Gauge Wheels

[TomG]

I'm looking for a set of manually adjustable gauge wheels that can be bolted on to the side plates of my box scrapper and snow blower. The scrapper weighs under 700#.

A dealer just told me he went through his supplier catalogues and could find the wheels, but not a set with mounting plates etc. Can anybody suggest a supplier. Thanks.

 

[gerard]

Tom, I don't have your answer but would like to know if you find one! I priced guage wheels for my 6ft woods rake today and they are $146 each!! Thats almost what I paid for the rake!! I also plan on getting a 7ft blade and would like to be able to use the wheels on that too. Where did you find the wheels? I'm sure I could have some mounted brackets welded up if I could find a wheel assembly for a reasonable price. Anyone else out there have any ideas or run into similar problems??

 

[scruffy]

TomG, Gerard, if I am thinking correctly about what you are referring to, Harbor Freight has pneumatic wheels (10) with a swivel very cheap. Don't remember the price offhand, but I believe they were in the 10 to 20 buck range. Would not be hard to build the brackets for them out of 2" square stock for example. You can make them removable, and use them on a few different pieces of equipment.

 

[Rch]

http://www.lorenzomfg.com/guagewh.html has serious gauge wheels. This is a good resource site for making/modifying implements

RCH

 

[Hawgee]

Try checking out the trailer tongue type that fold or fixed. Infinite adjustment by screw and some fold out of way. The key would be getting big tire.

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I bought some swivel wheels from Northern and made adjustable brackets from square tubing. It was not very difficult. They are bolted on the back of my rake, and they make huge difference in how well the rake works. You can see a picture of the wheels mounted on the rake at:

http://www.his.com/~msimpson/tractor/hacker/rake.htm

In your post you said you wanted to bolt them to the sides of your box blade and snow blower. I would think that the wheels would work better mounted behind the implement than on the side.

Andy

 

[scruffy]

Andy, Your set up looks like what I had in mind! I must've seen a picture of your rake somewhere before and the idea stuck in my head due to its simplicity and effectiveness. Not to mentioned frugality! Ver-r-ry nice.

 

[TomG]

Thanks for the input guys. Good pic Andy. I should have suspected that I'll have to make my own mounts, since I don't need heavy duty for Cat I implements. Maybe this will get me going at rebuilding or replacing my old gas regulators. I never did learn electric welding.

Guess I also should re-think where to mount the wheels, especially for the blower. It's probably a good idea for the wheels to travel where the blower has already been. I also remember using the scrapper side-plates to make straight walls on shallow excavations. It doesn't seem like wheels on the scrapper side-plates wouldn't be a good idea either. It's good to think some, with a little help, before doing.

 

[Bird]

Andy, that's a very professional looking job! Well done.

Bird

 

[gordon]

Yea Bird he is good I looked a picture of the wheel weights that he made and they looked pretty darn good as well.
Good job name taken, oops I mean Andy!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Shame he doesn't live next door to me so when I pickup my new tractor he could help out on all the add-ons that need to be done./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Gordon

 

[gerard]

Andy, great pic and nice job!! I already printed it out and will be taking it to a friend to see about duplicating it. (I'd really like to do it myself but after having $$thousands in wood tools I just don't want to start down the metal working path and try ad accumulate all the metal cutting/shaping tools. Maybe when I have a bigger workshop.........)

 

[W5FL]

Tom, I don't know anything about snow blowers.

I can't visualize any reason that I would have for gauge wheels on a box blade. The tilt of the upper link is the real control for a box blade and a hydraulic top link really lets you get maximum use out of it. A gauge wheel on a rear blade would be very useful, although I doubt that I would add one, I can certainly see a lot of uses for it. Most of the gauge wheels that I have seen for 700# and up equipment are a solid tire set on a pretty heavy frame as the stresses are pretty high and the guage wheel is normally a single wheel. Look at a brochure for Rhino or Bush Hog or Woods for some good examples. Gauge wheels can be a lot lighter on a landscape rake. I would not mind having a set for mine, although I manage to get along nicely without one since the rake usually gauges pretty well in gravel and roadbase and other materials that I use if for. Landscape cleanup would require the gauge wheels to be really effective, but I do it once in a while and not daily as a landscaper would need to do.

 

[Bird]

Wen, it depends on what kind of box blade you're using. I think nearly all of us have 3-point box blades, but I know a fellow who has an 11' box blade; pull behind on the drawbar, and it has two hydraulically adjustable gauge wheels, and of course the wheels can be raised high enough that they don't even touch the ground or they can be lowered to lift the blade pretty high off the ground for towing to the work site. I helped in the tight spots with my little Kubota when we built a parking lot for the new fire station, and that box blade of his is really great.

Bird

 

[TomG]

Thanks for the info. My thinking about the uses for gauge wheels on a box scraper is for spreading gravel. What I'd like to do is pick up a box of gravel, float the 3ph, drive forward dragging the gravel, and then tilt the box up to start spreading the gravel. I have a hydraulic top link.

I was building up a pad for a construction trailer and a load of gravel was more or less spread on the pad by a dump truck. I did most of the leveling with the scraper and had to ride the 3ph a lot. However, I ended up doing most of the final spreading with the back of the loader bucket, and then went back to the scraper to finish and compact the gravel.

If there are other approaches, I'd be happy to hear of them. I just figured that gauge wheels might make a scraper more useful for final spreading. My scraper has a fixed rear blade. I have heard that ones with hinged rear blades are better for spreading. However, all things considered, I got the job done, and it was pretty enjoyable work. I just keep searching for easier ways to do things.

The idea with the snow blower is similar. There is a time before freeze up and after thaw when my gravel drive is sodden. The skids on my blower just dig into the gravel, and then the blower picks up a lot of gravel. During these times, I have to use my loader for snow removal, but loaders aren't great for dealing with very heavy snows. Attaching wide plates to the skids probably would be an easier solution, but I figured that if I got some wheels for the box scraper, they might work for the blower as well.