Rear Blade Why doesn't my rear blade cut?

[SPYDERLK]

OK, got the mower swapped out for the rear blade tonight and tried some different things. The first thing I checked was the angle of the boom when I attached the RB. I had previously used it at the angle it sat when I attached it with the front support leg down. I mistakenly assumed that it sat level when unattached. The first picture shows that it actually sits tipped quite forward. I tipped the RB back and tried grading with it. It performed much better and actually would get a full blade of material.

After I finished, I spent some time looking over the blade and discovered that there is 1/2" worn off the cutting edge and that it has never been flipped. Picture 2 shows an end shot of the cutting edge and picture 5 shows the front.

Careful. That tractor would bend that blade in a heartbeat if you caught something off center. How much pressure do you have in those rears anyway?? They look like they are running on center tread. -- Or there is something real heavy in the bucket.
larry

 

[dcyrilc]

Careful. That tractor would bend that blade in a heartbeat if you caught something off center. How much pressure do you have in those rears anyway?? They look like they are running on center tread. -- Or there is something real heavy in the bucket.
larry

Good eye. I overfilled them from not knowing any better when I got it and keep forgetting to reduce the pressure. Too many things going on at one time right now. I put 25# in it like I would for a 580BH. The operators manual says 16# min and 23# max. Need to reduce it to around 18-20#. Making myself a note and putting it in the car right now so I will remember to do it tomorrow while I'm there. Thanks for the reminder!:thumbsup:

 

[Chilly807]

At any point, it's all just time and money to get everything fixed. Have to prioritize the repairs. I figure it will be several years before I have everything working the way I want. When you get a 50 HP PTO tractor with a solid engine and trans for a few $K, you can afford to put a few $K more into it to fix it up. I knew going into it that it would need some work. The unfortunate part was that I found the boom mower that I just couldn't live without and spent the repair money on the mower.:laughing: Now I'm having to nickle and dime the repairs.:laughing:

I hear you.. we're getting to be much the same way. I fix the stuff that's fixable, the rest gets placed on the list from "got to have" to "maybe we can do without 'til the barn's done".

I did find a decent used Land Pride rear blade recently, and a good used Kubota post hole digger. Buying used takes some of the sting out of new implements.

I figure for the amount of use I'll give them, used is fine. Being mechanically inclined helps, most machinery is repairable cheaply, if not I'll pass on them.

Chilly

 

[dcyrilc]

I hear you.. we're getting to be much the same way. I fix the stuff that's fixable, the rest gets placed on the list from "got to have" to "maybe we can do without 'til the barn's done".

I did find a decent used Land Pride rear blade recently, and a good used Kubota post hole digger. Buying used takes some of the sting out of new implements.

I figure for the amount of use I'll give them, used is fine. Being mechanically inclined helps, most machinery is repairable cheaply, if not I'll pass on them.

Chilly

This is going to be a tight year for us. We are on a voluntary overtime strike to push the issue of aquiring comp time. Our contract says we can choose to receive overtime as comp time and our boss doesn't want to give it so we have decided as a group not to do any voluntary overtime until it becomes an issue where he has to order the overtime and give us the comp time. Unfortunately, with the current economy, all of the available overtime right now would be for our convienence not his. We're going to have to stick it out for quite a while before it becomes an issue. Maybe even a year or two. I made about $35K in overtime last year. I'm going to miss that income this year!

On top of all that, I took out a $12K loan for the tractor and impliments and bought a used car to replace my old one which was dying. Total hit to income of an extra $550/mo in payments. Wouldn't have been a big deal if the overtime were still available. Sometime it sucks to support the group. Oh well, we'll survive. Just won't be able to do as much as we would have.

 

[Chilly807]

Our contract is much the same, we have the option as well. I have enough years in that time off isn't a problem, but with horses cash always is.

My experience with a group sticking together to force the employer to play ball is that it works until someone gets squeezed for money, then it starts to crack. You may be back working overtime sooner than you think. Either way I hope it works for you.

Funny how once you decide to spend some money you had set aside, immediately other unexpected expenses crop up. It's like they wait until you're vulnerable, then leap out of hiding to bite you on the azz. It always happens to me, it's why I debate buying big-ticket items forever.

Chilly

 

[dcyrilc]

Our contract is much the same, we have the option as well. I have enough years in that time off isn't a problem, but with horses cash always is.

My experience with a group sticking together to force the employer to play ball is that it works until someone gets squeezed for money, then it starts to crack. You may be back working overtime sooner than you think. Either way I hope it works for you.

Funny how once you decide to spend some money you had set aside, immediately other unexpected expenses crop up. It's like they wait until you're vulnerable, then leap out of hiding to bite you on the azz. It always happens to me, it's why I debate buying big-ticket items forever.

