Box Blade operation tips?

smokedtires · May 3, 2006

I just picked up a Bush Hog BB for my CUT and will hopefully be using it for the 1st time in about a week. I've never used a BB or watched someone else use one. As with most implements it came with nothing but the price tag and receipt, so I'm left to try and figure out how to use this correctly and efficently.

Any tips in what to do or not to do with it are welcomed.

Thanks !

RayH · May 3, 2006

What are you using the BB for?
The strength of the BB is its versatility. It can be used to do many different things depending on how you have it set up. This is probably not what you want to hear but you will just have to experiment. Every type of job is different and it takes practice to do it well. Ive used a BB a fair amount and am still comfounded alot.
The best advice is to go slow and get comfortable looking back at it to see what its doing. It takes alot of fine adjustment on the 3PH to keep it working the way you want it to
Yesterday I used mine to pop rocks out of the ground by tilting the top forward and putting the scarifiers all the way down so the blade doesnt touch the ground but the scarifiers go in deep. After I picked up all the rocks, I adjusted the top link so that the front and rear blade rest level on the ground and the scarifiers were barely digging in so I could pull dirt around and level off the high spots.
When I had my larger tractor and was using it as a side business clearing lots and leveling, I would turn the scraifiers around backwards and push the BB into brush in reverse and it was real good at pulling and clearing weeds and brush without having to get the tractor into the brush. Dont be afraid to try different configurations.

smokedtires · May 3, 2006

I'll be excavating, leveling, & smoothing with it. No tree stumps, just old farm land field that I'll be having a house and garage put onto.

I figured any tips would be good so others will also be able to benefit from others experience /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

JoshJ · May 3, 2006

Go slow, be patient, is the best advice. I have yet to master either.... /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Also, I would suggest making sure that all your 3 point connections are tight, especially the pins. That way, you wont have a lot of unwanted/unpredicted movement in your blade. On the BB I use the top pin is an old bent hitch pin that sits loose in the top link, and it occured to me that maybe it is part of the reason why I can never get the box to do what I want - too much play. Have yet to try it out though.

You may want to approach your area from different directions to prevent the infamous dips and bumps you will get from continuous travel in one direction. Making paths perpendicular to each other (if possible) would be a good place to start.

Good luck!

theboman · May 3, 2006

Flatt and Scruggs were traveling thru New York City when the bus stopped for a red light, Lester seen a man with a violin walking the down the side walk and proceeded to ask the middled aged musician how to get to Carnegie Hall. The musican turned and said; "Practice. Practice. Practice.

The more I use my BB the better I get. Now, I ain't never gettin' to Carnegie Hall but by golly I can usually make a flat spot or mud hole!

flwiii · May 3, 2006

The BB is very versatile but does take some getting used to. I used to use it to smooth the horse corral before pulling the drag around to churn the manure into the ground. I left it adjusted so that both blades were level and found this setting cuts too much into the ground. I had to run the drag afterwards to smooth everything out again.

Now I just adjust the BB so that the mid blade is about 1 inch off the ground when the rear blade is just touching the ground. I find that I can churn up the manure and smooth the ground in one pass instead of 2; no need to run the drag around.

RonMar · May 3, 2006

Josh hit on a good point. The 3PH linkage connections should be tight, particularly the toplink pins and ball joints as this controls the blade and side rail/skid relationship to the tractor allowing the blade/scarifiers to cut agressively into high spots and not cut into the low spots as you drive over the terrain. In some cases, fairly small toplink adjustments can make a big difference in how agressive the box performs. Go slow so if you hang up on something, the tires will dig in and spin instead of bending the box or linkages as it jerks your tractor to a stop.

Other than that, pick a spot and start cuttin and experimenting with different settings of scarifier and toplink. The more you do it, the better feel you will get for setup and the better you will get at it.

