First time plowing with SSQA plow, float mode just digs into the driveway

[Fallon]

Float on the loader doesn't really work as you've seen. My first plow had a pivot on the SSQA frame & a chain. Float on the plow worked food.

New plow has hydraulic angle, but is a solid mount. You have to adjust loader height & curl a lot. I want to rebuild the mount with an underslung pivot & chain design. But may or may not ever get around to that.

 

[chim]

First of all, that's not a snow plow, it's a dozer As mentioned, you should float the plow blade. Floating the loader puts way too much down pressure on the plow. Also mentioned were shoes / skids / or some such part to prevent the blade from digging. My Fisher plow wears its factory shoes. It was a repurposed 8 footer from a truck. The underslung mount helps keep the plow from acting like a big rudder when it's angled to one side or the other. There's a link to my story below. It is one of many, and was done after reading tales from Gordon Gould and Paul Short:

SSQA Snow Plow

Although this is a "Build it Yourself" forum, I didn't do any of the welding on this project and the design was mostly based on builds by Paul Short and TractorNH. Our Weld Shop at work was pretty much out of things to do. With that opportunity, it made sense to let someone with a lot of...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[dstig1]

Fallon has it right. Floating a snowplow on a FEL with the FEL float doesn't work. Too heavy. You need to float the blade separately like he did

 

[CH4Ohio]

Look at a truck-mounted plow and try to duplicate that setup. Easy to do really and you can buy old plow assemblies cheap. (Won't look as good as yours, but it will work better.) You need to be able to lower a SSQA plate near the ground but carry the plate and your loader -- don't float it. The plow should just pin to the SSQA plate and hang from a chain so it can float. Snow plows are MUCH lighter than that big blade for a reason. Yours is set up rigid so you'll never be able to let that "float" properly -- you'll constantly be trying to tweak it and keep it barely off the ground. You need to be able to lower (float) your plow ONLY and just drive.


See how this mounts just like it would to a truck? Two pins attach the A-Frame at the bottom and a chain lifts the plow or lets it float along the ground without putting the weight of the loader on the plow itself. This is the same geometry and setup you'd get with a truck-mount -- just don't need the electric/hydraulic pump unit since you lift the plowblade using Roll/Curl function of your loader.

If you have your loader too high, you can still cause this to dig in more than it should. But if you carry it low, like if it was pinned to a truck-mount under a front-bumper, you'll have a nice angle-of-attack and can just drive.

This one could be a little "shorter" but I happened to use an old style A-Frame that I bought out of a Craigslist junk pile. Remember that FLOAT only works for the loader arms -- it won't let a rigid setup TILT (curl/roll) back -- a rigid attachment (without the chain) has a LOT of weight on it.

A few years ago there was a high school kid around here that was welding the ears and extension arm on SSQA plates and selling these. It pretty much allows you to take the plow-end off any truck plow and just pin it on.

 

[bdhsfz6]

To recap what others have said, add shoes and don't float.

Allowing the tractor to carry some of the plow weight increases front wheel traction and minimizes side deflection.

Keep your hand on the joystick and make changes on the fly. You get a feel for it eventually.

 

[SDT]

Caveat: Did not read earlier replies.

You have multiple problems, the most significant being that you have too much plow for your tractor. Too far forward and too heavy.

Additionally, you must use skid shoes if using float mode.

Yes, most llikely, you have the plow angled too aggressively (forward).

You may be able to buy a hard rubber or poly cutting edge for your plow but will most likely need to make your own from blank material. Such cutting edges will protect your asphalt to a degree but do not work well on uneven surfaces or crushed rock and do not last long. They are also expensive, especially at this time of year.

Your plow is better suited for plowing crushed rock and other light materials than for snow duty. I doubt that you will be able to make it suitable for plowing snow on asphalt with your tractor.

 

[Fallon]

Not sure if I agree that his plow is to bit, but it's distinctly possible. Ive thought mine is 6" maybe a foot to wide, but it works pretty decent for me 75% or the time. That 25% of the time for me includes 6+’ drifts. My bucket isn't really even suitable for those, hence the blower on the back. The best of both worlds. 75% of the time I plow as it's faster. Then I cleanup windrows or drifts with the blower.

My L4060 at Colorado altitude will be the same or weaker than his L3560 at sea level, with slightly bitter tires. I think mine is an 8' blade, but I haven't measured it in a while.

My silver plow is a lot bigger & heavier on my L4060 than my small yellow plow was on my old L3200. Most of the time I'd prefer a bit lighter of a plow. Loader float would fail on both, but the silver one just digs in more. It would even if that one had plow float. Good on placement, not so much on gravel.

 

[Fallon]

Does your plow have a trip edge? Realized I couldn't see one. Plow blades have the cutting edge or whole mouldboard on a sprint. So when you hit something the sprint let's the edge or whole plow pop offer the obstacle safely & keep going. There should also be a crossover relief valve on the mantle. So if the front corner of your plow catches on something the relief calc pops & the plow antlers. Otherwise a hose or the plow blows up.

 

[Jchonline]

You guys are awesome! So much insight.

@Captain Dirty - you hit on the second issue I've run into that I was going to ask about once this first item was figured out:


- My driveway is pretty long and VERY crowned. It's almost 30 years old and has a nasty peak in the middle and the fact that this plow is so wide means that it only really skims the middle of the driveway. It moves most of the snow off but unforunately what's left behind is, ya know, what people drive on.

I had the idea of a heavily angled box blade dragged behind on a final pass, but now that you mention the angle when angled, I'm going to go measure the height and see if maybe there's a sweet spot I can find to get those nooks and crannies. Lots to learn here, thanks everyone!

You have a front blade designed for concrete or very flat surfaces (as all straight front blades are). Can you drive on the far right 1/2 of the drive for pass 1 and back down the other far side for pass 2?

 

[Zork]

My ground rarely freezes so I typically use a walk behind blower. But, recently I saw a rig on YouTube with an EXTRA set of shoes and I'm going to try that for the unfrozen tundra driveway of ours