What have you done with/to your GC Series 2300, 2400, 1700 Tractor TODAY

[MF RED in MT]

Tried a 1/4" thick piece of UHMWPE for a scraper blade on my 2360. I've only made two passes up & down the paved drive so far, but it worked well. We'll see how long it holds up. (Still looking for an alternative to the $$ OEM piece....)

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Good idea irvingj,

Your 1/4" thick UHMW might be just on the thin side because it's pretty flexible may or may not hold up for you.

If it fails you may want to try a 1/2" or 3/4" thick piece and run it thru the table saw to cut the correct angle for the snowblower to connect at the ground.

KC

 

[irvingj]

Nailed it, KC! Yep, too thin.

Did some more with it yesterday and found it will actually flex upward, allowing snow & ice to get jammed beneath it. Not surprising when I thought about it: I'm using a 3" wide piece of PE, with the same six 5/16" carriage bolts to hold it on. Estimating the head of the carriage bolts at 3/4" diameter, that leaves over an inch of un-supported plastic facing forward -- so yeah, especially when applying down-force to scrape up packed snow, that PE will flex.

Solution I'm now trying is I've put my last, spare OEM steel blade (2-1/2" wide) on top of the plastic to support it. I'll see how that works and how long it lasts.

 

[cdaigle430]

Holy.... How wide is that blade? 7'? The thick and heavy snow where I live would stop my GC dead in its tracks with a blade that size.

My ATV weighs 700 pounds and with a 60 inch plow I can easily plow a foot of snow. GC tractor with BH weighs about 2,700 pounds so you should be good with a 7 foot blade.

 

[cdaigle430]

Where can we get the dozer blade?

 

[cglaser104]

My ATV weighs 700 pounds and with a 60 inch plow I can easily plow a foot of snow. GC tractor with BH weighs about 2,700 pounds so you should be good with a 7 foot blade.

I don't doubt it's power, in doubt it's traction. I have R4 tires and live in a lake effect snow area that produces heavy wet snow. I'm always spinning tires here as I don't use chains.

 

[not2old]

Holy.... How wide is that blade? 7'? The thick and heavy snow where I live would stop my GC dead in its tracks with a blade that size.

I made my own bucket for my GC2610 that is 6' wide and plow with it without a problem. It is also about 6" higher than OEM and when I have a full bucket of wet snow I can tell that I'm getting close to the machine's capacity.

 

[Dmacleo]

getting my road ready for rain. clearing the banks I plowed up to allow for drainage in heavy rain. larger snow boulders already chopped up but many of them were top of hood high.

I had plowed at 15+ mph in heavy heavy snow and created them

 

[MF RED in MT]

Nailed it, KC! Yep, too thin.

Did some more with it yesterday and found it will actually flex upward, allowing snow & ice to get jammed beneath it. Not surprising when I thought about it: I'm using a 3" wide piece of PE, with the same six 5/16" carriage bolts to hold it on. Estimating the head of the carriage bolts at 3/4" diameter, that leaves over an inch of un-supported plastic facing forward -- so yeah, especially when applying down-force to scrape up packed snow, that PE will flex.

Solution I'm now trying is I've put my last, spare OEM steel blade (2-1/2" wide) on top of the plastic to support it. I'll see how that works and how long it lasts.

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Looks like you are moving on to what I call for my projects "Plan B", and that looks like it will take care of the flexing of the UHMW.

I'm impressed with the non-existing wearing of the UHMW and your 1/4" piece should allow you to rotate it and have a new edge if it does some how has any wear issues.

Good job again,

KC

 

[GeneV]

Nailed it, KC! Yep, too thin.

Did some more with it yesterday and found it will actually flex upward, allowing snow & ice to get jammed beneath it. Not surprising when I thought about it: I'm using a 3" wide piece of PE, with the same six 5/16" carriage bolts to hold it on. Estimating the head of the carriage bolts at 3/4" diameter, that leaves over an inch of un-supported plastic facing forward -- so yeah, especially when applying down-force to scrape up packed snow, that PE will flex.

Solution I'm now trying is I've put my last, spare OEM steel blade (2-1/2" wide) on top of the plastic to support it. I'll see how that works and how long it lasts.

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That's how I have it on my plow, 1/2" thick UHMW sandwiched with the sacrificial edge that came with the plow.

 

[GeneV]

This is the blade I use, had float ends which I removed as the snow would stay on the blade and not shift out to the side.
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Was worried it would be too big, but so far it works well in 4WD. Not so well in 2WD. No chains needed so far, but do slide down a bit on sideways bottom of driveway.

