Snow Attachments FEL snow plow vs frame mounted

[DonT-B7500]

I recently purchased a used FEL mounted Curtis snowplow for my Kubota B7500. I have it all hooked up and did a little testing, granted it was on my dry asphalt driveway, but I am a little concerned. When I was pushing along I got a lot of chatter from the blade, made the whole tractor shake. Not sure if this behavior will go away once I have the weight of pushing snow and also the lubricating factor of the snow. Also with the plow weighing around 400lb and the weight of the loader arms when in the float position I have to be close to 1000lb pushing down on the blade. I'm considering building a ladder sub-frame that would either attach to the MMM pins on the FEL frame and a bracket that would be fabricated off the front frame of the tractor and then attached similarly to how it would be mounted on a pickup, or should I stay with the FEL mounted setup? If I go with the ladder on the FEL frame would you use the MMM mounts which are welded on behind the FEL frame or would you weld new ears to the front of the frame, the existing MMM ears look pretty stout but I don't want to bend or break them. Let me know your comments for either setup, I don't want to be going through my first snow storm and be unhappy with my setup and start fabricating the frame in the middle of December.

 

[Ford850]

DonT
I saw your other post with the diagram of the Curtis blade. If I understand that drawing, you should be able to lift the weight off the FEL arms slightly, while allowing the chain on the blade to still hang loose. That takes most of the weight off the blade and still enable it to float independent of the FEL arms. You might have to roll the bucket a little to find the sweet spot. It would also help you retain front wheel traction by putting more weight from the loader back on the front axle.

 

[DonT-B7500]

The way it's currently set up the chain is not used, the bracket #14 in the drawing connects to the loader and bucket mounts and makes it rigid with no floating action except the loader arms, no hinging action for the blade. I can't see how you would set up the chain? BTW this came off the exact same model tractor that I have but that owner had never used it so he was not able to comment on how well it performed.

 

[Ford850]

I see what you mean now. I looked closer at the frame area. I have seen others use a chain to hold the blade and allow it to flex upwards, but that style frame looks solid. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Ford850]

Back to your original question about the ladder frame... it is definitely a better system for a snow blade. I have one on my old ford 850, and it works well but I upgraded to a DX55 with FEL. I am opting for the loader mounted plow for that now mainly due to the ease of the quick attach bucket/blade. I expect it won't work as well as the old dozer blade though, and will have to switch to the bucket to 'move' the deep snow at times. Time will tell I guess. The Hiniker blade I am getting does have some slack in the bade allowing it to tilt a little to follow contours better. Maybe the Curtis does too.

 

[DonT-B7500]

I was doing more thinking about this and what if you mounted a "T" lever on the FEL torque tube, cut off the tilt ears on the plow mount, connect the tilt cylinders to the "T" and then have a chain on the end to lift the plow. See illistration. Opinions?

 

[SeymourBota]

I have had one of these blades for 4 years on my B2410.
I don't agree with your assessment of how much downforce you have on the blade when you are in float but I do agree that the blade is a handful for a CUT. The other issue is that there is no vertical pivot from side to side.
I wound up placing all of the washers from the skid shoes on the left side, when the blade was angled.

Now, I use a different setup, although I still own the Curtis.

Anyone want to buy it??

 

[shop_rat45]

About how much does one of these cost, and can they be made to work on my New Holland TC30? I think it would be a cool attachment.

Kris

 

[AJones]

There was one on E-Bay awhile ago.
Curtis 7 ft Snow Plow Blade fits Deere, Ford, Kubota - (eBay item 330167488075 end time Sep-22-07 05:45:22 PDT)

 

[nedly05]

New cutting edges will make you chatter like that too, once it brakes in or get a "bevel" on the bottom so to speak it will not chatter so bad, probably mostly the chatter is from the dry blacktop. I am looking for a blade to build my own plow!!

 

[Killer_B]

Don,

It looks like this plow has adjustable skid shoes. What I did when I had the Kub hyd angle plow on my B7610 was to lower the skid shoes so that the blade was about 1/4" above the pavement. When you start to push snow, it seems to push the blade down enough to get a good clean scrape. No chatter and no problems.

I realize the Curtis and loader arm arrangement is different than the Kubota Quick Hitch set up. But the skid shoe adjustment still may be the easier way to a smooth operating plow.

BTW: I have a Frontier power angle blade for my new Deere that works almost exactly the way your Curtis does. I am looking forward to putting it to use this winter.

KB

 

[LoneCowboy]

New cutting edges will make you chatter like that too, once it brakes in or get a "bevel" on the bottom so to speak it will not chatter so bad, probably mostly the chatter is from the dry blacktop. I am looking for a blade to build my own plow!!

exactly what I was going to say. Even truck mounted plows do that until they wear a bit. And dry pavement and snow plows are a bad mix.

 

[lawn_king]

I had a kubota subframe mounted #2019 front power angle blade on my b7500. It was one of the best plows i have ever owned!