BENT BOXBLADE SCARIFIERS

[3RRL]

I thought someone might point me in the right direction.

I have a 7' Howse boxblade. It is very heavy duty except I have been breaking and bending the heck out of the scarifiers. I've gone through 4 or 5 now in the last 20 hours of use. It's true that they have pulled up some BIG rocks and roots, but I didn't think they would give that easily. Look at this picture. This is a result from the dirt road that is packed down. I've no trouble on other areas I've ripped.

My question is this...I bought some spares from the Howse website but I was wondering if:
1) Are there any other places to by these at a lesser cost than what Howse charges ($25 ea. + shipping)
2) Are there other scarifiers that will work on the Howse?

Anybody with input...
Thanks,

 

[Steve_Miller]

55HP and a 7' blade, something has got to give, be it the scarifier or the tractor. I'll take the scarifier any day. Try not taking such a big bite in the tough areas.

Steve

 

[Bird]

Rob, maybe it's just my eyesight, but those appear to me to have been bent or broken by turning with them in the ground instead of pulling in a straight line. You do raise them before turning, don't you? Naturally, they're strongest front to rear and weakest side to side.

Sorry I don't have an answer for your questions though.

 

[Glenn9643]

I've bent a couple on my Bush-hog boxblade, but never broken one. Instead of buying replacements I had a buddy of mine straighten them out in a hydraulic press.
Suggest you try to pull straight ahead when the scarifiers are down, and not turn.

 

[jmc]

Not a great design idea to put a notch on the surface of greatest stress. My Woods scarfiers are the same way. Maybe its the old "give away the razor, sell the disposable blades" strategy.

 

[MarkStewart]

I know agri-supply sells shanks. I don't know if they are
exactly like yours or not. I think their shipping charges are reasonable also. Check near the bottom of this page
for different shanks. box blade shanks
Here is their shipping info web page

 

[Highbeam]

Oh such a familiar site. I have a little experience with this, it is one of the few things I have broken on my tractor. For me it happens when raking through the grubbed ground to pick up junk and then I find a hidden root or stump.

I have not managed to actually break one on my tractor but did break one on my bulldozer. On the broken tooth there was no bend, only break so I ground a nice v-notch at the break on both sides and got the arc welder out. Kept flipping it over to be sure that the shrinkage of the weld didn't create a bend. I used 6013 and just let it cool naturally. That ripper is still working today as one of three on a 45 HP dozer.

On my tractor I've bent them and ripped the wear teeth off. By extreme luck I have found the two wear teeth that have ripped off. They are crimped on from the factory but I went ahead and welded them on for good.

On the bent ones I have only repaired one. The other, still bent, is on the tractor now awaiting repair. The damage occurs while going straight ahead, the turn isn't the cause. For whatever reason, they don't yield striaght back but always to the side. Anyhow, I borrowed an acetylene torch and used the rosebud to get it glowing red and then pounded it straight blacksmith style. It doesn't need to be perfect but we got it real close. Let it cool in the air and then black gloss paint and you can't tell which tooth it was.

The bent tooth for me is always the one on the outside. So I put the newly straightened one in the middle just in case it is weaker after the work. I expect this to be an ongoing problem but if I had a table full of broken ones I might look to adjusting my style a bit.

Mine is a Frontier 60" BB which is supposed to be made by Woods.

 

[5030]

Rob:

Those dirty rusty bent shanks in front of those nice clean Kennedy boxes.......shame on you....and, you should have not turned up that tractor of yours. It's overpowering that boxblade. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Looks like it's time to send them to the heat treater.

 

[rozett]

I have a 6' BB made by Midwest. I also had the tips welded on, after knocking them all off on our wonderful rocks. Since then, I have broken one scarifier off just above the tip. I have used mine a lot in reclaiming old pasture that has grown into woodlands. Between the rocks and the stumps, I've stalled the tractor a couple of times. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Thanks for the link on replacements shanks.

 

[Highbeam]

Wow, I didn't realize that new ones were so cheap and apparently universal. Mine looks to be the 10$ one. That's hardly worth the repair effort.

 

[3RRL]

Hi Bird,
Interesting that you caught that since I am really a newbie too. I raise them when turning but this is interesting.

First, as Highbeam suggested, I busted one off just straight pulling. There were times the tractor stopped in it's tracks so I didn't give it any thought (about bending or breaking them). Then another time, I guess only one was behind a big rock and the tractor pulled out and that one bent while going straght. Another one just "snapped off" while pulling straight.

The other 2 broken ones was where I hitched up a come along and tried to straighten it out and busted it. The other one was I took one out and tried to beat it straight with a sledge hammer and busted it....NOT TOO GOOD SO FAR.

OK, the other bent ones...
You know I've been cutting gutters with the box blade and it works real good by tilting the heck out of it...(see picture...see the gutters and how nice the road looks with boxblade..no leveling wheels yet)
In doing so, I noticed that the down side (cutting side) appeared to be farther back fron the tractor than the up side. So the boxblade was not only tilted, but angled slightly too. Well, cutting those gutters in represented no match for the tractor so I toodled along nicely.
To my surprise, the 2 scarifiers I had down on the cutting side had both bent towards the edge of the box. So "Yes" they were cutting at an angle and bent because of that.

Of course I hadn't read your post before this, and not thinking anything of it at the time, I went ahead and tilted the boxblade the OTHER way so I cut cut the other side of the road. Hence the nicely, equally bent (mirrored) scarifiers.

 

[3RRL]

Daryl,
That one on the right was my Dad's. He was a Tool and Die Maker. I kept it after he passed in '88.
As far as turning up the tractor...sure is nice to have the power to do that! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I'll look into heat treat...anyone know what kind of metal they are or what the treatment should be?

Also, thanks everyone for the input and the links to the scarifiers. I thought I'd put one more pic in of the road to show the gutters and also that using the boxblade correctly, you can get a pretty darn smooth, beautiful road. At least my lovely wife and dog think so. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Thanks,

 

[Highbeam]

It's shaping up real well there. Those roads look great.

Just buy a half dozen more and maybe take it easy on the teeth. That's my new solution after reading the linked site.

Do you think that if you had heated the teeth more that they would have bent more before snapping under the sledge? I'll heat and straighten my currently bent one since it has worked before, maybe it'll snap this time.

 

[5030]

Rob:

I'd bet that the shanks are HR Plate cutout, probably low carbon and I'd be willing to bet that the shanks aren't stress relieved after burning so the atoms aren't real happy.

 

[3RRL]

Highbeam,
Thanks, roads do look good now...
Yes, heat them up first and straighten them. After heating, let them cool. They'll end up a little more maluable(is that a word?)... softer than before. You could try to quench them in oil after they've cooled back down to about 500° and I think that won't make them too brittle. Not sure how mild steel reacts to that, though? Ask 5030.
I just ordered 7 of those scarifiers on that website..cheaper and less frustration for me..HA! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I ordered the ones with the holes in them and try to hold them in my boxblade with a pin instead of those slots. If that doesn't work, I'll mill some slots only where I use them and weld the holes shut.