Rear Blade Adjustment Preferences

[oosik]

My Rhino 950 is a heavy duty 8 foot - manually adjustable - rear blade. All adjustments are locked in with pins. I have - offset, angle and tilt. I also have a Fit Rite hydraulic top link.

I had a Land Price eight foot blade. Worked well for snow on my mile long driveway, yard and mailbox area. It was next to useless for summertime grading and ditch clearing. It weighed - 575#.

My Rhino 950 solved the summer time driveway maintenance situation. It weighs - 1050#.

However - you must pay for any improvements - the Rhino cost - - $3940 in 2017.

 

[BackRoad]

Mr. Oosik mentioned a key consideration - weight is important if you're working dirt with it. If just plowing snow, weight is less of a success factor.

With no downward force from the tractor on your 3PH, it is the weight of the back blade that keeps it in contact with the ground. Go too light and it just chatters and bounces across the top of the ground.

You'll also find angle of the top link affects success with using the blade...but first step is getting the blade before figuring out how to use it!

As many mention, I personally consider adjustable offset at the 3PH end a must have.

I tend to readjust the blade and offset a lot during use, so a bolt adjustment would be a total non-starter for me. I'm planning to add hydraulics to save even more time as Mr. Lou indicated.

Might try searching "back blades" on Marketplace (I use my wife's 'Fakebook' account, but don't tell her ). You will find lots of old junk, but you may also find a keeper.

It should at least provide a view of the asking price for different designs and help gain some perspective for what may be considered better quality implements.

I lucked into an almost new 8' EA on Marketplace from an older gentleman who was selling out due to health...no telling what you may find...even if it's just awareness.

...//Terry

 

[LD1]

I dont like the sliding offset.

I had one on a L3400 which is similar in size to the CK30. And I could see the stress and strain on the blade when offset. I had to be gentile with it. And That woods dont look like the heaviest duty construction for offsetting behind a CK30.

One thing to watch on the pin types that offset is that as it offsets it also angles the blade. And some of them, offsetting all the way its all the blade can do to angle back to level. Not a problem if you want to pull the material back towards the middle of the tractor. But if you are wanting to move material further away from the tractor without driving in the windrow (like backfilling a trench without driving in said trench, or moving snow further off the road) they may not angle far enough.

For a CK30....Id be looking for at least a 600-700lb blade. The RBS72p you are considering is only 288lbs. That is gonna be next to worthless for anything other than snow.

 

[oosik]

Yes - for heavens sakes - check your local resale outlets. You never know what might be available. Fortunately - I had 27 years to check locally. Those were the years I had my 1982 Ford 1700 4WD. Then I bought the 2009 Kubota M6040. It was time to upgrade my implements to Category 2.

You know - in 40 years of checking - I NEVER found anything that was Cat 1 OR Cat 2. Everything was 400hp to 500hp tractors and implements to fit that size tractor. I gave up looking - bit the bullet - bought new.

I have one more implement to upgrade. I want a heavy disk harrow. I have a light Land Pride one. It skips merrily along behind the M6040 - making small slices - every now and then. I want a disk harrow that makes the M6040 really have to pull and have the turbo kick in.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Those are good blades. I tried to buy one last fall and found them out of stock at several Kubota dealers. I ended up buying the Bison instead and don’t regret it.

Nothing wrong with the Bison, other than cat 2 only for the size we have been talking about. The OP has a cat 1 tractor.
Didn't you have to do something for the Bison unit to fit your tractor?

 

[CobyRupert]

My tractor only has 2 SCV’s, so I opted my 8’ Rhino rear blade with hydraulic tilt and angle, the offset is a manual sliding pinned adjustment.
This is my preference for dirt work and making drainage paths.

However, most of its use comes as a snow blade in the winter and what I’ve found is having hydraulic offset would be handy to reach snow along the edges of buildings and fences.
I’ve also found that for snow, controlling the tilt function is unnecessary. It’s best to let the tilt function float over the contours of my hilly, uneven driveways and paths.

Some winter I’ll just remove the tilt cylinder and use an offset cylinder. Problem is, the tilt uses a cylinder that’s a shorter stroke, so I either need to buy a new cylinder, or somehow fab an “extender” for the short one and have less offset range.

 

[AaronD81]

I get the weight argument, but my intended uses are what I consider light (although plans always change). Also price is a consideration. My initial use is to strip an outdoor arena, I'm tilling as I go so it's loose sand/stone dust. My reason for wanting one with end plates and skid shoes is for snow removal. Other than that, no ditches, scraping raw land, or road grading. Should I still look at something heavier? I've searched tractor house and craigslist, no luck. Even new at dealers are hard to find these days.

 

[LD1]

I get the weight argument, but my intended uses are what I consider light (although plans always change). Also price is a consideration. My initial use is to strip an outdoor arena, I'm tilling as I go so it's loose sand/stone dust. My reason for wanting one with end plates and skid shoes is for snow removal. Other than that, no ditches, scraping raw land, or road grading. Should I still look at something heavier? I've searched tractor house and craigslist, no luck. Even new at dealers are hard to find these days.

