B7610HSD snowplow retrofit

[dholly]

One man's trash is another man's treasure. Found this heavy-duty 7-1/2' bottom trip snow plow with a "Free To Good Home" sign on it. I promised the owner I'd do my best to put it to good use.

 

[dholly]

You can see from this pic that someone had fabbed up a quick attach frame for a bobcat in it's earlier life.

 

[dholly]

First order of business was cutting off the bobcat frame. Went thru a couple of sawzall blades and cut off wheel in the hand grinder before it let go. Heavy stuff.

 

[dholly]

After lifting the plow and frame off the trailer into the garage, I knew I'd need more than just my ballast box on the back of the tractor for weight, so I pumped about 14 gallons of RV antifreeze into each rear tire. I'm glad I had stocked up at a $1/gal summer clearance. Lots of questions at the check out, lol. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Deerlope]

That is a Fisher plow you got there my friend. That is what I have on mine. With the bobcat style QA for my FEL. That is a lot of plow for your size tractor.

 

[dholly]

I'll admit to a few moments where I thought maybe, just maybe, I could either build my own subframe or hire it out, rather than spring for the pricey oem subframe kit. But when I added it all up, I realized that yes there was a price to pay for convenience but, with the snow right around the corner and time in short supply, I bit the bullet. The proper subframe kit for the B7610 HSD is #B2733.

 

[dholly]

Here's the kit parts spread out on the floor. I decided to not use the oem male quick attach and set it aside for a later project.

 

[dholly]

That $10 dolly is a life (and back) saver when it comes to moving heavy items around. It allowed me to slide the frame around to get a better idea of fitment. Obviously, some reworking is in order.

 

[dholly]

The good news was it appeared there would be no clearance problems between the frame or rear cylinder mounts with the front tires. So far, so good!

 

[dholly]

Once I had an idea of what length I needed, I cut off the oem mounts and then cleaned off the frame ends a bit with the grinder. It may be old, but the metal looked just fine.

 

[dholly]

I placed the cut partly on account of the cylinder mount location and the frame bracing on the underside. Figured it would be strongest to cut here.

 

[dholly]

Before I could start on the plow frame fabrication, I needed to install the subframe assembly on the tractor. This procedure is a litte different depending on whether you have a loader or not, but addressed clearly in the instructions and all necessary parts for whichever you need included. I mounted the right rear subframe mount first.

 

[dholly]

Then the left side. At first I was concerned about the finger and wrench clearance to get to the nuts under the frame. I was relieved to find they were welded to the frame and it was a simple matter of simply replacing the original bolts with the new, longer bolts and placing a couple of spacers. About a 15 minute job for slowpokes.

 

[dholly]

Next you need to assemble the clamping mechanism on the front of the subframe. The subframe simply hooks over and rests on the front of the tractor frame. Once you secure the back end of the subframe, you simply crank down on the handle to snug the subframe tight.

 

[dholly]

The back end of the subframe is lifted up to the left and right mounts and a single long pin slid in and locked. I would say it takes less than a minute to put on or take off the subframe assembly once the mounts are in place. Pretty slick, and a closer look at the engineering makes me feel better about spending the money. No way could I have had this made for the $$.

 

[dholly]

Now that the subframe was in place, I could try and figure how I was going to hook the plow frame to it. For a 'professional' job, I thought about buying the female quick hitch part but didn't want the added weight. So I bummed a couple of pieces of flat stock from a buddy and started thinking how to proceed with what little I had to work with. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[dholly]

It was at this point I held my very first welding rod... ever! About a month or so ago I found a brand new Lincoln AC/DC tombstone advertised for, well, only -one- Lincoln. Guy's wife bot it for him but he was afraid of it and I jumped. So with all the safety and working knowledge gathered over the course of a few weeks and a borrowed helmet, I tried to get a little practical experience. It was ugly...

 

[dholly]

After a bit of experimenting with the AC and DC+ settings, I came up with these welds. Kinda zig zaggy, but looks like I got good enough penetration to double up the plate.

 

[dholly]

You can see here that the male quick hitch part mounts do have large bushings, but I omitted them on my mounts. A time thing since we're looking for 3" of snow tonight, plus drilling the 7/8" thru holes for the pivot pins thru the double plate was enough of a workout for my little no-name bench top drill press.

 

[dholly]

Here's how my first welding project looked after a couple of hours. A few of the later welds did have some porosity. Read later that could be from uncleaned metal (grease) or moisture on welding rods?