Cheap generic gauge wheel source? And Boxblade advice

[Fallon]

After doing some work trying to smooth out & regrade my driveway & parking area I've become aware of my limitations manipulating a box blade (exacerbated by the notoriously jerky L3200 3pt hitch). I checked King Kutter's site, but they don't seem to offer any gauge wheels for their box blades, not that they'd likely be affordable. Some googling shows landscape rake or box blade gauge wheels starting at $300, more than some of the cheapo landscape rakes themselves. I was thinking I might be able to build a cheap set for my box blade, possibly generic enough to use on other equipment.

I spent today browsing Big-R & Murdochs (local ranch supply type stores) trying to figure out something that would work well. An outrigger frame should be easy enough, but I'm trying to figure out a cheap source for some good caster wheels. There were some solid pivoting gate wheels that looked good, but they were $80 each. Solid rubber wheelbarrow type wheels with a hub & bearings are around $30 each. No load rating on those, but I imagine they'd be good for 300lbs + each. I've heard people using some Harbor Freight castor wheels, but reviews on those are pretty mixed with them often failing under light load quickly (I doubt getting beaten up behind a box blade comes close to "light load" by any stretch).

Do you actually need castor wheels on a box blade, or would a straight axle be fine? All the landscape rakes I've seen have had castor wheels. On a side note, if the budget ends up permitting a ways down the road, is a landscape rake with gauge wheels going to be noticeably better for doing the final grade on gravel? A land plane looks cool, but again out of budget for now (might try and get some scrap together to eventually make my own, some day).

 

[bcp]

Sure is a lot of difference:

$403
Gauge Wheels for Monroe Tufline Landscape Rakes, Set of Two

$138
Landscape Rakes


Might find some ideas here:

TBN blade wheels

Bruce

 

[Sysop]

I'd not use rake wheels on a box blade, the weight differences are fairly tremendous. I'd say if you have a 3pt finish mower, "borrow" the wheels from it. A couple pieces of good angle or channel, a couple properly sized pieces of pipe, and a couple small welds you're good to go...

Use 2 pieces of strong angle iron, twice as long as the sides of the box blade, mounted to the sides of the box blade as you see fit with the excess extending behind the blade. Weld a couple pieces of pipe properly sized for the finish mower wheels to mount in at the rearmost ends of the angles. Use bushings from the mower to get the height where you want it. If you want to be fancy about it, you can even drill for a grease fitting like on the mowers. Perhaps you can find an old mower for parts and not need to "borrow" wheels off anything else... A pair of old rotary cutter laminated wheels would work well and take the weight and abuse even better as well.

That being said, most times the issues you're describing are primarily caused from having the blade set to aggressively at the 3 point top link causing it to want to dig a hole when the slightest change in pitch on the tractor occurs. When moving forward, you want the top link set short to dig and move a lot of dirt, the less dirt you want to move, the longer you make the top link. The keys to good smoothing results is hit the high spots from multiple directions and keep the tractor's travel speed at a slow crawl. As the high spots go down, lengthen the top link little by little to continue smoothing. If you set the top link longer so the blade isn't as aggressive, it will do a better job at "finishing".

 

[jeff9366]

Before you go to Gauge Wheels, consider a Hyraulink to replace OEM Top Link. This is an easily adjusted for length, like a OEM Top Link, but also acts as a powerful shock absorber, reducing the hobby-horse effect. I found the Hydraulink substantially improved my results with my heavy Rollover Box Blade shortly after I replaced the facotry Top Link with the Hydraulink.

It is not a panacea for all implements, but for use with a Box Blade, Landscape Rake, Rear/Angle Blade and Rotary Cutter/Bush Hiog in particular, it really helps. It is "best" with a Box Blade.

I have one of the early China manufactured Hydraulinks. It is a little crude but it works fine. Available in Cat 1 and Cat 2.

I purchased mine via eBay, about $250 at the time. I think Hydraulink is your solution.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/search.php?searchid=751849

 

[Sysop]

I personally wouldn't want anything that could allow extra movement during the final grading. If there are "shocks" during final smoothing of the grade, you didn't break the ground up right to begin with.

 

[jeff9366]

I personally wouldn't want anything that could allow extra movement during the final grading. If there are "shocks" during final smoothing of the grade, you didn't break the ground up right to begin with.

Trust me, this will not be a problem. Under load, like a half full box, the Hydraulinks is easy to adjust via the valve wheel. Without a load, such as when adjusting length with the valve open to pin to your Box Blade, you have to lean on the Hydraulink to move the piston 1/8". This is rather counter-intuitive.

Read other T-B-N posts. Watch a video on YouTube.

I should add that a Box Blade has a relatively long learning curve compared to other ground contact implements.

 

[Baby Grand]

Since the box blade doesn't angle the same way a rake or back blade does, you really don't need castor wheels. A single axle with two bush hog type laminated, heavy duty wheels would probably work great.

 

[Piston]

You just reminded me to update the thread I have on building a hydraulic gauge wheel: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/293042-advice-building-hydraulic-gauge-wheel.html

I used a company called High Grade Manufacturing and highly recommend them. I'm not sure how "cheap" they'll be compared to some of the other, really cheap wheels out there, so if cost is your only concern then it may not be the best place to go, but I figured I'd let you know about it just in case.

 

[Baby Grand]

I like that single, centered wheel. Woods uses that design on their heavier rear blades. Allows you to tilt (pitch) the blade to one side.

 

[Piston]

Just food for thought....

Here is an idea that I thought of quite a while ago, when I was considering building a gauge wheel for my box blade. I had a spare 3 point hitch frame from an old rake that was destroyed, it's fairly light duty, but I imagine would hold up just fine. I was going to build a wheel setup that I could either bolt, or weld to the end of this frame.....




Then I was going to mount it to the box blade like this.....



I was planning on using a hydraulic cylinder connected to the upper portion of the box blade (where the top link connects to) going to the top link connection of the 3 point hitch frame. I never did build this wheel setup but I still have most of the parts for it. The way I was going to mount it to the box blade, was by welding some mounting points for a quick hitch setup onto the box blade. Then, when I wanted to use the gauge wheel, I could quickly attach it to the quick hitch (the quick hitch would "live" on the box blade). This way, i could easily remove the gauge wheel when I didn't want the extra length of the gauge wheel sticking out past the box blade.



I may have a picture or two of how I was going to mount the quick hitch, I'll see if I can dig it up. I believe the quick hitch from harbor freight was less than $100.