Plumbing snow plow

[Northstar9126]

I am looking for help with the hydraulics on an old snow plow that I want to put on my Deere tractor. My knowledge of hydraulics is very limited so any help would be greatly appreciated. I have a Deere 4300 with a loader and backhoe that I would like to mount a snow plow on. I want to remove the loader and attatch the plow to a frame that I have made to fit the tractor. I would like to be able to control both the side-to side and up-and-down movement of the plow using the lines and joystick that operate the loader if possible. The plow has two cylinders for angling the blade. Each of these cylinders has only one port. I suspect that when pressure is applied to one cylinder it pushes on the blade while the other has the fluid forced out of it, so that only one cylinder is really doing all of the work. The up-and down cylinder also only has one port. I assume that when the blade is being raised pressure is applied to the cylinder thus raising the blade and to lower the blade gravity forces the fluid out of the cylinder. I am wondering if I can replace both angling cylinders with one double acting cylinder that I could just attatch two of the existing tractor lines to control it. I would also like to replace the up-and-down cylinder with another a double acting cylinder, attatch the other set of lines from the loader to operate it. I don't really need down pressure but I am thinking that I would use the double acting cylinder to simplify the installation. Would this work? Is there another, better way to accomplish what I am trying to do? Thank you.

 

[Dirtnut]

replied to you in build it yourself

 

[dirtworksequip]

North, I would leave the angle cylinders as they are and replace the lift cylinder with a double acting cylinder. This would give you down pressure on the blade. The single acting cylinders on the angle will work fine. With the two single acting and one doulble you will be able to work all the functions with your SCV lever.

Sincerely, Dirt

 

[Northstar9126]

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I am still not clear on how I would go about hooking the plow hydraulics up to the loader controls. The loader has four hydraulic lines that power it. I assume that one provides power to lift the arms, one provides power to force down the arms, one to curl the bucket and one to uncurl the bucket. With my limited knowledge of how the hydraulics work, I don't understand how I could get away with using only three of the four loader lines to operate both of the plow functions. All of the cylinders on the tractor are double acting and all of the cylinders on the plow are single acting.

 

[Northstar9126]

North, I would leave the angle cylinders as they are and replace the lift cylinder with a double acting cylinder. This would give you down pressure on the blade. The single acting cylinders on the angle will work fine. With the two single acting and one doulble you will be able to work all the functions with your SCV lever.

Sincerely, Dirt

Thanks. That is what I will do then.

 

[kennyd]

Yes, the answer is to replace the SA lift cylinder with a DA cylinder.

 

[Northstar9126]

Just wanted to say thanks again for the help. I have the plow mounted. Finished running the hydraulic lines today. No snow on the drive way so I angled the blade and pushed back the snow banks along the drive. The action of the hydraulics is pretty fast but I will just learn to feather the hydraulic joystick a bit. Also have to make some shoes for the blade as it was digging in a bit.
This project turned out better than I hoped. Actually I am kind of proud of my little bit of engineering, so much so that I bought a grapple off of e-bay (still not quite ready to make something like it from scratch yet) that I am going to mount on the loader when it arrives. I will be back soon to ask for your help with the hydraulics for the grapple, but thank you very much for the help with the plow.

 

[gotcha]

Just wanted to say thanks again for the help. I have the plow mounted. Finished running the hydraulic lines today. No snow on the drive way so I angled the blade and pushed back the snow banks along the drive. The action of the hydraulics is pretty fast but I will just learn to feather the hydraulic joystick a bit. Also have to make some shoes for the blade as it was digging in a bit.
This project turned out better than I hoped. Actually I am kind of proud of my little bit of engineering, so much so that I bought a grapple off of e-bay (still not quite ready to make something like it from scratch yet) that I am going to mount on the loader when it arrives. I will be back soon to ask for your help with the hydraulics for the grapple, but thank you very much for the help with the plow.

Forget patting yourself on the back. You can do that after you post the pictures, ya I said PicutreS
The Gotcha Man

 

[kennyd]

Congrats NorthStar!

If the plow is moving to fast , you can get flow restrictors to put in line that will slow the action down. They are basically a washer will a very small hole in them to limit the flow.

 

[Northstar9126]

Congrats NorthStar!

If the plow is moving to fast , you can get flow restrictors to put in line that will slow the action down. They are basically a washer will a very small hole in them to limit the flow.

Do the restrictors go in the lines under the fittings?