Tiny tractor utv snow plow conversion.

[jjeff]

Recently bought and assembled a cheap Chinese 70" utv plow I'm planning to weld to a blank 1/4" qa front loader plate which I'll use on my 21hp subcompact tractor up north. Currently have it set up to be 71" wide majority of plowing is me keeping it angled. For clean up I usually straighten it out. Figure as of now I'll cut the plow tubes around where qa plate sits on them in pictures I can still manually angle plow to its max either way and it won't stick way out on qa plate. After this ill weld a pipe to cutting edge, possibly use heavier duty trip springs than What came with plow I have laying around collecting dust and possibly have to chain the front tractor tires. Tractors front tires are so tiny atv vbar chains will fit it lol Now questions seeing as loader attachment arms are completely hydraulically adjustable ie raising lowering ,curling plow, and float. is it going to matter much where I weld plow arms to qa plate? Low, high, or in the middle of qa plate? I kind of lucked out I'll be cutting plow arms very near a cross support plate on plow arms and it will still allow complete max angling of plow. Look forward to suggestions and insight. All welding will probably be done with 7018 rod they are by far produce the strongest welds I've ever done and I'll probably run some 8018 beads for hard facing pipe.

 

[jjeff]

So yesterday eve cut plow arms, welded plow to qa plate, put in a few simple gussets using scraps and pieces of cutoffs my welds are using 7018 electrode definitely not the easiest to put a good looking bead down for me anyway however I know the welds are super strong. Plow tubes are definitely thinner than 1/4" qa plate so a few burn thrus oh well. Tonight or tomorrow I'll cut a notch in pipe and weld it to cutting edge. I welded plow arms approx 2" higher than bottom of qa plate to mimic where it would sit on a sxs.

 

[jjeff]

So got a few things done last night. Cut notch in a pipe to weld to cutting edge on plow. Unfortunately last night on my plasma cutters torch, drag tip, electrode, swirl ring and cup finally met it's maker. Of course I overlooked having spare parts on hand however it's not to upsetting considering these are considered consumables and I got 7 yrs of intermittent use out of them. So I finished cutting pipe with my 4.5" cordless angle grinder and about 4 wafer wheels lol. Considering I'm almost done building this at a fraction of the price of what it would cost me to buy a manufactured qa subcompact plow it definitely helps me to justify buying tools I may or may not need to build something . Finished welding a few gussets on plow arms to qa plate I'm welding pipe to cutting edge and hard facing it with low hydrogen 8018 electrode cuz a buddy gave me several full containers of these electrodes and I don't really know what else to do with them. Looking forward to testing this plow out this winter on my subcompact up north. Oh yeah I tell people that ask, stepladders pink cuz they don't disappear as often as non pink stuff. Actually I used it as a stand to rattle can a homemade accessory for my daughters pink go kart.

 

[Runner]

Looking good! Bottom of the QA plate looks like where Curtis mounts their plows, so what you have should work great.

 

[jjeff]

Looking good! Bottom of the QA plate looks like where Curtis mounts their plows, so what you have should work great.
View attachment 4124644

Thanks, however I tend to over build certain things I never built before, definitely didn't waNt the qa dogs buried under snow lower than blade when plowing, and welding it a few inches above bottom of it gave me extra room to use longer gussets. a friend asked me if I made a sheer point on it so it might fail there instead of possibly bending loader Arms if I'm plowing a heavy snow or I hit something hard. It still has functional trip springs and I'm still amazed how much a simple pipe aids in preventing cutting edge digging even if it's kind of time consuming and inefficient for me anyway notching groove in pipe with a grinder instead of plasma cutter though. One of these days I might weld angle iron brackets to pipe, drill, and thru bolt it into existing holes used by cutting edge. Hopefully my prototype on conversion doesn't require significant mods when it's finally up there.

 

[Runner]

Thanks, however I tend to over build certain things I never built before, definitely didn't waNt the qa dogs buried under snow lower than blade when plowing, and welding it a few inches above bottom of it gave me extra room to use longer gussets. a friend asked me if I made a sheer point on it so it might fail there instead of possibly bending loader Arms if I'm plowing a heavy snow or I hit something hard. It still has functional trip springs and I'm still amazed how much a simple pipe aids in preventing cutting edge digging even if it's kind of time consuming and inefficient for me anyway notching groove in pipe with a grinder instead of plasma cutter though. One of these days I might weld angle iron brackets to pipe, drill, and thru bolt it into existing holes used by cutting edge. Hopefully my prototype on conversion doesn't require significant mods when it's finally up there.

You will probably be running a forward tilt to the blade most of the time to keep it from digging in too much, so that should also help keep the hardware from digging in.

 

[jjeff]

You will probably be running a forward tilt to the blade most of the time to keep it from digging in too much, so that should also help keep the hardware from digging in.

Slight Forward tilt with float engaged I'm thinking. I do think I can't tilt it to much when it's angled though or the full length wont be plowing snow somewhat evenly or efficiently. Anyways definitely looking forward to using this setup.

 

[jjeff]

Finished welding pipe on cutting edge, hard coating on bottom of pipe in a criss cross pattern hopefully get it painted today. Won't post on this thread until it's actually up north plowing to say how it works.