Drag scraper vs box scraper

[SPIKER]

Ive been maintaining about 300' of drive covered in 57 gravel with a 6' box blade two passes on each side and it is nice and level. just have to watch the bos in relation to the rolling terraine. though this spring I had 30 tons delivered the 1st truck load 18 tons sank into the drive about 6" down and most of the way the soil was saturated and the trucker steered off the one side some lucky he didn't get stufk but I used up almost all that first load skimming the drive. the 2nd 15 tons I had him dump at the drive end and I box bladed it up and 80% of that was used to repair the drive from him sinking in, took me about 1 hr of messing around to have the drive back to a nice level surface with the box blade. dang still have a few holes on the left side that I'll have to scarf some gravel loose and fill in with...

Mark /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[Mark4510]

Like MarkV I also have a box scraper with Top and Tilt. With just a small amount of initial practice I was able to easily keep my 800+ feet of gravel road in shape. After a year of no work it took only 2 passes on each side to take the bumps and rolls out.

If I could justify both however..... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[micromike]

I'm just curious but...

couldn't a guy just add gage wheels to his box blade much as some here have added gage wheels to a york rake? Or am I missing something?

Mike

 

[Bird]

I'm not sure how to explain it best, but I doubt that gauge wheels would be much help on a 3-point hitch box blade. The wheels on the pull type blades are raised and/or lowered hydraulically and the blade is attached to the tractor at the drawbar, so if the back wheels of the tractor go over a hump or through a dip, it doesn't change the height of the blade like the 3-point hitch would. Of course a 3-point box blade with gauge wheels and running with the 3-point in float would compensate to some degree but I doubt that it would work well enough to be worth the cost. Hydraulic top 'n tilt will work much better in my opinion. In other words, using the wheels on the pull type requires the hydraulic hookup at the rear of the tractor, and if you have that already, then you don't need the gauge wheels on a 3-point box blade.

 

[JohnMiller3]

<font color="blue">...The ones John Miller posted pictures of might be a little heavy for the size tractors most of our forum members use... </font>

Hey Bird,

The rumor has it the Kubota experimental Turbo BX will be able to pull that 14 x 4' unit... without breaking into a sweat... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Bird]

Yeah, John, but that's only with the R1 Super X tires. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[monkeybreath]

All of this has been very helpful. I think I will be opting for a really good (heavy) box blade rather than a drag scraper. Cost is a factor and I think I can manage with a box blade if I get enough practice. The drive way from the highway to the house is about a tenth of a mile and was road oil on DG (decomposed granite) but it is really bad (thus the wife also convinced a tractor is a good idea) so may be putting in gravel now. Other roads take me to the back of and around the property - hilly - will be grooming those in Spring after our winters. It almost never rains here from May to Sept. For the roads I want to build, I will have to take the slopes down - to make less steep - and may have a dozer do the initial work there - then I can maintain.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Bird, for the first time I find myself disagreeing with you a bit. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I think gauge wheels far enough behind a blade would make a poor-man's drag scraper.

I don't quite understand how you eliminate the washboard effect with just top&tilt - that is a function of the tractor going over bumps & dips, making the blade rise & fall. The only way to eliminate those is to angle the blade, or use a set of wheels behind the blade to roll on the smooth ground (plus the weight holds the blade down to dig) & lessen the effects of the tractor rising & falling since now you have the 3-point all the way down & using the gauge wheels as depth control? I don't see where the top&tilt even enters this picture? Yes it's handy for tilting the blade & for changing it's aggressivness - but doesn't change the washboard problems at all, which _is_ the problem with building & maintaining roads.

What am I missing?

--->Paul

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( find myself disagreeing with you )</font>

Paul, since I've never owned, used, or even seen a 3-point hitch box blade with gauge wheel being used, it's just my opinion and I could be wrong.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( gauge wheels far enough behind )</font>

That might the key; the farther back the better, but the 3-point box blade is still going to be the same distance behind the rear tractor wheels and, therefore, subject to rising and falling with the tractor. Of course that could be corrected by having the box blade farther back and then we'd have the pull type. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( don't quite understand how you eliminate the washboard effect with just top&tilt )</font>

Before I added the top 'n tilt, I tried slightly raising and/or lowering the 3-point as I went for that pupose. Much too slow, tedious, and frustrating for me (folks who know me know that patience ain't one of my virtues /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif).

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I don't see where the top&tilt even enters this picture? )</font>

Now we get to something I do know from personal experience. With the top 'n tilt (and for our purposes here, we'll ignore the "tilt" part since we're talking about leveling), I never had to stop or slow down. I always dropped the box blade all the way to float, then it was a simple matter to tilt it foward just the right amount, on the fly, to cut high spots, tilt it back to let the material in the box feed out in the low spots (amount of tilt depending on how drastic a cut you wanted or how fast you wanted the material to feed out). Then for final smoothing, I'd tilt the blade all the way forward to pick the back edge completely off the ground and run backwards, tilt the blade all the way back to pick the front edge completely off the ground and run forward. If necessary, run back and forth that way two or three times. With the hydrostatic transmission, one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the lever for the top link, I'd just about run flat out in mid-range with the tractor running about 2000 rpm.

It worked great for me; someone else might have a better way.

 

[glennmac]

Here is a thread discussing Cammond's 4' to 7' drag scrapers.