Box Scraper Beginners guide to using a box blade

[ukrkoz]

Hi folks.
I am considering a box blade for smoothing my lawn. I have 6 acre property, two tiered, 1/4 is wetland lower tier. Not much I can do there but the rest is very bumpy to ride a mower on. And I have 60'' ZTR that is badly slowed down by bumps. Backbreaking.
Because of the wetland I am looking into buying a 4x4 tractor. That will come with field mower but I am considering a box blade to smooth bumps in lawn. I do not mind dedicating some time to it. What I do mind is to actually buy a tool that will not do the job.
That said, is box blade a good idea or something else is advised? Looking at 27 hp diesel Mitsubishi. I must have field mower 4x4 because of the wetland, but won't hurt to use tractor for another purpose.
Thank you.

 

[Soldier415]

Hi folks.
I am considering a box blade for smoothing my lawn. I have 6 acre property, two tiered, 1/4 is wetland lower tier. Not much I can do there but the rest is very bumpy to ride a mower on. And I have 60'' ZTR that is badly slowed down by bumps. Backbreaking.
Because of the wetland I am looking into buying a 4x4 tractor. That will come with field mower but I am considering a box blade to smooth bumps in lawn. I do not mind dedicating some time to it. What I do mind is to actually buy a tool that will not do the job.
That said, is box blade a good idea or something else is advised? Looking at 27 hp diesel Mitsubishi. I must have field mower 4x4 because of the wetland, but won't hurt to use tractor for another purpose.
Thank you.

So you want to scrape off all the existing grass, level it and then re-seed?

 

[ukrkoz]

Well, it's hard to explain. I'd rather take the bumps off. Hopefully, same process will fill low spots. Far as I know, it will disturb grass cover in high areas, but I am in farmland and looks are little important to me. And grass grows back faster than expected.
I simply want to reduce bumpiness.

 

[ukrkoz]

Here's the thing. Moles and other critters. I contribute most of bumpiness to what's left of mold mounds. Plus, simply crappy grading done by previous owner.

 

[jenkinsph]

A box blade and good operator can smooth out the bumps. An inexperienced operator will usually make more bumps.

You will get better results if you disc or till the entire field and smooth with a land plane grader scraper or a drag of sorts. Then seed and roll just before your rain season. This would be easy with or without a lot of tractor experience.

 

[ukrkoz]

Just came upon me. Why don't I buy the tractor and field mower, the way I must have. Then, rent a box blade. Try it out. Rent tiller, try it out. See which one works best. Then get one.

 

[dragoneggs]

Just came upon me. Why don't I buy the tractor and field mower, the way I must have. Then, rent a box blade. Try it out. Rent tiller, try it out. See which one works best. Then get one.

Sounds like a smart plan.

 

[jenkinsph]

Just came upon me. Why don't I buy the tractor and field mower, the way I must have. Then, rent a box blade. Try it out. Rent tiller, try it out. See which one works best. Then get one.

Why not rent the tiller for a couple of days till everything and return it. Why buy one for less than 10 acres if you plant grass?
You can till one pass over 4 acres in a day with your tractor, second day till perpendicular to the first day. Return tiller and you are done with it. Use that money to buy seed and fertilizer.

The tools you need to put in a new lawn that is being reworked,
tiller
land plane grader scraper or spiked tooth harrow or a good drag (all of these tools are good for smoothing out the tilled ground)
broadcast spin spreader for seed and fertilizer (amendments) this might be something you should buy for future fertilizer application
spiked tooth harrow to cover seed
water roller or cultipacker to firm up seed for good contact with soil.

The big question is what implements are available for you to rent?

 

[UncleBuck1]

I remember reading this thread years ago when I first purchased a box blade- it literally cut years off my learing curve! Glad to see it still going.

 

[airportrep]

Need to bump this educational info to the top of the page!

 

[Pabco]

Wait a second! Did you say the 3PT has a float position? I had no idea about this. Our tractors are virtually identical.

If I put the 3pt all the way down you say it will float? Hard to believe I've missed this as the float is pretty obvious on the loader valve, but I'm going to have to give this a shot.

From the owner's manual.

 

[qwikstart]

Hey,

Many, many, many thanks for asking the questions I felt a little awkward to ask.

And, so much appreciation for all the great answers.

 

[Yooperguy]

We had a gentle soaking rain on Friday. On Saturday I hitched up the 60” box blade and set out to work up and smooth out the driveway.

I’m a beginner at using a box blade. Thanks to the many fine tips and suggestions in this thread, I was able to achieve pretty good results IMHO. I was pretty stoked and my wife told me she was glad I bought a tractor. Gotta like that!

 

[Soldier415]

We had a gentle soaking rain on Friday. On Saturday I hitched up the 60” box blade and set out to work up and smooth out the driveway.

I’m a beginner at using a box blade. Thanks to the many fine tips and suggestions in this thread, I was able to achieve pretty good results IMHO. I was pretty stoked and my wife told me she was glad I bought a tractor. Gotta like that!

