useful.
BetterThanAShovel
Active member
Equipment
B2650, BH77, SG0660 grapple, pallet forks, Bobcat 60" box blade
He said it was so you could drop just the middle scarifier and use it like a bulldozer ripper blade. So you've got one tooth you can rip with that's lined up with the center of your tractor.
I DID IT! I selected and purchased a box blade ... the Braber BE-BBR4G.
Thank you to all of the people who chimed in to share their thoughts and experiences. This has been a bit of a grueling week of information gathering. I'm glad it's over and that it appears to have led me to exactly what I wanted.
Details
--eric
Thank you to all of the people who chimed in to share their thoughts and experiences. This has been a bit of a grueling week of information gathering. I'm glad it's over and that it appears to have led me to exactly what I wanted.
Details
- $740
- 4 shanks
- 3/8" side plate thickness
- 368 pounds
- pin-style shank retention
- clevis style for 3pt hitch connection
- curved blade
- gusseted
--eric
OrangeKrush
Well-known member
Equipment
BX2680, LA344 with Piranha tooth bar, LP PF 1242, LP Rear Blade, KK 60" BB