Soft snow plow edges for asphalt

[WinterDeere]

Nice fab work! You definitely have a lot less weight on your plow edge than me, by maybe 3x or more. But I have about 2.25x more contact area with the 50% wider and 50% thicker piece of UHMW, so probably not too bad.

 

[GeneV]

Nice fab work! You definitely have a lot less weight on your plow edge than me, by maybe 3x or more. But I have about 2.25x more contact area with the 50% wider and 50% thicker piece of UHMW, so probably not too bad.

Oh thank u! Sounds like you have a way more capable plow than my little guy. Mines just for my driveway, I certainly couldn't take this thing out on the road, for instance.

 

[WinterDeere]

Not more cable, just wider and heavier. Mine's just for my driveway too, but it's 72" wide with dual cylinder hydraulic pivot, and mounted on a 320R loader, so it's pretty heavy. My goal when I got it was to be able to plow my 7000 sq.ft. of driveway in less than 20 minutes, and still get to work (nearly) on-time, after an overnight snow. Other than the parking areas at the house and barn, it can do the full 10 ft. width in one pass to the street and back.

 

[oosik]

If you have a rear blade, winterdeer, reverse the blade 180 degrees and plow that way. This DEFINITELY will not damage the asphalt. I do it this way if the driveway is still soft and I really need to clear snow.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

I don't understand why people fight their plows. Lowering your pucks relative to the plow will prevent the plow from digging into the surface of the road. See all the commercial guys plowing? That's what we do, we lower our pucks by adding shim washers.

 

[WinterDeere]

I don't understand why people fight their plows. Lowering your pucks relative to the plow will prevent the plow from digging into the surface of the road. See all the commercial guys plowing? That's what we do, we lower our pucks by adding shim washers.

Done. It is set at max height possible with the washers provided with the plow. But due to hilly drive and some tight turns, plow still found ways to dig in, esp the corners. I could raise it a even a hair further by buying a few more washers than the OEM kit, before I would need taller custom pucks, but then it wouldn’t do a good job at clearing the mixed frozen stuff we get. The UHMW edge seems like a better solution, but I guess we will soon find out.

 

[SARG]

Always options

 

[WinterDeere]

Always options

You caught my attention. What exactly is going on with that bucket? Looks like a bolt-on tooth bar, but with a hard cutting edge in place of the teeth? Not sure what those things are that look like mini curling stones, or why one is rotated 90 degrees relative to the other three.

 

[SARG]

You caught my attention. What exactly is going on with that bucket? Looks like a bolt-on tooth bar, but with a hard cutting edge in place of the teeth? Not sure what those things are that look like mini curling stones, or why one is rotated 90 degrees relative to the other three.

It's a "snow-edge" by Ratchet Rake that has a "sacrificial" edge to save the blacktop.
What I like about it is it makes a novice operator like me with a FEL much more proficient in that the angle can be ± 15 degrees without issue. ( the one toggle at 90 isn't tightened down yet ) And just to mention ... the edge is advertised to last 32 hours but I'm on my 5th season without much wear at all. ( Kinda makes me regret buying the spare edge )

Ratchet Rake, LLC - Tractor rake, Snow Edge, Tractor attachment, Bucket attachment, Loader, Skid loader, Kubota, Skid steer, Landscape rake, Brush remover, York Rake, Harley Rake, Rock Rake, Tractor rake attachment, Construction attachment, New Holla

 

[Stonehaller]

I have a SSQA plow on my loader and quickly discovered that floating the loader did not prevent the plow from digging into my gravel driveway. I added a float valve to the curl cylinders and that solved the problem. It's a manual valve that I have to remember to engage after setting the loader arms to the correct height and then disengage before raising the loader.

 

[WinterDeere]

I have a SSQA plow on my loader and quickly discovered that floating the loader did not prevent the plow from digging into my gravel driveway. I added a float valve to the curl cylinders and that solved the problem. It's a manual valve that I have to remember to engage after setting the loader arms to the correct height and then disengage before raising the loader.

Nice idea. Where did you install the valve? Any sketches or photos would be good for ideas, should others need to go that route.

I got my new UHMW edge mounted yesterday, as it was too rainy to do much outside:

 

[Stonehaller]

I mounted the valve on the right loader support bracket. Existing hoses from the loader valve go to hard lines on the right loader arm. I inserted tees where the curl function hoses connect to the hard lines. I then hosed from the tee to the float valve. I replaced an existing 90 deg fitting in the tank port on the loader valve with a tee and hosed the tank port of the float valve to that tee. When I pull the float valve it connects both sides of the curl cylinders to tank. The picture is looking down on the right loader arm.

 

[ruffdog]

I have a SSQA plow on my loader and quickly discovered that floating the loader did not prevent the plow from digging into my gravel driveway. I added a float valve to the curl cylinders and that solved the problem. It's a manual valve that I have to remember to engage after setting the loader arms to the correct height and then disengage before raising the loader.

Yes, then the plow float pivot (curl pins) are close to the ground vs the FEL pins which are very high. Interesting.

 

[WinterDeere]

Beautiful solution, @Stonehaller. Gonna keep this one in my back pocket, in case what I already have needs further improvement.

How's it handle the situation when the snow is sticky, and piles up to great weight in front of the plow? With the usual loader float, the tractor can "climb" up on the loader pivots, at some point when pushing resistance gets high enough. But with the curl pivots being lower to the ground, I'd think this is probably less of an issue, on your rig.

 

[Stonehaller]

If the gravel is not yet froze, I have to be careful as heavy loads can push the skids into the gravel. When this happens, I lower the loader a little which raises the blade edge and angles the skids to help push them back on top of the gravel. Once the gravel is frozen, I don't have this problem. I have a concrete pad in front of the garage. To remove hard packed snow stuck to the concrete, I can back drag with the loader raised enough to pivot the blade edge down to contact the concrete. So far, I have not had a condition where it actually lifts the front of the tractor. I do set the skids so the blade edge is up about 1.5 to 2 inches to keep it well clear of the gravel. I can adjust that some just by where I set the loader arms. I use a back blade too with a rubber horse mat edge. I use both together. The front blade pushes deep snow and drifts and the back blade cleans up what is left by the front.

 

[GeneV]

It's a "snow-edge" by Ratchet Rake that has a "sacrificial" edge to save the blacktop.
What I like about it is it makes a novice operator like me with a FEL much more proficient in that the angle can be ± 15 degrees without issue. ( the one toggle at 90 isn't tightened down yet ) And just to mention ... the edge is advertised to last 32 hours but I'm on my 5th season without much wear at all. ( Kinda makes me regret buying the spare edge )

Ratchet Rake, LLC - Tractor rake, Snow Edge, Tractor attachment, Bucket attachment, Loader, Skid loader, Kubota, Skid steer, Landscape rake, Brush remover, York Rake, Harley Rake, Rock Rake, Tractor rake attachment, Construction attachment, New Holla

View attachment 772145

Oh I had one of those! Yeh, for 300 bux, it does the job as far as protecting the driveway. A plow is better though in every way for managing snow.

Here's me using it: