Soft snow plow edges for asphalt

[WinterDeere]

I'm back to my annual fight and frustration with plowing my asphalt driveway without destruction.

Equipment: Loader mounted plow (Frontier 72") on Deere 3033R

OEM edge: hardened steel 1/2" x 4" x 72" affixed with 6 carriage bolts



(Note Woods SB64S has since been sold, didn't really need it for this tractor.)

Ran this plow with factory edge the first year with the factory "inverted mushroom" shoes set to leave the plow 1/4" above the surface. Worked great for removing snow and the ice and slush we so often get in eastern PA, but it absolutely tore the hell out of my previously-smooth driveway. Issue is that we're a little hilly and slopey around here, so while driveway is smooth, it ain't flat. Plow edge would dig into asphalt any place that crowning put the edge on the drive before the shoes. Also had issues with corners of the plow edge digging into asphalt in some of the sloped tight turns.

Switched last year to a 1" x 4" x 72" polyurethane edge, affixed in place using a 1/4" x 2" x 72" stainless bar and the original carriage bolt holes:




Kept shoes set near that same 1/4" height, and this worked fine for snow, but just skidded over anything frozen. Was a real problem in one or two of our storms where precip alternated between snow and freezing rain (not uncommon, here).

Tried raising shoes to put the rubber hard on the ground, but the rubber just flexed up in-between each bolt location, to where it was wearing quickly at the bolts and leaving ice/sluch between:



It just never worked well, although maybe I gave up on it too soon. Adding more bolts might have improved it, but I feared the 1" thick too-soft edge would always just slip over anything frozen, and so it wasn't worth punching more holes in my plow to test that theory.

This year I ordered a 3/4" x 4" x 72" strip of UHMW, which I hope will be a happy compromise. I've heard varying opinions on what to do with the shoes and cutting edge height. I do believe that running completely shoe-less might be a good way to break the UHMW edge off if I hit anything less than flat (like the hard seam between my driveway and street), so that's probably not worth trying.

Am I on the right track? How do you folks run your skid shoes with UHMW edges?

Driveway is glassy smooth asphalt topcoated every 3rd year for decades. It's lumpy, it has some cracks, but it slippy smooth. Street (which I also plow across at end of my driveway) is oiled chipped every 3rd year so about as rough and abrasive a surface as you'll ever encounter. Think the asphalt version of coarse sandpaper.

 

[John0829]

No experience with the UHMW but I can tell you the rubber edges are a waste of money. Years ago it was decided to installed one on a Cat grader I used for clearing roads, parking lots, etc. and I can tell you all it did was slick em' up and made it much worse than if the snow had been left in place. The rubber went into the trash pile and the regular cutting edges put back quicker than you can say ice.

 

[ruffdog]

You are finding out the big drawback of a loader mounted plow. Your plow has no float mechanism built into it so you either position the FEL or float the FEL. The geometry of the FEL does not do a good job of floating and adds a bunch of down pressure to the plow (weight of loader arms), hence the edge problem and damage to driveway. You can't just position the FEL because with the undulating surface it will dig in at times.

This is why some people modify the set-up so the plow is more rearward and it has its own float mechanism built in.

 

[ThunderChop]

I have a long asphalt driveway and use my loader & bucket to facilitate snow removal. Have been using a piece of composite decking scraps (Azek is thicker) carriage bolted to the underside of the bucket....works great for snow removal but ice not so much. Does not scratch or gouge the asphalt and is cost effective/durable.

 

[WinterDeere]

No experience with the UHMW but I can tell you the rubber edges are a waste of money. Years ago it was decided to installed one on a Cat grader I used for clearing roads, parking lots, etc. and I can tell you all it did was slick em' up and made it much worse than if the snow had been left in place. The rubber went into the trash pile and the regular cutting edges put back quicker than you can say ice.

Yeah, this is exactly what I'm finding! Shame, this big slab of polyurethane was not real cheap, if I recall. I think it could work fine for our friends out west, but in the frozen messes we routinely see here in the mid-Atlantic, they're definitely not the best solution.

You are finding out the big drawback of a loader mounted plow. Your plow has no float mechanism built into it so you either position the FEL or float the FEL. The geometry of the FEL does not do a good job of floating and adds a bunch of down pressure to the plow (weight of loader arms), hence the edge problem and damage to driveway. You can't just position the FEL because with the undulating surface it will dig in at times.

Definitely. I get away with floating this loader, it's heavy enough that my tractor doesn't try to "walk up" on it until the snow gets real deep and heavy, at which point I have to set it. Setting it works better than you imply though, because there's still an inch or three of play in the whole thing to ride over small bumps when it's set right. Not perfect, but workable.