Still jealous of you with the snow blowers, but had this plow already and for about $150 adapted to the tractor SSQA, so only takes a minute to swap out to bucket.
Nice not have to lift anything to attach.

Woah nelly! That's one bigazz plow on that thar tractor!

 

[irvingj]

Gene, I currently have three pieces of that 1/4" thick stuff, so I'll use those up -- but yeah, I was already thinking of getting some thicker stuff, when I wear out the ones I have. And yes, I'll flip them around after they wear down.

The OEM blade is 2-1/2" wide, my UHMWPE pieces are 3" wide -- What width 1/2" thick PE are you using? (Where'd you get it?)

 

[GeneV]

Gene, I currently have three pieces of that 1/4" thick stuff, so I'll use those up -- but yeah, I was already thinking of getting some thicker stuff, when I wear out the ones I have. And yes, I'll flip them around after they wear down.

The OEM blade is 2-1/2" wide, my UHMWPE pieces are 3" wide -- What width 1/2" thick PE are you using? (Where'd you get it?)

Maybe you could double up, sandwich 2 of the 1/4"?

As for mine, I got it on amazon, here's the link: Peachtree 1124 UHMW Sheet 1/2" x 4" x 48" - - Amazon.com Price actually went down from what I paid!

I haven't had to flip mine over yet, used it 3 winters on the current side. See pic bellow, I think it wore maybe 3/8" at most. But I suspect it's going to wear faster now with the plow mounted on the massey.

 

[Dmacleo]

redneck christmas lights finally got rear 4 hooked up today

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[irvingj]

Thanks, Gene -- just ordered a piece of that. Do I understand correctly, that you got 3 years out of that on a blower and you haven't yet flipped it? If so, that's quite good! My mild steel (quite inexpensive) blades I was using would have to be flipped after 1-1/2 seasons. After 3 seasons, they were toast.

 

[GeneV]

Thanks, Gene -- just ordered a piece of that. Do I understand correctly, that you got 3 years out of that on a blower and you haven't yet flipped it? If so, that's quite good! My mild steel (quite inexpensive) blades I was using would have to be flipped after 1-1/2 seasons. After 3 seasons, they were toast.

Irving, yeh 3 seasons on mine (on a plow), but as they say your mileage may vary per amount of snowfall per year, condition of driveway, that sort of thing. I'm very happy with this material though!

 

[cglaser104]

Got this guy ready to move some snow today as we're expecting 3-5" tonight/tomorrow. Snapped on the back blade and swapped from forks to the loader bucket.

All this was done after I went and moved a large pile of crab apple tree ...slayings? Definitely more than some simple pruning as my dad cleared a large arch to park his RV under what remains of those tree's. No pics on that though as it was muddy, raining and I was just trying to get it done since I only intended to swap fork/bucket when I saw the pile and said "ah s!#$" and hung a left instead (he lives a couple acres up the hill with a clear sightline)

Happy holidays everyone! May Santa bring you new toys for your little red machines!

 

[MoMower]

Santa brought me a new way to haul it!

 

[cglaser104]

Santa brought me a new way to haul it!

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Clearly you've been a good boy this year! Having a good trailer is worth it's weight in gold!

I picked up a used 18' dovetail car hauler earlier this year to haul ol' red around for my own purposes. Enjoy!

 

[MoMower]

Clearly you've been a good boy this year! Having a good trailer is worth it's weight in gold!

I picked up a used 18' dovetail car hauler earlier this year to haul ol' red around for my own purposes. Enjoy!

He said “good enough” lol.

Until now I’ve used my 6x12’ dump. But between fighting the ramps, and not having enough room for multiple attachments, it was time.

Way overkill at 15k, 1 year old, tilt deck for about a $1500 discount. I registered it at 10k. Pulls nice empty. It will make loading so much simpler.

 

[cglaser104]

He said “good enough” lol.

Until now I’ve used my 6x12’ dump. But between fighting the ramps, and not having enough room for multiple attachments, it was time.

Way overkill at 15k, 1 year old, tilt deck for about a $1500 discount. I registered it at 10k. Pulls nice empty. It will make loading so much simpler.

That's why I scooped up the dovetail with ramps. The angle of approach will be a piece of cake. Mine's a 2010 but is in real good shape other than some surface rust and a few dents on the wheel fenders. Bought it and never really used in on the road it seems so it never picked up the salt and wear and tear