Thanks 4shorts

[zmansmac]

This summer I bought a new snow plow, just the blade, and had to build an A frame and adapted the cross bar from my old plow to attach it to my loader arms. I welded the cross bar at the base of the A frame so the mount would similar to the way it connects on a truck, just like my old plow. This new plow is a little wider, taller and weighs about 3 times more than the old plow. The additional weight became more apparent the first time I lifted it attached to the loader arms. And because of the dual cylinder angle (single on my old plow) it ended up being a bit further out in front of the tractor. I knew this would not be a problem pushing snow with it straight but I was worried that when angled it would have much more of a tendency to move the front end of the tractor over. And then I read the recent thread about someone asking about adapting a truck snow plow to a quick attach. I saw 4shorts answer and his pictures and realized his solution was something I never thought about and was the best answer to my concern. And being a member of this forum for many years I've seen other projects of 4shorts and know that he has great, well thought out designs. I do wonder if he ever actually uses his tractor because all of his project pictures show a clean machine that looks brand new. But this is a perfect example of what makes these forums so great - sharing information. Because I had to shift the loader arm connection point slightly I made a new cross bar for the plow. And I know how much everybody enjoys looking at pictures so below is an "after" and "before" picture of my new plow setup.

 

[LD1]

Nice work, sure brought it in alot closer. An looks like it can still angle all the way too.

You running a crossover relief valve with those two cylinders or are you taking your chances?

 

[DK35vince]

You running a crossover relief valve with those two cylinders or are you taking your chances?

I've been running a 9' power angle truck plow for years (chains on a 4 tires) with no cross over relief valve.
No problem yet.

 

[LD1]

So you are taking your chances.

 

[DK35vince]

So you are taking your chances.

With all I've pushed and hit with this plow over the years with no crossover relief. If it hasn't given me an issue by now I very much doubt that it ever will.
I have no plans to put a relieve valve on it.

 

[4shorts]

Thank you zmansmac for the credit. You made a Hugh difference and a good choice as well. Every bit of room is needed at times when snow clearing so you don't need that blade sticking out to far. I've used this set up for many years commercially without any issues. I NEVER used any cross over valves and never had an issue either with the angle cylinders bad yes I've hit them hard at times and again, never an issue.
I would suggest a slight change that I've found really worked out well and that was to add two rear skids to the back of the plow frame. It will prevent the rear from digging into the ground and once in place you never really have to even think about that happening.
You did a nice job. Tip my hat to you. :thumbsup:

 

[ishiboo]

I'm curious LD1 with all this crossover-valve preaching you do, do you have one on your rear blade? My rear blade working dirt gets a **** of a lot more abuse than my front snow blade and I've never blown anything up hitting stuff. In fact, I used to have a 24" iron rod in my driveway I'd occasionally hit which would either stop or spin the tractor, and never an issue with it.

Did a lot of plowing with my skidloader which was a lot more powerful than the tractor, and never had an issue either.

What is the concern? Bending a rod or screwing up the valve? Or a hose?

 

[zmansmac]

Thanks for the kind words and advice 4shorts. It might seem odd to someone to modify something you just made without trying out. But in this case your explanation made a lot of sense to do so. And just in time. One week ago today we got our first snowfall of the season here in southeast Michigan. And in my location we got 12 inches of wet snow. I couldn't believe how well this new plow setup worked; a night and day difference from my old plow which was much lighter. I also made another change from past seasons. I needed new front tires so I went wider from 8.5s to 10.5s and I got them loaded with Rim Guard. There was no tendency I could feel of the front of the tractor being pushed to the other side with the blade at full angle. I don't have a cross over valve and had no problem. I know about the skids you added to your loader arms and with the last plow I had I made a couple of rollers out of 1 1/2 inch galvanized pipe that I welded on the bottom of my plow frame crossover tube (which was just in front of the loader arms) which prevented the arms from touching the ground. I'm not sure I need something like that here because this driveway is asphalt (my old house was gravel) and I set the mount up so with the plow at 90 degrees vertically the cutting edge is just touching and the arms are a ways up. I also do one neighbors driveway which is all cement. This gave me an unexpected opportunity to have the bottom edge trip, which is much better than having the whole plow trip forward and flip back. All snow plows should be made like that. I believe you made a mod to prevent snow from flipping back, but this type of plow negates that. Happy plowing; I can't wait for the next snowfall.

 

[LD1]

I wouldn't call it preaching. Just good advise and good practice.

Rear blades compensate with a very large diameter cylinder.

My plow is a truck plow. Internal crv is set at 2500. Many times when just pushing a windrow, or into a pile, the valve opens. So it does protect things.

Sure, it opens at 2500 and in reality the burst pressure of the hoses are 8k or 10k. And you may never have an issue. But I'd rather plumb In a $50 part than blow a hose when the drive is half plowed, leaving a big dam of snow,and have to be to work in the morning as does the wife.

Run a crv, dont run one. Makes no difference to me. Just making people aware of the proper way to do it, and what "can" happen if you don't. I don't care how many of the "I don't have one and haven't had any problems in xx years" stories I hear. I will still inform of the correct way and why

 

[LD1]

Oh, and no remotes. So my blade is manual angle. And a crv don't work on a DA cylinder like found on most rear blades.

Again, its all about design and sizing though. Plows have very small cylinders for the width. So lots of leverage working on that small diameter piston = lots of PSI