Rear Blade rear blade guage wheels

[dougj7]

Just got my rear blade back from the welder. He welded on a set of guage wheels. At the lowest setting, the blade is a bit higher than I expected. What is the optimum blade height for snow removal on a gravel driveway?

 

[dknarnd]

I plow on gravel all the time with a rear blade, just turn the blade around backwards if it gives you trouble pulling the gravel off the drive.

 

[Hooked_on_HP]

I would want 1/2 in between the blabe and the gravel. After looking at your pictures I think you have a problem. The only way you can lower your blade is by making the top link shorter. When you do that and angle your blade one side is going to dig in and the other side will be way up in the air. If you want to level the drive in the spring you want to be able to put the blade into the gravel.

 

[kubotabilly]

Doug,
I'll have to agree with Bill, I think you may have to make a trip back to the welding shop. The blade is way too high and it doesn't look like you have too much adjustment left. Are they factory gauge wheels? It looks like they may be installed upside down. I would think that the curved portion of the bracket should be down to coinside with the round tire, allowing for more adjustment. Just my opinion. I have skid shoes on my Woods blade and I can adjust them from 0 to 3 inches by adding or subtracting the bushings.

Bill

 

[bigdad]

Doug,

I too would have the welder take another look at the height and adjustment. I have a Woods just like yours (with gauge wheels). I run them about 1/4" off of the surface with success.

Good luck!

BD

 

[ovrszd]

Doug,
I'll have to agree with Bill, I think you may have to make a trip back to the welding shop. The blade is way too high and it doesn't look like you have too much adjustment left. Are they factory gauge wheels? It looks like they may be installed upside down. I would think that the curved portion of the bracket should be down to coinside with the round tire, allowing for more adjustment. Just my opinion. I have skid shoes on my Woods blade and I can adjust them from 0 to 3 inches by adding or subtracting the bushings.

Bill

Bummer, I think Bill is right, they are welded on upside down. In Missouri our snow has a lot of moisture in it. I also think these wheels are too wide for my use. They would ride up on the snow that goes under the blade, this will raise the blade and the process will continue to repeat itself and lift the blade. I tried a narrower tire than this and gave up. Went back to skids.

 

[Toolguy]

I think those wheels will work just fine if they are raised up so you can put the blade on the ground. You don't need much clearance under the blade to keep it from digging in the gravel. 1/4" of clearance should be enough but you need to be able to adjust the wheels so you can find out what setting works best. You also want to be able to adjust the wheels to be above the bottom of the blade so you can use it to skim off a high spot if you ever use it on dirt. The guy that welded them on for you may be a good welder but he obviously does not know anything about gauge wheels and scraper blades. It will never work the way it is now. Good luck.

 

[dougj7]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. It looks like I will have to raise the guage wheels in order for them to be effective.

 

[cowpie1]

When I got my Woods RB72, I got the optional skids that bolt right on by replacement of one blade bolt on each side. Not sure what you paid, but I can only guess the skids would have saved you some pesos. They are adjustable for height and work great on my gravel drive. Also a hydraulic toplink helps with fine tuning the blade gap on the fly.

 

[dougj7]

I mounted my rear blade and made a slight modification to the guage wheel mounts. Does the clearance look acceptable for snow removal? The bottom edge of the blade is about 1/2" off the ground.

 

[Hooked_on_HP]

Doug have you tried angleing the blade to a sharp angle. I see that the frame of the blade is tiped down in the front. It should be close to level. You may be able to pull the rear pin and let the blade float from side to side when you need to angle it. You are geting alot closer.

 

[kubotabilly]

I mounted my rear blade and made a slight modification to the guage wheel mounts. Does the clearance look acceptable for snow removal? The bottom edge of the blade is about 1/2" off the ground.

Doug,
I agree with Bill, your getting there. You need a few tweeks yet. On my Woods blade, I try to get the main beam of the plow to run about level. You can do this by adjusting your top link. This adjustment will allow the blade edge to run at the proper angle to the ground. I see the adjustment you made and I think you could cut out more if needed. Stay with it, your almost there .

Bill

 

[JerryG]

Doug,
You do know that your welder put the brackets on upside down?

 

[bigdad]

Doug,

Looks pretty good! Now with a little snow you can fine tune it. By March you'll be a PRO!

Big Dad

 

[bigdad]

Doug....

I forgot to agree with "Hooked"...... When you get your first snow try what he suggested about pulling the back pin so that the blade will float from side to side. The weight of that bugger will keep it down but with the pin pulled it will follow slopes etc. (Don't forget to replace the pin for transport)

I've done that and it works pretty well.

 

[JerryK]

You don't need wheels or skid plates to push snow. I live in an area where we mostly blow snow, but I push at the start of the season with a 420 20hp JD with a 54" front blade. Most blades are made with a bolted on wear surface at the bottom, with the bolts that attach it sticking out of the non-working side of the blade. On my JD blade, these bolts were only about 1 1/2 inches from the bottom cutting edge of the blade. So I took a 54" piece of 1 1/2" used black schedule 40 plastic pipe, slit it the full lenght on a tablesaw, and slid it onto the blade. It's kind of hard to start, you have to spread it out a bit to get it started, then pound it completely on with a mallet. But once you get it on, you can zoom down your gravel driveway and not scalp a bit. The plastic will last for years, it never hardly ever gets nicked when there is snow to lubricate it. I've seen people use metal ones made out of steel pipe on commercial plows, but the plastic ones are cheap and easy to make. You might have to go with bigger pipe for different made blades. And if it get real cold, you could probably crack the plastic, but I never have. And if you do, plastic pipe is cheap. Works for me.

 

[schmism]

from looking at it i would say the welder messed up.

first he welded them upside down... then when he was finished and went to set it up, he noticed that they were upside down... then the castors wouldnt piviot, so he put the spacers in.

id suggest fabing up some skid shoes that use the same mounts...then you can adjust however you need.

but it does look like you wound up with something that will work.

 

[JerryK]

Measure the distance between the bottom [cutting edge] and the top of the nuts on the back of the blade that holds your cutting edge on. This looks to be three or four inches in the picture. Go to Home Depot and purchase a 10' lenght of schedule 40 PVC [sewer pipe] that has an ID slightly bigger than this measurement [just close, no mic's needed]. Measure the lenght of your blade and whack off a piece of pipe the same lenght. Set the blade on your table saw so it sticks up 1/2" or so. Set the fence so you can rip a cut down the center of the pipe, and then rip the pipe end to end. Take a big screwdriver, pry the slit in the pipe open on one end, and force it over the end of your blade. Once you get it started, you can drive it on the rest of the way with a big rubber mallet. Once you get it on, it will stay where you put it by the nuts. Now go try your blade on some snow. The rounded edge of the pipe will protect the entire lenght of the blade and it is almost impossible to tear up your lawn or gravel driveway. It cleans down pretty good too, due to the weight of the blade. Give it a try, only cost you less than $5 and fuel.

 

[JerryK]

Sorry about the '$5 and fuel'. It's been awhile since I've bought 4" PVC pipe. The method I described above works best if you can stick with around 1 1/2" ID, 2" OD pipe. As the pipe sizes get bigger, the 'clamping force' of the split pipe decreases, and it could slide on the blade. The larger sizes probably tend to ride over the snow more, depending on blade width and weight. Likewise, the smaller you go, the higher the clamping forces, and I'd like to see someone try to slit a 1/2" pipe and slide it on without breaking. The metal pipes that are on comercial rigs are usually held on by metal tabs on the ends that are bolted to the blade face.