What kind of box blade did I just buy?

[ddbackhoe]

That said, are plow bolts absolutely required for this? I don't have a good way to make the square hole if I redrill this, and I suspect taking it to a machine shop will cost more than buying another blade. I'm hesitant to weld it in in case I ever do need to replace it again...

Before you get to carried away, the pieces circled in red are hinge locations for a floating rear blade. When driving forward the rear blade floats over the grade. In reverse, it rests on the box and becomes a grader blade. So, you can use your cat grader blade. If you want to keep your hitch (red x) you could move it higher.

 

[ddbackhoe]

BTW, the only issue I would expect with your 8N will be losing traction when taking too big of a bite (depth).

 

[BadDecisions]

The red X is quite appropriate, as it marks what's gonna go..I just didn't feel like digging out the plasma when I was doing this other stuff . My neighbor thinks that ball mount is the greatest idea ever, but I find it easier to spend the 30 seconds to drop the box and mount up the 3 point receiver hitch I made a few years ago.

I'm trying not to jump the gun on anything here, and that's part of why I made this post - to understand how the box was designed to be used. As someone who's never owned or used a box blade before this, I assume starting with the original design, or as close as I can get to it, is likely a better starting point than to immediately assume I know better and start changing everything.

Ah-ha! "Floating blade" was the key word here, along with box blade tail gate. Started searching on that, I found some videos from Everything Attachments that better explained the floating blade concept. From that, it sounds like the floating blades are really intended for jobs that involve moving a large amount of dirt from one location to another and allow the rippers to dig in a lot deeper than a fixed blade model, as the fixed rear blade would otherwise act as a gauge of sorts preventing the box from going really deep.

But then from a leveling standpoint, the fixed blade is preferred, which I'm assuming would then take full advantage of the weight of the box to help pack down the dirt that just got laid/leveled. With some of the better boxes providing the ability to pin the rear blade in the fixed position.

I think I can run with that. Thanks! Just have to go digging through my steel stock to see what I have in the way of some heavy plate.

Oh, and I did run a quick pass down the driveway out back last night. As it sits, the 8N has zero problem picking the box up, and also had zero problem pulling the box about half full of dirt. Haven't dropped the rippers yet as I haven't repaired those yet No idea what it weighs, but it is considerably more than my rear blade or rake.. Does a wonderful job of ballasting the weight of the loader up front, and steering is almost easy now .

 

[2manyrocks]

Amazing what some farmers can manage to tear up and then lose the parts.

 

[BadDecisions]

I can't say that I haven't done it myself a time or 20 over the years either, lol. Break something, tear it apart, get sidetracked for whatever reason, forget about it for a year, say F-it and just buy another one to "tide me over until I can get around to fixing that other one"...a few more years go by and I forget what that pile of parts was for. Since I can't remember, I assume it must not be all that important, and they end up in the back of the truck headed for the scrap yard. Then 6 months later I finally find time to fix said broken item, and SON OF A B***!!!! It happens...

 

[Username Taken]

That said, are plow bolts absolutely required for this? I don't have a good way to make the square hole if I redrill this, and I suspect taking it to a machine shop will cost more than buying another blade. I'm hesitant to weld it in in case I ever do need to replace it again...

Why wouldn't a good quality carriage bolt work??

 

[BadDecisions]

Why wouldn't a good quality carriage bolt work??

Because a carriage bolt puts me in the same predicament - having to make a square hole. If I really had to, I suppose I could move my press out in to the middle of the shop, rig up a hoist to get it in, etc...but if I can make do with a regular hex bolt, life would be a lot easier.

 

[Vigo327]

I'm trying not to jump the gun on anything here, and that's part of why I made this post - to understand how the box was designed to be used. As someone who's never owned or used a box blade before this, I assume starting with the original design, or as close as I can get to it, is likely a better starting point than to immediately assume I know better and start changing everything.

Reading this just puts a smile on my face.. and im not necessarily the guy that knows better! I just know that MOST times when it seems like i have a bright idea i am really just reinventing the wheel just because i didn't know or understand something else that made sense of 'why things are the way they are'. So, right on brother!


As far as that rear blade:

• I think it serves to stiffen the front blade as is.
• It is definitely on 'upside down' considering the 'grader blade' context clues and not seeing a bevel of any kind on that edge near the bolt holes.
• It will do a crappy job of pushing dirt in reverse OR smoothing dirt out going forward, if you leave it like that.
• I wouldn't do a hinged rear blade UNLESS you include the option to lock it in place for smoothing while going forward.
• Smoothing going forward works best with the top link extended, which tilts the box up onto the rear blade and helps 'hold it down' with the entire weight of the box, less likely to just bounce over things that way.
• If you have a manual top link, that is a tedious thing to do and power top links are great.
• Leaving a round peg in a square hole is likely to subject the very small interface of the middle of the flat sides to the side of the bolt to accelerated wear/'wallerin' of said hole and bolt, but is not necessarily a hard no.
• A round peg in a round hole is fine. So if you decide to make new holes, they do not necessarily need to be square! I assume the hole in the box blade itself is round, right? No harm losing the plow/carriage bolt functionality in that case, it will just make clumpy dirt more likely to stick to your bolt heads. Big whoop.
• Depending on the thickness and hardness of that blade vs your drilling equipment, it may be an 'actual *****' to redo the holes on the blade itself. Would it be easier to redo the holes on the box blade side of things??
• IF you have a torch or plasma cutter that will touch that thickness of blade, you can always blow a hole through it and then weld a thick washer over top of it to bring it back down to your desired bolt size. Will just have to clean up the backside with a flap disc or grinding wheel. This also lets you not have to make your original hole locations that precisely, gives a lot of wiggle room for lining things up until you weld those washers down.

Lastly, can you post some other shots of this machine? I always like to see loaders on N tractors because some of them just look wacky to me, and i take interest in loader designs and Ns in general.

As far as the steering effort, aint that grand?! I have a Kubota B8200 which is similar weight to an 8n with no power steering, and has a loader which will lift 700lb to full height and 1300lbs off the ground, and the steering is JUST FINE! Because it has a 1000lb backhoe hanging off it!

 

[2manyrocks]

With this being a fancy adjustable blade, I think the opportunity is there to adapt the motor grader blade to the box blade in some sort of way that will get the job done without drilling. It might require fabricating some kind of shim adapters plate to go between the blade and the box I suppose. I suspect the grader blade has a flatter, stiffer profile than the OEM blade so some adapter would be needed to kick the blade out to the right angle to use.

My FIL operated a grader and had three or four worn out blades at his shop. Those blades were some of the hardest material to cut I've ever seen. I'd recommend anything but drilling or cutting one of those blades if there was any other realistic alternative.

To me, the good news is once you get that blade installed, I don't think you're ever going to bend it, break it or wear it out.

 

[2manyrocks]

To clarify, this is a picture of my generic box blade with a section of my FIL's grader blade in front for comparison. The hole spacing is different, the profile is a bit different and the grade blade section itself is roughly 1" shorter than the blade on my box blade.

I'm thinking there could be some way of fabricating some spacers/adapters or whatever you want to call them that would allow the grader blade to be bolted to the box blade at the right height and angle, but not require redrilling the holes.

About a week after doing all this work, then the right OEM blade will come along for $25.