Snow plow- solid connection or chain suspension??

[Red Horse]

Ok guys. Went to the scrap bin and got a piece of sched. 40 pipe (that already had a bottom plate plus a heavy 3 x 3 plate. Plate is tacked in place and the sched 40 is sitting on it for fitting.

Tomorrow I will tack it together. that lifgt arm by the way is heavy wall tube stock so unless I go crazy with the down pressure should not have any durability issues.

 

[94BULLITT]

Attached is a shot of my 7' Fisher. I'm thinking of eliminating the lifting chain and replacing it with a solid steel connection so I have down pressure vs floating blade.

Any opinions out there? I plow on asphalt, asphalt millings, and gravel.

I have a snow plow that mounted solid. I don't like it, it is for sale. The main problem with it is it's to heavy. The blade weighs 750lbs then some of weight of the loader is also riding on the skid shoes too. Where I live it is not uncommon to get snow and the ground not be frozen or at least frozen very hard. I can let the skids all the way down and they will just sink all the way in and the cutting edge will start digging in. The next problem is you have to run your loader in float. With the loader in float the weight of the loader is on the blade not on the tractor and when you start to push snow the front end gets light on the tractor. When I start to push snow I can actually see the cylinders on the loader retract a little so weight is leaving the front axle. So now my front end is light and 4WD is not going to be effective as it should be and the tractor is hard to steer. The tractor will also slide sideways with the blade angled much. Now a lot of people seem to think you can pick the blade up a inch or two and plow like that. That idea sounds great if your are sitting behind a keyboard but it does not work that way in the real world on gravel, you could do that on blacktop. With the blade sticking 5' or so out in front of the tractor and if you raise it a inch then you run over a little bump it is going to be digging in. Down pressure would be nice if your were trying to clear a parking lot with hard packed snow. If you have the need for down pressure I suggest you make something you can install and remove easily from the blade so you can still use it in its current configuration.

 

[Ford850]

I have a snow plow that mounted solid. I don't like it, it is for sale. The main problem with it is it's to heavy. The blade weighs 750lbs then some of weight of the loader is also riding on the skid shoes too. Where I live it is not uncommon to get snow and the ground not be frozen or at least frozen very hard. I can let the skids all the way down and they will just sink all the way in and the cutting edge will start digging in. The next problem is you have to run your loader in float. With the loader in float the weight of the loader is on the blade not on the tractor and when you start to push snow the front end gets light on the tractor. When I start to push snow I can actually see the cylinders on the loader retract a little so weight is leaving the front axle. So now my front end is light and 4WD is not going to be effective as it should be and the tractor is hard to steer. The tractor will also slide sideways with the blade angled much. Now a lot of people seem to think you can pick the blade up a inch or two and plow like that. That idea sounds great if your are sitting behind a keyboard but it does not work that way in the real world on gravel, you could do that on blacktop. With the blade sticking 5' or so out in front of the tractor and if you raise it a inch then you run over a little bump it is going to be digging in. Down pressure would be nice if your were trying to clear a parking lot with hard packed snow. If you have the need for down pressure I suggest you make something you can install and remove easily from the blade so you can still use it in its current configuration.

Well said.
The weight of the loader arms plus the plow is way too much for my gravel drive. Maybe on smaller blades you would want more down pressure, but on larger blades the weight of the blade is plenty. My blade floats on a chain and I have never needed more that the weight of the plow to scrape concrete clean. Even when pulling deep snow away from the garage door in reverse, I get a nice clean scrape.

 

[zzvyb6]

No keyboard or mice on my tractor. I run positive down force via solid connection, about 1 inch above the gravel using the puck skids and usually run about 30 - 45 degree plow angle. Plow floats 99% of the time but in some areas (usually in reverse gear at the garage doors) I like a solid contact.

The key notion is to wait for the gravel and asphalt millings to pack down and freeze before you start pushing deep snow off of it. Heck, I even plow my driveway in the Summer with my rig to level out the ruts made by folks leaving scared.

 

[amigauser]

I run a solid plow mount but this is for my personal asphalt driveway and the whole blade flips forward if anything solid is hit. I basically had an old plow cut and welded to a Q/A skid steer type plate. The plate is welded right past where the plow angles (the plow ears were cut off as close to the angle part as possible), so it does not stick out much. It is a manual angle and I general plow with it straight like a bull dozer. It would not be good for loose material like gravel plowing but works fine on my driveway. I like the down force to scrape the surface clean.

 

[94BULLITT]

Well said.
The weight of the loader arms plus the plow is way too much for my gravel drive. Maybe on smaller blades you would want more down pressure, but on larger blades the weight of the blade is plenty. My blade floats on a chain and I have never needed more that the weight of the plow to scrape concrete clean. Even when pulling deep snow away from the garage door in reverse, I get a nice clean scrape.

Thanks, a solid mounted plow on a smaller tractor like a BX probably would not dig in because the loader and plow are so light.

The key notion is to wait for the gravel and asphalt millings to pack down and freeze before you start pushing deep snow off of it.

Waiting for it to freeze is not always an option. It is 43* here now.

 

[Red Horse]

Ok guys- here is finished product. And I agree with all the comments about floating blades on loader arms, shock etc etc. If money and space were no object I would rather have a direct frame mount plow. As a mattrer of fact one of my kids has a 2520 Deere and I made him a nice hydraulic plow set up for his loader similar to mine-he wasn't satisfied and found a used frame mounted Deere plow assembly on Craigs-much better.

I would also add, I'm not one of these guys that has his firewood all cut and stacked ahead of time for the winter. So all season long I'm constantly swapping out bucket, grapple or plow. A loader mounted plow is a quick swap.

In any case MNBobcat, thx for the idea.

 

[Ford850]

Looks good. You have the best of both. I didn't realize it, until re-reading your earlier post, that you have a poly edge. Maybe that is why it needs a little more force to scrape. On mine, sometimes I lift the FEL another foot and droop (dump) the blade down to alter the angle of the edge and it scrapes better.

 

[Red Horse]

Looks good. You have the best of both. I didn't realize it, until re-reading your earlier post, that you have a poly edge. Maybe that is why it needs a little more force to scrape. On mine, sometimes I lift the FEL another foot and droop (dump) the blade down to alter the angle of the edge and it scrapes better.

I'm sure that poly edge has a fraction of the weight of a steel edge. And like you. like I said I would "droop" the blade to the degree whole moldboard would be flat on the ground-and it will still ride up on the heavy wet stuff. Hopefully this will do the trick.

By the way, this is a 7' Fisher and would you believe they don't carry a 7' edge anymore.

 

[Red Horse]

UPDATE! Well guys we finally got some plowable snow. thing works like a charm. On my main common drive-asphalt millings- letting the blade float as usual. On the paved leg that goes up to my house used it to back blade away from the garage doors. Best of both worlds. And I have a poly cutting edge so I imagine if I had a conventional steel cutting edge, the clean up would have been even better.

Thx again MN-Bobcst for the idea