Box Blade Suggestion

[TractorNoob85]

I bought an 84" BB last year to use on my driveway. Its 1500ft gravel and on a hill. Gravel will wash on very hard rains and needs carried up the hill and ruts filled. Thank God it doesn't happen too often.

The DK4520 pulls it well until the ground is loose. A full load will stop the tractor and spin going uphill. It gets annoying needing to lift and feather the BB to get going again.

Lesson learned on the too big a box. So, my question is, because of the hill do I downsize to a 66" to just cover the tire tracks or go with a 72"?

The tractor measures 64" across the rear treads.

The driveway is 8-9ft wide so it's not a big deal to go down one side and up the other with a smaller box and having power in reserve seems like a good idea anyway.

Also began looking at rollover box blades. They are heavier and I like the idea of using a lever to roll it into position for the scarifiers and then back to scraping.

So, 66" or 72" for pulling stone uphill? What do you guys think?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Roll-over box blades are great and I'm a hydraulics guy.

My first question, do you have your tires filled?

Filling the tires makes a day & night difference as far as the capabilities of your tractor.
I have all 4 tires filled on both my 75 HP (81"ROBB) and 32HP machines. (65"ROBB)

I believe that I would get a 72" unit for your DK.

Also, learn how to best use your draft control, (this will take some experimenting) and your days of bogging down will be gone.

 

[TractorNoob85]

Rear tires are filled. I do keep the front loader and 72" bucket on for front weight.

The DK doesn't have draft control. Only the knob to control the speed at which an implement lowers and the hydraulic lever to set height.

I do feather the height control to keep the tractor going but most times the tractor tires will dig and spin in the loose stone before able to bump the height up enough to get going again. Proper draft control would be nice.

 

[BackRoad]

Brian, what are the benefits of filling your front tires?

 

[anomad]

I think less is more depending on how steep your driveways are. I have a 5 foot box blade for my Kioti CK3510. Just a hair narrower than the rear tires (industrial). I can pull a full box of wet gravel up my steepest parts. Low range 4wd and diff lock all engaged depending... I haven't spun out yet. We had an unusually heavy downpour yesterday, probably 3-4 inches in less than an hour. Based on an empty bucket I had sitting outside... I spent about 3 hours dragging gravel around today.

Contrast that to my little B2601 with a 4 foot box blade... It will spin out on basically anything but flat ground. I love the little B for mowing, but it doesn't have the balls to pull a box blade.

A hydraulic top-link is very handy. Especially with a box blade. You can make micro adjustments to how much you are leaving or carrying with more fidelity than trying to massage the 3 point lift. I got an Amazon el cheapo and it works fine.

 

[anomad]

The tractor measures 64" across the rear treads.

Practicing my reading comprehension - LOL. I am surprised the DK is about the same width as the CK. You would walk the dog with a 5 foot box blade. No way you'd spin out if I can't with my smaller CK.

 

[TractorNoob85]

@anomad Speaking of the hard rains. Im in PA and we got hammered Wednesday evening with rain. This is what I had to clean up Thursday morning. The washouts were over a foot deep all the way down to the neighbor's house. Its asphalt millings beyond that. It's hard to tell from the photo but it does have a decent grade from top to bottom. We probably got 4-6" of rain in a bit over an hour. It's the worst I had it wash in 15 years. Took 4 hours to get it all filled in again. The water at the stream was overflowing the driveway at the through pipe. Luckily the pipe didn't get washed out.

New video · Wednesday, Jul 9 ð¬

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Brian, what are the benefits of filling your front tires?

Added weight equals more traction in 4 wheel drive.

Tires tend to not buldge as much with a heavy bucket of material with the smaller area for the air to compress into.

 

[anomad]

@TractorNoob85 Same exact thing here. Most thunderstorms just require a jiffy touch up. Everything was blown out like nothing I had ever seen yesterday.

I'd say go small so you have all the power at your disposal. And if you figure out an easy way to mine that gravel out in your grass let me know! LOL. I'll be mining with a shovel tomorrow for sure.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

@anomad Speaking of the hard rains. Im in PA and we got hammered Wednesday evening with rain. This is what I had to clean up Thursday morning. The washouts were over a foot deep all the way down to the neighbor's house. Its asphalt millings beyond that. It's hard to tell from the photo but it does have a decent grade from top to bottom. We probably got 4-6" of rain in a bit over an hour. It's the worst I had it wash in 15 years. Took 4 hours to get it all filled in again. The water at the stream was overflowing the driveway at the through pipe. Luckily the pipe didn't get washed out.

New video · Wednesday, Jul 9 ð¬

View attachment 3760500

If you put water bars in and diverted the water off of the road, any chance that that would help? Although the burms make it a pain to grade.