Thinking of building a snow plow set-up for skid steer

[MFWD]

Hello,
I'm thinking of building a snow plow set-up for my skid steer because I'm tired of plowing with my bucket. The bucket works, but I think a regular snow plow blade would work much better. Here are my thoughts : first buy a quick attachment plate to mount the plow frame onto, I'm thinking 5/16" or 3/8" thick. Then I would build the frame that the snow plow blade attaches to.....this is where it becomes a little sketchy. I have a plow mount from a truck that someone gave me and I think I could modify it to work, but I'm not sure what the best set-up looks like. Then I will probably buy a new Meyers Diamond plow blade from a snow plow business in Reading Pa. They have new ones , 7' wide with the spring loaded bottom, for $500. I've been told that it is a good price. Now one of the big questions I have for you folks is about making it a manual operated swing, left and right. Do any of you have one that you have to manually move to the left or right, not done with hydraulics ? Is it hard to do, being that it might be caked up with snow or frozen with ice. I don't want to complicate things with hydraulics and I can move it up and down to the correct height with the skid steer arms, all I need it to do is be able to swing left or right and be able to fix it in that position. Anybody have pictures that you can post so I can see the way the attachment to the blade is done. How about pictures of how it swings left or right. Any and all help and comments will be appreciated. Thanks.


MFWD

 

[Fallon]

I never had any frozen or jam issues on my manual truck plow on my L3200. I did have significant problems being frozen, resulting my new cabbed L4060. There is a curved track on the back of the frame. A pin attached to a lever will engage holes in the track to stay put. Move lever, releases pin, plow angles easily. It was designed that way, light little plowed for a small Jeep or something. Most bigger or heavier plows are going to be setup for a pair of single acting hydraulics or maybe 1 double acting (double acting are more compact & designed for a skid steer, but ually lack lateral float). You could probably replace hydraulics with some nested pipes & a pin to hold them together at a few select depths.

Old plow ran off with the L3200. Got a new SSQA Snow Dawg plow last year, but after 2 evenings at 5 degrees assembling it no snow showed up to actually use it.

I expect I might be rebuilding the brand mount to permit side to side float. I knew that when I got it though. My old yellow plow would pivot over 15 degrees to each side to follow road contour.

Both plows hang way out front. Definitely exert some leverage up there, but it wasn't unmanageable on the L3200, especially when I got chains up front. A skid steer is much more compact & doesn't have arms way out front though so you will be better off.

 

[Fallon]

Missed the attachments...

 

[FatTire]

1) That's a really good use for a Quick Hitch, smart idea.
2) MFWD, have you plowed snow very much with a manual blade? If so, then you know if you're OK with it. It becomes a real pain in the butt and also slows down the work more than one might expect. I had a complicated scheme for plowing in a particular order in an attempt to minimize how many times I had to swing the blade back and forth. But eventually you have to do it, and when the wind is blowing and slush is changing over to ice, it pretty much just sucks. Perhaps adding a cylinder (or two) and a spring (or two) would be worth it...

 

[Rustyiron]

Here's one that I built. It's a little more complicated than it could be but I built in some lateral swivel so that the blade will follow the ground better on "un flat" areas. Building the ssqa part is simple and I have a very heavy SS and can get a lot of snow, plus the blade is 9'6". You want hydraulics and with a SS it's easy. Just use the factory cylinders for the plow. I added a crossover valve for hose protection when I hit something.

This shows the side tilt, it moves this far the other way as well.
That center link telescopes allowing for "float" or down pressure controlled by the "bucket curl". Built out of sq tubing and a new "butchered" cheap HF top link.

 

[rmc125mx]

I know you said skid steer and I don't know if my setup will work for you, seeing as it tucks back under the loader. Wanted to keep it as close to the tractor as I can. It's a 7.5' Fisher. I didn't want to modify the plow to fit, seeing as I could hook up to any fisher blade if need be. It's built way too overkill but that's how I build lol.
It has a cushion valve which does work well! Highly recommend. I wanted float feature just as I had with my truck so I found a way to keep the chain. If I need down pressure, I just curl the bucket valve and the bumpers I put on contact the plow and make her back drag well. All power angle off of my 3rd function. Wouldn't have it any other way!

 

[MFWD]

Hello,
Thanks for all the replies and pictures.....I've gotten some good ideas, but keep them coming. The more pictures, the better !!!!! How about the price of the plow blade, sound ok ?????


MFWD

 

[Rustyiron]

There's a guy that advertises in Lancaster Farming that has a ton of "take off" plows (and caps), I think he's hooked up with some of the used car guy's that pull all that stuff off. Iirc he might be over around York. What I'm tring to say is if your plow guy want's a lot for a p/a plow, you might check around but your price is real good but believe me you want power angle. It's sooo easy with a SS and all you really need are a 2 hoses, FF couplers, and adapters to the cyls. The "crossover" or "cushion" valve is around $70 and will require 2 more short hoses but I have another blade for a SS that does not have one and I've been running it for over 10 years with no problem.

rmc; very nice job "tucking" the plow in under the loader!

 

[jimmysisson]

When I got my 2120 it came with a Fisher 7.5 cobbled from a pickup. PA is a necessity unless you're young and agile, maybe even then. Mine is worn enough so it follows the ground pretty well. I might not have built it like this, but the PO "threw it in" with the tractor purchase. I run the PA from the rear remotes - still much better than jumping up and down.
Jim

 

[Bfluery]

Nice setup, rmc125mx, any reason you ran the mounts underneath, was this to make it shorter? Also what size hoses are you running from your third function(I have the same fisher plow setup that I'm welding together onto a mount)? Also are you using a flow restricter to slow down the angle? Sorry for the multiple questions just building it up now