How NOT to Box Blade Your Gravel Driveway

hey good morning guys it's Erin welcome back to the ranch I finally got all the stuff I need to use the box blade so I'm gonna attempt to do that today this is not a tutorial or instructional I've never used the Box blade before I've never even hooked it up to the tractor in fact I never had to unhook the brush hog from the Massie and I haven't needed to unhook the brush hog from the ls yet so today will be the first day I do that and I'll hook up the box blade so like GP outdoors says grab a coffee I've got mine stick around and try to do this in the shade it's uh it's not hot yet but it's pretty humid today we were supposed to have storms last night the clouds rolled in but we didn't actually get any rain but it cooled everything off so I went to the tractor supply and I got some pins from my Ripper shanks it's a half inch pin the problem I have with it is I can actually wiggle it all the way through I don't think it's going to be such a huge problem once there's weight on it I looked for a 9/16 and I couldn't find one so hopefully this will work if nothing else I could potentially drill a hole in this end and put a cotter pin I found this assorted linchpin set on Amazon and I bought it I don't know a long time ago I've never had to use it yet but it's got all these all these Lynch pins so I'm definitely gonna replace the cotter pin with these as much as possible if I've got the right size no one might like it it'll be too big or something because cotter pins are just they just kind of suck that's why somebody invented the Lynch pin yeah it won't go in there so I'm stuck with the cotter pins this is the smallest linchpin I've got it won't fit so you know whatever what are you gonna do I'll just bring a pair of pliers for this so we've got a lot of grass coming up in the driveway the problem is we've got random patches of asphalt everywhere like this this is a big one in front of the in front of the driveway or the the carport there's another one out there or is it right there right there is all asphalt and then randomly on the right side of the driveway all the way up to the street and then we've got some over here so I don't think I can successfully do this without hitting the asphalt however there is a small area over here we have a couple of parking spots we've got the blocks there I don't think there's any asphalt over here and I think I could better to find the edge of the driveway right here so my goal is I'm just going to work in this little small area I'm gonna get the Ripper's down I'm gonna try to pull all that gravel up to the top and then go from there as I said I've never box bladed before so it looks like the edge of the driveway it's about where I'm standing I am wearing shoes today I don't know why but I think you can kind of see the line it's it's not as green so that's what I'm gonna work with I suppose the first thing I should do is get the brush hog off I'm pretty sure I talked about this before there's a bolt in there I'm pretty sure that's a shear bolt the thing about that one is I've only ever seen shear bolts on the gearbox side because there's usually like a little a little not really a pin there's like a little button you press to lock the drive shaft on the PTO shaft so I'm not really sure how that's kind of look when I get in there so let me get this thing off and we'll go from there [Music] [Music] [Music] that was relatively easy it's probably harder to hook it up considering getting a quick hitch at some point just for the box blade and this thing maybe that hey spike when I start needing it more regularly I'll tell you what it's pretty nice not having to worry about what's on the back of the tractor when I turn it around so one thing I think is pretty cool I got an extra pin on each side and I put a little two by eight right here when I drop that thing I don't really want to get the crushed limestone in there I'm gonna have to clean that out later and grease it up a little bit so now this is the tricky part we'll see how close I get it this the first time this box blade is not so heavy that I can't pick up one end and scoot it I guess I'm pretty strong maybe it's lighter than I thought I don't know so we're gonna see how this goes [Music] not a terrible first attempt so I got these these pins they're a little long but better to long than too short I only tried them in the Box blade I did not try the head on the three points so we'll huh this could be interesting [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that was hard work I put all the pins in the bottom hole which sat the Ripper's up so I just had to change them all I think I got them all ready to go my top link is as short as it can possibly be these things are sticking down I've got replaceable blades here and on the inside see if I can get under there you can see all the huge bolts that hold those two things on so what I'd like to do at some point maybe this winter I want to take both of those things off sand down the surface rust and then repaint this thing not that it really matters what it looks like but it'll be it'll give me something to do [Applause] [Music] [Music] so here's what we've got I'm not really trying to scoop any of the gravel out of the way I'm just trying to break it up and bring the gravel back to the top and get rid of some of the grass I realize it's a relatively short path but I wanted to do it across once or you know a few times and then start going that way also I'm an idiot I was thinking when these things kept falling down and I was like maybe I should pin them in here and as it turns out what is that that's a hole for the pin to go through awesome so I guess I'm gonna redo that before I continue alright I'm all set again not a tutorial not an instructional just me using a box blade for the first time not afraid to make a mistake as long as it doesn't break anything or customer customer a lot of money so those rivers probably went down a good inch and a half two inches when I actually put the pins in correctly and I was thinking while I was driving I was like man I've seen other videos where the guys get the the rippers down and that back inside blade doesn't even touch the ground so maybe this will allow me to do that because I'm just a I'm