Tractor Talk

(Kinda cross-posted from Pit & Peak thread.)

I ordered a landscape rake today from a company in North Carolina (Everything Attachments) that manufacturers tractor attachments.

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They are running at a 4 month lead time (improved from 6 months.) COVID has killed some segments of the economy while causing others to explode. Hobby farming and home gardening are areas that COVID has caused to explode. The local greenhouse has had record sales month after month after month. Everything Attachments is building a second warehouse.

 

You need to watch some videos on box blades and landscape rakes. They are magic!

The other day I played with the used box blade I bought from Craigslist. It was the best birthday ever

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There was an area behind my garage where I stored my firewood on pallets when I first moved here. It rapidly became overgrown to the point I could not hack through it, and has been that way for 10 years. My neighbors & I rented a skid loader to do road work and I rough-cleared out this area. It was a nasty mess when I was done.

The box blade spikes (scarifiers) yanked up all the roots and captured them for me to drag off to the side. I then raised the spikes and just drug the box around. It scraped the area level, carrying excess dirt in the box to just fall out when the box went over holes & divots, filling them in and smoothing them over. THIS is what they use for cleaning up and grading trails....all in one or 2 passes. That area is real pretty now (you can see part of it in the pic), and all I had to do was pull this behind me. (This is one implement that is sensitive to top link length and hitch height...you gotta play with it to get a good finished result. I'm still a beginner.)

You set the spikes for a shallow dig (they have 3 depth settings) and dig up the gravel in a driveway, basically un-embedding it from being pounded into the dirt as you also dig up any grass. Then you lift the spikes and drag the box so it redistributes the gravel, smoothing out and filling in potholes just as it does the dirt. The landscape rake puts the finishing touches on it,making it look like fresh gravel was just spread. One reviewer says between his box blade and landscape rake, he's kept his driveway looking new, only requiring 2 loads of gravel over a 12 year period,since it's so easy to refresh with the right implements.

The landscape rake also levels the ground and rakes up leaves, twigs, etc just like any rake. The heavy duty rakes level out gravel and lift rocks out of the soil, carrying them along for you to dump out. Pulling out rocks from my garden and behind my garage is what I really wanted one for, but there will be a ton of other uses for it, especially for road maintenance.

I've bought a bunch of used attachments over the years and gotten REALLY good deals by taking my time--bottom plow, blade box, hole digger, cultivator--so I don't cry too much at buying one new implement. What kills me is the price of this has close to doubled in the past 2 years. I'll keep looking at used, since I can cancel this order at any time. But this specific manufacturer's rake has an "offset" feature where you can kick it to the side by 2 feet so as to rake near buildings and fences without having to drive the tractor right up against them. No one else has this feature. And the used ones I find are not priced that much cheaper than this new one.

 

You just need the right workout music.

 

Yup. But from what I've read in my Kubota manual, it's the cutting width that's the key spec, not the width of the box itself.

My tractor owner's manual spec for the box blade attachment say that the max cutting width is 54". So I measured the distance between the outside of my tires...it is 54". The cutting width on this box blade is 55 1/2" (distance between the outside blades.) I'm not too concerned about a 3/4" overhang on either side. I don't think that the width of the box beyond the scarifiers is relevant. I guess the idea is to keep the blades directly behind the tractor and not out where they could get leverage in case one of them should hit a well-entrenched root or a rock. Perhaps Kubota is being conservative, because I've seen websites saying that a 60" box blade can be pulled by a 20hp tractor. I'm not sure what I think about that.

There's another part of my manual that discusses check chain tension. There is no spec there for a box blade, but it says to keep them loose for spike harrows and tight for "diggers, scrapers and manure forks." I can't decide if the box blade should be loose like for a spike harrow (so there's play when it hits something) or tight like for a scraper (so it doesn't meander too far left or right beyond the edge of the wheel.) I grabbed the manual for a Northern Tool brand box blade (it is the only box blade manual I can find.) The hook-up instructions merely state "It is recommended that sway bars or chains be used with the box blade to keep implement from swinging side to side." I guess common sense prevails...tight enough to stop it from being a front porch glider, but not so tight it might snap under too much tension.

Since I'm blathering (you may have already noticed that trait)...I was reading an interchange on these where one guy said to buy a box blade with the U bracket and clevis pin setup because it was easier to attach and it was also much stronger than having the pins as part of the attachment. I know that the pins can snap easier when they are part of the attachment, so I decided to do what I could to reduce the risk. I figured that the lift arms tend to migrate to the ends of the pins during use, where they get leverage should you hit something. So I made these spacers from 1" PVC pipe that fit snugly between the lift arm and the cotter key:




The idea is that you slide on the lift arm, then slide on the pipe, then put in the cotter key so as to keep the lift arm as close to the base of the hitch pin as possible. I made these for all my attachments. I gotta believe that it takes more force to sheer the hitch pin off at the base that it does to snap it off from the tip.

 

Is this an existing drive you are trying to grade? Obviously, a pic would help. But I'm no expert in this stuff. I got lucky with the box blade width because I bought the thing, and later stumbled upon specs in my manual later (assuming there's really a difference.) All the online sales specs were horse power driven...no one said a thing about tire or tractor width. You tractor hp should only limit how aggressive a depth you dig...take it in increments and you'll be fine. I have some roots that flat stop my tractor. I have to back up a bit, lift the box blade, go forward beyond the root, then start again.

I'm finding that a box blade is one of the more complicated attachments to use. It's sensitive to adjustments on the top link and on the lift arms, and you really have to dial in both for good finish work. I've watched videos and it seems everyone has their own tips. In order for the spikes to dig in, you need to shorten the top link to tilt the box forward and point the tips of the scarifiers downward...the more it tilts, the more aggressive the cut.

Here's a screen shot I grabbed when I was trying to figure out how to use mine:


Then there's the slight forward angle of the unit with the scarifiers raised to scrape and move dirt with the scraping blades. You can also lengthen one of the lift arms so as to lower the box blade on that side of the tractor. I've seen that recommended for doing a driveway...the angle puts a crown on the driveway so that water runs off to the sides and does not pool. Actually, I now recall a video where the guy set the angle so steep he cut a ditch with it. It's the vid I grabbed that screenshot from. Maybe this will give you an idea. He sets the one arm to its extreme setting @ the 5:00 mark and cuts a drainage ditch.

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Those guys (Everything Attachments) have great How To vids. Just look up the page for the implement type (listed on the left-hand side) and there's usually a good vid there.

Some of this is tough without a high-end tractor. Some tractors have hydraulic lift arms with numbers 1-10 on the panel so you can automatically put an attachment right at a specific height. I just have Up/Neutral/Down, so I have to fudge & nudge every time. And some tractors have hydraulic top links, so can move implements directly to a pre-set angle. Those are nice, but who's got the cash (or the need) for that?

 

I know you are careful driving your tractor on the side of the hill. One of my neighbors has a ditch along the side of the road that needs to be cleaned out, but the road is a little higher than his yard. I really don't feel like straddling it and using my backhoe while at an angle...it's just not smart.

Some of this stuff is easier with real construction equipment. The 3 families here rented a skid loader to clear up our right-of-way from snows (and fallen trees) we had this winter...but there were 3 of us to share the cost. And one of the guys drives similar equipment at work, so we were efficient out-of-the-gate. If it had been just me, a chunk of the rental day would have been lost to training.

One thing I noticed when doing the area behind my garage with the box blade is it's great for getting the immediate area level & smooth, but you need skills to make a large area even from side-to-side. There's a low spot where we took out a tree. I've not tried to move dirt there yet so it's more level.