Heavier will just hold up better if you snag something.

Whats your general location? Probably members here that are near you and might have some leads

 

[AaronD81]

Central PA, right down the road from Messick's. They said 6 months to get a 7 foot Woods. Just called EA, both Deluxe and xTreme blades are 4 months wait. Unfortunately it looks like I'll just get something to start working now. Who knows, with the way things are I probably won't lose much if I decide I need something different.

 

[oosik]

I find offset very handy for both snow plowing and ditch cleanup. There are a couple spots on my driveway where the edge drops off 10 to 15 feet. Offset allows the tractor to remain on the driveway and not slide over the edge.

A Cat 1 blade can be sleeved up to Cat 2. A Cat 2 blade would need new Cat 1 pins. Probably not the best idea.

 

[jyoutz]

Nothing wrong with the Bison, other than cat 2 only for the size we have been talking about. The OP has a cat 1 tractor.
Didn't you have to do something for the Bison unit to fit your tractor?

No I have a cat 2 hitch. But Bison does also make cat 1 blades.

 

[devildog1]

Well you could always go with one of these. An RBT3584 would only be a little more $$$$.

Yep I agree 100%, LoL as that is the blade I've had for the last 4 years or so, It's a beast ,Heavy but it's just what I needed to plow snow up here in the Great Northeast winters.
DevilDog

 

[MtnViewRanch]

No I have a cat 2 hitch. But Bison does also make cat 1 blades.

But not with the features of your blade or as heavy. It seems like bison has cat 1 or cat 2, but no cat 1&2 units. None that I have ever found anyway.

 

[CobyRupert]

I find offset very handy for both snow plowing and ditch cleanup. There are a couple spots on my driveway where the edge drops off 10 to 15 feet. Offset allows the tractor to remain on the driveway and not slide over the edge.

A Cat 1 blade can be sleeved up to Cat 2. A Cat 2 blade would need new Cat 1 pins. Probably not the best idea.

Yes, having all 3 (angle, tilt, offset) is handy. So would a hydraulic top link arm. But how would you rank them if you could only get one or two hydraulic controls?

I’m not sure I’d ever want end plates on blade when moving snow. I guess that’s because I’d never push the blade driving backwards.
Seems like if the blade ever caught something solid going backwards it would either stop you or break instead of jumping over it.

 

[jyoutz]

But not with the features of your blade or as heavy. It seems like bison has cat 1 or cat 2, but no cat 1&2 units. None that I have ever found anyway.

I could be wrong but I don’t think any company makes a 1000# cat 1 blade.

 

[AaronD81]

So how big is too big? My tractor is 3,000lb bare weight with a FEL and 30hp. I'd like a 7 footer to get outside my turf tires when angled, and again I'm not planning on heavy scraping. Is a 500lb 84" blade ok?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I could be wrong but I don’t think any company makes a 1000# cat 1 blade.

No, I believe you are correct on the weight, no cat straight 1 units at 1000lbs. But there are cat 1-2 units with Hydraulics for all 3 positions pushing 900lbs if not a bit more.

 

[CobyRupert]

So how big is too big? My tractor is 3,000lb bare weight with a FEL and 30hp. I'd like a 7 footer to get outside my turf tires when angled, and again I'm not planning on heavy scraping. Is a 500lb 84" blade ok?

Moving dirt, you can always take less dirt and more passes when the amount of dirt you’re moving is greater than traction, which is dependent on tractor’s weight.
With snow, I want to plow it all bare to the surface in one pass. I find this requires the most traction/weight.
I pull a 8’ blade with 4wd, rear chained R1 tires on tractor that is about 8000lb with FEL and loaded rear tires. When the blade fills with wet packed snow, you know you’re PULLing something. On some surfaces you want the snow to be rolling off the angled blade (sans end plates) so more doesn’t accumulate and stop you.
Backing up over what you just pulled behind you can be a challenge sometimes too.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

So how big is too big? My tractor is 3,000lb bare weight with a FEL and 30hp. I'd like a 7 footer to get outside my turf tires when angled, and again I'm not planning on heavy scraping. Is a 500lb 84" blade ok?

IMO, nothing under 700lbs. Do the lighter units work, sure or they would not be selling them for very long. But the heavier the better is basically the rule for anything that grades. As long as the tractor has the capabilities to raise the implement under a full load, you are good to go. People mention snow, is snow always light and fluffy, no. It gets hard and turns to ice. You need weight to break that up and move it.

The Land Pride RBT3584 is the perfect blade for your tractor IMO. I have recommended it for many of my customers with your size tractor, never had a complaint yet, other than why didn't I get this sooner?

Last suggestion, if you don't already have your tires loaded, get them loaded, all 4. I did that on my Mahindra 3215 HST, what a difference. Like a different-bigger tractor.

 

[LouNY]

I just finished plowing off 5" of heavy wet snow (forecast 1-2") .
I would hate to move snow without a hydraulic angle, I did for years and it was a royal pain.
I changed the angle on my blade at least 20 times while bladeing the driveway,
some of that is because it has an S turn in it.