# Which box blade do I buy?



## Sawdust53

Hello,
We recently purchased a used JD 790 compact with a FEL. I bought the tractor primarily to use on a small acreage to help in the construction and landscaping of our home. I don't have a lot of experience using a tractor, so there is certainly a learning curve for me. It's obvious to me that after using the tractor for a short time, the FEL has it's limitations doing dirt work. I want to buy a good box blade to do the excavation for our crawlspace on the house. I looked at one at Tractor Supply and it really looked cheesy. Another that I looked at was used, but was definately a much heavier duty implement. The digging on our lot is fairly easy until you hit the caliche about 4' down then it gets rough. Do any of you have any suggestions for me? I'd appreciate tapping into any knowledge you have.


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## Hoodoo Valley

First of all, welcome to the forum Sawdust! I have a 990 and use a Brush Hog brand box scraper 7 feet wide. It has been a great unit as we have very rocky soil as in river bed! As for advice, I recommend no bigger than 6 feet for your 790 and you just have to go with your gut on these things as far as build quality and price, but I advise getting a good brand like John Deeres Frontier line or Brush hog, as they will hold up better than the Chinese brands and will hold their value much better if you decide to sell down the road. You have a very nice 790 by the way. I would keep an eye out on your local craigslist for a used unit that will fit the bill.


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## Thomas

I agree w/ Tractor Beam..7'er,also check out good brand that offers ripper teeth.

Yes the FEL does have its limits,more seat time you'll be surprize how useing FEL shall become second nature to you.

Nice looking Deere.


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## Sawdust53

Thanks Tractor Beam (Thats a great handle)
I was wondering about those cheap chinese brands. I'm thinking I'll get a 5' box blade. The rear tires are about 44" center to center, so the 5' blade would be more than enough to do a nice job. (I think,LOL) The whole problem with this whole thing is our property is about 180 miles away from where we live now. 
We live in a heavy agricultural area, so I'm gonna start looking and maybe even put an add in the wanted section of our local papers. What would be a good price to pay for a 5' heavier duty box blade. Thanks again!


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## Sawdust53

Thank you Thomas. Hec, the tractor only has 205 hours on it, and the mold marks are still on the tires! We think we got a great deal. It came with a post hole digger and a single furrow plow. The tandem trailer in the pic was a freebie from the seller. Right now I feel like I'm all thumbs when operating it! I know that will improve with time.


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## Cublover

Sawdust53 said:


> Thank you Thomas. Hec, the tractor only has 205 hours on it, and the mold marks are still on the tires! We think we got a great deal. It came with a post hole digger and a single furrow plow. The tandem trailer in the pic was a freebie from the seller. Right now I feel like I'm all thumbs when operating it! I know that will improve with time.


The 'time' on my junk is measured in DECADES of abuse!! 205 hours should still have a 'factory' warrentee!


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## twentynine

Buy a box equal in width to rear tires.


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## bjepple

Good job on the 790 sawdust. I used to have a 770 with a 70 loader. I can tell you that I bought a 5 footer from Rural King (it is a regional store in the midwest, similar to Tractor Supply). While I am normally one to encourage buying the best quality you can afford, the one I bought (I think) was an import but I certainly can say it was NOT a name brand and I have not had any problems. I still have it and use it behind my Kubota bx2230. I had only a few times I was concerned about the blade holding up and that was when I had the shanks all the way down and hooked a big rock. We have a lot at our cabin. I did use it commercially as well off and on without any issues. I actually would hang 4 suitcase weights off a farm tractor on it at times to get it to dig in more and would run out of traction pulling it without tearing it up. I bought a cheap one cause I didn't know how much I would use it (and it sits outside) and figured I could buy a better one if I needed too later on. This was over 10 years ago and I haven't swapped cutting edges or teeth or bent anything. I would also recommend a tooth bar for the front bucket. I made one as a trial and I couldn't believe it was the same tractor.

My personal recommendation would be go for the cheaper box grader and also get a toothbar since you will be digging a crawlspace. I know that is against what a lot will tell you and if you have the money I would get a quality box and a tooth bar. When I need to move a large quantity of dirt I would scoop what I could and then drag on the way out to make double work of a trip. That also adds weight on the front end and increases traction. Either that or rip it with the shanks down and scoop it out so you can pile it up later. I suspect you will want to pile up the dirt from the crawlspace for use later so you would need to push it up with the loader anyway. I made sure that my unit would fit a quick hitch if I got one. I have one now and love it. Glad I made sure of that when I purchased. I can swap several implements and never get off the tractor. I would also encourage a clevis type hitch hitch for the lower links rather than the onesided pins. I don't have that setup and I wish I would have for easier hookup and strength.

I say all this because in your early post you said you were new to this and I would have welcomed (and still do) tips and tricks that others learn.

Good luck.


