Land Pride RB2696 Rear Blade - 1 yr review on 45hp tractor

[gladehound]

I purchased a Land Pride RB2696 rear blade with hydraulic angle kit about a year ago for snow removal, grading a gravel driveway and general grading of my property. I mostly like it, there are some things I don't like. I wanted to share my experience here for others who may be in the market.

What I like:
- high back allows it to carry a lot of snow
- angle kit works well and gives infinite angling up to 45 degrees either way
- Tilting blade is easy with just a pin
- The rolled blade seems really resilient i.e. if you pressure it too much will come back to straight after pressure removed from it.
- Back of blade shaped well for pushing snow on gravel, goes over snow an leaves the gravel unless the gravel is uneven and very loose, can even push snow on grass this way without damaging grass if ground is flat.

What could be improved:
- The blade is such a pain to turn around with the hydraulic angle kit on it that I'll only do it in the shop if ever. would take some time and I'm still not sure the holes on the angle kit will line up with those on the blade frame once turned around
- don't ever run the angle kit with pins replacing the bolts - I did this and bent the bracket that connects the hydraulic ram to the blade. I bent it back and bolted it through in 3 places but was really disappointed that it bent with pins in it. I wanted to use pins instead of bolts to make reversing it easier.

Stoutness of unit for 45hp tractor:
- I'm pulling this unit with a Kioti DS4510HS which I would consider to be on the lighter end or what's available in a 45 hp tractor. I have a loader, brush cage and filled rears. With me in the seat it is ~6500 pounds. The blade easily handles snow, dirt or gravel that is free of obstructions. However, if you catch a big root or rock an outside corner of the blade be ready to back off. I have not bent the actual blade (yet), but I've flexed it a scary amount and backed off several times before any permanent deflection. Would not be as severe on the same model with a shorter blade (this model comes in 6', 7' & 8').

Overall good blade. Probably indestructible on mid-size frame CUTS. Good most of the time for large frame CUTs but be ready to back off if you catch a corner - you will not bend the blade just grading dirt, clay or even frozen ground, you have to catch a corner on a well anchored obstruction. For any tractor over 6,500 pounds I would choose a more stout blade which gets me back to the ratings. Blades should be rated by tractor weight, not hp. I would not recommend this blade for a heavy 45 hp UT with loaded ags and a loader - despite the manufacturers 25-60 hp specification. And in retrospect, I probably should have bought heavier for activities like ditching.

 

[Piston]

Great review gladehoumd! Thanks for posting it. I have the same width blade with full hydraulics but have not tried turning it around yet.

You forgot to include the action pics in your review.

 

[gladehound]

Piston - you have the blade I probably should have gotten. It's twice the blade that I have. Interestingly, the spec sheet for the 40 series does list a max gross vehicle weight. But the spec sheet on the 26 series does not.

Pictures - I was so ticked off when I bent the bracket that pictures were the last thing from my mind. I should have posted a picture after I bent it and a picture of my fix which still isn't perfect.

Maybe I'll post a picture of the fix.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Typically I recommend the RBT35 series, A VERY capable blade for anything up to 9500 gross weight.

You are absolutely correct about the rating system, should be by gross machine weight, not HP.

That was the exact reason that I purchased my RTB45108, because my tractor weighs in at over 12,000lbs. This was the lightest duty blade that I could find that was actually rated for the weight that I have.

 

[TSO]

Good review. It's amazing just how much of a difference (in implement effectiveness) there is when it comes to weight. And I'm becoming a big fan of LandPride. With the exception of my Servis/Rhino 8' blade (which is probably 20-30+ years old?) ... It seems like LandPride pretty consistently builds the heaviest stuff on the market.

When do you turn your blade around? I only ask because I don't feel our size machines are built to push all that heavily in reverse. So I mainly only push backwards with the back of the blade to "smooth" things (or pushing snow around); I'd be leery to "cut" while pushing backwards.

 

[gladehound]

I like backwards for snow on gravel drives. That way I can drive forward. i'm not pushing back hard on the 3pt.

 

[TSO]

I like backwards for snow on gravel drives. That way I can drive forward. i'm not pushing back hard on the 3pt.

ah that makes sense

 

[Piston]

Piston - you have the blade I probably should have gotten. It's twice the blade that I have. Interestingly, the spec sheet for the 40 series does list a max gross vehicle weight. But the spec sheet on the 26 series does not. Pictures - I was so ticked off when I bent the bracket that pictures were the last thing from my mind. I should have posted a picture after I bent it and a picture of my fix which still isn't perfect. Maybe I'll post a picture of the fix.

I was a little concerned with the width of the blade on my tractor, and originally thought it might be too wide, but I figured I can always cut 6" off per side if necessary. I'm happy with though, and I don't feel the need to cut it shorter.

Do you have skid shoes for it? Also, do you have a hydraulic top link?

I'd be interested to see the pics of your fix if you had some. (And, it's always nice to see another picture of a tractor and rear blade as well)

 

[Gordon Gould]

Very good report gladehound. Info like that is very helpful.

TSO - I run my blade backward quite often. Pulling though not backing. Some of the things it is good for are dressing the road edge for good drainage after a winters plowing and the road is still very soft, or smoothing after grading, or spreading to a straight edge.





gg

 

[gladehound]

...Do you have skid shoes for it? Also, do you have a hydraulic top link?

I'd be interested to see the pics of your fix if you had some. (And, it's always nice to see another picture of a tractor and rear blade as well)

I don't have shoes for it. Really don't have a need for shoes. If I did get anything like shoes it would be a wheel that sticks about 4 feet past the blade so that it would function more like a real grader. I only have one hydraulic aux on the rear of the tractor so my hydraulic angle uses that. I'd love to have top and tilt but for the amount I use a rear blade it's probably not worth the effort or expense (for me and my uses).

Here are some pictures of the rear blade before it was damaged...



I didn't take any pictures when it was really bent, but here are some pictures (below) after it was fixed. Note that there is a bracket of 1/2" steel that connects the hydraulic ram to the blade pivot point which has a ~4" diameter by 1/2" thick washer to hold the bracket down. Then there are now 3 bolts across the back that clamp it to the lower assembly that holds the blade (originally just had the two larger Grade 5 bolts on the outside holes). The bracket has another piece welded to it with channels that the bolts go down through and into the holes in the bottom assembly (I'm making up names). When it bent, I had no bolts in the back and instead only one pin on the far side. The pin was snug and I never imagined this would happen. I did not realize that it was important to clamp these pieces together with a bolts in the back (there is already a bolt clamping it down at the pivot point).

When I hooked the far side blade corner on an underground rock the top plate bent upwards about 3/4" between the hydraulic ram and the pin. The big washer was also bent and I had to flatten it a little with a sledge hammer. After the bracket was bent, the bolt holes no longer lined up and the pin I had in one of the channels was tilted sideways a little as was the entire bracket. After banging the pin out, I forced the far bolt in by threading it through as the channel was only missing the hole by 1/16" However, the near channel missed the hole by an 3/4". I could get the bolt in the middle hole where there are just holes top and bottom with no channel for the bolt to go through. Tightening those two bolts down took some of the bend out of the top bracket and with a little encouragement from a sledge hammer, got the near side hole to overlap by over 1/2" (still nearly a 1/4" off) allowing me drop in a Grade 8 1/2" bolt to clamp it down. Tightening this last bolt took most of the remaining bend out. The top plate still bends down slightly on the unsupported part that goes to the hydraulic ram but it doesn't affect the function and is only noticeable if you line your eye up to look across the top of the bracket.