trying to focus B I'm just trying to break up the gravel and get it up to the top and get rid of the grass and stuff like that so let's give this another shot [Applause] [Music] did you guys see how much better that was I even had to put it in four-wheel drive that's how awesome that was I even spun my one rear will I am NOT even gonna mess with the diff lock I'm just gonna put it in four I'm in low first gear now the lowest gear I've got so I'm gonna I'm gonna do this a couple more times really get all that gravel up to the top I'm thinking I need to do everything with the scare fighters first as much of a pain in the acid is to change the height or take them out I'm gonna do everything with the with the rippers first and then I'll pull them up and then I'll try to smooth it out smooth it out now you could play Angry Birds what do you think boss you could play Angry Birds yeah I could play something what do you think I I think it looks nice I think we should get some more of that landscape border and put it along the whole way it comes in 40 foot rolls so I don't think we need that many of them you mean the barrier the wheat barrier to define it but you want to define it we need to put a railroad ties or something I think the barrier may be all right could just do this a couple times a year yes I don't know that it actually is any better than it was before I started exactly exactly what's happening in my head okay so I think the a lot of the gravel is starting to come up to the top unfortunately so is the clay because we have clay here and apparently I've got some bigger bigger rocks than I thought not actually over here you know we got a rock in my shoe over here I didn't think there's asphalt way up here but I hit a couple of pieces of it I think I'm gonna have to drop the box plate on that a couple of times and see if I can break it up it seems like it's breaking up into smaller pieces as I Drive over it so I don't know I guess I'll figure that out but I think it's finally finally starting to actually see some progress like especially right here you know the grass was growing out about four feet and now it's mostly gravel up here and it's some I guess it's coming along this is a slow process alright guys I have let my top link out a significant amount might have been too far I'm leaving the Ripper's down I want to start smoothing this stuff out it's not really making a lot of difference when I go through my passes anymore I think I've got it pretty well broken up so I want to try to keep the Ripper's down but i still i want to try to smooth it out as I go so we'll see how this goes let's turn it into a holiday job I should have done that other driveway that we don't drive on all the time I think I'm done I've been out here way too long the area right there in the middle that's got bigger rocks I don't know where those came from I'm gonna have to let those get compacted down when I go over with the box blade it just bounces them up again I finally found the float and that was the difference the difference maker I also found a spoon for Beth to dig her succulents with that's what that's what she uses so I definitely moved a bunch of stuff around you can see I've got that big piece of asphalt in here a couple of them I wasn't trying to drag them all the way up but it just kind of happened somebody find work honey worked hard so what's your opinion does it look worse than when I started no I think I think it almost looks like we got a load of gravel really yeah I appreciate you saying that even if you're humoring me no I mean it really does okay good I just wish this part matched but obviously this is all basketball weird winning like a jackhammer or whatever nothing looks really nice thanks I'm impressed really how's my first try it is really hard to blend it from a surface that you can move with the box blade to an immovable surface as it gets driven on it as it rains it'll settle mm-hmm sure look hopefully better as time goes on I think looks nice Thanks would you like to say hello to the youtubes hi youtube i have broccoli in my teeth because I just ate broccoli you know okay say goodbye bye YouTube okay so I got a spider web on my lens you really have to do this to appreciate the nuance I should have started at 6:30 when I got up I waited until 8:30 or 9:00 that was that was a mistake it's still not that hot we got some clouds coming over and I'm hoping to catch a couple sprinkles because man I could use it so once again this was not a tutorial this is just me using a box blade for the first time I wasn't really worried about how level it is I leveled the the three-point arms for the brush hog so the box blade should have been level as long as the tractor was level so I'm not really worried about a crown because the whole thing kind of slopes down toward the the rest of the property obviously I think this would have been a lot easier if I had done the other driveway which is what ten feet wide or something I make a couple of passes back and forth adjust my three points so that it's you know at an angle to one side and go down one side a couple times good on the other side a couple times it would have been a lot easier working where these parking spaces are in the corner particularly was kind of a pain but funny to get back out here next time it rains I'll see where the puddles are and all I actually might make it easier since we haven't we haven't had any rain in it about a week so I can always go back over it the big question is does it look better than when I started I'm going to flash a screenshot up right now and here's the finished product let me know what you think thank you very much for watching guys I think that's it for me I'm gonna go get some more diesel and a couple of pizzas and have a couple drinks hopefully Beth is on board with that plan thanks for watching guys I'll see you in the next one

Channel: Black Sparrow Ranch

Views: 231,297

Keywords: ranch, ranch life, country life, farm life, aaron and beth, farm vlog, vlog, homestead, homestead vlog, homesteading, box blade, first time using a box blade, how to hook up a box blade, how not to box blade, black sparrow ranch, ls tractor, tractor

Id: fK7snWixj98

Length: 22min 25sec (1345 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 13 2018