This is why some people modify the set-up so the plow is more rearward and it has its own float mechanism built in.

Never thought of this, but I like it! You're talking about still using the JDQA or SSQA, but rolling them forward and welding new mounts that put the plow behind the bucket pivots of the loader? I guess another option would be to just get a tractor-mounted plow, but I really though my days of fighting with mounting/unmounting those were over.

I have a long asphalt driveway and use my loader & bucket to facilitate snow removal. Have been using a piece of composite decking scraps (Azek is thicker) carriage bolted to the underside of the bucket....works great for snow removal but ice not so much. Does not scratch or gouge the asphalt and is cost effective/durable.

Used to do this, but it required more than a dozen trips up/down the driveway to get it all, the way snow spills off both edges of the bucket, once full. The bucket did a great job, but the tilted plow is just so much more efficient, and has less of a "walk-up" problem with a floating loader than any bucket filled with heavy snow.

 

[RjCorazza]

Nothing will peel up ice like a steel edge. The best compromise I have found is a thick UHMW polyethylene edge. It scrapes better than rubber or polyurethane, but still not as well as steel. I continue to use UHMW commercially for the zero marks or damage.

It is important to get the bevel correct on the edge, and keep the plow adjusted to maintain a crisp edge. My edges are 1.25" thick and mounted with regular bolts and large flat washers... No issues.

 

[WinterDeere]

Nothing will peel up ice like a steel edge. The best compromise I have found is a thick UHMW polyethylene edge. It scrapes better than rubber or polyurethane, but still not as well as steel. I continue to use UHMW commercially for the zero marks or damage.

It is important to get the bevel correct on the edge, and keep the plow adjusted to maintain a crisp edge. My edges are 1.25" thick and mounted with regular bolts and large flat washers... No issues.

Excellent. Thanks! I was planning to use the same stainless steel bar (1/4" x 2" x 72") I had made for clamping on the polyurethane, shown in the last three photos of my post #1 above. But the UHMW edge I ordered is only 3/4" thick, as that had been recommended for this size machine a few places. Do you think I should have gone thicker, or should I be good enough with 3/4" on a 33 hp machine weighing around 5500 lb?

Also, how do you set your skid shoes? Flush to edge, and then let the bevel develop naturally, or is there a procedure to get the edge beveled?

(Here's where I imagine Corazza driving up and down his driveway in reverse with UHMW plow edge dragging on asphalt)

 

[ruffdog]

I would use nyloc nuts and not over tighten the bolts too.

 

[RjCorazza]

Excellent. Thanks! I was planning to use the same stainless steel bar (1/4" x 2" x 72") I had made for clamping on the polyurethane, shown in the last three photos of my post #1 above. But the UHMW edge I ordered is only 3/4" thick, as that had been recommended for this size machine a few places. Do you think I should have gone thicker, or should I be good enough with 3/4" on a 33 hp machine weighing around 5500 lb?

Also, how do you set your skid shoes? Flush to edge, and then let the bevel develop naturally, or is there a procedure to get the edge beveled?

(Here's where I imagine Corazza driving up and down his driveway in reverse with UHMW plow edge dragging on asphalt)

I think a 3/4" thick edge is going to wear faster than I would like. My machine is comparable in weight to yours, but my plow may be heavier. I keep the weight of the plow (535 lbs) on the pavement, and do not float the FEL. There is a little vertical slop in my plow that makes it possible, and it also had 5 degrees of side to side free movement.
I don't use the skid shoes at all. As far as the edge angle, yes... I did run it in on my previous polyurethane edge by driving it on the road. I tried the same with the UHMW polyethylene edge, and it just was not happening. I ended up cutting the bevel on a table saw based on the small corner angle that running it on the street made... worked perfect.
I am very careful to keep the same loader curl to keep the correct angle on the edge. I put a large magnetic level on the plow frame this fall, but the tractor itself must be on a level surface to be useful. Easier to just eyeball the plow frame.

 

[thclimer]

I'm back to my annual fight and frustration with plowing my asphalt driveway without destruction.

Equipment: Loader mounted plow (Frontier 72") on Deere 3033R

OEM edge: hardened steel 1/2" x 4" x 72" affixed with 6 carriage bolts

View attachment 770796 View attachment 770797

(Note Woods SB64S has since been sold, didn't really need it for this tractor.)

