Von, I think paving my driveway would be nice, but part of my negotiations with the Secretary of War when I spent all this money was that I was going to fix the driveway with the new tractor. I think if it's a blacktopping project, I just watch and spend a lot of money.
Bob, I had thought of asphalt grinding in the sense of buying the reground asphalt. People around here do buy it and use it for a base. I may be able to spread and backdrag it with the loader. When the weather gets hot, the stuff starts to melt and stick together again.
Bird, my hypothesis about boxblades is that they are a clever combination of several functions that, however, work best in two types of soil conditions. First, in soft, sandy spreadable stuff that "flows" nicely, as in the sedimentary alluvial soil of the south and midwest (places that were once under an ancient ocean). Second, in dry hardcrusted stuff that also flows nice once it is broken up with scarifiers (as in the hot, dry west). In a lot of the NE, the really rocky areas like my driveway cannot be busted by a boxblade or, as you say, with any blade. You need something much bigger or something powered. The dealer who used the bounce along statement pointed at his house, which is right next to his dealership. He said his yard would not have responded to a boxblade or a york rake (or a backblade), and he showed me what he used -- something he called a cultivator. It had giant scarifiers.
So once you eliminate the scarifier capability of the box as being useful, you have to ask yourself whether its spreading and leveling features make it worth buying. Well, the nonrocky soil here -- or the soil that has had the rocks removed -- is largely moist and vegetated and even clumpy-sticky. I don't know how well it would "flow" in a box. So, with the scarifying function of the box useless on the really rocky stuff, and the flowing-spreading function not fully available because of the soil characteristics, there doesn't seem to be any advantage of the box versus the backblade. (Nate, you can get box end caps for a backblade.) Plus, as Derek said, when you add in the superiority of the backblade for ditching, terracing and snow removal, a boxblade does not stand out as a high priority implement for the average buyer.
We have reports on this and other recent threads that dealers in CT, MA, NH and VT do not recommend boxblades. If experienced tractorpeople in these areas were demanding boxblades, I assume dealers would supply them. That's why I was seeking reports from other areas of the country.
Well, that's just me talking. But, for what it's worth, that was part of my buying decision process.
Bob, I had thought of asphalt grinding in the sense of buying the reground asphalt. People around here do buy it and use it for a base. I may be able to spread and backdrag it with the loader. When the weather gets hot, the stuff starts to melt and stick together again.
Bird, my hypothesis about boxblades is that they are a clever combination of several functions that, however, work best in two types of soil conditions. First, in soft, sandy spreadable stuff that "flows" nicely, as in the sedimentary alluvial soil of the south and midwest (places that were once under an ancient ocean). Second, in dry hardcrusted stuff that also flows nice once it is broken up with scarifiers (as in the hot, dry west). In a lot of the NE, the really rocky areas like my driveway cannot be busted by a boxblade or, as you say, with any blade. You need something much bigger or something powered. The dealer who used the bounce along statement pointed at his house, which is right next to his dealership. He said his yard would not have responded to a boxblade or a york rake (or a backblade), and he showed me what he used -- something he called a cultivator. It had giant scarifiers.
So once you eliminate the scarifier capability of the box as being useful, you have to ask yourself whether its spreading and leveling features make it worth buying. Well, the nonrocky soil here -- or the soil that has had the rocks removed -- is largely moist and vegetated and even clumpy-sticky. I don't know how well it would "flow" in a box. So, with the scarifying function of the box useless on the really rocky stuff, and the flowing-spreading function not fully available because of the soil characteristics, there doesn't seem to be any advantage of the box versus the backblade. (Nate, you can get box end caps for a backblade.) Plus, as Derek said, when you add in the superiority of the backblade for ditching, terracing and snow removal, a boxblade does not stand out as a high priority implement for the average buyer.
We have reports on this and other recent threads that dealers in CT, MA, NH and VT do not recommend boxblades. If experienced tractorpeople in these areas were demanding boxblades, I assume dealers would supply them. That's why I was seeking reports from other areas of the country.
Well, that's just me talking. But, for what it's worth, that was part of my buying decision process.
