Adapting Truck Snow Plow to Quick Attach

[RedNeckRacin]

I agree with you, I had a choice on my Massey and went with a frame mount, it just made sense to me to keep the plow as close to the tractor as i could. I have had two tractors with loader mounted plows but I chose the frame mount over the loader mount very quickly. Ed

Good to know Ed. Nice to hear someone else prefers that far better method too!

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

Thank you all for the input!

I'm not a fan of hanging plows from chains. I like to take advantage of the down pressure even on gravel. It lets me control what I need to do. I'm 100% happy with the design. When I did this back in 2008 no one was moving the blade close to their FEL's. I'm glad I did and I'd do it the exact same way if I had to do it again.

Good to hear that it is working well for you, even after 7 years. That is a testament. I read through your entire thread, even though some of the pictures are missing I got the gist of your mods. I also like your lighting down low behind the plow.

My question is, You are moving the blade back so it will not put to much weight out in front of your loader, but by the time you add all of that steel are you going to come out ahead? Your question is 2" enough float I would say no. I would go much more, more like 8" . Even if your place is very flat the neighbor you try to help might have a dip or two and you would be surprised how much it will move up and down. Two inches only gives you one inch up and one inch down. 8 in is not as much as you might need. Ed

Moving the plow back primarily to make it more maneuverable / compact. I Agree that the pin on mount would add some weight but I think it would be more than offset by the reduction in weight slung way out front.

Make sure when you drop the plow down to the ground to plow, the pivot point of the plow will be plumb. If it's not plumb, when the plow is angled the corner of the plow will dig in.

The 4 different feet idea someone had might be good, that would be a reference to let you know the plow is flat and the pivot is plumb. Having down pressure and then purposely knocking the plow out of plumb while angling it may be handy to clean ditches out and purposely put a crown in a gravel drive.

Hadn't thought of the pivot needing to be plumb, thanks! And I agree with you that it should have rear shoes to set the height.

I am thinking about this too, so I'll be watching. My previous plow on the skid loader was a Western truck plow, with the A-frame shortened up a bit and pinned to a SSQA plate. A chain hung it, but rolling forward just a bit allowed two small tabs to hit the QA plate and then you'd have downforce.

Could you explain how the tabs engaged/disengaged the plate to switch between fixed and chain-slung? I'm intrigued.

I tried making the exact mounting system that you drew up and I did not have enough float with 4" of drop in the mount and the almost 2" of drop from the plow "ears" being bent upwards.

I think I am in the minority but I'm not a fan of the plows mounted on the loader. If its not a pusher or a sub-frame attached plow I'd rather go without. I used a sub-frame mounted plow on two different kubota tractors that worked flawlessly. I figured why not try and throw a plow on the much bigger JD (that also has a heated cab!) and I was frustrated from the beginning.

Good input. Given your experience do you feel it would be better to make it fixed? This plow is going to be by secondary plow. I already have a plow on my RTV which has a cab. (tractor is open station) This bigger plow would primarily be used for large snowfalls of 8" or more or to move snow piles back. So it won't me my "daily driver". And I still need to use the pallet forks regularly to bring in firewood So I would need it to be QA mounted rather than making it into a subframe mount.

Nice drawings!!
Remember to build in some forward tilt of your q/a plate. I prefer to (in most situations) only use the bucket curl to pick up the blade. Your particular tractor might be fine with the plate vertical as you have shown, but all SS's will need this to get enough curl back.

Thanks, I will check to see if I shouldn't add a 30 degree angle to it in order to get more curl back

 

[RedNeckRacin]

.....
Good input. Given your experience do you feel it would be better to make it fixed? This plow is going to be by secondary plow. I already have a plow on my RTV which has a cab. (tractor is open station) This bigger plow would primarily be used for large snowfalls of 8" or more or to move snow piles back. So it won't me my "daily driver". And I still need to use the pallet forks regularly to bring in firewood So I would need it to be QA mounted rather than making it into a subframe mount.

I'm not entirely sure which part of the movement you would be stopping. My frustration with my 9 footer was that if I could push straight ahead it would work ok unless the plow tripped. If I had the plow at full angle and turned into the snow it worked fine if it didn't trip. What didn't work out so well was with the plow straight and catching a heavy window with the corner, the plow would bottom out or trip.

As far as the QA mount vs the subframe mounting, I only had to pop the quick disconnects for the hydraulics, pull 3 pins (two for the plow ears and one for the lifting mast) and the plow and hoist were off. The loader would then mount with the subframe still attached. I know that's not quite as easy as dropping an attachment off the QA, but the plow was tight to the machine and it had alot less leverage against the tractor. I have my l3400 set up still with a 7.5' Meyers and I had a b7800 set up the same way. I haven't gotten. A chance to use my 9' home built pusher yet but once the snow starts flying I'm going to give it a good shake down.

