Box Blade Converted To “Ripper-Grader”

Box Blade Converted To “Ripper-Grader” MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Earth Movers Dex Brouillette needed something heavy to rip the hard clay on his North Carolina farm so he went on Craigslist and bought a standard-duty 6-ft box blade then converted it into a heavy-duty box blade equipped with 11 rippers “I use my Massey Ferguson 38 hp tractor to pull it It lets me rip and grade the ground at the same time ” he says The box blade was originally equipped with 5 rippers and Brouillette added 6 more He welded a length of 4-in angle iron across the front part of the box blade behind a beam that supported the original rippers The rippers fit between the 2 beams and are held on by a clevis-type pin-mount system Pairs of welded-on steel rods welded on between the beams and spaced about 1 in apart form pockets to hold the rippers tightly in place He needed more weight for the rippers to dig into the ground so he welded a 3-ft long I-beam on back of the box blade He also bolted two 25-lb round lead weights on top at each corner and added two 25-lb rectangular cast iron weights on back The box blade hooks up to a commercial 3-pt hitch Brouillette welded on steel brackets where the hitch and box blade meet to keep from bending or breaking anything “I use it around our house and outbuildings It does a great job of cutting through sod and hard-packed clay ” says Brouillette “With the rippers and extra weights it tops out at about 600 lbs which allows it to penetrate hard ground with very little vibration “The rippers come with a series of holes in them so if I want to adjust their depth I remove the pin and move the ripper up or down My total cost including the rippers welding rods and paint came to about $450 ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Dex Brouillette 4703 Bragg Rd Durham N C 27704 cowbootman@yahoo com

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