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## Sawdust53

Great information, thank you! I know the dirt is easy to dig in on my lot until you get about 4' deep. Then I run into pretty hard caliche. I'm pretty sure the bucket on my 70 loader is a "light duty" one as many that I've seen are much more stout.
I may have to get a toothed front bucket later on, depending on how much I dig.
The box blade will get a lot of use since there is quite a slope to the front side of our lot and we plan on doing a lot of fill work around the house and shop. I have to keep the topsoil and caliche separate. It is very difficult to get anything but weeds to grow in the caliche, so it will definately go on the bottom when we get the crawlspace done and start backfilling. Thanks again to all of you for your knowledge.


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## bjepple

Happy to help.

While you could get a whole front bucket with teeth, I would recommend a bolt on tooth bar. In case you aren't familiar they are designed to slip over the cutting edge of your existing bucket and two holes are drilled in the bucket end plates to hold them on. Very easy to put on and off. I used carriage bolts on mine with square holes you all you need is one wrench. I you are interested, do a search on here for "tooth bar" and you will find lots of information. I built one for my loader (same as yours) to see how it worked. I wouldn't recommend building one unless you have access to some nice metalworking tools (plasma, etc.) I won't be doing it again, I will just buy one. They should be $300-400 for yours and if you end up spinning your tires much and wearing them out, that could be money well spent.

And yes the bucket on the 70 loader is very "light duty."


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## bjepple

Hopefully I have sucessfully attached a pic of what my old tractor looked like. It was rather dirty in those pics.


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## Sawdust53

Tis a thing of beauty!


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## Sawdust53

bjepple said:


> Hopefully I have sucessfully attached a pic of what my old tractor looked like. It was rather dirty in those pics.


bjepple, I sure like the JD 7 backhoe you've got there. Before I found my 790 I was looking at the Kubota BX series. Kubota says the BH removes easily and that is what I wanted. I just couldn't find a Kubota at a reasonable price. Then when I happened upon the 790, the price was just to good to pass up, even without a BH. Does the 7 BH come off very easy or is it a pain?


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## bjepple

While I have a pretty good amount of experience at operating backhoes, excavators, etc. (I won a set of Snap-on tools last weekend at the Case Construction booth at trade show for the best time in a competition they had, not to brag or anything, LOL) I don't have any experience with removing backhoes on other tractors. However, I can't imagine it could be much easier than the 7. I put in on the first time in less than 30 minutes. I was by myself and didn't have an owner's manual yet (I bought the hoe used). After that, it was about 15 min. I am one of the few people who actually removes their loader. I don't like it in the way when I bushog because I am in the woods. Once I got familiar with the process, I could go from the bare tractor w/bushog to tractor, loader, backhoe in about 30 mins. Less if I had some good helpers. I even figured out I could disconnect the rockshafts from the lift arms and fold them up out of the way so I didn't even have to take them off. More importantly, that meant no loose parts to keep track of. I did learn that if you were going to let it set more than a few hours, put some blocking under the mainframe or lower it to the ground. The stabilizers would try to creep a little bit and build up pressure in the hoses making them very tough to reattach. Tapping (not beating) them on a rock or the hoe to relieve the pressure was all it took though if you forget. I did lose a couple of drops of fluid that way and none if I did it the right way. I've got the books somewhere for the 770, 70, and 7 if you are interested. I also have the ROPS extension tubes that are "required" for backhoe use. I never put them on cause without them you can still fit through a standard 7' garage door.

One drawback to the BX TLB is the swing is only 140 degrees where other larger units have 180. When I had the Deere I thought parts were expensive. I was quickly correctly the first time I needed something for the BX. Yikes! I know green is the color of money but guess orange is the new gold.


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## Miaugi

Welcome Sawdust. I have an older International and this summer I picked up a lightly used 6' Land Pride scraper box for $550 and I really like it. There is a bit of a learning curve but mostly it is common sense to put it to good use.

This winter I plan to use it to help with snow clearing although I do have a FEL as well. The scrapper box is pretty versatile and if nothing else it also adds some rear weight which is good when using the bucket for hauling dirt or gravel. Good luck with whatever brand you choose but I would certainly check out Land Pride as well as look for a decent used one to save some money.


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## Sawdust53

Thank you for the welcome, Miaugi. I'll look into the Land Pride for sure. I will begin the crawlspace for our house just as soon as I can find a good scraper. After that is done there will be a bunch of dirt-movin goin on. Our lot drops about 15' from one side to the other and the wife wants a bunch of it to be level. Lucky I have a friend that has a BIG JD front loader and dump truck to help me with the added dirt we'll need.


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## dog_crazy_farm

I have the HFL Laneway Grader that you can view at www.hflfabricating.com . It is much more than a box scraper could be. The price isn't bad either. I don't know what horsepower your tractor is, however I think they do have two models.


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## ErnieS

My recommendation would be to look for a box blade with clevis type mounts instead of pins. I am constantly straightening my pins from hitting roots and such. It you are a welder, it wouldn't be too hard to modify a pin mount blade to a clevis mount.


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