Reverse "A" frame on plow

[smiley]

After much study, thought and many calculations I retired to my research and development lab and have determined that it will work, but because of the change in geometry, you'll probably need cylinders with a longer stroke than the normal plow angle cylinders. In the normal engineering office to reach this conclusion, would have required 3 engineers, several days and several thousand $$ of time.
But,
Actually, after going out and measuring the plow, I went to the kitchen table and did a scale cardboard cutout and in about 10 minutes this is what comes out.
If you look closely, the cylinders are exactly the same length scale 2 ft and 3 ft, but with the reversed A frame the 2 ft one does not reach the blade and the angle is no where near the regular A frame. It absolutely does offset the blade by over 6" and it isn't fully angled as shown.
The other sketch is the broom offsetting mechanism I mentioned previously, just food for thought.
Give it a try, you can always turn the A frame back around!!!

 

[smiley]

In playing with that scale model a little further this morning, It looks like standard angle cylinders might work, but they will always be extended a little further than normal and you might have to move the mounting points out slightly.
When a regular 8 ft plow is fully angled, the edge of the plow will be slightly less than 4 ft from center. With the A frame reversed it will be about 5 1/4 ft from center, so you would definately gain winging ability.
FWIW
Because I have an 8 ft front mount snowblower, I don't need to build any of this but it's fun to study these ideas out and It got me thinking that years ago I had a 6 ft drag behind blower, that came from the factory with a detachable 3 ft extension wing to widen with. My backblade can also be offset about 3 ft to either side which I tried too. Niether method worked great because it tended to pull the front wheels into the bank. However, if you had a plow on the front, it should offset the drag on the back.

 

[JB4310]

It's always good to think about ways to modify things, but IMO I don't think it would be worth the effort for that 1.25 ft wing plus it would be limited in height, a wing would usualy allow for greater height to cut along the top of existing banks.

Don't let me discourage your creative spirit though

Got me thinking, how about with a standard A-frame setup, offset the mounts. Mounting the left hole of plow's A-frame in the right side of the vehicles undercarriage. You would need a structural member from the left undercarriage mount pin forward to the A- frame. If you could picture that.

There may be clearance issues with front wheels on tractors, the max wing out would be the width of the undercarriage's pin's spacing and still limited in height.

JB.

 

[beenthere]

pat32rf
Thinking about this some more, maybe you can gain just as much wing affect by going to a longer blade on the front with conventional "A" frame. Instead of a 6' blade, use an 8' blade. I have a 7' blade on my JD 4300 now, and feel it could handle an 8' blade almost as well.

But with the snow we are getting now and the drifting from the high winds, having that wing blade worked fantastic this morning winging 5' windrow (berm) of snow back further on each pass. Reaching out over the ditch edge is a bonus when trying to hold the drifting to a minimum.
Made short work of the 1/4 mile plowing job. More coming and higher winds predicted.

 

[pat32rf]

Been out of town a few days, (Gave my Wife tickets to Allan Jackson concert for Christmas, not knowing that it would be on the eave of the biggest storm in 19 years ) but JB's response kicked my brain back in gear.
The front mount plow would be going on my FEL, If I mount it on the fork bracket, then I can just move it side to side by pulling two pins !!! Save a lot of re-inventing the wheel.
I want to keep things as light as possible as most of the time its only for quickly moving 2-4" of snow. That bit that isn't worth blowing but should be cleaned up before it gets packed into ruts.

 

[Duffster]

That is going to put a tremendous side torque/load on your loader.

 

[JB4310]

The front mount plow would be going on my FEL, If I mount it on the fork bracket, then I can just move it side to side by pulling two pins !!! Save a lot of re-inventing the wheel.

Get out your card board and scissors

Being on the loader solves the height problem, but I agree with Duff your loader is not gonna be happy, and if your machine is an average size CUT it may become a little unstable. Maybe some counter weight?

That is going to put a tremendous side torque/load on your loader.

 

[beenthere]

pat32rf
How soon do you plan to start fabricating? Hope soon so you can try it out yet this year. For 2-4" snow, should not be a "side-force" problem. And you will be able to find out just how much more snow the rigging will handle before switching to the blower.

I don't see any major reason to not give it a good shot unless it is money or time. (and those are both important)

Anxious here to find out how well it works.
I built my wing plow with some real doubt that it really would pan out. As it happened, couldn't be happier with it.

Go for it!

 

[cotter]

I think you are going to have problems with most truck mounted snow plows. The A frame is mounted to the quadrant and the quadrant is mounted to the blade and spreads the force out, allows the spring break over. http://library.westernplows.com/westernplows/pdf/13275_020395.pdf Not to say impossible but you will have a good deal of fabrication work to do. A Curtis plow has a much wider quadrant with that should be easier to work with http://cdn.dreamingcode.com/public/72/Sno-Pro_3000_Install_Manual-72-1147-1.pdf warning 14mb. It would/could be a nonissue if you are building from the ground up.
Chad