EastTexFrank · May 3, 2006

When you look at a box blade it looks like a pretty simple piece of equipment. For me it's one of the hardest to master. I've been trying for years and haven't done it yet. I actually have a lot better success going backwards where the tractor is running on ground that has already been smoothed and levelled. I do all the rough work and dirt moving going forward and switch to reverse for the final smoothing. The thing to remember when using a BB is that your rear wheels are the fulcrum. When the front of the tractor goes up, the BB goes down and when the front goes down the BB goes up. Good luck and keep practicing.

N80 · May 3, 2006

I've had my boxblade for a few weeks and everything that has been said so far is true and useful. But even as a BB newbie it is a tremendously useful implement with so many applications.

The main parameters you have (I'm sure there are more) are 1) height of the boxblade as set by moving the lower links up and down 2) angle of the whole unit and 3) ripper teeth (scarifier) height.

My general understanding of these is this:

1) Height: pretty obvious, controls what height the unit engages the ground at. I find myself using mine primarily in the float position. Will occasionally raise it a little if I just want to knock the top off of a mound or high spot.

2) Angle: this is adjusted via the top link. This can change the 'bite' of the blade and the height of the blade vs. the height of the rippers. So, it can be used for fine tuning of the height and engagement of the blade, but as mentioned, you can also roll the rear of the box upwards so the only the rippers engage. This can bust the soil up more deeply, and in my case, doubles as a poor man's plow.

3) Ripper depth: if you Bush Hog BB is like mine it has 3 holes for setting ripper depth. Top hole sets them just below the blade when level, middle hole at the same height as blade and lower hole sets teeth higher than blade. The rippers break the soil up ahead of the blade. The lower you set them, the more soil the blade will engage and move.

There is another parameter and that is weight. Obviously a heavier box engages the ground better. Some people have added weight to their blades for that purpose.

The complexity comes when you take into conisderation all of these parameters to fit them to a specific job. When I want to plow I set the teeth at their lowest, tighten the top link so the blade is up in the air with the teeth down low and raise the whole unit a tiny bit above float. For aggressive leveling I set the teeth below the blades, set the angle at level and set the overall height to float. For less aggressive leveling I set the teeth level. For spreading loose soil over a fairly level area, remove of raise teeth above blade level.

As mentioned, the rear part of the blade makes for a great dozer when in reverse. Much better than the FEL.

I've heard that some people adjust the adjustable bottom link height to set the blade at an angle for specific tasks as well.

Well, thats my newbie perspective on box blades. Putting it all together is best done by just trying different things to see what works best.

As mentioned, go slow and get used to looking over your shoulder.

I suspect draft control would be very nice for accurate leveling but I also suspect relatively few of us have that feature.

I'm am hoping to add a hydraulic top link for quicker angle adjustments.

I'm not sure how a top-'n-tilt affects BB use. More parameters and more possibilities I'd guess!

RonMar · May 3, 2006

Frank don't you have a float position on your 3PH? A boxblade does its best work when the 3PH is in "Float' mode. What you are describing is what happens when the 3PH is not in float mode but hydraulically held in the last set position. Same thing happens when grading with a FEL bucket without float as the tractor runs up and down over obstacles, the blade will dig in or be raised off the ground as the opposite end of the tractor rises and falls.

In float, the box blade(or loader bucket) will stay in contact with the ground as it is drug, within the limits of the hitch linkage. The upper and lower arms of the 3PH are much like an automotive suspension with an upper and lower control arm. In an auto, the tire maintains a relationship to the frame as it travels up and down(camber). The 3PH linkage keeps the side skids of a box blade at an angle relative to the tractor frame. This angle is set by the length of the toplink. In the attached drawing, the top shows a tractor and box on level ground. Note that the frame line and box sides are parallel(drawn in green). The second drawing shows the front end going up and over a rise. When the front of the tractor rises, the box sidewalls will maintain the same angle as the tractor frame and the front of the box will also rise and the box will be drug along on it's rear corners and will not cut much earth. If the box has skids that extend back past the blade, material will be deposited. In the third drawing, as the rear wheels are up on the high spot, the front of the tractor is lower so the front of the box is lower and will agressively dig into the top of the high spot with the scarifiers and the material will be drug down the back side of the high spot. As the rear wheels roll off of the rise and the tractor levels, the box will cut less material down the back side as the box will be level(fourth drawing). With a box blade that has skids that extend behind the box, as the tractor levels, the rear of the box drags down the rise lifting the rear blade off the ground and material will be deposited in the low spot after the rise building up that area.

