Skid Steer snow plow, Fixed or Floating?

[Guinelle1]

my father just purchased an mx6000 last year, wants a snow plow with angle. prices are insane like everything else. i have an old western 8' and planned on welding a SSQA to it and putting new cylinders on it. everything i can read online people are back and forth if i should mount it like a truck with the pins and floating chain, or just weld it solid and be done with it. most skid steer plows you can purchase are all solid mounted. (no floating) but was wondering anyone that has used one or the other on a actual tractor might be a different story. my father is adamant to keep it floating like on a truck but its honestly gonna add a decent amount more fab and id rather just weld it solid and be done with it. any opinions are appriciated!

 

[Fallon]

32hp L3200. I picked up a yellow manual angle plow & dabbed up a mount using a 3pt quick hitch welded to a SSQA plate. Loved the float, but it stuck out way to far. To much leverage to push me to the side. Sold that plow with thel machine when I upgraded to the cabbed L4060hstc (40hp).

I now have a stainless hard mount hydraulic plow. Beefier & a bit closer to the tractor, but still hangs out a ways. I really miss float on my old plow, but it does the job. I keep dreaming about building a hinged mount under the SSQA plate to get me float & pull the plow in tighter. Somebody else has a thread on here about a build like that & keeps taunting me with his good engineering & competent fabrication skills. For the past 5? Years the hard mount has been ok enough to keep the float project at bay.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I have a hard mount Landpride 8' SSQA plow on my L6060. I added a third plow shoe under the center of the frame to keep the FEL arms off the ground and use the FEL float setting. Not quite as good as a floating blade but it does the job.

 

[Guinelle1]

32hp L3200. I picked up a yellow manual angle plow & dabbed up a mount using a 3pt quick hitch welded to a SSQA plate. Loved the float, but it stuck out way to far. To much leverage to push me to the side. Sold that plow with thel machine when I upgraded to the cabbed L4060hstc (40hp).

I now have a stainless hard mount hydraulic plow. Beefier & a bit closer to the tractor, but still hangs out a ways. I really miss float on my old plow, but it does the job. I keep dreaming about building a hinged mount under the SSQA plate to get me float & pull the plow in tighter. Somebody else has a thread on here about a build like that & keeps taunting me with his good engineering & competent fabrication skills. For the past 5? Years the hard mount has been ok enough to keep the float project at bay.

View attachment 1929976View attachment 1929977View attachment 1929978

cool setup, yes i plan on cutting the a frame down as short as possible as the length overall is what ive heard is the biggest issue...

 

[Rustyiron]

Your terrain pretty much dictates to float or not. Pretty paved driveway without drastic "rolling" surfaces, rigid will be fine.
Undulating dirt/gravel you'll want float. Floating is also more friendly to your loader and without float it will take much more influence from obstacles, the ground, etc before it actually raises the loader to clear that resistance as compared to the intended design.... hanging on the front of a pickup.

 

[mrmikey]

I'd prefer floating.
I'd seen a pic of a setup somewhere, can't remember where but the snow plow was mounted to the front of the tractor below the loader arms directly to the frame thru two pivot pins, same setup as a truck mounted plow. The lift for the plow was a chain from the bucket to the push frame of the plow. Plow still had angle, the chain gave it the float and less than 5 minutes you could unhook the plow and have the loader only. If I remember correctly, the angle was bucket curl system thru a quick connect, either bucket curl or plow angle. it looked actually better than it sounds.

 

[Gordon Gould]

For my long gravel road that is not always frozen float like a truck plow is way better. I used a standard old Fisher truck plow and mounted the push plate below and behind the SSQA plate to get the blade close to the tractor.

More work but in my situation well worth it

gg

 

[rScotty]

More work to float it, but worth it.

 

[ruffdog]

This guy makes them short and floating. You can also pin it if you need down pressure too. I like the design.

 

[Rustyiron]

Here's one that I made almost 10 years ago.
Note the tube in tube that has limited travel for float. Tilt far enough and hit the bump stops and you have down pressure.

Snowplow design with float & d/p.

