Welder Project - Put a Hitch on the Boxblade

[Redbug]

ArchDean,
I do the same...use the box blade as ballast. Do not have a ballast box. The box blade originally did not weigh enough, so I welded a cradle on top and chained a length of RR track into the cradle. I suppose the weight of the box blade is now in the range of around 800 lbs. The RR track weighs 300 lbs, (50 lbs per foot). I also have 300 lbs of wheel weights. It has really made a difference in the weight I can now move using the loader.

Attached is a pic of the RR track on the box blade before I added the receiver hitch. I did some added welding to the supports on the box blade because of the added weight. I have not had any problems with the box blade but...I might add...that if I had to do it over again, I would have bought a better quality box blade than the KK. Probably a Landpride. 20-20 hindsight.

 

[Archdean]

I did see some enterprising fellow post a good idea for a ballast box use someplace, it consisted of several pieces of of sch 40 conduit, different sizes stood upright and then filled with approx 400# of concrete around the tubes, he carried rakes/shovels/various other items standing Handel down in the tubes!

Was going to do that but elected to just throw the things in the bucket and use the more useful implement on the back 3 point!

So my new looking ballast box makes a great 4 KW generator platform now!

 

[jda1961]

seems silly to me

i'm sitting wondering why you would want to go to all the trouble of doing that to your boxblade in the first place, are you to lazy to unhook it and hook up the trailor. why put all that stress on a piece of equipment that was'nt designed to pull a trailor? normal folks unhook an impliment and then hook another up, thats the smart thing to do. what's next a haybaler hooked to a haybine? fill your rear tires with fluid, add some rear weights, that boxblade is not that heavy, you are just gonna mess it up. stupid is what stupid does. think things through.

 

[Dougster]

i'm sitting wondering why you would want to go to all the trouble of doing that to your boxblade in the first place, are you to lazy to unhook it and hook up the trailor. why put all that stress on a piece of equipment that was'nt designed to pull a trailor? normal folks unhook an impliment and then hook another up, thats the smart thing to do. what's next a haybaler hooked to a haybine? fill your rear tires with fluid, add some rear weights, that boxblade is not that heavy, you are just gonna mess it up. stupid is what stupid does. think things through.

Just from my perspective... I routinely trailer my tractor to jobsites, so loading the tires and/or adding wheel weights is out of the question. Sometimes my backhoe hangs off the back of my tractor and provides plenty of counterweight to my FEL, but sometimes the boxblade is the preferred rear implement and FEL counterweight.

Being old and partially handicapped... and having neither a TNT nor hydraulic top link... attaching and detaching and reattaching my 6' box blade can be a bit time consuming and difficult... especially on a client's jobsite. The ability to move my dump trailer around a jobsite without removing the box blade would really be quite an advantage. I currently use an FEL bucket clamp-on receiver to do this, but that also takes time to mount securely. It is also hard to use with my new CAT toothed skidsteer bucket and is impossible to use with my FEL grapple. To me, the box blade receiver is really quite a nifty, useful and time-saving concept.

I would also add that a box blade-mounted receiver would also enable me to easily add more weight to the box blade using my 2" receiver carry rack. It can hold up to 500 pounds of concrete blocks... again, very useful to a guy like me who cannot load his rear tires or add more permanent weight to his medium-duty box blade.

Dougster

 

[Mith]

are you to lazy to unhook it and hook up the trailor. normal folks unhook an impliment and then hook another up..........stupid is what stupid does. think things through.

Unless you particularly enjoy hooking up attachments its going to get pretty tedious after the first 10 times every day!

I reckon California has thought it through pretty well, and he certainly isnt stupid!

 

[California]

... lazy ... [not] normal ... [not] smart ... stupid is what stupid does.

Did somebody pee in your Cheerios or something?

 

[jda1961]

what ever you say, its your equipment you can do what ever you want with it. but i would'nt do it to mine. its not made for that, but to each his own.

 

[mobilus]

OMG, I thought that I had accidentally went to TBN instead of NTT.

Nuff said?

Let's play nice...how 'bout it? It's not very neighborly to criticize like has been done in this thread. If you wouldn't have done it that way, just don't comment. We've got way, way too many naysayers in this world.

Thanks, I'll hush now.
Mark

 

[California]

OMG, I thought that I had accidentally went to TBN instead of NTT. Mark

Thanks, Mark.

I had a couple paragraphs ready to hit Send. Upon reviewing it I said to myself - I don't want NTT to sound like that.

 

[Dougster]

OMG, I thought that I had accidentally went to TBN instead of NTT.

Now that is a very scary thought! I don't think anyone here wants that!!!

Dougster

 

[California]

...

If you liked that, this picture will make you crazy. It was taken a half hour ago.

Aside from that ball on the box, there's another on the bucket. I'm delivering sand here. Its easier to lift and dump the trailer instead of shoveling 3/4 ton of material by hand. That's what I bought the tractor for, to do the heavy lifting.

 

[Mith]

what ever you say, its your equipment you can do what ever you want with it.

Now thats something we can agree on


California, I'm glad I'm not the only one who stands up so see whats going on!

 

[Archdean]

Thought he was talking about me for a minute since I'm in this thread... Big mistake Jda!!

In any event I always have something hanging on the back of my tractor!

1. Winter time like now! Box Blade w/hitch to move stuff around Boat on trailer/log splitter/etc.
2. Springtime will change Box blade for rototiller.
3. Summer will see it most often with a brush hog.
4. Backhoe is only mounted when needed IE cleaning up debris from the lake front (better lateral balance when working cross slope).

The hitch on a box blade is one of the best and easiest mods one can make save perhaps for 3 chain hooks on your FEL!!

 

[shinnlinger]

Cali,

I support what you do and second and thirds folks in asking JD to play nice.

I personally weld a reciever tube on almost all 3pt implements that spend any time on my machine so I can move a trailer around at a moments notice.

JD does have a point though. Here is a picture of my dump trailer in dump mode. I had it attached originaly to my rear blade and would dump it with the Hi-Lift jack and then pull forward and "undump" the empty trailer and on the return trip use the blade to flatten out the new pile of dirt.

It worked pretty slick untill I got my dump truck and stoped using the trailer, but in this pic you can see that I sort of overloaded the trailer with my excavator and it broke the bolt (yeah the real big 10 inch hardened one that was a royal pain to drill out) that held the blade on. Also, if I wasn't careful to load the front of the trailer before the back, the thing would raise the blade up and I would have to push it down with the excavator.

After this photo was taken I mounted the trailer right to the draw hitch, but this really limited my turning radius, so I rigged some support deal with the 3pt and brace so the tounge of the trailer was further back. The dump truck ended all this silliness.