I'm downsizing tractor but would like to keep my box blade

loggin · Apr 9, 2022

VoyagernOK said:
loggin, this dilemma came home to me again today when I went to one of our locations I hadn't been in a couple of months. After a winter ice storm there were many LARGE branches down in a 25 acre pecan orchard. (not part of what we mow) This is the perfect cleanup job for the Mahindra with the grapple, gathering these large branches and carrying them to the brush pile. But none of the guys will run that tractor with the grapple... why would that scare someone??? So, I'll probably run over on the weekend and it will just take me maybe half an hour where otherwise a man would spend an entire day or more dragging these by hand, cutting up the ones too big to drag, loading in a trailer and unloading them on the brush pile.
My employees are very good employees in every regard except that tractor and for some reason it scares them. And getting good, reliable, honest, self-motivated workers these days is not easy! So, I'd rather replace a tractor than try to replace these guys.

Yeah.. I hear ya..

mo1 · Apr 10, 2022

oosik said:
For sure - KEEP the box blade. If it's simply is too big and will not work for you - sell it and get a smaller one.

BTW - the only "overload" is when the implement is to large to be lifted. Either on the FEL or 3-point. If you are overworking the implement - all four wheels will start digging their own little trench.

I would expect that the 3046R will do exactly that, all four tires will spin with more than a few inches of dirt or gravel in the box. I had a tractor about the size of a 3046R and it would spin tires pulling a 6' box blade weighing roughly half of what the OP's does if it got more than half full. Granted the tires were not fluid filled and that would have helped some, but I doubt it would have been sufficient to pull a box a third larger and twice as heavy.

crazyal · Apr 11, 2022

I have a 6' grading scraper that I use for maintaing my driveway. It weighs around 800lbs but was always kind of light so I have two logs (beech about 15" in diameter on the back of it for extra weight. I would guess that it's pushing at least 1600 lbs now. The tractor will squat a little more when lifting it but otherwise It feels no different when just driving around. When using it there's a lot more bite now and if the ground is loose I have to be a little careful or I'll spin the tires.

You already know that you aren't going to move as much dirt but you will still move plenty. You could go to a smaller BB but that's not going to do much more work. It'll just be narrower. Is your current BB a cat 1 or 2? If it's a 2 can it easily be switched to a cat 1?

VoyagernOK · Apr 11, 2022

mo1 said:
I would expect that the 3046R will do exactly that, all four tires will spin with more than a few inches of dirt or gravel in the box. I had a tractor about the size of a 3046R and it would spin tires pulling a 6' box blade weighing roughly half of what the OP's does if it got more than half full. Granted the tires were not fluid filled and that would have helped some, but I doubt it would have been sufficient to pull a box a third larger and twice as heavy.

Thanks. This is the kind of feedback I was needing where all I had myself was speculation and guessing.

VoyagernOK · Apr 11, 2022

crazyal said:
I have a 6' grading scraper that I use for maintaing my driveway. It weighs around 800lbs but was always kind of light so I have two logs (beech about 15" in diameter on the back of it for extra weight. I would guess that it's pushing at least 1600 lbs now. The tractor will squat a little more when lifting it but otherwise It feels no different when just driving around. When using it there's a lot more bite now and if the ground is loose I have to be a little careful or I'll spin the tires.

You already know that you aren't going to move as much dirt but you will still move plenty. You could go to a smaller BB but that's not going to do much more work. It'll just be narrower. Is your current BB a cat 1 or 2? If it's a 2 can it easily be switched to a cat 1?

My current box blade is a Cat 2, but I understand the 3046 can have either, the Cat 2 is an option as I understand it.