Tilt adjuster for front blade

[Aussiebushman]

Has anyone had any success at making an adjustment mechanism for a heavy front blade please? Mine has positions at three separate points to allo pins/bolts to be placed for horizontal or angled alignment but regardless of where these are positioned, the blade does not want to stay tilted - despite the great weight (around 200 Kg at a guess). This is heavy ground and the blade tends to bounce rather than cut.

Having considered various steel struts and failed to make anything work, I'm currently using a heavy chain bolted between the blade and the lifting frame and this sort-of works but of course, the blade slams around and does not maintain the angle. As in one of these pictures, the chain tends to get caught up when the blade is lifted

I suppose a pair of hydraulic rams would solve the problem, but the hassles of hydraulic connections make this too costly considering how infrequently it is used.

All ideas welcome

Alan

 

[jmc]

I've never seen one of these but since you're welcoming all ideas, some random thoughts...

Are the mating faces flat or is some of your clamping force being wasted on drawing down a warped semicircle?

A large washer sandwiched between the two semicircles where each clamping bolt goes thru would increase the odds of contact occurring where you need it.

A worn pivot axis would work against you until the clearance bottomed out.

The T-nuts in one picture look a lot more effective than the simple washers in the other pic.

Fine threads are better on the clamping bolts. Up here, the big box stores mainly stock coarse threads.

Could there be hydraulic fluid on your friction surfaces?

 

[Aussiebushman]

Thanks JMC Good points:

1 The mating surfaces are flat- when the bolts are loosened, the blade tilts easily (obviously when raised off the ground)
2. I tried placing thrust washers between the two surfaces but they made little or no difference
3. It is an old (1960's) tractor but the swivel pin does not seem to be worn - as noted above, the blade tilts easily once the bolts are loosened
4. Sorry - don't know what you mean by "T-nuts" If you mean the extended "studs" on which the chain has been caught up, they are on the fixed plate so I can't see what benefit they offer
5. The bolts merely clamp the swivel plate to the fixed plate. I'm using High tensile UNC with Nylock nuts. They seem to hold very well
6. Yes there could be some hydraulic oil on the surfaces but can't see how it matters. As stated, the problem is not tilting the blade - it is controlling the amount of tilt and maintaining that in the desired position

So - back to my original question- how to stabilize the blade in that desired position once it has been bolted tight

 

[nyone]

So your wanting to tilt the blade like a dozzer? You could make a bracket and use a turn buckle to adjust this. If you have a spare hydraulic circuit you could make it hydraulic.

Short of drilling that plate and bolting it in a specific tilt your snow blade is made to slide on those slots for a reason.

 

[ddbackhoe]

Has anyone had any success at making an adjustment mechanism for a heavy front blade please? Mine has positions at three separate points to allo pins/bolts to be placed for horizontal or angled alignment but regardless of where these are positioned, the blade does not want to stay tilted - despite the great weight (around 200 Kg at a guess). This is heavy ground and the blade tends to bounce rather than cut.

Having considered various steel struts and failed to make anything work, I'm currently using a heavy chain bolted between the blade and the lifting frame and this sort-of works but of course, the blade slams around and does not maintain the angle. As in one of these pictures, the chain tends to get caught up when the blade is lifted

I suppose a pair of hydraulic rams would solve the problem, but the hassles of hydraulic connections make this too costly considering how infrequently it is used.

All ideas welcome

Alan

I’m a little confused here.
Is not the top center bolt in your picture the angling pin? Once all 3 bolts are tightened, how does it move?

 

[ddbackhoe]

So your wanting to tilt the blade like a dozzer? You could make a bracket and use a turn buckle to adjust this. If you have a spare hydraulic circuit you could make it hydraulic.

Short of drilling that plate and bolting it in a specific tilt your snow blade is made to slide on those slots for a reason.

A turnbuckle could be an inexpensive option. Place it here ? (In red)

 

[Aussiebushman]

I知 a little confused here.
Is not the top center bolt in your picture the angling pin? Once all 3 bolts are tightened, how does it move?

It seems my original post has been confusing. There is a central pin (not visible) on which the front plate swivels. The top bolt holds the two plates firmly together. There are three "settings" for this bolt - horizontal, or at about 10 degrees of tilt either way. Once all of the bolts are tight, the blade cannot swing on the pivot so all I can do is manually change the bolt positions to tilt the blade one way or the other.

