GUAGE WHEELS
- Thread starter ALHILLDIRT
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Barnboy
Gold Member
Looks good to me. If I had a box blade I too would be tempted to make a set of gage wheels. They sure work good for landscape rakes or rear blades.
Egon
Epic Contributor
That's a nice set up for box blade gauge wheels. Gives a long wheel base for better levelling. 
If you want to see ugly just think of the gauge wheels on my backblade!!
If you want to see ugly just think of the gauge wheels on my backblade!!
HomeBrew2
Banned
Great job! Time to get to work now!
Question: are the wheels tracking well for you? The first set of casters I made did not track because I didn't cut the sides for a ~30° angle.
Question: are the wheels tracking well for you? The first set of casters I made did not track because I didn't cut the sides for a ~30° angle.
Tig
Elite Member
Nice job! I think if you were to put turn buckles on those chains you may be able to easily adjust the height of each wheel a bit by tensioning the chain.
kwolfe
Platinum Member
Question, would you all prefer the wheels to be inside the cutting width of the box or outside. It would seem to me that it would be better on the outside so that what you are cutting or spreading would not also effect the wheeel height. For example, if you were using wheels in order to limit your cutting to 1 inch. Wheels inside would then be one inch down after you cut. this would thenhaev the affect of cutting down 1 inch more than one inch more. I am slow, or does what I am saying making any sense.
OP
ALHILLDIRT
Bronze Member
HomeBrew2 said:
I pretty much threw this together with odds and ends that I had, and as such made everything fit the material at hand. If I were to build the thing from new material, I would have put more angle on the sides of the casters. While they "track", they seem to be a little slow in centering.
OP
ALHILLDIRT
Bronze Member
Tig said:
I thought about that as well, but after hooking everything up, I found that I could easily adjust the height of the blade up or down by adjusting the turnbuckle on the box blade. Granted, in doing so it adjusted the angle of the blade some, but since the wheels are only used in the finish stage, that didn't really matter.
OP
ALHILLDIRT
Bronze Member
kwolfe said:Question, would you all prefer the wheels to be inside the cutting width of the box or outside. It would seem to me that it would be better on the outside so that what you are cutting or spreading would not also effect the wheeel height. For example, if you were using wheels in order to limit your cutting to 1 inch. Wheels inside would then be one inch down after you cut. this would thenhaev the affect of cutting down 1 inch more than one inch more. I am slow, or does what I am saying making any sense.
My thinking is that having the wheels on the outside would cause the blade to simply duplicate the existig structure. My purpose was not so much to maintain a specified depth of cut, but to even out the ripples that occur with a box blade everytime you go over a bump. Kind of like a plane.
HomeBrew2
Banned
ALHILLDIRT said:
Sounds great to me. Just curious. Mine drug sideways like a rock. Glad yours work well
OP
ALHILLDIRT
Bronze Member
Update to my original post. I finally got the chance to use them this past weekend. To my surprise they worked extremely well. A little well placed oil and the wheels centered quickly everytime. I had an area approximately 50' x 70' to level, for the site of a new shop. At the lowest point I had almost 3' of fill down to nothing at the highest point. Luckily I had a bank that I could cut into for the fill, and with the rented skid steer the job went quickly. I let the clay fill set for 3 weeks and several rains later, dumped 4 loads of "chert". Used the tractor and box blade to spread the "chert" semi-level. Let that dry for a week and then came back with the box blade with guage wheels. Will let that set agaiin, then come back with the box blade and guage wheels.
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Egon
Epic Contributor
Nice work.
HomeBrew2
Banned
ALHILLDIRT said:
Yes!, nice work.
I was equally amazed at how handy the wheels are.
Here's my fav story: I am able to dump soil and smooth out the lumps and bumps in my lawn with the box blade (or rear blade actually) with the wheels. I can set it just right with the top link that the blade will just yank, but not cut, the grass on the hi spots. And, of course fills in the lows. The first time I did it the lawn looked almost like a green Holstein pattern. The lawn was riddled with gopher mounds but is now very very smooth.