Chilly

I just changed careers five years ago after 27 years at my previous job. Starting to build up the leave time. I really could care less about the comp time. I'ld rather have the cash. Having this farm gets expensive. Between the tractor, barn rebuild, and feed, etc; I spent $40K on the farm last year. Nice tax write-off. I usually try to reserve my overtime income for farm expenses. This year, I think it's going to cut into the living budget. May not get much done on the barn this year due to the budget. I think the drives are going to have to be the priority. I haven't had access to any equipment for about six years now and the drives are really hurting. The tractor was a necessity.

The other thing that's really going to hurt is having to pay $400 a truck load for rock. I would be willing to bet that I could loose 100 truck loads to get all the drives where I want them. No way that's going to happen. I'll be happy if I can get 10 loads laid and graded this year. Right now it's looking like I'll be lucky if I can afford 1 load a month.:laughing:

 

[Chilly807]

What size rock are you getting? I just spread out 2 tandem loads of "class A" on our driveway this spring. $200 a load which is fairly reasonable. What I call "class A" is roughly 3/4 inch crushed stone with the fines left in, "unwashed stone". We use it for finishing a road surface here, aka "gravel". I spread it about 1-2 inches deep, enough for a new surface. Any more and you wallow through it with a car. Best to add several thin coats than one thick one.

The new house driveway was built from scratch, many tandem loads of "surge" or "pit run", aka large rock and fill, smoothed out with excavator. I hadn't top dressed it til this year, finally decided it had to be done.

Rolled it with the car, after a fashion. It's rained a couple times since then, almost like a concrete surface now. We also have what we call "crusher dust", which is small bits of splintered rock and dust from the crushing process. Great high density filler, good for traction and smooth surface.

Chilly

 

[dcyrilc]

What size rock are you getting? I just spread out 2 tandem loads of "class A" on our driveway this spring. $200 a load which is fairly reasonable. What I call "class A" is roughly 3/4 inch crushed stone with the fines left in, "unwashed stone". We use it for finishing a road surface here, aka "gravel". I spread it about 1-2 inches deep, enough for a new surface. Any more and you wallow through it with a car. Best to add several thin coats than one thick one.

The new house driveway was built from scratch, many tandem loads of "surge" or "pit run", aka large rock and fill, smoothed out with excavator. I hadn't top dressed it til this year, finally decided it had to be done.

Rolled it with the car, after a fashion. It's rained a couple times since then, almost like a concrete surface now. We also have what we call "crusher dust", which is small bits of splintered rock and dust from the crushing process. Great high density filler, good for traction and smooth surface. Our overall slope runs from NE to SW.


Chilly

With my ground, I have to have 1-1/4" minus. The smaller stuff just turns to mush. When I put the base in the barn I'll start with 2" clean rock covered with the 1-1/4. Once it's up near grade, I can top it with 5/8" minus (like your Class A). Our property has 2-6" of rich top soil over glacial silt. Water doesn't move through it very well and you need the bigger rock to create support. Too small and it just saturates when the rains hit. Getting fines in the rock isn't a problem as the rock sinks over time and the fine silty stuff comes to the surface. If money wasn't an issue, I would dig out 2 ft and start a base of 2-4" rock covered with 2" minus covered with 1-1/4" minus. I have sections of the drive where this was done and they don't budge under any load.
I have one area where I need to redo (change) the drainage, but that's not in the budget this year. Right now I have a small spring which has formed and is running across the back drive, through the corner of a pasture, and down the main drive. It's about 6" wide and maybe 1/8" - 1/4" deep. It's been running all winter. I have a drainage ditch which runs across a pasture and too close to one of my buildings so I want to reroute it starting about 150ft from the building. I'll run it into a new ditch along the uphill side of the back drive to catch that water flow and then culvert it under the back drive to a catch basin, turn it and cross under the end of the main drive to meet back up with the current ditch again. The flow of water in the ditch I want to reroute runs about 2K gallons/hour year round. I have two ditchs like that which run through all but one of my pastures to provide water to the animals. Both ditchs start at the base of a pitrun hillside which creates the back (west side) of our property. They end by flowing into a creek which cuts through the SW corner of the property.

 

[dcyrilc]

Careful. That tractor would bend that blade in a heartbeat if you caught something off center. How much pressure do you have in those rears anyway?? They look like they are running on center tread. -- Or there is something real heavy in the bucket.
larry

Well, back to blading some today. It's cutting well when I'm off the main drive. I figured out that the main drive is packed so hard that this blade has trouble cutting, but it still does the job 1/2" at a time. The picture is of the material in the blade while grading one of the back drives. I'll get some pix of the drive tomorrow.

You were right about the power of the tractor vs the blade. I hooked a burried concrete electrical box today while grading the main drive. The blade held up better than I would have expected. It bent one of the
Cat2 pins! I guess that's better than bending the blade.:thumbsup:

 

[dcyrilc]

My question for play in the blade wasn't for side-to-side movement, but rather tilt side-to-side. ...

...The bolts which hold the blade to the boom are also loose, but were rusted to the point I could not budge them either tighter or looser so I sprayed them with YEILD snd eill try them again another day. I'm currently down to about 2" of tilt from 6".

I got 3 of the four bolts to tighten up. Now I'm down to about an inch of slop tilt.