So far, so good. BUT what actually happens is that the (raising and lowering) arms that run right under the tractor flex on their mounts so when the blade strikes heavy ground, rock etc the entire blade and arms bounce -despite the weight - so the blade angle changes. What I need to do is provide a means of stopping the arms (and therefore the blade) from flexing on impact (or not much anyway) This could be achieved with a pair of hydraulic rams between the tractor chassis and the lifting arms - (like those in the attached picture of someone else's tractor) However, that is too costly for something rarely required

Therefore my best option seems to build heavy steel braces - probably one on each side to replace the current chain. In the picture, I have sketched in roughly where such struts would need to be attached. However, the angles and fixing points do not make this as simple as it might sound and my fabrication facilities are fairly limited

Any suggestions please?

 

[nyone]

I think your going to break something if you remove the upward float on that snow plow. Its not a dozer. Does it still have a trip feature?

That is also a wide plow for such a skiny support bracket for where it connects to the tractor to even make it a dozer blade.

 

[Aussiebushman]

I'm afraid I agree with you- which is why I have not proceeded with any kind of fixed strut - it would certainly inhibit the lift function. I'm probably just going to modify the chain arrangement to avoid it getting caught on anything. Being flexible, a chains will keep the high side from dropping, but will still allow the blade to lift

Thank you for your input. Often, posting concepts and getting feedback really does help with the thinking process

 

[nyone]

If you could make those chains go streight up to the lifting mech like a regular fisher or boss snow plow you could then make one chain shorter. If you weight the blade at each end or one end that you always want lower at least then you could just push, lift plow, back up and push again. Only stopping to backup when the plow has leveled its self out.

 

[Aussiebushman]

If you could make those chains go streight up to the lifting mech like a regular fisher or boss snow plow you could then make one chain shorter. If you weight the blade at each end or one end that you always want lower at least then you could just push, lift plow, back up and push again. Only stopping to backup when the plow has leveled its self out.

That is really interesting thank you. I have just looked at both the Fisher and Boss websites but neither explains how the system works. Having differential chain lengths make good sense Could you please provide a sketch of how you envisage they could be mounted?

Another thought has occurred - I have a pair of coil springs off a Mitsubishi Pajero, also some old Range Rover coils so maybe there is some way of mounting these between the tractor chassis and the long arms that support the blade. If they are not too stiff, the hydraulic lift would still work and the springs would prevent the blade bouncing around.

 

[Aussiebushman]

I feel a bit guilty about starting this new thread. I had forgotten starting a similar one a couple of years ago when I was richer and younger so was considering hydraulic solutions - and from which I received some excellent advice.

As stated before, I just cannot justify the cost so it's back to finding a manual solution OR just putting up with the inconvenience and second-rate results

 

[zzvyb6]

Install a very stiff spring on 1 end/side to pull it to the max angle in 1 direction. The use a steel cable attached to the rear lift arms with a set of pulleys so that when you raise the lift arms, you will be puling the blade to the opposite rotation angle. The spring will also help you keep the blade at a fixed angle while dodging obstacles that shove it around.

 

[Aussiebushman]

Install a very stiff spring on 1 end/side to pull it to the max angle in 1 direction. The use a steel cable attached to the rear lift arms with a set of pulleys so that when you raise the lift arms, you will be puling the blade to the opposite rotation angle. The spring will also help you keep the blade at a fixed angle while dodging obstacles that shove it around.

Thank you - that is a very smart idea. It seems you are referring to tension springs so the vehicle compression springs I have may not work. I'll make some sketches, also check to see how springs and cable can be attached.

 

[nyone]

Snow plows just use a chain to connect the plow to a lift cylinder.

In your pic your chains go down then back up to the lift mechanism. Remove the need for them going down and shorten one side.

 

[Aussiebushman]

Snow plows just use a chain to connect the plow to a lift cylinder.

In your pic your chains go down then back up to the lift mechanism. Remove the need for them going down and shorten one side.

Actually, if you look more closely at the picture, you will see that there is just a single chain from the frame to the blade - One of the chains you can see is just a "preventer" to stop sideways movement