SSQA Snow Plow

[chim]

Although this is a "Build it Yourself" forum, I didn't do any of the welding on this project and the design was mostly based on builds by Paul Short and TractorNH. Our Weld Shop at work was pretty much out of things to do. With that opportunity, it made sense to let someone with a lot of experience burn some wire. When we get a snow, I travel about 1.5 miles each way for snow removal at the church. If something up front decides to come loose when I'm moving at 18 MPH, it's a bad deal.

I watched Paul's explanation a few times, plus several of his plowing videos. With the solid mount, it looked like the joystick required a lot of attention. The build was almost started on a mount that would match his. However, I read about a few people having problems with their plates fitting so I brought my newly acquired SSQA plate home to check it before starting. It didn't fit. Titan made it right by sending me a much better one, but that delayed me by about a week.

During the wait, I saw TractorNH's underslung build. Turns out the wait was a blessing in disguise. The chain lift should allow the blade to ride the surface without needing to fiddle with the joystick. It also keeps the weight of everything but the plow and A-frame on the tractor's wheels for the benefit of traction and control.

The parts I used are from a "spare" 8 foot Fisher plow we had at work. It'll be interesting to see how the L4240 will handle it. Looks like a lot of blade after seeing it all together. The plow was loaded onto a utility trailer at work yesterday (paint still wet) with a telehandler that was handy. On the way home I figured it would be easy to grab a chain and take it off with the L4240's FEL. Then it dawned on me to just drop the loader bucket and snatch it with the SSQA tabs. Worked fine.

One thing I thought about was to get the original hydraulic fluid out of the cylinders and replace it with Kubota juice. Seemed easy enough. Put the hoses - less couplers - on the cylinders and pull the piston with the end of the hose submerged in UDT and it would work like a soda straw in a Coke. The pistons needed to be held for quite a while to get the thick fluid into the cylinder. Raising the hose out of the fluid allowed the vacuum in it to yodel the fluid and clear the 5 feet of hose. Drop the hose in again and push the piston so it blew bubbles and came against the fluid it sucked in from the last pull. Repeated this till the cylinder and hose were full. Installed the coupler and then the cylinder and then filled the second one.

Turned the ignition switch ON, pressed the button the activate the third function system. Then asked BIL to push on the blade to compress the cylinder while I held one of the TF buttons on the joystick. That let the fluid into the tractor's reservoir. Next, took the second cylinder and installed the one end. It was then (intentionally) too long to get the other end pinned on. With the end of the hose in the fluid jug, I compressed it enough to get it pinned in place. Then the coupler was installed and connected to the the tractor. Fired the tractor up and we had left/right movement.

I did put a flow restrictor in one line (good) and the first jug of UDT I grabbed was really used motor oil (not good). The latter was addressed by filling and flushing the cylinder and hose thoroughly.


Pictures below:

Mockup of the mount.

Main frame welded and waiting for the SSQA plate.

The plow just after it came off the trailer (no cylinders at that time).

A "bumper" for the SSQA plate to press down if needed on packed-down snow.

Another shot of the bumper with the plate bearing down on it.

 

[chim]

Photos, continued:

This is where the lifting chains attach to the plate. I doubt the chain would ever jump out, but that rod and a couple nuts welded to the slotted angle seemed like a good thing.

Last photo shows it sitting in its temporary home keeping the BIL's L4740HST company. I really appreciate that he asked me to bring my tractor over to his new barn till I can work out a storage solution here at our place. Fortunately we live next to each other, so it's only a couple hundred yards away.

 

[JK22]

Photos, continued:

This is where the lifting chains attach to the plate. I doubt the chain would ever jump out, but that rod and a couple nuts welded to the slotted angle seemed like a good thing.

Last photo shows it sitting in its temporary home keeping the BIL's L4740HST company. I really appreciate that he asked me to bring my tractor over to his new barn till I can work out a storage solution here at our place. Fortunately we live next to each other, so it's only a couple hundred yards away.

Where are the cylinders for L/R? I’m not seeing them.

 

[chim]

Where are the cylinders for L/R? I’m not seeing them.

I'll have to snap a photo of that. I installed the cylinders after getting it into the barn, and none are from a position that shows them. In the right picture of my second post you can see parts of the silver pin through the rear of one cylinder just behind the blade and under the SSQA plate. The cylinders are even with the A frame and everything there is painted black.

 

[nybirdman]

I have a 8' Curtis truck plow on my L4240 HSTC;R1's loaded and it pushes a lot of snow.I also float the plow and it works well.I like your shortened version.Add a cross over relief if you already haven't.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Looks good!! I like your nice simple design chim. I am doing the same thing but progressing much slower than you. I have the underslung frame and push beam done and I'm working on attaching the SSQA plate now. Then I need to weld the push beam onto the frame. I can see I made mine much more complicated than necessary (as usual). Are you getting snow in this big storm today ?? A chance to try it out maybe. It will be interesting to hear what you think and how your tractor handles it.

gg

 

[chim]

JK22 - Here are a couple pictures showing the cylinders. One picture shows how much of the A-frame is mounted behind the plate.

