Box Blades and How to Use Them

Owning a tractor can be one of the most useful investments you can make for either your business or your personal property. This is partially your choice because there are many tractor attachments that can better hone the machine to optimize the tasks you know you’ll be doing on a regular basis. But there are so many to choose from that it can be difficult to know what you’ll need and then, how to use it. To help you out, Cliff Jones Mahindra Tractor has provided a breakdown of one of the commonly used tractor attachments, the box blade. Take a moment to read below to decide if a box blade will help you with your daily tasks, and if you’d like to see them in person, then stop by our location in Sealy, Texas. We proudly serve the entire state of Texas.

What is a Box Blade?

If you’re fairly new to the industry or you’ve never encountered one before, box blades are long rectangular devices spanning the width of your tractor. They have front and rear blades, known as scarifier shanks or scarifiers for short, that you use to break up and shape soil. You can get them in different sizes, depending on the size of your tractor and the amount of work you need it to do, and while there are ways you can put them at the front of your machine and push it along, most of the time, you pull it behind you.

Using Box Blades

Box blades can be used for a number of purposes, though are primarily used as farming equipment to work with the soil. Just make sure you’re using it correctly to get the most out of every use and to stay safe.

Preparation

While we can give you the basics on how to best use your box blade, or any heavy machine implement, it’s best to consult your owner’s manual before proceeding any further. While many concepts will be the same from machine to machine and implement to implement, only your manuals can fill you in on the finer details.

Out in the Field

When you’re sure you know how to best approach this task, start by setting the box blade to suit the needs of your project. If you simply want to smooth out the ground, you’ll want to adjust the top link until the blades are touching the ground. However, you’ll want to angle the blades forward if you need to cut through tougher soil.

You may find that you’ll need to adjust your scarifiers as you go. Maybe you start with some fairly rough ground with a lot of tough spots that need more aggressive treatment. For this, you’ll want to use that forward-angled position for the blades to break up the soil and make it easier to work with. Once this is done, you may need to smooth out the softer piles of soil you just made by pulling the blades level with the implement and angle the rear and front blades upward. Set your blade to the float position, and you’ll be ready to level out the softer soil on your property.

Keep in mind that while breaking up the soil, you may have made a few holes in the ground. You may just have a few lying around naturally. Either way, they’ll get filled with some of the loose material you push around as you’re leveling the soil, but this doesn’t mean they’ll be particularly compact. Consider driving over these holes once they’re filled in to pack down the material and continue to level off as needed. This way, anyone walking around the property later won’t get surprised by a sudden depression.

While box blades tend to provide very specific purposes, it can cut the work time for you or your business significantly just by using this simple tool. You could keep working without one, but trust us, your life will be a lot easier with it. If you still need the tractor to attach the implements to, then stop by Cliff Jones Mahindra Tractor and we’ll help you find exactly what you’re looking for. We’re located in Sealy, Texas, welcoming patrons from all over this great state.