Steiner / Ventrac attachments quick plate?

[Frank Sorbello]

Was wondering if any Power Trac owner has ever made a quick attach plate that adapts to Steiner and Ventrac attachments, or if it is even possible.

 

[coolconnection]

I had my Steiner tractor stolen and was left with my leaf blower. I converted it to a quick attach plate by cutting off the steiner stuff. I pulled off the pulley and replaced with a hydraulic motor. Steiner and Ventrac stuff is all (belt) pulley powered while Power trac is hydraulic so unless you have something that don't need to be powered by a belt it could work ok. I always wondered what if the mower deck could be converted to a hydraulic system if it would work well or be to underpowered for a side discharge. What attachments are you thinking of for a power trac. Steiner used to have loads of attachments but it looks like they got rid of some but Ventrac has quite a few.

 

[Frank Sorbello]

I have a power rake. pallet mover and power blade that I would like to use with my 422.

 

[coolconnection]

I looked up your items and on the power rake you will have to replace the gear box with a hydraulic motor and have it hooked up to the PTO and the leveler should just hook up the your auxiliary PTO. I think you could do the pallet mover but I feel you would be better served to just sell them at a good price and buy power trac forks with the money. You can convert the blade but it would take some cutting or some fabricating to make it doable. You will probably will have to cut off the steiner attachment forks and weld on a power trac quick attach plate in their place. That is what I did to my leaf blower. I have some pictures of it here on tractor by net along with 2 videos. If your handy at welding make your own quick attach plate. I did this for my samurai sickle bar I use on my Power trac. I am not a good welder but it holds together just fine.

 

[3238dpw]

Cool connection, You haven't posted pics of the sickle yet. I would love to see this. While you are at it any other attachments you have. You seem like the kind of guy who makes a lot of his own attachments.

 

[coolconnection]

I know and I hope to get around to it sometime. I like to design, this is what I do for my job. I design knives and hand tools.

 

[Frank Sorbello]

You think a quick attach plate could be modified to accept steiner and ventrac attachments?

 

[coolconnection]

Yes I think you could but I think they would stick out a little futher than some of power tracs but it depends on the attachment. Belt driven attachments will be a challenge to figure out on their connections.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Pt is a pretty crappy machine for pushing when in float mode which I think you would want for a snow blade?

Mabe creat a rig where the lower arms connect directly to the body and the pt lift arm acts as a top link?

Hmmmmmmmmm. May rethink my landplane design

 

[MossRoad]

Pt is a pretty crappy machine for pushing when in float mode which I think you would want for a snow blade?

Mabe creat a rig where the lower arms connect directly to the body and the pt lift arm acts as a top link?

Hmmmmmmmmm. May rethink my landplane design

The PT snow plow pushes just fine on pavement and the plow has wheels that work great on gravel and grass.

 

[cqaigy2]

The PT snow plow pushes just fine on pavement and the plow has wheels that work great on gravel and grass.

Yep, the wheels are the "magic sauce" for the push blade.

 

[SpringHollow]

8' v-plow works fine on the loader arms on my PT 1850. So do the regular snow plows. It is not the same as trying to use a blade as a dozer blade.

Ken

 

[Industrial Toys]

I was just looking at Power Tracs. Why on Gods Green Earth would they not have employed a standard skid steer attachment system?

 

[SpringHollow]

With the PT system, you do not have to leave the seat for unpowered attachments. A regular skid steer plate would be huge on a smaller PT and would block visibility, limit lifting capacity, etc plus the PT plate encourages you to buy PT attachments.

Ken

 

[coolconnection]

Frank, I was thinking I am not sure of the width of the ventrac or Steiner attachment forks, might just be able to make and weld the fork arms right to a power trac plate. Just need to figure out how to clamp to the pins that stick out. Shouldn't be too hard but I think your setup will be a manual clamp on versus a hydraulic one for simplicity but it could be doable.

 

[Industrial Toys]

To me, standard is a HUGE selling feature. I spent years trying to find Gravely walk behind attachments and now Steiner! Maybe the only good thing is that they are in demand if you want to get rid of them. But then, they are special so not so many people are looking for them. My steiner came from a Rich customer who went to the dealer and bought the machine and seven attachments!

 

[SpringHollow]

Easy to weld or bolt a PT plate to a skid steer plate. My mini hoe and my 3 pt adapter are done that way.

Ken

 

[MossRoad]

I was just looking at Power Tracs. Why on Gods Green Earth would they not have employed a standard skid steer attachment system?

A few thoughts on that....
Skid steer attachments weigh too much for the 400 series units.
For the larger units, if they make the skid steer attachment system standard, people won't buy attachments from Power Trac... they'll buy used skid steer attachments. Its a good business model and they don't seem to be suffering any side effects from it.

 

[ponytug]

For better and worse, the PT quick attach plate is smaller and lighter. That's great for maximizing capacity. Adding a "standard" skid-steer plate shaves 2-300lbs off the load capacity, and perhaps more since the attachments have larger plates.

What you give up is lateral strength and rigidity. For me, and I suspect most PT owners, it is an easy choice.

If a skid-steer or a dozer could what I need, I would have bought one. For what I need, the PT series is unequaled globally, except perhaps for the Swiss Aebi, which is out of my price range, but it is a personal decision that come down to very local needs and uses.

All the best,

Peter

 

[woodlandfarms]

End of the day I own only one legit PT attachment out of 10... My mower. Everything else is third party.