box blade ?

[weaver]

Does any one have a Pt box blade , My neighbor has one on a ford tractor and it works better than his york rake

 

[weaver]

Does any one have a Pt box blade , My neighbor has one on a ford tractor and it works better than his york rake

 

[pajoube]

Yes I have one and have put it to heavy use. Today I leveled a half acre and will spend another couple days doing finishing with the box. Started out using the teeth to break up the soil and also help pull weeds. Then put the teeth back up and am now using the blade to level.
PJ

 

[pajoube]

Yes I have one and have put it to heavy use. Today I leveled a half acre and will spend another couple days doing finishing with the box. Started out using the teeth to break up the soil and also help pull weeds. Then put the teeth back up and am now using the blade to level.
PJ

 

[Piedmont3]

I have the 4' pt box blade. I think it works well. i just need to learn how to use it better. I used it to spread the reground, used asphalt that I have for a driveway. It worked well for that but I can't get it to work correctly for leveling loose dirt, or filling the ruts/runoff trenches in my drainage ditch. But I think that is my inexperience using the PT and box blade.

 

[Piedmont3]

I have the 4' pt box blade. I think it works well. i just need to learn how to use it better. I used it to spread the reground, used asphalt that I have for a driveway. It worked well for that but I can't get it to work correctly for leveling loose dirt, or filling the ruts/runoff trenches in my drainage ditch. But I think that is my inexperience using the PT and box blade.

 

[MossRoad]

If it is any consolation, leveling with a box blade on a conventional tractor with 3PT hitch is no joy, either.

If you leave it in float, it tends to ride up and over piles of material.

If you leave it rigid, it tends to rise and fall with the tractor.

The best method I found when I was leveling areas on our property after major excavations was twofold:

One, a heavy box works better in float mode. The weight of it helps hold the material in the box rather than letting the box slip up over the piles. Use the box slowly in float to move large amounts of material from high areas to low areas.

Two, with the box in float, mulitple high speed passes over an area will help level things out faster than slow, methodical, tedious manual raising and lowering of the box.

Anyhow, that's what worked for me on my 3PT hitch tractor.

 

[MossRoad]

If it is any consolation, leveling with a box blade on a conventional tractor with 3PT hitch is no joy, either.

If you leave it in float, it tends to ride up and over piles of material.

If you leave it rigid, it tends to rise and fall with the tractor.

The best method I found when I was leveling areas on our property after major excavations was twofold:

One, a heavy box works better in float mode. The weight of it helps hold the material in the box rather than letting the box slip up over the piles. Use the box slowly in float to move large amounts of material from high areas to low areas.

Two, with the box in float, mulitple high speed passes over an area will help level things out faster than slow, methodical, tedious manual raising and lowering of the box.

Anyhow, that's what worked for me on my 3PT hitch tractor.

 

[KentT]

I agree, MR, for leveling work many high-speed passes are usually best, similar to using a harrow of some type...

 

[KentT]

I agree, MR, for leveling work many high-speed passes are usually best, similar to using a harrow of some type...

 

[catsco]

I'll second what MR and Kent said. I don't own a box blade, but find that with the 4 in 1 bucket 'back dragging' with the blade open to cut, and closed to smooth in 'float' give really good results in the same way with multiple high speed passes.

Varying the angle of the blade helps feather edges of scraped areas, also, as the blade nearly parallel to the ground (when going backwards) moves much less material than with the blade nearly vertical.

High speed is, obviously, a relative term. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Mark H.

 

[catsco]

I'll second what MR and Kent said. I don't own a box blade, but find that with the 4 in 1 bucket 'back dragging' with the blade open to cut, and closed to smooth in 'float' give really good results in the same way with multiple high speed passes.

Varying the angle of the blade helps feather edges of scraped areas, also, as the blade nearly parallel to the ground (when going backwards) moves much less material than with the blade nearly vertical.

High speed is, obviously, a relative term. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Mark H.

 

[tracdoc]

Having only used the rake, buckets and mowers in reverse on the PT, I would need a lot of practice to get the hang of using a box blade in reverse. It feels more intuitive going forward.

It would seem that having draft control, like on the 14xx and 18xx units, would make for easier management of the depth of the blade (Any red machine box blade users confirm this?). Operator wouldn't have to choose between float or some arbitrary depth that might wind up too shallow or too deep.

Of course, if you are "da bomb" like pajoube, you don't need no 3-pt hitch and no stinkin' draft control /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[tracdoc]

Having only used the rake, buckets and mowers in reverse on the PT, I would need a lot of practice to get the hang of using a box blade in reverse. It feels more intuitive going forward.

It would seem that having draft control, like on the 14xx and 18xx units, would make for easier management of the depth of the blade (Any red machine box blade users confirm this?). Operator wouldn't have to choose between float or some arbitrary depth that might wind up too shallow or too deep.

Of course, if you are "da bomb" like pajoube, you don't need no 3-pt hitch and no stinkin' draft control /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Barryh]

>>>Of course, if you are "da bomb" like pajoube, you don't need no 3-pt hitch and no stinkin' draft control<<<

Sounds like someone has been watching American Idol. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Barryh]

>>>Of course, if you are "da bomb" like pajoube, you don't need no 3-pt hitch and no stinkin' draft control<<<

Sounds like someone has been watching American Idol. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[SMJ]

The draft control in my 1445 doesn't maintain a certain depth. It provide intermittent amounts of hydraulic boost to the arms to lessen the weight on say, the mower deck. Before I figured out how to adjust the draft control I always used the mower deck in float. The combined weight of deck and the arms would cause the tires to literally come off their rims. Draft control would lessen the downward force on the box blades and make the blade less efficient.

 

[SMJ]

The draft control in my 1445 doesn't maintain a certain depth. It provide intermittent amounts of hydraulic boost to the arms to lessen the weight on say, the mower deck. Before I figured out how to adjust the draft control I always used the mower deck in float. The combined weight of deck and the arms would cause the tires to literally come off their rims. Draft control would lessen the downward force on the box blades and make the blade less efficient.

 

[MossRoad]

That's the same way draft control works on a standard 3PT hitch... you are traveling along with the implement engaged into the soil. The implement hooks up to some harder soil, the rear tires start to rotate the tractor front end up, which causes the top link to push back against the implement. Since it can't go anywhere, it wants to push back on the tractor. The top link is connected to a rock shaft on the tractor. When the rock shaft is rocked, it triggers a valve that lifts the implement out of the soil until the rock shaft returns to its normal position. As it returns to its normal position, the implement is lowered back into the ground. However, with the one I had on my old IH, that usually meant the impelement would bounce up and down all over the place, because something was gummed up in the valves! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[MossRoad]

That's the same way draft control works on a standard 3PT hitch... you are traveling along with the implement engaged into the soil. The implement hooks up to some harder soil, the rear tires start to rotate the tractor front end up, which causes the top link to push back against the implement. Since it can't go anywhere, it wants to push back on the tractor. The top link is connected to a rock shaft on the tractor. When the rock shaft is rocked, it triggers a valve that lifts the implement out of the soil until the rock shaft returns to its normal position. As it returns to its normal position, the implement is lowered back into the ground. However, with the one I had on my old IH, that usually meant the impelement would bounce up and down all over the place, because something was gummed up in the valves! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif