Rear Blade Rear blade for snow

[thcri]

Went out to TSC and looked at the one they had in stock. It was nice but for some reason I decided to drive down the road to a Fleet Farm. Hate that place they had one there a KK for the same price. It was 50 pounds heavier and had a stand. Not that I need the stand but the extra weight I thought was worth it. Brought it home and plowed my driveway and two neighbors.

I am extremely happy with it. We got 6" of snow last night with dome good drifts. The blade lifter some so will probably add some weight to it.

 

[diesel lover]

Went out to TSC and looked at the one they had in stock. It was nice but for some reason I decided to drive down the road to a Fleet Farm. Hate that place they had one there a KK for the same price. It was 50 pounds heavier and had a stand. Not that I need the stand but the extra weight I thought was worth it. Brought it home and plowed my driveway and two neighbors.

I am extremely happy with it. We got 6" of snow last night with dome good drifts. The blade lifter some so will probably add some weight to it.

Glad it worked out! We have a old blade that still works well! The slots are worn out, so the blade moves a lot. It is quite possibly 20 years old if not older. We have used it extensively for a 1/4 mile driveway and even have used it and angled it way down on one side like a one bottom plow to plant trees. Even the worst quality will get you several years of life! You have a good quality and only plan to use it to move snow so I think it will last a very long time for you! I went to our tsc to look at implements and they were sold out of them and everything else related with snow like I said. Sometimes it is better to use a back blade in tighter spaces and to use one on short driveways. If your tractor is 4 wheel drive you will have less chance of being pulled sideways. That has been the weakness with our 2 WD tractors. Enjoy

 

[thcri]

Well I do have 4 wheel drive but I am probably going to need chains. If on the level I am ok but do get pushed around a little bit. If I have any up climb I am screwed. I have the R4 tires and never been really happy with them on concrete.

So next purchase will be chains the are designed for concrete.

 

[Danny C]

Before you buy chains, read this thread about siping your tires: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/snow-removal/193438-cutting-groving-siping-r-4-a.html

 

[DocDryden]

I have had my jd 110 for about a year now. I had some concerns about traction with r4 tires but with the 4-wheel drive and the concrete driveway. I have not had a problem with snow.
I bought the blade used its a 6-way blade made by Bush Hog model 91-08 (same as Dirt Dog 91-08 & Rhino 850), (I also have a fel for the heavy snow).
The blade is 8 ft and weights about 850 lbs. It has hydraulics for the angle. I plan on adding a hydraulic cylinder for the right or left offset.





The photos below are from last year, before I added the blade




I will try to add some more photos of the tractor & the blade next time we get some snow

 

[Odonnks]

This set up works awesome for me. 7' blade, all hydraulic with a piece of slotted pipe over the cutting edge. http://s166.photobucket.com/user/GregBKH/media/20131228_121416_zps6bb73252.jpg.html

Greg, when you say slotted pipe over the cutting edge are talking PVC or Steel pipe and what diameter and does it stay in place with no fasteners?

Thanks.

 

[Piston]

Greg, when you say slotted pipe over the cutting edge are talking PVC or Steel pipe and what diameter and does it stay in place with no fasteners?

Thanks.

Greg,
I'm also curious about what pipe your using? I have an RBT 4096 that's just under 1k lbs or so and notice that it almost scrapes TOO good on the pavement, I'm scraping up pieces of my driveway (my driveway is old and cracked not nice and smooth). I do have skid shoes as well and haven't messed with those yet, only used the blade on one storm so far. Tomorrow will get another use and I'll try the skid shoes, but the pipe idea is interesting. I LOVE the full hydraulics!

 

[thcri]

Before you buy chains, read this thread about siping your tires: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/snow-removal/193438-cutting-groving-siping-r-4-a.html

Awesome. I will check into that.

 

[GregbkH]

Odonnks and Piston,
I used 2" black pipe (steel) on the cutting edge of my rear blade. I have 2 tabs welded on the back side of the slotted pipe that are fastened to 2 of the bolts that hold the cutting edge to the mold board. I'll post a picture when I get home. Another thing is that after a couple of seasons of plowing my 550 feet of driveway and 1/2 mile easement is that the pipe started to wear out. The gravel acts like sand paper. So then I took a piece of 2 1/2" black pipe and cut it in half the long way with a plasma cutter and stitch welded it to the original 2" black pipe. It was a perfect fit and I have a spare piece for when this one wears out in a couple of years.

Piston, you're right, with blades that are heavy like ours, they will definately get right down to the surface. That is where the skid shoes come in handy. I just lengthen the top link and rock the blade back onto the skid shoes a bit to take as much pressure off of the pipe as I need. If my gravel starts thawing and coming up when I plow, I lengthen the top link until I have a 1/2" gap between the pipe and the drive. I also do this if my drive turns to ice because that little layer of snow that is left gived me traction.

 

[s219]

I ended up picking up a TSC 6' blade before a snow storm hit Tuesday night. Was very tempted to wait and buy a good $800-1000 blade with tilt/slide/etc, but in the end the $350 blade at TSC won out because of availability, and I wasn't sure I'd ever use it for anything but snow so the basic features are OK.

We only got 4" (plus some drifts) but the blade worked great and saved a lot of hassle on my 700' gravel driveway. Even though temps never got above 20F yesterday, most of the driveway melted clear with sunlight by late afternoon thanks to the plowing (in contrast, our unplowed roads are a dam frozen mess right now and won't likely clear up until the weekend when it gets warmer).

I started with the FEL bucket down and pushing, but found I did just as well with it up and just using the rear blade. That may change with deeper snow. Also plowed without chains, and had no issues (driveway mostly flat, only a slight incline in one spot). In fact, for clearing in front of the garage, I put the tractor back in 2WD to gain better maneuverability! That may also change if we got more snow.

I used 1" PVC pipe over the cutting edge on the gravel driveway, and it worked great but wore through from making just three passes down the driveway. So I will need to do something more durable, or plan on replacing the pipe frequently. On the paved section near the garage, I got better results without the pipe in place. If I put on skis or skid shoes, I'll probably need to make them easy to flip out of the way.