Box Scraper Is a box blade a good idea for my needs?

[coolslug]

I have a 6' BB with my L3400 and yes it does take some seat time. I am getting better at leveling out the high spots as well as smoothing out the drive way.

Are those high spots just on the road or on pastures also? Our pastures are quite rutted and I'd love to level them out. Will the BB work well on a grass covered area or would the turf clog it up? I also have a problem with saplings that keep trying to grow on some of the pasture. The fellow who used to own this property would use a bushhog to cut the stuff down but that leaves one inch stubble on the surface that is hard to walk on. We want to use roundup and then rip up the turf and reseed. Will the BB be good for this too?

 

[coolslug]

coolslug:

Welcome to TBN ! I agree with the previous posters. You really would benefit with the addition of a toothbar on your loader bucket and you really want a boxblade slightly wider than your wheel width; especially if you are going to be working heavy, claybased, rocky, and rooted soil. Jay

Thank you for the welcome Jay!

I asked my dealer about getting a toothbar and he suggested that I buy another bucket with teeth instead. He said the tooth bars break. Have you heard of these things breaking? Are they hard to install?

 

[coolslug]

KVMAPR,

I think you just answered a question that I had about BB use in my pasture. I take it that a BB would be a good implement to use to level a rutted field of grass. Right? I'm getting excited about the many uses I will have for a box blade. If I can smooth out our pasture and also make nice trails in our woods it will be so easy to justify all the money that I spent on my tractor. My wife will understand why I need all these toys...I mean tools. ;-)

 

[Foozle]

Will a BB tear up bamboo stumps? I have a large area of this left over from when there was a bamboo forest.

 

[jbrumberg]

coolslug:

I have had no problems with my bolt on over the cutting edge bar toothbar. In hindsight I should have just purchased a bolt on toothbar and removed my cutting edge during dirt working season. I have heard of people breaking toothbar teeth, but IMHO I think this is a result of operator error in most cases. Jay

 

[coolslug]

Thanks Jay. In the morning I will take a look at my bucket and see how the cutting edge comes off. Great idea!

 

[JB4310]

Coolslug,
I have a 5 ft BB for my 32 HP, I think a 7 footer might be to big, would the 6 footer cover your rear wheel width? if so that might be a better fit. I'm by no means an expert so others here may know better, or the dealer you bought the tractor from.

From the little experience I have with the box, I found that the longer the pass the better, when you first start to pull it it might try and dig in to much but once the box is partly full then it's smooth sailing as it kinda rides on the surface more, filling the low spots and scraping the high, leaving a very level path. of course once the box is full then your not cutting as much so if there is a real high spot then once the box is full just drag it off out of the way, unload it and go right back to that high spot till it's close to where you want it.

That filling and scraping makes it self leveling, I tried my 6 ft rear blade to do some grading and made such a mess, put the box back on and straightened it right out, just might have to make several passes over the same path.

A few pictures of a small project I did with the box. The flooded woods, the drain swale and the not so flooded woods.
JB,

 

[coolslug]

JB, if I can make trails half as nice as you've done I will be one happy camper. Tomorrow morning I will measure my wheel width before heading out to buy a BB. Thanks!

 

[Texas Dodge]

Are those high spots just on the road or on pastures also? Our pastures are quite rutted and I'd love to level them out. Will the BB work well on a grass covered area or would the turf clog it up? I also have a problem with saplings that keep trying to grow on some of the pasture. The fellow who used to own this property would use a bushhog to cut the stuff down but that leaves one inch stubble on the surface that is hard to walk on. We want to use roundup and then rip up the turf and reseed. Will the BB be good for this too?

When I need to knock down a high spot in the pasture, I just put down the rippers and rip it up and then pull them back up and smooth out with the BB. Yeah some stuff does get hung up on the rippers, but I just drag that off to the side and the next time I use my cutter it gets cut up.

 

[JB4310]

Of course the wider the box the more level a path you'll make, and I see you do have alot of HP, depends on your ground I guess, if you have hard ground with a lot of roots smaller would be better.
For the pasture if you have the power to pull the 7 footer then you would probably be better off.

Some one asked if the box would handle 1" saplings and bamboo, in my experience, yes no problem even 2-3 " and roots, you may have to go over them more than once but I have not found a root that I couldn't tear out.
JB