Your Opinion Please

[klem531]

Hi everyone, I would like your opinion on buying an implement. Heres the situation. I live on a private gravel road that is about 1000' long. The road gets pretty pot-holed up several times a year. In the past, I had an old International 3444 loader back-hoe that I would drag the road with and sort of fill in the pot-holes. Well, I have sold the back-hoe and bought a White Field Boss 37. This is my first experience with a 3 pt. hitch and I was wondering what attachment would be the most usefull and cost effective to get the job done. A blade seems the most obvious but I was wondering if there is some type of box scraper that would cut through the compacted gravel and smooth out these dang pot-holes. Thanks, Tony K.

 

[deereguy]

Box blade would work, rear blade would be helpful if your in a snowy region.

Tell us more about where you live.

 

[jbrumberg]

klem531 A.K.A. Tony K:

Welcome to TBN ! You are probably going to receive a lot of posts from other members who will advocate for the 3PH attachment they have. IMHO a heavy back blade with tilt, a heavy duty boxblade/scraper, or a product if my memory serves me correctly by TractorByNet.com | John Deere, Kubota, New Holland, and more! would work. Jay

 

[jbrumberg]

Tony K:

I checked that site and it was not the attachment I thought it was. I did find it though. It is a product of ATI Corporation their website is ATI Corporation - Home. Those units look very expensive. Jay

 

[john_bud]

There is a grader attachment that has 2 blades in it at angles that is designed for smoothing out roads. Those work good (according to posts - never used one myself so take that into account). Box blade - scarifiers to loosen the hard dirt and the box to move gravel from high to low spots.

Back blades also work, but they will often skitter across the surface as they are typically pretty light .

On implements like this you want to spend your money wisely. Look to the total weight of the attachment before the width. You want to be as wide as your rear tires and as heavy as you can afford.

Lots of historical posts on these implements here. Even one on box blades showing pictures of the various models.

jb

 

[ToadHill]

Before you spend a lot of bucks try a simple york rake. I;ve used one for the last few years and it works great.

 

[klem531]

Box blade would work, rear blade would be helpful if your in a snowy region.

Tell us more about where you live.

Thanks so much for the responses. I live in Northwest Indiana right on the edge of the snow belt. As of right now, I do not plan on using my tractor for snow removal as I have a snowplow on my pickup. But that is always subject to change. I like the Idea of a bok scraper. I would like to be able to have one implement that would loosen the gravel/ dirt and deposit it smoothly behind the tractor.

 

[klem531]

Before you spend a lot of bucks try a simple york rake. I;ve used one for the last few years and it works great.

I'm not sure what a york rake is but I will look in to it thanks.

 

[case685]

I have used both a rear blade and a box scraper. The box scraper works much better because as you stated it loosens material to fill in the holes. Rear blades can be difficult to control for depth of cut/backfilling especially without hydraulic tilt and angling. Box blades with the scarifiers removed also do a good job on snow if its not too deep. Gerry

 

[Bird]

I've never even used one of the regular back blades, but I sure used my box blades a lot. Before I bought my first box blade, I thought I wanted a back blade because of the angling ability. But a neighbor had one, said he never used it after he got a box blade, but that I could take it and use it anytime I wanted. After getting the box blade, I never did try out the other kind.