V-Plow for FEL

[Pibster]

I am trying to decide if I should build a V-Plow or a regular angled plow. I have a Kioti CK25 and a really long driveway that tends to drift. I figured a v-plow would get thru the deepest snow drifts with ease but it would be lacking when cleaning up around the yard and the neighbors driveway. I could likely figure something out with a hinge in the middle and a manual adjustment. Two 4' blades hinged in the middle will plow a wide enough path for my tractor. Has anyone else built or used a v-plow on a compact tractor?

 

[jeff9366]

Tractor FELs are not designed nor built to PUSH heavy loads. Something will buckle if your push regularly.

 

[Fallon]

Lots have built SSQA mounts for truck plows. I built a mount for a small manual angle plow fir my old L3200 (32hp, 3k lbs). I went with a SnowDawg plow on my new L4060. I bought it new. It's a truck plow, but I got the SSQA mount rather than a truck mount from the dealer.

A V plow is typically a lot heavier than a straight plow. That weight doesnt match well for a CUT, especially on a loader.

 

[LouNY]

I wouldn't recommend trying to plow at high speed but using reasonable care;
View attachment IMG_20180205_104002041_HDR.jpg View attachment IMG_20180205_104017943.jpg
View attachment snow bank 5 jan 18.jpg
You can move quite a bit snow with a loader and blade or bucket, the first pics are using down pressure to scrape ice and frozen snow.
I also have a truck with a plow but I use the tractor to plow with and save the truck for sanding duty.

 

[ruffdog]

If the front drifts while plowing, more than likely you don't have a floating plow that allows the weight of the FEL arms to stay on the front tires.

 

[MossRoad]

I have a power angle snow plow for my little machine on the FEL arms. It works GREAT! It has gauge wheels, so I can make all of the weight of the plow ride on those wheels if I want just by putting it in float. That helps greatly with undulating terrain. It also prevents gouging in grass and gravel. Not only can I angle it hydraulically, I can also lift it and dump it like a bucket. The plow works way better than a bucket for moving snow. Way better. My unit is small. If I had a larger machine, I would adapt a pickup truck plow with the trip mechanism. It's not necessary on my small machine, but from my past experience with pickup type plows, you need that trip mechanism on a blade on a larger machine in case you hit something solid or you may damage your machine.

I can also curl the plow down and take it off the gauge wheels and scrape right down to the pavement if I want to. That's handy for that last 1" of slush or ice. It's also handy to be able to drive right up to a garage door and back-drag away from the door while scraping the pavement. Again, you have to watch for solid objects, but you should know your area.

I've thought about a V plow many times. I don't think it would be that useful for my needs. For the very rare times we get large drifts, I just push them off to the sides.

Good luck with your decision. :thumbsup:

 

[Pibster]

My old tractor did not have float so the angled blade pushed the tractor sideways when there was a lot of snow. This Kioti FEL does have the float feature.

 

[Pibster]

The trip is nice but if I build a V-Plow, I probably won't be able to include a trip mechanism. I would make sure that I use good plow shoes to keep the blade up.

 

[George2615]

The trip is nice but if I build a V-Plow, I probably won't be able to include a trip mechanism. I would make sure that I use good plow shoes to keep the blade up.

By using float we mean the plow float, not the loader arm float. A truck plow attached to the truck at the back of the A-frame and has a chain to lift it up. When lowered down the blade can float up or down due to slack in the chain. I tried using loader arms to float a fixed mount blade but the arms floated down to the ground. With a plow A-frame attached to a quick attach mount using a chain to lift like a truck allows you to lower the loader arms till the blade contacts the ground then tilt the QA forward slightly will allow the blade to float and keeps the loader arm weight on the front tires for better traction.

 

[Pibster]

I never thought about losing the weight of the loader when using float. That would decrease front wheel traction. The chain would cure that. Thanks for the idea.