Box Blades & Graders in Beaumont, TX

Match the blade to your tractor's frame and lift capacity first, then to the job. Horsepower alone won't tell you much. Three tractors can share a horsepower rating and be built for three different jobs. A blade that's too wide or too heavy for the hitch lifts weight off the front wheels and makes the tractor hard to steer. One that's too narrow takes extra passes on a long lane. Write down your tractor's make and model before you come to our Buna store. Then compare blade widths against the work you've got, from a house pad to a long pasture road.

It's simply the name Mahindra uses. The tool does the same work a box blade does. There's a cutting edge across the bottom, a side plate on each end and a back wall that holds the dirt. As you pull it, the edge shaves the high ground. The box carries that dirt along and drops it where the ground dips. So if one neighbor says box scraper and another says box blade, they're talking about the same kind of implement. Our Buna store carries the Mahindra box scraper. It goes on the three-point hitch of most brands of tractor.

Those are scarifier shanks, and they rip packed ground ahead of the cutting edge. Drop them when a lane or a barn lot has gone hard as a road. They break the crust, and the edge behind them can grab the loose dirt and move it. Raise them when you're only spreading and smoothing, or they'll leave grooves you'll have to fill. On ground that's been driven for years, one pass with the shanks down makes the leveling passes go a lot better. Set both sides to the same depth so the blade pulls straight behind you.

Wait until the mud dries enough to carry the tractor, then work from the high side of the ruts. Hooves around gates, troughs and feeders push ground into ridges and holes. A box blade pulls the ridges down and fills the holes in the same pass. Keep the blade shallow at first. A few light passes leave a firmer surface than one deep one does. Finish the spot a little higher than the ground around it so rain runs off instead of pooling. Beef cattle are one of Jefferson County's chief farm products, and a gate the herd uses every day is usually the first spot to rut.

Yes, for a modest pad it's the right tool. Loosen the spot with the shanks, then pull dirt in from the high ground around it. Spread it in thin layers and drive over each one to pack it down. Thin layers settle less than one tall pile. Look at the pad from a few directions as you go, since your eye can fool you on open ground. Hay is one of the county's chief products too, and a shed pad that sheds water keeps bales off wet dirt. For a big building, the builder's spec for the pad comes first, and the box blade does the shaping.