What is your opinion of front blades with skid steer attachment? I was thinking manual trip but hard to find anything that is for a tractor. Most are for a skid steer. I've been using a back blade on a L3800 and it's kind of slow.
I welded a quick hitch to a SSQA plate. Took an old lighter truck plow & put a cross bar on the mount point to fit the lift hooks on the QH. A chain goes from the QH top hook to where the winch use to attach. Cost me a bit under $400 to make.
Works pretty well. You have to set the loader arms right & let the floating action take place on the QH lower hooks. The weight on the plow is to much if you float the loader arms. I think its about 7'. Wish mine had hydraulic angle like my back blade, but oh well, it was cheap parts & an easy build. Next one I build will have that if/when I sell this one & build a new one (taking my time looking for the perfect deal on a hydraulic angle blade).
I have a L3200 with loaded R4s, so in the same situation.
It does push the front of the tractor around a bit with a big load of snow. Mostly when turning & not plowing long roads. Really it doesn't push me around that much more than my 6' back blade. Being able to adjust the angle of attack on the blade by tilting the QH & lifting the loader arms is interesting. Not sure how beneficial it is in practice.
Other than a bit of front end push, I didn't have big traction issues. A full blade going uphill with either blade would loose traction. It has never been enough of an issue to bother trying to see if the chains I bought a couple years ago off CL actually fit. The loaded R4s work good enough for me. R1s are probably better, but I like the compromise on the R4s.
I ran with the front & rear blade at the same time a bit this winter. Even without the hydraulic angle I generally used the front plow due to the better visibility over the rear plow.