Gordon - right now it looks like we're going to get mostly rain. That's a disappointment. I spent a good part of yesterday and today wrapping up the plow, grooving the tires, mounting the rear work lights and giving the cab glass a good application of RainX. Feels like I'm all dressed up and no place to go.

 

[JK22]

JK22 - Here are a couple pictures showing the cylinders. One picture shows how much of the A-frame is mounted behind the plate.

Gordon - right now it looks like we're going to get mostly rain. That's a disappointment. I spent a good part of yesterday and today wrapping up the plow, grooving the tires, mounting the rear work lights and giving the cab glass a good application of RainX. Feels like I'm all dressed up and no place to go.

Very nice work. Thanks for the extra pictures!

 

[sleepydeere]

Thanks for all the great info Mark

 

[BackRoad]

Chim, simple and well thought out!

Likely you've had a chance to give it a workout with this last snow...

Still liking your design?

Any enhancements you're thinking about?

How are the grooved tires adding benefit?

...//TJ

 

[chim]

There's nothing I'd do differently. It works very well. There was a leaning curve with regard to the height of the loader arms and the amount of curl/dump for keeping the blade floating and flat on the ground. Most of that was accomplished with adding a pair of magnets with Tyrap whiskers for reference. One is for the level indicator rod and another for loader arm height. Simple matter of getting on a level surface and placing the whiskers.

The rear tires are filled, but I added a 50 gallon drum of concrete this year. I sold the rear blower with the L3200 and don't need a rear blade because I can backdrag with the plow.

The grooved tries do provide extra traction. This is the second tractor I've done. Check post 352 in this thread:

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/snow-removal/193438-cutting-groving-siping-r-4-a-66.html

 

[Colonel Monk]

Chim, thanks for the tip on the tie wrap indicators.

I'll second how important it can be to maintain the plow frame at a height and angle that it was designed for. This may not matter much after you have frozen ground to plow, but I found out last year when the ground isn't frozen that angle is important to keep from gouging the lawn and so forth.

Also, how chim located the plow pivots farther back - if you do not have perfectly graded roads the farther the plow is from front wheels the more issues you may have "running out of float" where the ground falls away and plow comes off ground.

I just finished cutting apart my first version of plow frame to both lower the attachment points and move them toward the tractor. Currently mounted to bucket, version 1.0 had the plow's pivot inside the bucket and that was a big mistake. It worked, but for all the reasons I just mentioned I really wasn't able to take advantage of the free pivoting aspect of typical plow. Height and attitude of bucket from ground was way too important.

So, if you're going to make a frame for typical snowplow, put the plow pivots UNDER your frame, and move them as far rearward as possible (need to make sure you can get max plow angle) and you'll thank yourself later, especially if your land isn't all flat.

CM

 

[chim]

In addition to Paul Short, GordonGould and TractorNH have inspired a lot of the underslung builds.

 

[senecak19]

In addition to Paul Short, GordonGould and TractorNH have inspired a lot of the underslung builds.

I have to agree with giving you folks credit! Not only have you posted your build process photos in an organized manner, your answering PM's as I step through my build. Thank you all very much for the support!!! Like everyone else, my build will have some variations, but nothing crazy since I've never used a plow a day in my life.

 

[pyobluebonus]

Nice build! can you please draw me a piping diagram on how the cylinders are plumbed to each other and back to third function valve. Thank you in advance

 

[chim]

Thank you but not much of a diagram to draw. Each single acting cylinder has one fitting. One hose runs from each cylinder to the third function fittings on the loader frame. Here's where they come from on the loader frame. The other ends go to the cylinders.

 

[BackRoad]

Mr. Chim, realize this is an elementary question. Do you have a hose connected directly between the two cylinders for equalization?

I've read mention of an interconnect, I believe related to emergency pressure relief in the event of hitting one side of the plow by accident, to prevent overstress on the hydraulics.

Just wondering if you included it, or feel like it's needed.

The hydraulic cylinders which I'm familiar with have 2 hose connections, so wondering what you are doing with the second port on each cylinder?

 

[chim]

Mr. Chim, realize this is an elementary question. Do you have a hose connected directly between the two cylinders for equalization?

I've read mention of an interconnect, I believe related to emergency pressure relief in the event of hitting one side of the plow by accident, to prevent overstress on the hydraulics.

Just wondering if you included it, or feel like it's needed.

The hydraulic cylinders which I'm familiar with have 2 hose connections, so wondering what you are doing with the second port on each cylinder?

Based on what Paul Short said in a video, I didn't do anything for relief or equalization. He said he's been running with a similar hookup for a long time and no problems.

I did use a restrictor in the one line for the purpose of slowing the swing a bit. Can't recall the orfice size, but a guy at the hardware store led me right to it.

These are single acting cylinders - only one connection per cylinder. For example, when oil is sent to the left cylinder, the left cylinder extends as the oil is pumped into it. The right cylinder gets compressed and via the factory plumbing pushes its oil back into the sump. The single hoses serve as both supply and return, depending upon which button on the joystick is pushed.

 

[pyobluebonus]

one hose goes to 1 cylinder and the other hose goes to the other cylinder and then there is a hose connecting both cylinders together correct?

 

[pyobluebonus]

a picture of the hose connection would be helpful. Please