Snow Attachments SNOW PLOW RESTORATION

[WALT]

TBN'ers:

The latest project to come out of the shop during this snow-less CT. winter.
I was at the local dump in November, and came across an old 7' snowplow w/frame that had seen some rough use. I tipped the dump guy $25.00 and took it home to see if it could be made useful again. I un-assembled it, stripped it, welded some repairs to it, repainted it, and added guide markers, skid shoes, a snow blade rubber flap, and a hydraulic cylinder for power angle. I bought a skid steer universal plate on eBay and mounted the frame to it. I needed to weld 2" angle to the plate pin holes to keep it secured.
I have about 30 hrs of work & $200.00 of materials into this project. As I finished this today, we finally had some snow flurries today. I had been plowing my 450' driveway with the loader bucket & rear blade, which took an hour+ to clear. I am hoping this will speed up the job. This is mounted on my Kubota L-39. Now I will be able to leave the backhoe on for better traction.

Here are some photos of the finished project. I also made a storage frame on casters to move it around the garage.

"Blizzard of 2007", I'm ready for you.

WALT

 

[George2615]

Looks great. Good enough for your driveway and should speed things up plowing too.

 

[AndyMA]

Looks great. Not sure about the snow though. Haven't seen any except for 1" back in December in Woodstock. Maybe more where you are?

Andy

 

[WALT]

Andy

I live just north of Ski Sundown at 900' elevation. I have lived here since 2002. When it is raining in Hartford, it's usually snowing here. As of today, the ground has not even been coated with snow yet. Some of my lawn that gets full sun is still green.
I have worked P/T at the ski area as a snowmaker the past 4 years, usually beginning around Thanksgiving. I took this year off, but there has not been much to do anyways. So far this year, the crew has been able to make snow only 6-7 nights. With all the rain we had received lately, the ski area has been closed most weekdays.
If it does snow, I hope to have some frost in the ground before plowing. The past couple of years most of my gravel has ended up over the bank instead of on the driveway.

Think Snow!!!

WALT

 

[Thomas]

Morning WALT.
Great deal and nice clean job of rebuilding....that plow setup should make the snow god think twice before dump snow on you.

 

[Oleozz]

You sure did a nice job with the plow and thanks for posting the pictures. Let us know how it performs when the big "blizzard" hits.

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Walt,
Nice job saving that old plow ! Looks like it will do a great job for you.

I drive by fairly close to your place on the way up to mt Vt home. I get off RT #8 in Winsted and wind my way up through Mass until I hit the pike, and then pick up Rt #22 in Ny.

Thanks for the pics !

 

[WALT]

Thanks for your compliments. I guess we post these projects partially in the hope that someone else familiar with this stuff will appreciate the work done.

Until I got my first tractor in 2000, I worked with wood but not metal. Welding & fabricating stuff for the tractor is a relaxing and satisfying pastime.

Still no snow in the forecast, but the next 3 days of rain/showers in the 50's. Yikes for the snowplowing, but good for the heating oil bill.

WALT

 

[WALT]

Finally got some plowable snow to test out the snow plow.
The area was "dumped on" by 3" of snow Friday night. I worked a dayshift on Saturday and plowed & sanded the drive last night. With the recent cold weather, the ground and driveway are now frozen.

The initial experience using the plow on the loader frame is that the bucket curl angle must be played with while plowing in the "float mode", or the blade will constantly trip forward on the gravel drive. I imagine that as I get more familiar with the technique, along with fine tuning the skid shoe position, plowing will be smoother.

As I had been using a rear blade, it is easier on the neck looking forward than backward.

WALT

 

[WALT]

An update to the snow plow story from last year. The past two weeks have given me more plow time than all of last winter. One problem was that I had to constantly adjust was the plow angle/bucket curl to avoid tripping the plow. Too much curl meant leaving 2+" of snow on each pass. I had the "brilliant" idea to limit the plow tripping by using a chain to limit the plow from tripping. It worked well for 30 minutes until I caught a stone on the drive way.
With the chain limiting the trip, My 7000 lb. tractor simply bent the plow frame 90 degrees at its weak point. OOPS......

Today, I had the time to repair and weld up some reinforcement to the frame. I had to disassemble the plow & frame, and rebuild it.
I added two additional trip springs to the center spring. I'll give it a whirl tomorrow and hope it performs as required.
The one casualty is my angle cylinder, which moved minimally when I reassembled it.
It appears that the cylinder rod was bent. I think it was around $70-80 bought at TSC.

The lesson learned is don't defeat the protection devices.

WALT