Bobcat box blade? Or Titan or Southern?

[Matt Ellerbee]

Bobcat is owned by Dooson in South Korea. Daedong in South Korea builds Bobcats for Dooson and they are also known for making good products such as Kioti tractors here in the US. South Korean manufacturers have a good reputation for quality and I would expect them to subcontract implements to good or at least decent manufacturers.

I would hope so too, but I doubt it. It’s all about profit margins. Just like the Frontier brand that JD pushes, lowest bidder gets the job. I remember some years ago, I was reading something about implements and the frontier thing came up, someone dug into it and found all of this out. Can't recall where, but I know i read it. There were even pictures of the same items, made differently, crap welds, different material thickness. Could it have changed, sure. Has it, probably not.

Edit to add, I know frontier has a good, better and best line like Landpride does. I've looked at some of the 12 series implements from LP, and was not impressed.

 

[Freeheeler]

Pics look like it's a solid build. Looks almost identical to my EA box except for that fancy owner's manual holder cylinder thingy. That should last you a lifetime.

 

[mcmxi]

I know frontier has a good, better and best line like Landpride does. I've looked at some of the 12 series implements from LP, and was not impressed.

Yeah, I've only got 15, 18 and higher Land Pride implements these days.

 

[mcmxi]

Pics look like it's a solid build. Looks almost identical to my EA box except for that fancy owner's manual holder cylinder thingy. That should last you a lifetime.

The EA box blade I have has the scarifiers behind the cross member rather than through it, the scarifiers are one piece and laser cut from Hardox 450 and don't have holes through them which increases stress by 3X. I do wish that EA laser engraved numbers on the scarifiers so that I don't have to count the notches. That's my only "issue" with the model I bought. It's a beast at 720lb or thereabouts.

All that said, the OPs box blade should do just fine unless he lets my "friend" use it.

 

[Freeheeler]

It's been a day or two since I looked at my box. The pic looks similar as far as the scarifiers going thru the cross member, but now I'm curious. I'll take a look when I get home. Either way it looks like stout box for a 2650.

 

[mcmxi]

It's been a day or two since I looked at my box. The pic looks similar as far as the scarifiers going thru the cross member, but now I'm curious. I'll take a look when I get home. Either way it looks like stout box for a 2650.

For sure. I'm not trying to put down the Bobcat box blade. It looks like a decent implement and seems like a good product for the price.

I'm interested to see what your EA box blade is like. Here are the scarifiers on mine.

 

[BetterThanAShovel]

Geez, that is definitely heavy duty.

Heh, I'll probably be a big fan of Bobcat implements now just because I bought one, but I won't have any real words to share until I've actually tried to use it. I think I agree that, given how much steel there is in it and how I intend to baby it along with my precious B2650, I'm certain it'll outlive me. And that'll be good enough for me. I'm just happy that I found a box blade that I could actually go get, and that had some of the features I really wanted, for less than other ones I was looking at. Take the perceived victory where you can.

 

[ctfjr]

It's like photography BetterThanAShovel - the best camera is the one you have with you.

Go out and use the crap out of it. For my last tractor I had a no name box blade that the tractor dealer had and gave me a deal on. Worked out fine for me. My friend who bought it and the tractor is still using it often.

 

[Freeheeler]

My EA box looks almost identical, ever the scarifiers mounted through the cross bar.
mcmxi, yours is a big boy box for a 5000lb tractor, so much beefier in that department. The B2650 is under 2000 lbs. I was breaking up a 40 year old gravel driveway with my EA box, it was like concrete. At times the scarifiers would stop the tractor like hitting a solid wall. I'd back up and hit it with some momentum a few times to break thru, never damaged a scarifier. My box probably would not have stopped your 6060 and it would have snapped a thing or two. From the pics, that Bobcat box looks every bit as solid as the EA box I have. When I bought mine, the EA was built better than any of the other options available. Looks like Bobcat has made a copycat

 

[BetterThanAShovel]

Ok, I had a chance to finally use it.

This was my first time using a 3pt hitch implement, so it meant removing the backhoe, which was also a first. I'm pleased that it all went well, though the hydraulic line was in a place I didn't like. I may have to revisit that.

Attached the 3pt hitch hardware went off without...well...a hitch. Even hooking up the box blade was much easier than I'd feared it'd be.

The target for use was my aunt's gravel driveway. I screwed up the courage to smooth where some potholes had formed. The scarifiers are a little interesting to use. There's, I think, 4 holes on them. At the "normal" setting, I think that they just BARELY stick out under the box. So that's kinda useless. So you can move them up a hole and they're then well clear. That leaves 2 settings for depth of digging. I chose the not-so-aggressive depth and got to work. Wow. It worked great. Broke up the gravel just wonderfully. I was only using it on a small section of driveway, so it only took maybe 10 minutes to have it all turned up. Then jump down, move the teeth all the way up, and use the box. Wow, that drags a lot of gravel around. It was fun trying to be gentle on the 3pt hitch lever to slowly let out the stored up gravel...but my neck sure didn't like looking behind me all the time. I hate being old. Then when I'd dragged the gravel all around (potholes no longer visible at all), I dropped the box and adjusted the top link so I could drag and smooth. And that worked great as well, but it was a bit of a pain adjusting the top link. I can absolutely already see the value of a hydraulic top link, but that's gonna be pretty hard for me to justify with only 1 hitch implement and not a gravel driveway of my own to use it on...

Feeling pretty happy with the result, I took on the next challenge. In the middle of their driveway, in front of the house, a very large rock was embedded in the driveway, about an inch or more proud of the rest of the driveway. It was clearly very large and very deep. I dropped the teeth again and gave some passes at it, in low, but not full speed. Wow, it stopped me cold. I then would give it some throttle and raise the box to try and pry the rock up. It just chipped at it. So I got down and dropped 2 of the teeth to the lowest setting. This proved kinda difficult because there's not much to hold onto and the teeth are quite heavy and smooth. I ended up holding it from below while I put the pin in. Not a problem really, but some kind of knob or something to be able to hold onto from above the tooth would be nice. I then took 2 more passes on the rock with the lower teeth, and up it came!

I did some more work but was hampered because a sudden downpour threatened to turn everything into mud, so I didn't do everything I wanted. I've come to the conclusion that working only a small section of driveway at a time is really annoying because you need to:

1. Drop the teeth down and break it all up
2. Pull the teeth up and blade it all around
3. Adjust the top link to use the back blade to smooth it all over

And that's a lot of getting down and adjusting of screw links and all that. So, when I get the chance to go back, I think I'm going to try and do the entire driveway at once instead of a little section at a time, to minimizing all the adjusting.

I can't think of what else to share about it. My first box blade, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I was VERY HAPPY with what it allowed me to do.

 

[Rzims]

I have the Bobcat 60" box blade and its worked well for me. Seems stout and is heavy enough that it doesn't skip across the surface.