 

[franklin2]

I'm not entirely sure which part of the movement you would be stopping. My frustration with my 9 footer was that if I could push straight ahead it would work ok unless the plow tripped. If I had the plow at full angle and turned into the snow it worked fine if it didn't trip. What didn't work out so well was with the plow straight and catching a heavy window with the corner, the plow would bottom out or trip.

As far as the QA mount vs the subframe mounting, I only had to pop the quick disconnects for the hydraulics, pull 3 pins (two for the plow ears and one for the lifting mast) and the plow and hoist were off. The loader would then mount with the subframe still attached. I know that's not quite as easy as dropping an attachment off the QA, but the plow was tight to the machine and it had alot less leverage against the tractor. I have my l3400 set up still with a 7.5' Meyers and I had a b7800 set up the same way. I haven't gotten. A chance to use my 9' home built pusher yet but once the snow starts flying I'm going to give it a good shake down.

You might want to get your setup on flat ground and let the plow down to the ground and eyeball it. If the plow is tilted forward(A-frame not level) besides digging in when angled, it will have a tendency to trip easier. I have found lowering the back of the a-frame to make the pivot more plumb gives the plow a better angle of attack. But it does give you less ground clearance at the mount.

The Meyers plow I have has the trip pivots several inches behind the cutting edge of the plow. If the plow is level when plowing, the plow actually has to raise up as it folds over to trip, so the weight of the plow actually helps keep it from tripping too easily.

 

[ishiboo]

Could you explain how the tabs engaged/disengaged the plate to switch between fixed and chain-slung? I'm intrigued.

Sorry, you didn't have to engage or disengage. It would "float" but if you rolled the "bucket" forward it would eventually hit and thus provide downforce. So most of the time I used it on float, but on the concrete I back dragged I simply rolled forward until it caught, then I had down pressure.

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

I've seen a couple of plows mounted with the design like you have thought about they seem to work just fine. Here are just a couple of builds

http://www.****************.com/for...ments/2471-meyer-snow-plow-mounted-300cx.html http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/snow-removal/189971-another-fel-attached-snow-plow.html

I just got a chance to go through these. The first one is exactly what I was looking to do and the second is pretty much like 4shorts design.
Although I had to do some digging to get the correct link on that first one. Apparently the forum does some funny business when a user links to the competition. I hate it when forums do stuff like that! For anyone else, you need to go to Green Tractor Talk .com or Google and look up "Meyer Snow Plow mounted to 300CX"

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

Sorry, you didn't have to engage or disengage. It would "float" but if you rolled the "bucket" forward it would eventually hit and thus provide downforce. So most of the time I used it on float, but on the concrete I back dragged I simply rolled forward until it caught, then I had down pressure.

OK, that is exactly what I was thinking would happen with my design. Thanks for clarifying. I was a little dense on that one.

 

[dstig1]

That is an excellent idea for an upgrade. I built a clone of the 4shorts plow and it is solid, but it digs in way too hard all the time as there is too much weight on the blade from floating the entire FEL. As a result you have to run it manually on height, which is very sketchy, of course. Maybe not an issue on perfect surfaces, but a huge issue for me. I sold it along with the tractor to a friend and he has had that issue with it too. So he runs it manually on height too. The ability to float the lesser weight of the blade only - while allowing for down force when you need it, is the key improvement that is needed. Hopefully your design works out and then I will copy it! I ran into another WNY person (I grew up there) on the forum who suggested floating the blade when I was building mine. I was too far along and did not listen then. After using it, I wholeheartedly agree with him. But that sort of improvement is what happens when you get a lot of people with experience looking at an idea.

I have a build thread on here somewhere for mine if you are curious.

 

[ishiboo]

That is an excellent idea for an upgrade. I built a clone of the 4shorts plow and it is solid, but it digs in way too hard all the time as there is too much weight on the blade from floating the entire FEL. As a result you have to run it manually on height, which is very sketchy, of course. Maybe not an issue on perfect surfaces, but a huge issue for me. I sold it along with the tractor to a friend and he has had that issue with it too. So he runs it manually on height too. The ability to float the lesser weight of the blade only - while allowing for down force when you need it, is the key improvement that is needed. Hopefully your design works out and then I will copy it! I ran into another WNY person (I grew up there) on the forum who suggested floating the blade when I was building mine. I was too far along and did not listen then. After using it, I wholeheartedly agree with him. But that sort of improvement is what happens when you get a lot of people with experience looking at an idea.

I have a build thread on here somewhere for mine if you are curious.

Yeah, I really liked the blade-floating setup... I rarely needed down pressure and when I did, it was there.

I'll probably mount my new Western in the same way, if I sell the Geo.

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

OK, you guys have convinced me that I will go through with my initial plan of having the plow pivot on the mount.
I may change up the angle of the plate, location of the mounting holes, etc.
I will update the thread with what I end up doing.

If in the end I don't like the pivot it should be a simple change to weld it tight to the frame.