what should I know about using a box blade?

[kch]

Is there any trick to this? I have never used a box blade before and am going to grade a new residence. I have a TC33 with a 66 inch Land Pride BB.
Do you use the bars all the time?
How deep do you set them and why?
When would you not use the teeth or bars Vs. when to us them?
I know this is basic stuff to most but I need some advise.. what do i need to know before I start?????? Thanks

 

[Harv]

I'm far from an expert, but since we're talking basics...

The box by itself is mostly useful for moving fairly loose soil. It's good at collecting from the high spots and filling in the low spots in one pass. Whatever it knocks off stays in the box until it goes over a depression, at which point the hole is filled in.

If your surface isn't too hard, the front blade can peel off a thin layer whether there's a high spot or not. This is where you'll have to experiment with the length of your top link to get just the right angle of attack to achieve the desired results.

The rear blade is, uhh... controversial. At the very least it can be angled to smooth out the fine stuff very nicely. If it's hinged it may or may not be lockable, which only exacerbates the confusion. I'll let other opinions take up the slack here.

If your soil is too firm, you may need to lower the rippers (scarifiers) to break it up. Several passes are usually required to make it workable (at least on my property). How deep depends on the soil, avalaible horsepower and, of course, your goal.

So much for the novice. I'll step aside now and let more knowledgeable folks have a go at it.

 

[Turfman]

Harv has it right. The only thing I could add is to practice a lot. Adjusting the top link to lengthen it will make it bite less and smooth more. A shorter link will cause more bite and more dirt moved. Practice will show you which length is right for the conditions. When I level yards it takes about 2 or 3 adjustments to get the top link set for the correct ajdustment of cutting v. smoothing. Don't be afraid to move the top link several times. At times I wonder why the soil is not coming out as I expect and I find I have moved the top link too much or too little. A bit of adjustment will give the proper results.

Kevin

 

[ScottAR]

The advice above is excellent. I would only add that the rippers seem to add a lot when doing heavy cuts. Leave them down while doing any rough cutting as it goes faster. Then raise them when finishing the contours.
Also as others have already said, experiment with the top link;
shorter for cutting, longer for smoothing.
Also, more on a "completing the job" level, walk the job before you grade anything. Look around at what you have and visualize what you want to acomplish. Get off the machine periodically and walk around. It's easier to see what your doing on the ground. You might notice a high dob or a low spot that you missed while on the machine. Finally, as a finishing touch, get a piece of chain link fence or similar with an old pallet for weight to drag around behind. Saves a lot of hand raking.

 

[MarkV]

Can’t disagree with anything that has been said by the others. The box blade can be tricky to use at first and the top link is the whole secret. Keep making adjustments until you find the combination that works for your situation. The other thing that has helped me is to go slow. Your blade is less likely to bounce over the high spots if you are moving slow.

MarkV

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Don't them there box blades have a "float" button for final trim?

My skid steer has a little green toggle switch with a picture of a FEL on it. You just push it when the blade is all the way down and it'll make you look like a pro that really does know something.

/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Just stirring the pot........../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[JATO_RaT]

I use my boxblade a lot. It's my most used implement not counting the loader. It will move a ton of dirt. I use mine as a dozer, that is, I drive backwards angling the rear cutting surface down. I do this because I am working fairly steep hills that will not allow me to pull the dirt up the hill. Even at 1200lbs, this box blade will not touch hard material. Thats where my hydraulic activated rippers come in. I rip and cross rip. If your soil is moist, everything works better. The most frustrating thing for you will be the adjusting of the top link. It will be very useful to add a hydraulic top link if you don't have one. I am constantly adjusting mine, but its hydraulic so the frustration is removed. The adjustable top link, the upper connection that changes the angle of the box and thus the cutting surfaces is by far the most important. If you could have just one hydraulic option on the back, its the top link that is most important. The box angle will be adjusted to suit what your doing. For starters, you will probably want to loosen the soil with the rippers. Typically I have the top link in for this, but its not to critical. Then comes the cutting, where you will actually gather material in the box to remove from the high areas and deposit to the low areas. Using the 3 pt hitch lift, I drop the box on the high spots and while moving, slowly lift the box scraper at the low spots to evenly distribute the material. My final passes usually have the box tilted back so no cutting edges are cutting. The rear edge is dragging over the surface while helping to smooth and compact the soil. Experimenting with the angle is the best advice I can give you, that and not always dropping the box down fully. You can have it just touch the ground, this way it won't simply follow the contour of the ground and remove material. You will find you end up removing material everywhere you drive the tractor if you always "bury the box" or drop it 100%. Often while driving, I am adjusting the hydraulic top link depending on whether I'm cutting or filling. It takes a lot of practice to become profficient, I'm still working on it. My box is shiny steel now as the paint has worn from cutting and moving some 2000 yards of dirt. Good luck, have fun Rat....

 

[normde2001]

This is a well-timed thread for me as I'm just getting used to my new box blade. I've learned most of this from trial and error, but what I seem to have the most trouble with is knowing when to lift and drop the box without leaving a big pile of dirt. When working in undisturbed ground, I set the scarifiers at minimum depth as any deeper on my rig just spins the wheels. I have a 5' box on a YM2000 that weighs only 1700#. My first attempt was knocking about a 2' hump off the edge of this driveway so I can cut it with a rotary cutter.

 

[blurrybill]

Thanks for starting this thread, as I'm getting ready to use my box for the first time to smooth areas left from trenching rural water into our Land. The posts so far are helpful with some basic box techniques.

I'll leave my mmm under the tractor. Does this mean I will need to work in reverse initially? I thought of using the bulldozing feature of the 4in1 bucket to do a little plowing in advance of the mmm and then the boxblade. Anyone think this technique will work? Comments appreciated. Thanks.

Bill

 

[WVBill]

I agree with all the others but I'd also like to point out some things about the rear blade. Mine can be locked down or left to swing - the best of both worlds.

If your rear blade cannot be un locked there will be a certain length of your top link where the rear blade will touch the ground before the front blade and you will not be able to scrape anything at all while pulling forward - the rear blade will just be back-dragging and smoothing.

On the other hand, if you have a fixed rear blade or can lock it, you can use it as kind of a guage wheel for the front blade. Extend the top-link to the point where the front blade scrapes and the back blade rests on the scraped ground keeping the box from being pulled any deeper. This is important to me because I do not have position control and getting any implement to set down to a repeatable height without a guage wheel/blade is nigh-on impossible.