Belly mount scrape blade
 

Anybody here ever use a belly mount scrape blade on ANY type of lawn tractor? The 124 I got last week has a homemade one. I haven't had time to check it over good, just to play with it for about 10 minutes. I think the guy that built it has it rigged up to provide down pressure. The reason I say that is it will stop the machine even on hard gravel driveway where it can only get a 1/4" bite at most. I tried it again to fix a wash in a road on the back of the farm, it did better, but not great. My question is how well do these things work and do they typically float, have hydraulic down pressure (mine is hydraulic lift), or do they use a spring to split the difference? I've never used a lawnmower to do anything outside of mowing grass so my expectations may be too lofty as my background for this type of stuff is with farm tractors.

Personally I have not used one.

There have been some members here in the past that have had them, and there was a company that produced them to fit a CC. I only personally know of one member who has one, but last I knew he never mounted or used it. Most were floating, but may have had a lock to where down pressure could be provided.

Disadvantage to down pressure is obvious... you will lose traction, so extra weight is necessary. Disadvantage to center mount is that the machine is so short, it will be hard to make anything level.

Advantage is.... :bigthink: I don't know if there is any. It looks cool? :biggrin2:

It's my contention that almost any kind of down pressure will cause a catastrophic loss of traction.

If it were heavily weighted, it may work as one would hope.

Looks to be a nice attachment to have! I like the 124, John!

Thats interesting you'll have to keep us updated..

You gotta stop using the lawn mower words!!!

In my best Dr. McCoy voice-"Damn it Jim, these are garden tractors!"





Randy

I would think if you were trying to level loose dirt or gravel, the mid mount would be the way to go.

Rear/front mount blades bob up/down like a blue gill cork on short wheel base tractors, even big ones.

The center mount would give your best shot at leveling. That is the reason road graders have the blade mounted mid ship.

Road graders also have a really long wheelbase unlike a garden tractor.

That's true but the whole weight of the grader pushes on the blade to keep the graded surface level. Unlike a back or front mounted blade that every time a front or rear wheel goes over a bump, it changes the grade.

Kind of....

You can lift the front tires off the ground with a grader if you don't control it right, so it actually is limited. Yes, it pushes down, but not really all that hard. It's not the weight that makes it level, it is the length of the machine.

Adam is right, the very short wheelbase of a GT will limit it's ability to level. Even though it is mid mounted and the operator will have more control, it will still move up/down as the tractor rolls over terrain because of the short wheelbase. A grader does the job it does because it is sooooo long.

Another note:
A member on here has one for a JD that I have looked at. It had quite a few adjustments built into it. As I recall, you can "roll" (pitch of the plow) it so you can change how hard it cuts in. It will twist/turn and go up and down.
A grader has side shift, blade roll (pitch), left/right level, rotate.... and many more functions. The more of those functions you can incorporate, the better it will do. Blade pitch is a big deal. If you can, add that and it will make a huge difference in it's ability to cut or level.

Sorry but a Cub Cadet is a lawn mower (even my Super's), a Cub is an almost worthless toy, a Super A up to a 140 is a tractor for gardening or raising row crops. Real tractors have live PTO and hydraulics with draft control. I know my thinking is way different than most folks on here but when you are part of the soybean planting crew at the ripe old age of 11, well you understand real quick what heavy duty machinery is. The best I can offer here is to agree to disagree.:beerchug:

Yes they do! And for the record we have hung two 4020's to this one and stopped them both. You ain't ever tested your patience until you are one of the 2 guys operating this outfit! I know the Cadet can't come close to what a scrape blade behind a tractor can (or this road grader), but it would sure be nice if I could do minor touch up work with it.

Sorry John, I speak fluent smartass and was just trying to be funny.

I too grew up on a farm with "real tractors" and now I just garden with the garden tractors and mow with my lawn mowers.

Yes, we can agree to disagree.



Randy

I have never seen a (road) grader with a blade mounted on the front or rear. Always in the middle regardless of how long it is.

Yes, the working dirt blade is in the center. They do have scarifiers for the front or rear. They do also make blades, or plows for the front to push snow. V plows on graders for snow removal are common in rural areas.

Another problem with mid mount blades is clearance.
They are cool though anyway :beerchug:

We had one of these for a while, it's a Ford 8n with a Dearborn road grader conversion kit, it was 1 of 12 still know to exist. I've often thought it would be pretty cool to build a miniature version using a cub but outside of taking it to shows its not real practical.

So we Agree!!!:biggrin2::beerchug:
If we had more full size tractors I'd like to have one that kept a scrape blade on it all the time.

Right you are about the clearance, I noticed that real quick with the Cadet. You ain't gonna be crossing no ditches or rough terrain, otherwise somebody will have to tow you out backwards.

I also noticed that the Cadet goes a little faster than I like. It seemed hard to make slight adjustments to the blade height and do it in a hurry. Maybe I just need more practice!:bigthink:

Never seen one on a 8N, seen a few on Farmall M's, they actually look like they would work. I think its time for you to stop painting and start fabing up a stretch frame Cadet!:biggrin2:

I've you've got the money, I've got the time.:biggrin2:

Someone already did.....
There's a video somewhere of him using it

That's cool but there doesn't appear to be alot of cub left, if I were to do it I'd want to be how Ford did it so it still looks like a cub.

Well it appears this project has hit a roadblock already!:bash2: Guess you are going to need a venture capitalist.:biggrin2:

I finally found some pictures of my belly mount blade.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...psrgcc8i66.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...psjesftcio.jpg
My blade has a side cover on it
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...psjabkj7p4.jpg
There is a 3 inch gap between the ground and bottom of the blade when the blade is up.

I have used the blade for leveling my driveway.

Merk, yours is pulling from the front end, I'm pretty certain mine is pushing--I think your setup may be better. Do you let yours float like a mower deck? I never could find that sweet spot of down pressure the way mine is rigged with the hydraulics.

My blade floats like a mower deck.
My 100 has a manual lift. It looks like you could stand on this blade if you need more down pressure. To me a belly blade should be used for finish type work.

I found this blade at a garage sale. The gent that built the blade passed away a few years ago. It is a neat set up that could be used on a narrow or wide frame Cub Cadet. You just need to change the mule drive.

Yeah, as discussed earlier, the Cadet (or any mower) is awfully lightweight and short in the wheelbase dept. compared to a road grader. I've never fooled with a blade of any type on anything other than farm tractors. Have you ever ran one on the rear of a mower to compare how it does to the belly mount setup? I wouldn't mind trying to get mine to float so I can use it for touchups after storms.

I've ran front, mid and rear mount blades. The rear mount blade was an utility (IH 504) tractor that had a loader on it. The only way I would use the mid mount/belly blade is on the Cub Cadet with manual lift. I have better/faster/finer control that way.

My blade has the floating lift links from a mower frame assembly. I like to try a non floating strap/lift link. I think I will have better control.

I have better control of a mid mount blade over a rear mount blade.

I haven't ran the blade very much this year because of health issues. I always thought of a mid mount blade as a finish blade.

I agree with that--seems the entire blade would have to float as opposed to just one side.