View attachment 621475 View attachment 621476

Looks good! Hard to tell from the pictures but it doesn't look like there is a crown on it

 

[Yooperguy]

Looks good! Hard to tell from the pictures but it doesn't look like there is a crown on it

Thank you. You are correct. There is no crown. We have very sandy soil and the the driveway is pretty much level with the ground to either side of it. No material washes away or really goes anywhere. I had a low spot at the curve in the first pic that I filled by pulling some gravel from the end of the driveway (near the road) and deposited at that spot. There were also a couple of lowish spots that held water during the rain. Once the rain ended those little puddles dried up pretty quick. Mostly I wanted to see if I could make it smooth after filling the low spots.

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

"No material washes away or really goes anywhere."
Looks good to me. I am not sure how much rain you get there but since your driveway doesn't appear to have much of a grade, Soldier415 has a point about having it crowned so that rain will drain off. It's not material washing away, but wet spots where the fines and then the rocks get splashed away over time that is the problem. Even with a good crown a driveway will eventually fall apart with high traffic (i.e. teen drivers) and higher than necessary speeds (i.e. teen drivers). I used to work at a gravel pit and it was amazing how fast the freshly graded access roads would turn into washboards and truck swallowing potholes with just a few hours rain and speeding dump trucks.

I just regraded my driveway also and did about as good as you did except where the previous owner had dumped a load of pit run gravel at the road end that I found difficult to grade out because of all the cobbles in it. For crowning I adjusted the side link so that one side was off the ground a little and did two or three passes down each side. We get lots of rain here so I will probably have to do it all over again next year.

 

[Ford850]

Thank you. You are correct. There is no crown. We have very sandy soil and the the driveway is pretty much level with the ground to either side of it. No material washes away or really goes anywhere. I had a low spot at the curve in the first pic that I filled by pulling some gravel from the end of the driveway (near the road) and deposited at that spot. There were also a couple of lowish spots that held water during the rain. Once the rain ended those little puddles dried up pretty quick. Mostly I wanted to see if I could make it smooth after filling the low spots.

It looks good to me. A flat drive is much easier to maintain, so if your soil drains that well you're all set. Are there are a lot of sand/dirt drives and roads in your Yooper area? Some places are lucky that way, and don't need much gravel. A flat sand drive gets packed with every rain.

 

[Yooperguy]

It looks good to me. A flat drive is much easier to maintain, so if your soil drains that well you're all set. Are there are a lot of sand/dirt drives and roads in your Yooper area? Some places are lucky that way, and don't need much gravel. A flat sand drive gets packed with every rain.

Thank you. The soil in my neck of the woods can vary quite a bit with a 20 minute drive. I have sandy loam with a somewhat high seasonal water table of 36”. 20 miles away and it’s a lot of water holding clay. The eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan is low lying land for the most part. The soil we all have is whatever the glaciers left behind. Lots of limestone in some areas. Lots of sand in others.

Yes in my immediate area all dirt/gravel driveways are mostly flat. What happens most often is the drives get to be a washboard after some heavy rain. None of mine actually washes anywhere. It just needs smoothing.

 

[Yooperguy]

"No material washes away or really goes anywhere."
Looks good to me. I am not sure how much rain you get there but since your driveway doesn't appear to have much of a grade, Soldier415 has a point about having it crowned so that rain will drain off. It's not material washing away, but wet spots where the fines and then the rocks get splashed away over time that is the problem. Even with a good crown a driveway will eventually fall apart with high traffic (i.e. teen drivers) and higher than necessary speeds (i.e. teen drivers). I used to work at a gravel pit and it was amazing how fast the freshly graded access roads would turn into washboards and truck swallowing potholes with just a few hours rain and speeding dump trucks.

I just regraded my driveway also and did about as good as you did except where the previous owner had dumped a load of pit run gravel at the road end that I found difficult to grade out because of all the cobbles in it. For crowning I adjusted the side link so that one side was off the ground a little and did two or three passes down each side. We get lots of rain here so I will probably have to do it all over again next year.

Yes. I certainly don’t disagree with the value of crowning. And I will definitely try my hand at it just because. I don’t have anything additional material as a topping. It’s all maintenance gravel from the road to almost the first bend. From there to the garage is all fill that I got for free when the railroad crossing two miles to the north of me was redone. The contractor was a fella I know and he knew I needed some driveway material. It would have cost him more to haul it away than it was worth to him so he dumped 15 loads right where my garage sits when we were building 10 years ago.

My previous method for driveway maintenance was an old box spring dragged behind my 4 wheeler. I’ll continue to learn, experiment, and improve my methods now that I have new tools.

Thank you for the advice.

 

[FarmerPhilip]

This thread should live on. Thank you! Because of this thread I was able to understand and successfully use my box blade to level out an area and also smooth out a driveway. Good stuff!

Picked this box blade up cheap