Ran this plow with factory edge the first year with the factory "inverted mushroom" shoes set to leave the plow 1/4" above the surface. Worked great for removing snow and the ice and slush we so often get in eastern PA, but it absolutely tore the hell out of my previously-smooth driveway. Issue is that we're a little hilly and slopey around here, so while driveway is smooth, it ain't flat. Plow edge would dig into asphalt any place that crowning put the edge on the drive before the shoes. Also had issues with corners of the plow edge digging into asphalt in some of the sloped tight turns.

Switched last year to a 1" x 4" x 72" polyurethane edge, affixed in place using a 1/4" x 2" x 72" stainless bar and the original carriage bolt holes:


View attachment 770802 View attachment 770799

Kept shoes set near that same 1/4" height, and this worked fine for snow, but just skidded over anything frozen. Was a real problem in one or two of our storms where precip alternated between snow and freezing rain (not uncommon, here).

Tried raising shoes to put the rubber hard on the ground, but the rubber just flexed up in-between each bolt location, to where it was wearing quickly at the bolts and leaving ice/sluch between:

View attachment 770803

It just never worked well, although maybe I gave up on it too soon. Adding more bolts might have improved it, but I feared the 1" thick too-soft edge would always just slip over anything frozen, and so it wasn't worth punching more holes in my plow to test that theory.

This year I ordered a 3/4" x 4" x 72" strip of UHMW, which I hope will be a happy compromise. I've heard varying opinions on what to do with the shoes and cutting edge height. I do believe that running completely shoe-less might be a good way to break the UHMW edge off if I hit anything less than flat (like the hard seam between my driveway and street), so that's probably not worth trying.

Am I on the right track? How do you folks run your skid shoes with UHMW edges?

Driveway is glassy smooth asphalt topcoated every 3rd year for decades. It's lumpy, it has some cracks, but it slippy smooth. Street (which I also plow across at end of my driveway) is oiled chipped every 3rd year so about as rough and abrasive a surface as you'll ever encounter. Think the asphalt version of coarse sandpaper.

Without a very flat surface its going to be challenging to get all the slush/ice off your driveway. However, a big benefit of a driveway is the ability to apply a ice melting compound like salt or its variants. On a driveway a little salt can go a long way as it melts the ice and spreads across the surface to melt other areas.

Are you applying any salt after you clear the driveway?

 

[oosik]

I plow my mile long gravel driveway with a VERY heavy rear blade. Just drag it along behind the tractor. Never causes much problem because, like now, my driveway is frozen - hard a concrete.

Many have found, out this way, a blade on the FEL has too much down pressure - even in float. The only other way - big wide shoes on the blade to keep it up off the gravel.

 

[dodge man]

This is what I use on mine, it seems to work well. The only problem is it wasn’t tall enough to sandwich between the original cutting edge and the blade. You can’t see it in the picture but I have a cheap metal flat bar on the front to help reinforce it, but it isn’t really sturdy enough.

 

[John_Mc]

You are finding out the big drawback of a loader mounted plow. Your plow has no float mechanism built into it so you either position the FEL or float the FEL. The geometry of the FEL does not do a good job of floating and adds a bunch of down pressure to the plow (weight of loader arms), hence the edge problem and damage to driveway. You can't just position the FEL because with the undulating surface it will dig in at times.

This is why some people modify the set-up so the plow is more rearward and it has its own float mechanism built in.

This is often exactly the problem with plows mounted directly to the loader. You are not floating just the plow, you are floating the whole loader assembly. Someone posted pictures on here a while ago of their "under slung" snow plow mount. In this set-up, the plow is not rigidly mounted to the loader frame, so the frame can be locked in place, but the plow itself can still float. The lighter floating weight makes it less likely to dig in. It's not a 100% guarantee against asphalt damage, but it does lessen the likelihood. It also slows down the wear on any softer cutting edge you may install. When properly set up, you can still get down pressure on your snowplow when you want it, you just curl forward until you have used up all of the float range in your under slung mount.

Here are a few threads on people who did under slung mounts for their snowplows:

Snow Plow Build Finished - Underslung QA Loader Mount

Finally finished my underslung plow frame project. Plow is an 8 Fisher Speedcast I picked up on Craigslist for $300, a steal considering it also included all the truck side frame and hydraulics. The quick attach plate is a 5/16 thick version. The horizontal frame tubes are 3 inch 1/4 inch...

www.tractorbynet.com

A Setback or "underslung" SSQA Snow Plow Build Story

I wanted to put a plow on the M5640. I found a guy who wanted to restore a '91 F150 and would give the plow to someone who would take it off the truck. So I did. The plan was to sell the pump, valve/control, head gear, and truck frame parts and start out ahead but that hasn't happened. I...

www.tractorbynet.com

SSQA Snow Plow

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...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[kevin37b]

Snow and ice are tough to judge . Alot of variables .

