Snow Blade Snow Plow: What kind? Any good?

Luke'sScreenName · Dec 17, 2016

I have a relatively small, flat, wide asphalt drive/parking area to plow. I've just used my 6ft bucket for several years but wanted to speed things up. I wanted a SSQA front power-angle plow. I grew up in Texas and know very little about plows.

Based on TBN wisdom I decided I wanted an 8-9ft plow, some kind of trip edge/blade, and chain "top link" rather than a ridged setup. Of course I picked the worst time of year to look for a used plow. Considered making my own (but time...) but eventually found this homemade/modified plow advertised for $750. I paid $400.

It is in rough shape but looked worse in the CL ad. 8ft with trip edge. The thing I like about it is the entire plow has about 15deg of swivel each way on the SSQA plate so it will follow "side slope" independent of the loader arms. I replaced the hoses and used to to plow about 6" today. Happy with the functionality.

So questions:

What make of plow was this originally? One of the cylinders says Fisher on it?

Did I do any good? Ideas for improvement? If it performs satisfactorily this winter I will hammer out some of the dents, "improve" some welds, and paint once the sun come back to this hemisphere.

LD1 · Dec 17, 2016

Indeed looks like a fisher to me.

Two things I notice right off that bat. 1. the plow looks mounted pretty high up in the a-frame. Does the bottom of the loader arms/ssqa plate come close to the ground if the a-frame is level? 2. Hard to tell, but the shot from the back side of the plow looks like it needs a cutting edge soon. You DONT want to run it long enough that you start wearing into the bottom angle iron that the edge bolts to.

Looks like a nice HD plow, and $400 this time of year is a nice but IMO

Rustyiron · Dec 17, 2016

Looks good Luke. That is a Fisher for sure:thumbsup:

Luke'sScreenName · Dec 17, 2016

Thanks. I will take a close look at the cutting edge. I think the bottom of the loader arms are about 6" off the ground with the plate level.

Do y'all think I need the foil? I bought shoes but I'm not all sure I need them?

RNeumann · Dec 17, 2016

I got to admit I know very little about snow blades or pushing snow- that's why I'm here.
My blade has adjustable feet or shoes. The dealer who sold it to me said most folks try to adjust the height with the FEL lift function. However the far easier way to do this is with feet and the curl function.
If that feature applies to this blade maybe some feet next spring is in order.
Have fun with it!

LD1 · Dec 17, 2016

I dont run shoes, do too many paved lots that want a clean scrape. just fiddle with the height when doing gravel.

If all I had was gravel, I'd run shoes and adjust accordingly

RNeumann · Dec 17, 2016

Ok that makes sense. All I have is gravel. Thanks for the clarification!

Fallon · Dec 17, 2016

Shoes are for gravel. Especially gravel that isn't frozen. Once it's frozen up its usually as hard as pavement.

You want the blade to float, so you dump the "bucket" until there is slack in the chain & the blade is on the ground. If you curl it to set the height the loader & even more so blade will be bouncing up & down side to side all over the place. You can't do a decent job like that. Some or most of the plow weight needs to be directly on the ground. If you put the loader in float, the loader arms will dig huge ruts behind the blade & your front axle will pop off the ground as your tractor tries to slowly pole vault over it.

Luke'sScreenName · Dec 17, 2016

Fallon said:
Shoes are for gravel. Especially gravel that isn't frozen. Once it's frozen up its usually as hard as pavement.

You want the blade to float, so you dump the "bucket" until there is slack in the chain & the blade is on the ground. If you curl it to set the height the loader & even more so blade will be bouncing up & down side to side all over the place. You can't do a decent job like that. Some or most of the plow weight needs to be directly on the ground. If you put the loader in float, the loader arms will dig huge ruts behind the blade & your front axle will pop off the ground as your tractor tries to slowly pole vault over it.

Thanks for the tips and confirming about the shoes. :thumbsup:

ishiboo · Dec 18, 2016

RNeumann said:
I got to admit I know very little about snow blades or pushing snow- that's why I'm here.
My blade has adjustable feet or shoes. The dealer who sold it to me said most folks try to adjust the height with the FEL lift function. However the far easier way to do this is with feet and the curl function.
If that feature applies to this blade maybe some feet next spring is in order.
Have fun with it!

I definitely did this with my plow. Basically I would set the FEL height a few inches above the ground, so the plow mount was parallel with the ground when it was down. Then to pick the plow up I'd curl up. I think this was an ideal setup.