Anyone Bent Their FEL Using a Snow Plow

[Hilbilly]

Rustyiron,

The landplane is a great idea but my driveway has lots of what I call nuggets. These are rocks that stick up out of the ground. They can be 6" diameter or 6 feet diameter. You don't know until you dig it up. When I use the back blade it just bounces off of them. Here's a pic of some of the nuggets that came out of the excavation for the house construction, trench works and the shop excavation. For scale the rock wall is about 6' high and about 80' long. There is another one to the right of this one and it has the really big nuggets in it.


DK,

The pipe idea would definitely stop the blade from digging in but I would still have the issue of keeping the blade at the right height. Too low and I loose steering and too high and I leave a bunch of snow. Maybe I need a 2 step approach. Snow plow in front, set high enough that it doesn't catch and then a rear blade dragging on the surface to pick up what the plow missed. The rear blade is what I have been using for the last 10 years.

 

[ray66v]

A fixed plow can work, if you're all paved, and it's all flat.

It's much easier though to use a FEL plow that can float, and rotate a few degrees. If your plowing gravel, it's essential if you want to leave the gravel in place.

 

[Ford850]

A floating blade works great on hard packed surfaces without using the shoes. You leave the shoes in place but tilt the blade down to get the blade down and shoes up.

 

[George2615]

Yeah, I'd have to be talked into cutting up that pretty new plow!

Agree, I wouldn't cut or modify that new HLA. Like any new toy /device used to plow snow, the operator just needs to learn how to use it with finesse and remove the least amount of gravel from the driveway as possible. I've been plowing almost 50 years and still have to rake gravel out of the yard and back to the driveway every year. I think they call it job security or just plain more seat time.

 

[FatTire]

I'm guessing you don't run tire chains? Tire chains on the front helps a lot with steering.

 

[Coyote machine]

Round here those are called rocks, or small boulders!
So if you have to have the float of which you refer, why not get a plow guy up to plow your drive to see what your float can do on a truck mounted plow?

If it doesn't drastically do a spectacular better job then your appoach is focused on the wrong thing, IMHO.
If it's a failed experiment, then the focus should turn to making the drive work the way you need it to. I am for modifying the driveway, NOT your new plow.

The proper sized dozer would get your drive rid of the pesky rocks, and it would be a one and done job.
Then you could blast up or down the drive smashing snow far into the weeds forever with no worries about speed/float, etc.
Doze it, rake it /plane it, then compact it with a roller, and blast away.

On the down side, you butcher a perfectly good plow and then can't return it, likely can't sell it, and STILL have the original problem of a poorly designed drive and extreme hair loss.
Say it costs a couple of grand to fix the drive. Then it's fixed forever. Put the cost of repair out several years and figure it as a major improvement to your property access AND for very little investment. You have a nice home and property, spend what you need to to make it work. With what you describe, NO plow is going to get your drive done right without focusing on the problem at hand- the drive needs to be fixed, THEN use your new HLA as it was/is intended.
Just because you may not want to fix it doesn't mean it's not what needs to be done instead of dancing around the real solution. I guarantee if you fix the real problem you will then be satisfied with the results.:thumbsup:

 

[bkrgi]

10 pages and round and round things go.....

If the tractor blower does not work for you because of having to look backwards then get a new blower for the SS
Use a SS snow/light materials bucket for scraping/final cleanup
Lets not over complicate things as you will only be able to do so much no matter what you have
Forget the 'plow' ideas.
I would just stick with the blower and bucket and keep it simple as no matter what you use it is ALL a compromise

 

[Coyote machine]

10 pages and round and round things go.....

If the tractor blower does not work for you because of having to look backwards then get a new blower for the SS
Use a SS snow/light materials bucket for scraping/final cleanup
Lets not over complicate things as you will only be able to do so much no matter what you have
Forget the 'plow' ideas.
I would just stick with the blower and bucket and keep it simple as no matter what you use it is ALL a compromise

I agree on the round and round bit- feeling blue in the face at this point. Money already spend on plow though and losing $ returning it or butchering it to maybe get it to do the specific job the OP has is unlikely to work.

Fixing the drive however, IF done right, solves the whole problem once and for all. Then all the existing equipment can handle their particular tasks...

 

[Hilbilly]

Coyote,

The driveway fix would be a LOT more expensive than a couple thousand dollars. Probably somewhere between $20K and $30K. I did a quick and dirty cost for putting down 2" of crushed gravel and the material cost would be around $16K delivered. Then it needs to be packed. Over the years I've already put about 50 dump truck loads of gravel on the DW but over time it gets washed away and more is required. Running a dozer over the driveway will either push the existing gravel over the bank and be lost or into the ditch. Then the gravel needs to be replaced and ditches redone. Cheapest fix is more gravel at needed locations. Maybe take the excavator and dig up the bad areas and redo those. That would be a cheaper solution.

I've made a decision and will follow through with this as soon as I get time. I called HLA and talked to one of their techs. I described my situation, the problems I'm having and my plan to alleviate the problems. The plan is to weld or bolt tabs to the bottom outside edge of the side plates. These plates will extend to the rear (towards tractor) and have holes in them for a pivot (bolts for trial run). Then I bought a second SSQA plate and will mount that to the tractor and weld tabs to the bottom of it to coincide with the ones on the plow. That will form the pivot. Then I will connect a chain from the top of the new SSQA to the top of the plow cross member. The HLA tech i talked to said they don't normally recommend this for the 2000 series but in my situation he thought it would be a very good idea. I will try it and if this works well then I will make a more permanent mounting system. He said they offer floats on their larger plows and most of the ones they sell opt for the float. I also went over the plan with the dealer and because I am not going to affect the existing mount to the plow I think he would take it back with a hit of course. He also suggested that if I wasn't happy with the outcome I could trade it in for another implement and that way I'd get credit for the most of the original taxes.

I'm going for this and will report back in a few days. I just got back from the City to pick up the bearing I need to fix my blower. Now I need to get that fixed, then into town again to pick up one of my grandsons from his basketball practice.

Stay tuned and get your popcorn.

 

[nybirdman]

For those telling you to fix "your" drive way;what about other people's drives that you may plow?A lot easier to float your plow blade and make it more useful.