Snow Blade mounting a snow blade on a front end loader

[haroldy]

I have a kioti ck 30 and am considering putting on a quick attach 8 ft blade.. dealer doesnt recommend this as he says can damadge loader arms ,,, anyone here have any prob;ems

tks

 

[Thomas]

I have front mounted plow on my bucket for number...number of years never had problem.
Good trips springs and beware hard objects like rocks,stumps,ice, etc. and mailbox post.

 

[Fallon]

Lots of people have this concern, but I haven't seen many actual issues reported. I built a manual angled small truck plow with a SSQA for my L3200 & never had issues. Have a Snow Dawg SSQA plow for my new L4060. No snow last year to use it, but I did push some dirt back into a trench with it (very slowly & the dirt was not packed at all).

I just excercise caution when plowing & don't worth to much. My big concern is my Snow Dawg doesn't have float on it, it's a solid mount to the SSQA. My first plow had a chain on it & would float vertically several feet. It would tilt side to side 15 degrees or so. I might be rebuilding the plow to SSQA this year to put float & tilt into it.

Most SSQA plows are fixed mount rather than floating like truck plows for some reason.

One thing I don't like about SSQA plows is they are way out there up front. With my L3200 would loose steering when plowing. Chains on the front got some steering back. A frame mount is a much more compact unit that would give the plow less leverage to push the tractor sideways & kill steering. The ease of attaching a SSQA outweighs the advantages of a frame mount setup. The frame mounts are expensive & mean removing the loader.

 

[DK35vince]

I've been running a snow blade on my tractors loader for the past 16 years with no issues.

 

[nybirdman]

No reason not to use a FEL mounted plow as long as it has trip springs and a cross over relief.An 8ft.er may be a bit much for your tractor.I had a 6ft.er on a L3130 Kubota and have an 8ft.FEL mounted on my L4240 Kubota.

 

[BoylermanCT]

I had the same concern, but have used my plow for several years without any issues. Last season I hit an ice wall by the mailbox, and sheared the 1" pins holding the plow to the frame, and no damage to the loader arms. My before winter project is to get the sheared pin out of the tubes it mounted in. They are stuck pretty good!

You can float the plow if it is supported by a chain, as done on many plow trucks. When I tilt my SSQA plate forward, the chain goes slack and allows the plow to float. Tilt the SSQA plate back and the chain goes tight and I can pick up the blade very quickly.

 

[haroldy]

thank you for your responses ,,

 

[Gordon Gould]

Boylerman, I am wondering what are you running for a plow??

gg

 

[BoylermanCT]

Boylerman, I am wondering what are you running for a plow??

gg

I have a Meyer EZ Mount plow with a 7.5' blade. The plow blade mounts to the A frame with two 1" thick pins, which also are the blade trip pivot points. The plow is about 20 years old, and the pins are original. I bought 2 new pins but may have to use a torch to get the old ones out. I sprayed them to death with WD40, and used a sledge hammer on them to no avail.

The pins are circled in red.

 

[haroldy]

Boylerman, I am wondering what are you running for a plow??

gg

i dont have one yet,, it was for sale locally with quik attach for bobcat

 

[Oldpath05]

Here's how I have mine on, I tried it out further first, but it just stuck out way to far so I set the plow under the bucket and use the A frame as a running dept shoe to keep plow from digging in, tilting the bucket as needed. I do have a slight angle on the blade for each side held in place with a removable 1" pin, not as efficient as a plow on a pickup but I can plow the snow in a higher pile.

 

[Gordon Gould]

How do you run that OldPath ? Like a dozer with your hand on the lift valve all the time or do you put the FEL in float. That mount gets the blade back nicely.

I want to cob something like that up and wonder about the best way to float the blade.

 

[mcfarmall]

When I was a kid we had a Ford 2N with a Superior trip bucket loader. Had a 6 foot fixed blade that attached in place of the bucket with generous skid shoes on the outside corners. The loader was too primitive for down pressure so it was in "float" all the time. No angle or tilt or spring trip, nothing! It worked like a champ, I could pile up snow 6 feet high with that thing and with the filled rear tires and cross link chains it was virtually unstoppable. Never tweaked the loader frame as it was strong enough to stall the tractor first if I hit anything.

 

[DoubleO]

"dealer doesnt recommend this as he says can damadge loader arms"

tks

Doesn't make sense to me. You can drive the loader bucket into a pile of dirt and rocks and not damage it. Why would pushing snow cause damage?

 

[LouNY]

I have a Meyer EZ Mount plow with a 7.5' blade. The plow blade mounts to the A frame with two 1" thick pins, which also are the blade trip pivot points. The plow is about 20 years old, and the pins are original. I bought 2 new pins but may have to use a torch to get the old ones out. I sprayed them to death with WD40, and used a sledge hammer on them to no avail.

The pins are circled in red.

View attachment 527750

Have you removed your trip springs
I think many dealers and operators will be worried about the side loading being applied to the loader arms, when your blade gets angled and you are pushing snow sideways it's getting a good side load on the loader arms. I have an 8 foot blade on my loader and I watch for indications of side loading and I'm plowing slow. I purchased my blade last year and don't even see a manufactures name on it, it is an extremely tall blade for it's width, 3 ft tall., I'm going to have to add spacers to the shoes as my loader arms are to close to the ground when I'm using the shoes to carry the blade. I have considered widening the blade.

 

[Fallon]

Doesn't make sense to me. You can drive the loader bucket into a pile of dirt and rocks and not damage it. Why would pushing snow cause damage?

Because competent operators slowly push into a pile & don't get a running start. With a plow you are generally running at higher speed to cover more ground faster & to get snow to curl off to the side. Also when you push into a pile you are generally going straight in. With a plow angled, it presents greater side loads , where a loader isn't as strong compared to straight on.

I run a SSQA plow even knowing the weaknesses of the setup. I just try & be as cautious as possible about it to minimize the risk to the loader & tractor.

 

[MORRISONSTEEL]

I would be Leary of throwing my over caffeinated nephew on one for a go at some unfamiliar ground....as Fallon says some caution needs to be used when plowing with this method as you most certainly can damage the loader. Once they are bent, they are pretty much bent for life....but a decent operator can generally do it without breaking a lot of stuff.

 

[Btown]

Doesn't make sense to me. You can drive the loader bucket into a pile of dirt and rocks and not damage it. Why would pushing snow cause damage?

You go into dirt slow, plowing snow you could be going at a decent speed and if you hit an immovable object you can bend the loader arms pretty fast. They are for light work. They are not built like a real backhoe

 

[areid]

I built one and it does not even have any trips but I go slow and no issues. A trip mechanism is recommended of course.

 

[Oldpath05]

How do you run that OldPath ? Like a dozer with your hand on the lift valve all the time or do you put the FEL in float. That mount gets the blade back nicely.

I want to cob something like that up and wonder about the best way to float the blade.

I find that float still likes to dig in ground to much so with a rocky driveway like mine it's one hand on the FEL lever which is not bad when the newer tractors now just have one lever for tilt and lift, but on you're new Hot-Top driveway you could use the float program. It only takes one good snow storm to get a smooth plowing driveway, then if the next storm is rain, I have to start all over again.

If one does mount a plow like this with logbinder, I recommend a heavy duty short coil spring so to get the final correct tightness of chain, not good to have blade flopping around on FEL bucket and furthermore it's better if one has a quick-disconnect bucket, then mount a plow just on the FEL arms, one of those options I didn't think about when a got my tractor. But either way I also recommend keeping the trip cutter blade on, got to have some give somewhere or something will break.

So if you email notification works like mine, you should get this reply 10 days from now.