Box Scraper Box Blade or Rear Grader Blade?

[Automobilist]

Just got my first tractor; New Holland T1510. Jumping to get going on it! Got five acres heavily wooded, fallen trees & underbrush. Heaven...
Have about a half acre cleared with driveway, parking, etc. Due to the somewhat wet weather here in the great Northwest, it tends to get chewed up pretty quickly. Hence, I need to get an attachment for the tractor to refinish the drive / parking areas frequently. "She" is skeptical of course, but I have to park my 911 out there.


So, box blade scraper or rear grading blade? Tractor has 30 hp to pull with...

 

[sd455dan]

I started with a scraper blade (bought new) It wouldn't bite or dig in enough for any real road re finishing.(at least for me)
Sold it and found a used gannon box blade. It will dig in and move material- Have no plans to buy another back (scraper) blade.

Ps also picked up a well used Landscape rake (Servis) and it can be offset and angled also has adjustable guide tires and If doing gravel finish work It covers some of the duties that i used the scraper blade for.

 

[dragoneggs]

Hey Auto... good to see another 'local' on the forums! I have a back blade which I borrowed from another member on this forum and ended up buying it because it was easier than returning it. :laughing:

Although I have got my money's worth, I do wish I had a box blade that would dig a bit better. I sort of took on the duties to maintain our shared gravel driveway rather than hiring a local guy with a large grader every time. It does come out better when we hire it out because he rolls it afterward and I can't do that. We still have him come out every couple years but I can smooth out the washboard wrinkles in problematic areas in the meantime with the blade. The blade I have is technically too big for my tractor but the extra weight helps dig. Although no direct experience... I think the answer for you is box blade. I imagine you will be taming some of the wooded area too and I think the box blade will come in handy there too. The experts will chime in shortly. Good luck with your hunt.

 

[TripleR]

I haven't used our scraper blade in years as I find the box scraper a better all around tool. I plan about every year to put the blade on to taper some edges, but never seem to find the time.

For just road maintenance and parking lot, I'd like to have something like this, but I'll probably never get around to buying one: GS25 Series Grading Scrapers | Land Pride

 

[chim]

I had a project that involved leveling and redistributing a fair amount of material. I bought a used box scraper, did the project and sold it for what I paid the previous year. It would have done OK at fixing gravel driveways but something like the homebrew "landplanes" below work better for me.

The big large one is used at work. We have a lot of gravel areas to take care of. I recently had the guys shorten it because I was concerned about the stress being put on the Montana's topling attachment point.

The smaller one is used at home. It started life as a more cumbersome piece that required using it chained to my boom pole. One day I saw the big rusty blind flange wasting away on a pile at work and thought it could be put to good use.

 

[oosik]

I have three implements that I've used for maintenance of my mile long gravel driveway. Land Pride RB3596(rear blade), Bush Hog RO720(roll over box blade) & Land Pride GS2584(Land Plane Grading Scraper). The rear blade is great for snow removal in the winter and rates a zero for summer driveway maintenance - too light at only 565 pounds. The ROBB is great for moving larger amounts of material on & around the driveway. The LPGS is great for smoothing & top dragging the driveway when I'm done with all the other fooling around. Both the ROBB & the LPGS have scarifiers if and when I need to repair big potholes.

I have found that a hydraulic top link is also a fantastic addition for dirt engagement implements. It allows me to make adjustments "on the fly" without having to start/stop/adjust so very many times to obtain the correct "angle of attack". Now, with this hyd top link, I can acheive the correct adjustment and not the - "well, that looks good enough" position, after many tries.

 

[lostcreekranch]

I agree on the rear grading scraper, best bang for the buck for gravel roads and driveways.

I have a Woods 84" and top and side hydraulic links from Fit-Rite.

 

[ovrszd]

An advantage of a rear blade with a swinging main beam is it will reach outside the tractor, a BB won't. Otherwise, it's a BB hands down.

 

[paulfun9]

Most I have talked to in person that were not satisfied with the rear blade had been using light blades.

Depending on the driveway I will use a heavy rear blade (1000LBS) or a grading scraper

 

[jenkinsph]

Just got my first tractor; New Holland T1510. Jumping to get going on it! Got five acres heavily wooded, fallen trees & underbrush. Heaven...
Have about a half acre cleared with driveway, parking, etc. Due to the somewhat wet weather here in the great Northwest, it tends to get chewed up pretty quickly. Hence, I need to get an attachment for the tractor to refinish the drive / parking areas frequently. "She" is skeptical of course, but I have to park my 911 out there.
View attachment 462404

So, box blade scraper or rear grading blade? Tractor has 30 hp to pull with...

For refinishing the driveway a lpgs is an easy tool to use with or without top n tilt hydraulic hitch. A good quality and heavy 60" would be a good fit.

My thought is a box blade and a rear blade are also good attachments. Top n tilt is great to have with the grader blade and box blade but all of this adds costs. I think if you buy good implements as you can budget them you wont need to repeat the buying process.

I don't see one of the implements as being better for overall use as these all have different capabilities. In time you will want one of each, just get good ones as you acquire them.