NibbanaFarm
Silver Member
Here's a snow plow rig I built up for my BCS 739. We get a lot of snow here in New England. I stopped counting at 115 inches last winter. I'm sure a walk behind tractor isn't going to plow 30 inches of snow, or 10 inches of heavy icy crust. But there are plenty of times we get 3,4, or 6 inches of snow and it would be nice to be able to remove it more quickly than with the snowblower. And to save wear and tear on the snow blower. Like everything BCS makes, their snow blade is very nice. And also like everything BCS makes, it's very expensive. Actually not too bad, but I wasn't sure how well it would work and how useful it would be. Of course in the couple BCS youtube videos it looks great. But I couldn't find any independent videos. However there are a lot of videos of Gravelys pushing plows. And they looked like they worked pretty darn good for moving small and moderate amounts of snow.
The first part of the system had to be weight. The plow trucks around here move a lot of snow. They're not 4 wheel drive, they don't have locking or limited slip differentials as far as I know, and they don't run chains. But what they do have is a megaton of weight in the back. I read somewhere, that the Gravelys went 400-600 pounds. So I decided that I would shoot for 500 without the plow. As far as I could see, the dry weight of the 739 is 108kg or just under 240 pounds. I have 85lbs of wheel weights on each side and the bars probably go 5 lbs each so that brings me up to 420lbs. I made up a weight rack to sit where the lower cover lives. It's easily removable and didn't require any mods to the tractor. And I can still check the hydraulic oil level. It has 70 pounds of weight and I'm sure weighs another 10lbs. The center of mass moved a little back but it's barely noticeable. I can balanced it with weight on the plow itself. But it doesn't really need it. I do think it will be helpful to have some weight on the plow. It's pretty well balanced as is. Maybe 10 or 20 pounds will lift the plow. We'll have to see how it performs. She's now a heavy little girl. I'm sure she's tipping the scales at over 500 pounds.
The second part of the system was the tire chains. I have never used any type of tire chain in my life but from what I read they can make a huge difference. I got some ladder style chains. These are definitely not the correct style chain for ag tires. They go on, but I really don't see them doing much of anything because they hide between the tread lugs. If the tread was worn out, they would work good. They make chains for ag tires, but they're not ladder style. So I welded on some extra links in the middle to convert them to an H pattern which is a whole lot better for ag. I put the tensioner springs on a ring that goes over the wheel weight bars. I couldn't stretch the springs up to the chains, and I thought the weights might damage them anyway. So I used heavy duty wire ties to fit them up. I think they'll work pretty good now. Only time, and snow, will tell.
And the final piece of the system was, of course, the plow. The BCS snow blade is really nice, but it also costs $700 plus tax on sale. I got this Craftsman lawn tractor plow at John's Scrap Yard for $35. It's also really nice in it's own way. Which is, it's spring loaded. I can see this being desirable if you hit anything. And, it's very heavy duty. Also, it's 48 inches. 48 vs 40 inches has it's plusses and minuses I guess. The Gravely plows are usually 48 inches.
I made up a blank male quick hitch and welded on a piece of pipe to use as a universal hitch. That's how I connected the plow to the tractor. The plow floats independent of the tractor. My driveway isn't all that flat, so this should be a good thing. The piece of metal conduit is a spring loaded handle. Pull back to unlock the plow and angle it left or right. Here's what it looks like.
The first part of the system had to be weight. The plow trucks around here move a lot of snow. They're not 4 wheel drive, they don't have locking or limited slip differentials as far as I know, and they don't run chains. But what they do have is a megaton of weight in the back. I read somewhere, that the Gravelys went 400-600 pounds. So I decided that I would shoot for 500 without the plow. As far as I could see, the dry weight of the 739 is 108kg or just under 240 pounds. I have 85lbs of wheel weights on each side and the bars probably go 5 lbs each so that brings me up to 420lbs. I made up a weight rack to sit where the lower cover lives. It's easily removable and didn't require any mods to the tractor. And I can still check the hydraulic oil level. It has 70 pounds of weight and I'm sure weighs another 10lbs. The center of mass moved a little back but it's barely noticeable. I can balanced it with weight on the plow itself. But it doesn't really need it. I do think it will be helpful to have some weight on the plow. It's pretty well balanced as is. Maybe 10 or 20 pounds will lift the plow. We'll have to see how it performs. She's now a heavy little girl. I'm sure she's tipping the scales at over 500 pounds.
The second part of the system was the tire chains. I have never used any type of tire chain in my life but from what I read they can make a huge difference. I got some ladder style chains. These are definitely not the correct style chain for ag tires. They go on, but I really don't see them doing much of anything because they hide between the tread lugs. If the tread was worn out, they would work good. They make chains for ag tires, but they're not ladder style. So I welded on some extra links in the middle to convert them to an H pattern which is a whole lot better for ag. I put the tensioner springs on a ring that goes over the wheel weight bars. I couldn't stretch the springs up to the chains, and I thought the weights might damage them anyway. So I used heavy duty wire ties to fit them up. I think they'll work pretty good now. Only time, and snow, will tell.
And the final piece of the system was, of course, the plow. The BCS snow blade is really nice, but it also costs $700 plus tax on sale. I got this Craftsman lawn tractor plow at John's Scrap Yard for $35. It's also really nice in it's own way. Which is, it's spring loaded. I can see this being desirable if you hit anything. And, it's very heavy duty. Also, it's 48 inches. 48 vs 40 inches has it's plusses and minuses I guess. The Gravely plows are usually 48 inches.
I made up a blank male quick hitch and welded on a piece of pipe to use as a universal hitch. That's how I connected the plow to the tractor. The plow floats independent of the tractor. My driveway isn't all that flat, so this should be a good thing. The piece of metal conduit is a spring loaded handle. Pull back to unlock the plow and angle it left or right. Here's what it looks like.
