Seat time with a box blade...fun!

Hi all

Just had a couple of hours fun with my new box blade. 6' blade behind a '47 8N. Surprised me, cut right through ice still on the gravel road, and rolled wet gravel ahead of the blade. It's 37* here after being below freezing all night.

Question? Should I use both the blade, and the rippers together? I saw a u-tube where they first used rippers, then went back over without rippers but just the blade. should I be using them separately?

With the box blade full of rolling gravel, my 8N appears to struggle a little. Appears not to have enough power to keep pulling. I have to keep adjusting the height of the box blade to keep the tractor running at full power. Maybe I'm asking too much out of a 20+ horse power engine?

Anyway, it was fun and productive (I hope)!

Gunny, in Iowa

"With the box blade full of rolling gravel, my
8N appears to struggle a little. Appears not to
have enough power to keep pulling. I have to
keep adjusting the height of the box blade to
keep the tractor running at full power. Maybe
I'm asking too much out of a 20+ horse power
engine?
"
A six footer full of gravel is on the outer
edge of your 8Ns capability. Try adjusting the
top link . Shorter - it will cut more. Longer
it will cut less and smooth more and not fill
up with as much gravel.

It is likely if you use the scarifiers with the box
blade you will tear the ice up in chunks with the
gravel still embedded. You may also tear up your
base and make it a muddy mess in the spring. You may
end up putting more gravel in the spring. Just
adjust the box blade enough to scrape off the ice.

Kirk

The rippers can be used in a variety of ways,
either down all the way by themselves, set to
just go an inch or so deep when blading, or
raised completely up and out of play. Just
depends on the situation and what you're
wanting to do. I personally use the rippers on
my box blade fairly lightly, usually only
enough to loosen up the top inch or so. I find
that multiple, shallow passes allow me to to a
more precise job than a single, deep pass.
Like was mentioned, you can play with your top
link to allow the rear blade to act as a "depth
gauge" or "runner" to control the cutting.
(This assumes your blade doesn't have a hinged
back blade.)

I wouldn't put too much stock in what you see
on YouTube - there are a lot of videos on there
of people using farm equipment that have
absolutely no clue what they're doing!

Glad to hear you like your new toy!

I run a 5 foot Howse on a Yanmar F18D ALL the time!

I love pushing snow with it, grading roads, they will smoke a plain blade, UNLESS you need to plow a road where the snow needs to be slid off to one side... Then a blade is nice

Be cautious as to how deep you are going, like others said, when it is still wet spring weather, you WILL rip up your base, and that will bring cause for a muddy mess!!

I usually don't do anything with it until June or July, preferably right after a rain. I set the rippers so that they are digging about 1-3 inches below the box itself, NOT going to china, then I just set it down and zip around with the little tractor, makes quite a lumpy mess, but it ruffs up all the holes and stuff, THEN I come along with a 10 foot piece of rail road dragging by a chain on the ground... WOW, that works AWESOME to smooth that stuff out, will make it look like brand new!

I rarely use the rippers, probably one 2 times a year, but the box is on there nearly all the time, if anything just for wheel weight!

When I am doing stupid things with the loader, I can go and put 2 or 3 100lb chunks of wood ON the box blade, and that is instant traction!