wushaw · May 3, 2006

I will just add that hydraulic Top And Tilt added to your tractor will speed up the learning process of what you can accomplish with your box blade.

smokedtires · May 4, 2006

Ok, so take it slow and watch what I'm doing. Adjustments to the top link can make a big difference to how the BB works so expermentation is required here, but tipping forward is good for removing rocks or plowing, and it's possible to do dozer style work in reverse. I think I've got it, oh yea, ( practice practice practice) /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The top and tilt looks like a great thing, but too much other stuff before I can look at that /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Thanks everyone !

flusher · May 4, 2006

BBs for CUTs tend to be too light. Figure you'll need to add weight to get it to work effectively.

I have a 4-ft KK box blade for my 21hp B7510HST. It weighs about 250 lb. To strip weeds/turf for landscaping around my new house I have three 120-lb concrete weights that I can load onto the BB frame.

KiotiJohn · May 4, 2006

( and it's possible to do dozer style work in reverse )
Yes, within reason. Be careful to go even slower in reverse as you're going the opposite way the hitch arms are designed for.
If you go too fast in reverse and hit something hard, you can break a lot of things! Just go slow.
John

Highbeam · May 4, 2006

Flusher, how do those attach to the BB? I have buckets, can get quickrete, and have pipe. Want weight.

3RRL · May 4, 2006

Highbeam,
Don't know how flusher mounts them but you could weld some pipe vertical on your bb and slip those pipes over them?? From what I've seen, you're in pretty good shape and could do that easily. (except your injured hand for now...hope it's getting better)
I have to agree, adding weight makes a HUGE difference in performance.

BrianW · May 4, 2006

Don't turn when the scarifers are in the ground or you will bend them! Don't ask!

3RRL · May 4, 2006

( Don't turn when the scarifers are in the ground or you will bend them! Don't ask!)
Well, too late...I won't ask because it's happened already....don't ask /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Also, don't use the scarifier when cutting a gutter or when one side of the boxblade is way up and the other down. It creates an angle where the bb is not sitting square to the tractor anymore. (perpendicular to the direction of travel) The low side is farther back than the high side so the shanks are slightly sideways now. I managed to jack up every scarifier I put into the low end!

Lucky for me that won't happen anymore since I re-inforced the shanks.

theboman · May 5, 2006

Ooooooh, if you're really needing practice, here's an offer you shouldn't pass up, really! Come on down to my house, bring your tractor and BB and I've got some landscaping projects.... I'm putting in the plumbing lines, electric lines and so an and so forth... So, I have a lot of dirt, humps and need to get 'er smooth and grass and straw down ASAP, oh bring a spreader if you have one. I live in KY and I'll hook ya up with some great bluegrass (music).

Highbeam · May 5, 2006

I was trying to imagine how to mount them to keep the weights out of the way so that I can still use the BB. The only place I can imagine is right over the box. I still want the volume in the box to be available for material, the back clear so I can doze with it, the sides need to be clear so that I can get up close to things like fences, and the front clear so I don't crunch the tractor. The upper 3ph structure on my frontier/woods BB is solid plate with a 4x4 size hole in it just like yours Rob. I though Maybe I could slip something through there and slide weights on it.

I have been really successful bending ripper shanks straight with either the rosebud on a torch or using a good ol' propane weedburner as a forge. Two of the shanks on mine have been bent and straightened and you couldn't tell which ones they were. Mine bent when hitting solid roots underground while at moderate speed, this is a great way to spill your beer.