Fellas,

I could use your recommendations. I thought for sure that the archived OB posts from texags would have something, but I came up pretty dry.

To keep an insurance inspector 'happy', I need to fill in some potholes and low spots on some driveways I maintain around my buildings. And, since I suspect this pothole thing will be a yearly occurrence with this guy, I'd rather be able to do it myself than hire it out. So, I'll have some decent gravel delivered and take it from there.

I'm looking at adding a 6' 3-point rear 'grader' blade to my old 55 HP Ford tractor.

Despite claims from my buddies that 'you can pick up a good, heavy-duty one on Craiglist for cheap $$,' I haven't found that to be the case -- nor on Tractorhouse.com for that matter. I haven't seen a local rental, either.

Have any of you used some of the County Line or King Kutter blades sold by Tractor Supply or Atwoods? It seems you can get a 'medium-duty' one for between $400-$600, but some of the reviews state they bend easily.

OTOH, I can spend twice that much and get a 'good' one, but I really don't want to drop that kind of cash on something that I'll rarely use, and eventually sell on Craigslist for 'cheap $$.'

I know plenty here own tractors and have acreage, so you must be maintaining your roads. It seems like it's raining every other day here in Central Texas and gravel and dirt roads look like hell because of it.

Thanks.

Weight is your friend, either in the blade's construction, or by adding weight. Being able to easily pivot and angle the blade is essential, and a plus is if the blade can be offset to either side.

Rotating the blade 180 deg, for final dragging or smoothing, is an aspect often overlooked.

My blade is a Rhino (6 ft width), and has stood up to a lot of hard work.

Rhino is a good brand. I enjoy having hydraulic pivot on mine, but might be overkill for your jobs.

If you're just smoothing gravel, it can be lighter duty than one made for pushing dirt.

Take a look on a site called Everything Attachments. Quality stuff at reasonable prices.

Tractor house.com has these under tractor attachments section. Blades/box blades.
Land pride or frontier are a couple of the brands and should be for sale at most tractor dealerships.
Gannon would be the heavier duty construction model with the hydraulic angle and scarcifier teeth.

We've been using the same Rhino 6' blade for the past 40+ years. Everything with it is manual, but they are sturdy an tuff. We use it to grade our roads and spread crushed lime stone.

Check Armstrong Ag - rhino is good too

Craigslist is your friend

I'd think a box blade would be best as opposed to a rear angle blade

Are you looking for a maintainer, or a box blade?

Because a box blade will do what you need done, and for a lot less cost than a maintainer. And you can find box blades on craigslist all,day long.

Odds are you have a Cat II hitch.

Land plane. Easier to use, and you can fab one with some steel really easily.

If you are just going to be using this to fill pot holes with gravel and you have a bucket on your tractor just use it to do the planing and smoothing. You can use different angles of the front or bottom of your bucket to move and level as you see fit. Also can level by putting the bucket in the "float" mode and just drag the material over the potholes.
3-Point grader blades are hard to use for leveling if you don't have hydraulic tilt on the blade because it is hard to keep the blade level as you move on terrain with just a manual three point level adjustment. It also helps greatly if you have a hydraulic center link (some call it a top link) to adjust how much the blade will skim or dig by changing the angle of attack.
As some others said a box blade would be the easier and better attachment IF you have no need to windrow the material but even with a box blade it helps if you have hydraulic tilt and top links.
If you have never used either take your time and move slowly with your tractor until you get the hang of using the attachment.

Fellas,

Please accept my sincere thanks for offering your solid suggestions on a tractor blade.

Since Rhino was mentioned more than once, I took a close look at their stuff and it is definitely well made. Their 35 Series 6' blade weighs 310 pounds, their 50 Series 6' blade weighs 410 pounds and their 70 Series 6' blade weighs 510 pounds. (And they've got heavier stuff than that, too.)

In contrast, the TSC CountyLine 6' blade only weighs 213 pounds. It only costs $419.00.

OTOH, a Rhino will cost over 3 times as much as the TSC. Yes, you get what you pay for.

While I would like to wait on a used Rhino to come up for sale, I tend to be impatient, sometimes.

Fortunately, in the last day a decent used rear blade within 100 miles of me came up for sale. I'll call the guy tomorrow and confirm that it will do what I need.

If not, at the advice of Muzzleblast, I checked out Everything Attachments.

They've got a very nice 6' rear blade that weighs 325 pounds, which is mid-range, I suppose. It costs $869.00, plus some freight since I'm not within 1000 miles of North Carolina.



What's nice about this blade (in addition to the extra steel), is that it pivots, tilts, and offsets. Sounds like a fun time.

EA 6' Rear Blade with pivot, tilt and offset

Thanks also for pointing out Armstrong-Ag in Brenham, as they've got a 6' rear blade in the $400-$500 price range, and it also weighs over 300 pounds, which is good. I couldn't tell from the literature whether it tilted or offset, but there's one at a dealer in town so I may just go look at it.

And while I appreciate the suggestions on the box blade, and will take a second look at using one instead, I like how a rear blade (when tilted) will allow me to cut small ditches and channels to improve drainage. Plus my 58-year-old Ford PowerMaster diesel lacks a front end loader, so I don't have a bucket to smooth things.

Whatever I decide to get, I'll post how it works out (assuming it works out - otherwise I'll run and hide). ;-)

Ypu can cut channels,and grade with a box blade as well. Maybe,not quite as easy, but definitely doable.

If you just want a rear maintainer, have at it though. But,pay more attention to the thickness of the blade itself and the size of the pins versus the weight alone.

I have a Woods box blade. 6'. It's heavy as fook and has a rear swing gate. If you go the box blade route, I'd highly suggest getting a hydraulic top link. It's a royal ***** to adjust and the fact that the top link is rarely adjusted makes it that much stiffer.

Having both a grader and box blade, like a lot of tools there is some overlap on capability, but also no doubt that a task easily done with one, would be a major pain to do with the other. Driveway/road maintenance? Grader blade every time for me. The 3-pt leveler on my Kubota is quick and easy to adjust, then tilt and angle the blade, pull the material as/where needed, square up for a drag to smooth (sometimes in tandem with the FEL in float mode). Box blade? Much use in landscaping, dirt moving, initial spreading of a pile of road base or dirt.

So like all big boy toys/tools....you need both

Or a 16 foot Icon blade that has the ends that pin down to make it a grande box blade. But you'll need big boy tractor to pull it.

The second item I got when I got my tractor (after the bush hog) was a blade from Tractor Supply. If you are spreading or smoothing loose stuff I have found it works great. But because it is so light that if I encounter something like a buried rock the blade tends to ride up over it rather than cut it loose and everything you were pulling is left behind. After that I got me a heavy box blade for serious road work.

For what you're wanting to do, a land plane will have you much happier.

I have a Land Pride GS25 grading scraper. It is really easy to use. I have a rear blade also but I rarely use it.