millsan1
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2015
- Messages
- 324
- Location
- Riegelsville, PA
- Tractor
- Mahindra 2538 Cab, Volvo ECR40D Excavator
I purchased a TS 4' Box Blade on Friday. Pulling it behind Britney.
I live on a steep property. I dropped the backhoe (first time) at one of my parking spots up the hill from the house.
Brought the tractor down to the house and WHOA NELLY! I was in 2 WD and the back end lifted a bit, resulting in no ability to stop. Dropped the bucket and saved it, but that was more excitement than I wanted.
I put on the 3PH, and mounted the box blade with little fanfare. Got it all secured and properly leveled.
Then the fun started.
The upper brackets, going from the rear of the box to the toplink were too narrow. Meaning, the two inside scarifiers could not be raised to the highest (least digging) level. Nothing is as fun as taking a sledge to a brand new piece of equipment. The sledge didn't quite do the job, so I had to unbolt the brackets and bend them, again, so much fun with a new piece of equipment. I still needed to trim the scarifier holes with a cutting wheel to get everything working smoothly, but got it done.
I posted on my town's FB page an offer to help anyone who lived near me. A neighbor, who I had not yet met, asked for assistance with his gravel driveway.
Went to his house, and his drive was pretty well rutted. Probably 6-9" deep, about 12" wide ruts, going most of the length (150' or so). A lot of gravel had washed down to the bottom of the drive.
I took several passes at the drive, just using the scarifiers. I then grabbed as much material as I could from below and brought it up top. Reversed the scarifiers, so I was just blading, and made a few passes. Smoothed and fine tuned with the FEL. Driveway came out as good as it was going to, since he really needs more gravel, but I managed to make it smooth and neat. Took about 2 hours. He offered to pay me, but I told him to do something nice for a stranger instead.
On my way back home, I noticed another driveway that was in much worse shape. 12" deep ruts, almost 2' across, about 100' long. I drove the tractor up to the home, and spoke to another neighbor I did not yet know. I explained that I am a neighbor and was wondering if he wanted some help, made it clear no cash, etc, just offering. He was taken aback, but happy to have the help. Did the same routine on his drive and same deal, nice, smooth, neat. Took about an hour. He insisted I take some $, despite my protests, so we settled on $20 to cover fuel.
Stopped at a neighbor's house, who is a friend, and he needed a swale cut in front of the property, as it abuts the road. Adjusted the linkages to give a nice angled cut, pulled up scarifiers and made a nice neat swale for him. Took several passes, but it came out very well. Maybe 30 minutes.
That was Friday. Rained all day Saturday.
Sunday, I went to work on my property. I have an area about 45x30 that I have excavated for a patio. I need to level it out. Ground is extremely rocky and filled with fist to head sized boulders. Up until this point, I was using the backhoe to scrape and dig to a level, then removing the material with the FEL. This time, I dropped the scarifiers to their lowest (deepest) digging setting and scraped down into the ground, pulling up the boulders and loosening up the dirt. Then go back with FEL and remove material. Worked very well.
So besides the PITA with the brackets getting in the way, the TS Box Blade did very well for me.
Several times, I came upon boulders that caused me to spin tires, but I was able to work through those by either lifting the box blade, or pulling harder, or a combo of both.
Overall, I am very happy with the purchase and it has made certain work much easier. Adjusting the tilt front and back and left to right was not hard, just a little time consuming.
Money well spent in my book.
And a special thank you to zzvyb6 for hooking me up with the TS coupon and saving me $50.
No, I do not have pics, I know it didn't happen.
I live on a steep property. I dropped the backhoe (first time) at one of my parking spots up the hill from the house.
Brought the tractor down to the house and WHOA NELLY! I was in 2 WD and the back end lifted a bit, resulting in no ability to stop. Dropped the bucket and saved it, but that was more excitement than I wanted.
I put on the 3PH, and mounted the box blade with little fanfare. Got it all secured and properly leveled.
Then the fun started.
The upper brackets, going from the rear of the box to the toplink were too narrow. Meaning, the two inside scarifiers could not be raised to the highest (least digging) level. Nothing is as fun as taking a sledge to a brand new piece of equipment. The sledge didn't quite do the job, so I had to unbolt the brackets and bend them, again, so much fun with a new piece of equipment. I still needed to trim the scarifier holes with a cutting wheel to get everything working smoothly, but got it done.
I posted on my town's FB page an offer to help anyone who lived near me. A neighbor, who I had not yet met, asked for assistance with his gravel driveway.
Went to his house, and his drive was pretty well rutted. Probably 6-9" deep, about 12" wide ruts, going most of the length (150' or so). A lot of gravel had washed down to the bottom of the drive.
I took several passes at the drive, just using the scarifiers. I then grabbed as much material as I could from below and brought it up top. Reversed the scarifiers, so I was just blading, and made a few passes. Smoothed and fine tuned with the FEL. Driveway came out as good as it was going to, since he really needs more gravel, but I managed to make it smooth and neat. Took about 2 hours. He offered to pay me, but I told him to do something nice for a stranger instead.
On my way back home, I noticed another driveway that was in much worse shape. 12" deep ruts, almost 2' across, about 100' long. I drove the tractor up to the home, and spoke to another neighbor I did not yet know. I explained that I am a neighbor and was wondering if he wanted some help, made it clear no cash, etc, just offering. He was taken aback, but happy to have the help. Did the same routine on his drive and same deal, nice, smooth, neat. Took about an hour. He insisted I take some $, despite my protests, so we settled on $20 to cover fuel.
Stopped at a neighbor's house, who is a friend, and he needed a swale cut in front of the property, as it abuts the road. Adjusted the linkages to give a nice angled cut, pulled up scarifiers and made a nice neat swale for him. Took several passes, but it came out very well. Maybe 30 minutes.
That was Friday. Rained all day Saturday.
Sunday, I went to work on my property. I have an area about 45x30 that I have excavated for a patio. I need to level it out. Ground is extremely rocky and filled with fist to head sized boulders. Up until this point, I was using the backhoe to scrape and dig to a level, then removing the material with the FEL. This time, I dropped the scarifiers to their lowest (deepest) digging setting and scraped down into the ground, pulling up the boulders and loosening up the dirt. Then go back with FEL and remove material. Worked very well.
So besides the PITA with the brackets getting in the way, the TS Box Blade did very well for me.
Several times, I came upon boulders that caused me to spin tires, but I was able to work through those by either lifting the box blade, or pulling harder, or a combo of both.
Overall, I am very happy with the purchase and it has made certain work much easier. Adjusting the tilt front and back and left to right was not hard, just a little time consuming.
Money well spent in my book.
And a special thank you to zzvyb6 for hooking me up with the TS coupon and saving me $50.
No, I do not have pics, I know it didn't happen.
