I’ve got a bit of dirt to manage around my place and I wanted something that I could use to level things out. After some research I came across the pull style box blade design and it fits the bill for my needs pretty well. This YouTube video provided a ton of information and measurements for a proven design. I used this and some other pictures as the inspiration for my build:
I have a rattle trap of a garden tractor with turf tires and a super impressive 14 hp at the crank. Based on this criteria I decided to limit the width of my Box Blade to 48". I have to say that I’m very, very impressed at just how good of a job this pull style box blade does.
After using it for a few hours my observations are:
- I need to add some weight to the back of my lawn tractor
- I need to lower the tire pressure of the rear tires of the lawn tractor
- More aggressive chevron style traction tires would provide greater pulling traction
- With more power and more traction at the tractor (or ATV) the Box Blade could use some small suitcase weights to provide better performance when scalping off the high spots
- Upgrading to 12v linear actuators would be a huge improvement over the jack screws that I made from 3/4" threaded rod
