yet another boxblade post

[bellweather]

I'm in western Mass and when I inquired about box blades with my dealer, and mind you he's an old timer, he told me he has never sold a boxblade. He said the soil has too many rocks for a box blade. What should I make of that?

 

[theboman]

Several things... If he's been in business a long time he'll know what he's talking about. I don't think he'd turn down a sale, so he seems pretty honest and straight foward. Respectable.
What are your soil conditions? Rocky? I'm sure the dealer meant the rocks are to big to box blade effectively,

 

[buzst]

The box blade works great in the rocky soil here in Southern New Hampshire. I just take two passes, the first with the tines in the soil and the blade out to remove the rocks. then a second with the tines up and blade down to finish. It's really a great tool to remove rocks from 8"-18" dia.

 

[bellweather]

thanks for the input. I think I will discuss it more with the dealer.

 

[Rick Jay]

I also live in Western Mass, and my dealer seems to always have a couple around his lot, new and used. Someone is buying them.

Actually, I bought one myself, although I haven't had a lot of opportunity to use it. It seemed to work pretty well in my hard pan clay and rock soil when I tried it out. I think our soil type makes it all the more important that the box blade be heavy and well built.

Now, if you've got very large rocks, I can see where it won't be all that useful. Most of ours are about grapefruit size or larger.


~Rick

 

[TresCrows]

I cannot see that rocky soil would prevent a boxblade from spreading gravel on your drive, working a load of purchased soil, smoothing/maintaing a roadway and all that. What does he suggest you get? J

 

[tdenny]

bellweather,

I have to completely disagree with your "old time" dealer. I live very near the mountains and my "soil" is really no more than a massive collection of different sized rocks (see glacial till). The box blade works exceptionally well. Sometimes it just takes an extra pass or two. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[beenthere]

What I would make of it, is you have BIG rocks. Can you tell us how big they are? Biggest? Average? In general?

I have boulders, and I would have to work around them IF I had a box blade. I don't and have to use a crawler with a bulldozer blade to do any "yard" work. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[bellweather]

Actually the soil does have some rocks, mostly grapefruit size or smaller...the big rocks are really big, and those are usually easy to avoid. I'm at a loss as to why he tried to steer me away from a box blade? I'll talk to him more about it and post his comments. Thanks guys.

 

[tdenny]

Sorry I should have said more specifically what size rocks I deal with.

The above mentioned rocks I have are anywhere from pebbles to watermelon sized ones. When you run up against a larger one I usually just spin the tractor around roll the rock into the loader and go put it in my pile of large rocks. Anybody want any???? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I have caught a few of the larger ones in the box blade and this usually catches my attention pretty quickly. I have a First Choice Box and it has taken a pretty good beating and you couldn't tell by looking at it. Great implement.

 

[19th_VA]

TD,

You responded to a post I have in attachments on the weight of implements. Thanks. Just out of curiousity, do you know how much your first choice boxscrape weighs?

 

[tdenny]

Jas5n,

I think the box blade weighs 440 lbs if I remember correctly. Perhaps JimMc will see this and test my memory as he knows better than most. For the money (excluding shipping) there is no way you could get a better box blade for the money. shipping was alot for me as I live way out west and there were no First Choice dealers around here. I was able to deal with them directly - another pleasant experience. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I'm not sure how easy that would be these days.