 

[oosik]

I wonder if part of the problem is the OP's asphalt driveway. I've used my 1100# Land Pride rear blade on an asphalt driveway with no damage what-so-ever. AND - believe me - the driveway owner was watching VERY closely. It did leave scratch marks where the blade would encounter gravel - but otherwise - nothing.

 

[truckdiagnostics]

I slit a piece of schedule 40 pipe and put it over the cutting edge. works well, bounces over the gravel parts, doesn't catch the asphalt. once the ground freezes and i plow a path to the bird feeder doesn't dig up the grass either. rock clean up in spring is much easier also.

 

[WinterDeere]

I wonder if part of the problem is the OP's asphalt driveway. I've used my 1100# Land Pride rear blade on an asphalt driveway with no damage what-so-ever. AND - believe me - the driveway owner was watching VERY closely.

Anything is possible. I believe most of the driveway was laid in 1986, but then extended in both directions around 1995. I have it seal-coated every 3rd year.

Never had an issue clearing it with the 54" bucket on my 855 (model 52 loader), but this 72" Frontier plow on the 3033r is noticeably harder on it.

 

[GeneV]

I'm back to my annual fight and frustration with plowing my asphalt driveway without destruction.

Equipment: Loader mounted plow (Frontier 72") on Deere 3033R

OEM edge: hardened steel 1/2" x 4" x 72" affixed with 6 carriage bolts

View attachment 770796 View attachment 770797

(Note Woods SB64S has since been sold, didn't really need it for this tractor.)

Ran this plow with factory edge the first year with the factory "inverted mushroom" shoes set to leave the plow 1/4" above the surface. Worked great for removing snow and the ice and slush we so often get in eastern PA, but it absolutely tore the hell out of my previously-smooth driveway. Issue is that we're a little hilly and slopey around here, so while driveway is smooth, it ain't flat. Plow edge would dig into asphalt any place that crowning put the edge on the drive before the shoes. Also had issues with corners of the plow edge digging into asphalt in some of the sloped tight turns.

Switched last year to a 1" x 4" x 72" polyurethane edge, affixed in place using a 1/4" x 2" x 72" stainless bar and the original carriage bolt holes:


View attachment 770802 View attachment 770799

Kept shoes set near that same 1/4" height, and this worked fine for snow, but just skidded over anything frozen. Was a real problem in one or two of our storms where precip alternated between snow and freezing rain (not uncommon, here).

Tried raising shoes to put the rubber hard on the ground, but the rubber just flexed up in-between each bolt location, to where it was wearing quickly at the bolts and leaving ice/sluch between:

View attachment 770803

It just never worked well, although maybe I gave up on it too soon. Adding more bolts might have improved it, but I feared the 1" thick too-soft edge would always just slip over anything frozen, and so it wasn't worth punching more holes in my plow to test that theory.

This year I ordered a 3/4" x 4" x 72" strip of UHMW, which I hope will be a happy compromise. I've heard varying opinions on what to do with the shoes and cutting edge height. I do believe that running completely shoe-less might be a good way to break the UHMW edge off if I hit anything less than flat (like the hard seam between my driveway and street), so that's probably not worth trying.

Am I on the right track? How do you folks run your skid shoes with UHMW edges?

Driveway is glassy smooth asphalt topcoated every 3rd year for decades. It's lumpy, it has some cracks, but it slippy smooth. Street (which I also plow across at end of my driveway) is oiled chipped every 3rd year so about as rough and abrasive a surface as you'll ever encounter. Think the asphalt version of coarse sandpaper.

On mine, I got a 1/2" UHMW strip I bought of Amazon 6 years ago, and it's still going strong. Mounted on my plow with the wear bar acting as the backer plate for it. No marks on my blacktop from it. And 6 years in, although it's worn some, I've yet to need to flip it over to the other side.

 

[WinterDeere]

Great. This is what I was hoping to hear. By "wear bar", do you mean the narrower steel bar that carries the carriage bolts? If so, I did the same with mine, similar to what I had on the polyurethane edge in the OP.

 

[GeneV]

Great. This is what I was hoping to hear. By "wear bar", do you mean the narrower steel bar that carries the carriage bolts? If so, I did the same with mine, similar to what I had on the polyurethane edge in the OP.

Yessir. My plow was originally for my craftsman garden tractor. I converted it a few yrs back to work on my tractor. Here's a vid: