Snow Equipment Buying/Pricing 8 foot fisher plow for 5045E

[vtsnowedin]

I scored a 1995 eight foot Fisher plow with wings yesterday from Craigslist for $600. It came off a Ford F250 and had all the parts except for the cutting edge and the shoes. All put together it spans nine feet ten inches and at full angle clears seven feet ten inches which is very close to my rear tread. I put it together today and "Mickey Moused" it into my bucket with a wooden wedge to keep it angled to the right. Works like a charm. I went down to the dealer I bought the tractor from in South Royalton and had two hoses made up to get the power angle working off the third function on the loader and bought the hooks and pins to make up a permanent connector plate. I'll have to wait until Monday to get a steel plate 54" by 22" to have the pins , hooks, center chain hook , and plow push beam welded to to make a permanent connection.
I'll post pics of the finished product.

[vtsnowedin]

I connected up the new hoses to the third function connection and now I can wave at people. I made one pass over everything with the Micky Mouse set up to clean off last nights one inch and some drifting. The only thing I see that is annoying is the loader piston blocks the view of the right end of the blade from a sitting position so you have to stand up or crane your neck to do close work. Might be a little different when I get the bucket off and the plate welded up.
Can anybody tell me if a flat plate will work or will I need to have it bent in a break to match the counters of the bucket??.

[vtsnowedin]

I took my bucket off today so I could get some accurate measurements. From them I made up a shop drawing of what I need. The lower loader arms where the pins go through are not in a plane with the top arm hook inserts. To account for that I think I need at least a 3/8" filler plate between the mounting plate and the top hooks. I can solve that by putting a 5"x2" angle iron across the top which will also give me something solid to weld the center grab hook to. Other then that it is just getting it laid out fussy enough so it fits well. The top hooks are 40 inches center to center but the bottom pins measure 46-7/8" c-c with just 1/16" clearance on each hole.
And of course as I haven't welded anything in thirty years I have to get somebody to weld it up for me.
First step is to go to Capital steel tomorrow after I plow the drives and get a 52"X22" steel plate and a 52" length of 5x3x3/8" angle iron or something similar. I need at least 5 inches on the hook side but the top could be one inch or four. 5x2 would be great but I don't know as they will have that odd a size in stock.

[BIG DOOLEY]

Glad to hear about your score.
Waiting for pics.

[vtsnowedin]

I ordered and paid for the steel today. 24 hour turn around after receipt of payment. 163 lbs cut to order spoilt $200. That's the market rate though, I checked around on the net before calling them.
I'll post some pictures as soon as I have something other then an old plow to look at. I'm sure we have all seen enough of those.

[vtsnowedin]

I picked up my steel and took it to my local auto mechanic to get it welded up. He let me lay it out on a work table while he cleaned up the old push-beam from the plow. After tack welding everything on the backside of the plate I took it home to check the fit. All OK so back for full penetration welds. I should have it late today or tomorrow ready for primer. Here are a couple of pics of the fit up.

[vtsnowedin]

The connector plate is back from the welding shop and I've squirted a couple of coats of paint on it and hooked it up. All seems to be working good. I went out and pushed back some snow banks that had not totally melted in the thaw that ended this morning. Now I just need some real snow so I can try it out.

[varmint]

Keeping in mind that I know squat about plows, it seems to me that the plow is really out there, in terms of moment action affecting your tractor. But, maybe this is normal? Anyway, have fun when you get some snow.

[vtsnowedin]

Keeping in mind that I know squat about plows, it seems to me that the plow is really out there, in terms of moment action affecting your tractor. But, maybe this is normal? Anyway, have fun when you get some snow.

Yes that is a real consideration and when I was trial running it today I ran into some heavily crusted and frozen drifts that wanted to set me over whichever way the blade was pointed. It didn't seem to bother on normal going. This is just a first attempt and I wanted to keep it simple. I could easily shorten it up a foot or more if I had more time and if this doesn't prove to be satisfactory it will get reworked next summer.

[vtsnowedin]

Four inches of snow for a test run and all is well. I"ll run it as is for the winter then oil it up or paint it for summer storage and perhaps refurb the trip edge a bit. At the very least it needs a cutting edge but it doesn't seem to have ever had one and the trip edge shows signs of being built back up once apon a time. Here is the pics to prove it happened.