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 | mike
Join Date: Posts: 1 
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2001-06-07 29042
I am talking to a seller who has two b7100's and a b7200 for sale. One of the b7100's is manual, the other hydro. The 7200 is hydro. Both tractors with hydro are the same price and the manual is less. Is there any major differences between the 7100 and the 7200 other than the 7200 having 1 more hp? Are there any things to be especially careful about between these tractors?I have 1 acre of land, 1/2 of it flat and want to purchase a tractor so I can do some landscaping and light grading over the summer at my leasure (instead of at breakneck speeds with a rented equipment). Resale value is paramont in my purchasing decision. Is either unit particularly better than the other? I can probably get by with a manual but suspect that hydro would have a better resale value. All things being equal I am leaning towards getting the 7200 ($7500 including loader, box and rake). Any recommendations?Thanks in advancemike
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| mike
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2001-07-02 29778
After much soul searching, I went with the 7200 HST. I had him add lift and tilt to the rear 3pt hitch. With box, loader and tiller I paid 8500 delivered. I am having a blast puttering around my yard but could use a little advice on how exactly to use the box. I am trying to level a patch of ground about 10x20 to build a chicken coup and have come to realize that I am making more of a mess than I am a level buildable plot. Does anyone know of a good book on the basics of tractor operations with an emphasis on grading? I have been keeping the teeth retracted on the gannon and have tried almost every range of tilt on the blade and still haven't managed to get much dig. Is there a trick to grading with a blade? ....
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| mlmartin
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2001-07-03 29784
Trick? Yeah. Patience.
I've put about 20 hours on my 5 1/2 foot boxblade. I've repaired erosion on a steep gravel drive, worked deep ruts out of 1/3 acre of pasture, graded and smoothed a swale and built another steep gravel drive.
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When grading, being able to make perpendicular passes is very important. When I was grading the 2 foot deep ruts in my pasture I went N/S followed by E/W several times. The first pass was in reverse to knock down the ridges into the ruts. The next passes were with the scarifiers full down and the box held high, meduim and low. Then I pulled the scarifiers up to minimum cut and did another set of passes. When I was done the area I was working was the smoothest part of the pasture.
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The moral of the story: so a little at a time and in cross directions if possible.
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Matthew ....
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| Stan in Calif
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 47 Sacramento Valley- Glenn County
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2001-07-03 29793
Put the scarifiers down and work the ground up soyou have some material to play with. Always keep some material in the box ( except when you are dumping the last of it in the low spots or backblading on the final pass).
There is a very important part of the box blade that you don't see from the tractor seat - that is the rear blade. It is the relationship between the rear blade ,the front blade and the ground that determines how much you will cut or fill. To illustrate, have someone get on the tractor and raise the implement just off the ground, then roll the bucket with the top link. Roll forward (shorten top link) to cut , roll back (extend top link) to fill. Notice how the back blade determines the depth of cut and fill. As you will see, that was a good move getting the hyd. top and tilt. Also, don't try to feather these controls for a small adjustment- just bump them for a small incremental change. Hope this helps. ....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley 
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2001-07-04 29815
Stan & Mathew's comments are pretty good descriptions. If the surface is too hard to cut, the scarifiers should loosen it, but if they don't some sand bags on top of the box would help. Lightweight boxes and blades don't cut too well. Weight can be added, but that puts additional stress on 3ph mounts that, in an inexpensive implement, may be barely adequate anyway. If there are gross corrections to be made to the grade, I usually cut the high places using the rear cutter, and then drag material to low places in the box. If the problem is a too surface, then the box may simply sink down and fill up irrespective of the front blade angle. In such cases, the box can be held up with 3ph position-control, but then every time the front wheels go over a bump, the box digs in. The divots can be filled in, and the grade gets a little better each pass. Loose gravel illustrates the too soft problem. The box simply sinks even with the top-link fully extended. I work loose gravel by doing the initial spreading using position control. If substantial bumps and dips remain, I cut the high spots into the lows using the rear cutter. I then, touch up the grade by spreading here and there by back dragging with the loader (bucket angled down and floated). At this point, the gravel is still too soft to support the box, so I compact the gravel by back dragging with the loader. The bucket is fairly flat and down-pressure is held to lift the front wheels. Steering has to be done with the brakes. After compaction, the box can be used normally to finish the grade. There is an assumption here that I think everybody is making. I'm assuming that the box has a fixed rather than hinged rear cutter. Operation of a hinged cutter box is similar, but maybe is a little trickier than a fixed cutter box. ....
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| mike
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2001-07-05 29844
Thanks for all the good hints. I tried with the rippers down and it certainly loosened more dirt and made it easier to move. For what it is worth, the box is made by Gannon manufacturing and does have a hinged rear blade. There are pins preventing the rear blade from swinging back that can be removed by taking out cotter pins. I haven't tried removing them yet since you suggest it may make the job even trickier.
Going cross directions would probably help a lot if I weren't trying to put the coop between a fence and some trees. The hitch points look sturdy enough so I may try bags of sand if I need more cutting power. I haven't had any issues with the rippers down other than getting the final smooth finish. I suspect that I need a lot more practice to get that right.
....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2001-07-06 29850
Gannons are good scrapers I hear. As I understand, the main advantage of a hinged rear cutter is that it can swing out of the way, which allows more angles of the front cutter edge on the ground. For example, the top-link is extended to lighten the cut and increase the spreading action. With a fixed rear-cutter, extending the top-link very far rotates the box on the back of its rear cutter and pulls the front cutter off the ground. Of course, I use my fixed cutter box like this a lot, because it's good for compacting gravel and touching up grades. Anyway, the cutting action of a fixed scraper starts getting unstable with extended top-link positions when some of the box's weight is on the rear cutter. Extended top-link positions are usually used for spreading operations, and hinged boxes do have the reputation that they're better at spreading. Another thing about fixed cutters is that the box angles are limited when making deep cuts. The top-link may have to be shortened quite a bit, because the fixed rear cutter rides on the cut and prevents the front cutter from going deeper. Then, there may be too much cutter, and the box just sinks and immediately fills up. Again, A hinged cutter swings out of the way and allows more box angles with the front cutter edge on the ground. The whole thing about using a scraper is getting exactly the right box angle to produce the right combination of spreading and cutting action on a given surface. Get the angle right, and long passes can be made. The box merrily chugs along behind doing its thing. A wrong angle and either nothing happens or the it just digs new holes and full boxes have to be dumped every few feet. Controlling the angle is everything, and that’s why a hydraulic top-link is almost essential. Hummmm! I have a fixed cutter box, and it seems I've just made a case that a hinge cutter is actually less tricky. Maybe it just seems that way. Too many words from me again, but I hope it helps clear things up a bit. ....
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