I've been making converted p/u truck snowplows for tractors & SS's for a while using this design that allows for float (normal) action along with down pressure. Notice the tube in tube with the welded stops on what could be called the "top link". If you can't see in the pics, you curl in the...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[Gordon Gould]

Down pressure here too. Just dump the SSQA plate to collapse the chain and make contact with the A frame.

gg

 

[Cycledude]

Hard for me to imagine not wanting the ability to float .

 

[m5guy]

I used the mount for a pickup and welded it to the skid steer plate. Used a chain for float. It does stick out kinda far. Heavy snow will push you to the side sometimes. That's when the blower comes in handy. Tire chains would help with that though.

 

[oosik]

I have a mile long gravel driveway. It drives fairly smooth in the summer. Plowing snow in the winter - you find all the "stuff" that really makes it a gravel driveway.

I use a rear blade on the 3-point. It's a type of floater. Rigid mount would definitely tear something up and it wouldn't be the driveway.

 

[CH4Ohio]

You definitely want it to float -- suspended on a chain. You wouldn't mount a solid fixed blade to the front of your truck. By hanging it on a chain, only the weight of the blade is riding across the snow. If solid / fixed mounted -- you have to float your loader so you add the extra 1000 pounds or so of the loader to the weight of the blade.

Just bolt or weld an arm with a hook on the end extending out from the SSQA plate -- just like you'd see on a truck mount. The geometry is best if your chain hangs pretty much vertical when in use.

As others have mentioned, a fixed setup is a recipe to tear up your blade or loader or whatever you hit that breaks first.

I know that there are a lot of comments about the blade being too far out front. I get it, but if it's pushing you sideways you need more weight / traction or you're going too fast or you simply have too much blade for your tractor. I think the plow up front and snowblower on the back is the best combination for the relatively few hours needed each year.

 

[John_Mc]

For my long gravel road that is not always frozen float like a truck plow is way better. I used a standard old Fisher truck plow and mounted the push plate below and behind the SSQA plate to get the blade close to the tractor.

View attachment 1930036


More work but in my situation well worth it


View attachment 1930037

gg

The under-slung blade such as Gordon showed is definitely the way to go. You don't want the weight of the loader arms interfering with the float of the blade. Moving the pivot point back behind the SSQA plate avoids the problems caused by having the blade way out in front of the tractor: less leverage trying to push the front end sideways when the blade is angled, and not as cumbersome to maneuver.

 

[ruffdog]

 

[Fallon]

You definitely want it to float -- suspended on a chain. You wouldn't mount a solid fixed blade to the front of your truck. By hanging it on a chain, only the weight of the blade is riding across the snow. If solid / fixed mounted -- you have to float your loader so you add the extra 1000 pounds or so of the loader to the weight of the blade.

Just bolt or weld an arm with a hook on the end extending out from the SSQA plate -- just like you'd see on a truck mount. The geometry is best if your chain hangs pretty much vertical when in use.

As others have mentioned, a fixed setup is a recipe to tear up your blade or loader or whatever you hit that breaks first.

I know that there are a lot of comments about the blade being too far out front. I get it, but if it's pushing you sideways you need more weight / traction or you're going too fast or you simply have too much blade for your tractor. I think the plow up front and snowblower on the back is the best combination for the relatively few hours needed each year.

View attachment 1930357

I've got an 8' plow on my machine. Should probably have a 7 or 7.5', but it's what was in stock locally when I got it. It's worked ok enough for the past 7ish years I haven't cut it down or traded it out. But you can feel the leverage with it hanging out that far ahead. I ran just the blade for a couple years, but picked up the blower as well. Much nicer to have the blower to handle big drifts or windrows. A sub optimal blade is only a mild inconvenience now. You plow faster with a blade than a blower, but the blower will do a number of things the plow won't.

I have a client with a slightly smaller JD tractor & front blower rear back blade combo. The blower up front is nicer to use, but not as fast as my plow. The back blade is kind of useful for scraping the pavement clean, but not critical.

Loader float is useless, it just puts way to much weight on the plow & it digs in.