Articulating snow blade (pics) Thinking outside the box

Knight · Dec 24, 2008

I wanted to make a snowplow for the tractor, but tractors have no suspension and when run on uneven ground, the blade digs into the asphalt.
I made a blade with a swivel mount, so it will follow the contour of the driveway and not be married to tractor suspension.
I will use the electric over hydraulic valve I installed for my grapple project, I just completed (see the link below for the grapple project).
I used thick wall tubing and a 1" pin.
I used an old truck plow for this project,($100). It came with the hydraulic cylinders.
This plow was tested in this last snow here and worked great scraping the driveway at the right angle.

Your can see the electric switch on the dash of the tractor to control plow swing. I would recommend using electric over hydraulic for connecting up an aux cylinder, I am happy with this clean set-up. Hoses don't run all over the tractor.

My grapple project
Making a different grapple for forks or bucket (pics) - TractorByNet.com

3RRL · Dec 24, 2008

I don't know anything about snow plows and can't comment on how good it will work.
But I can tell you I like the way you think and make/modify your own stuff. It's always nice to see another fabricator on the forum who takes time to analyze what he's trying to accomplish.
Personally, in my brief association with tractors, I've seen a lot of areas for improvements that can be made to our tractors. I think as more CUTs are in the hands of guys other than agricultural use, we'll see a lot of mods making each tractor fit more specific homeowner needs than ever before. Especially that most of us have one tractor that needs to do it all. lol ... I've done so many mods to my tractor and implements now that I could never afford to get rid of it.

Nice work Knight!

ktm250rider · Dec 24, 2008

It looks like you mounted your frame as far forward on your plow as possible. I was looking to do something similar with mine to minimize the overhang from the FEL arms. I cut the mounting tabs off mine and welded the plow frame to the FEL frame just past the ends of the swing pistons. The thing I was concerned about was any rotational forces from the plow frame on the FEL mount. Id be interested in hearing how yours turns out. Im also going to be using the electric diverter.

Knight · Dec 24, 2008

Thank you for the kind words....
We had an icing, slush rain last night, I just came in from plowing the driveway for our Christmas eve guests. This blade did a great job removing ice and it didn't matter what incline or angle my tractor was on.
Truck plows float for this reason, so why not tractors?
Merry Christmas to all!

Knight · Dec 24, 2008

ktm250rider said:
It looks like you mounted your frame as far forward on your plow as possible. I was looking to do something similar with mine to minimize the overhang from the FEL arms. I cut the mounting tabs off mine and welded the plow frame to the FEL frame just past the ends of the swing pistons. The thing I was concerned about was any rotational forces from the plow frame on the FEL mount. Id be interested in hearing how yours turns out. Im also going to be using the electric diverter.

First of all, I'm not a cowboy on my Tractor, I take it easy on the machine as well as not damaging the asphalt driveway or curbs.
It will work fine, This is not my first plow like this. I just sold my last plow, because I wanted a bigger plow for my bigger tractor.
Put everything in place, mock it up, look at it.
When you say rotational forces, do you mean from the curl cylinders not being hooked up? My last tractor had that set-up and it stayed in place while I plowed.
I suggest using adding an electric over hydraulic valve. This keeps your curl cylinders operational.This is a huge benefit for making those minor adjustment s on the plow angle. EOH (electric over hydraulic) is cleaner, cost same or even less and if you get a grapple, you will be all set to go.

If you check out my grapple link, you will see the EOH install.

zzvyb6 · Dec 24, 2008

The way to keep a snow plow from digging into loose gravel or mud or whatever is to keep it at a high angle (as in 30 - 45 degrees). Then, the fore / aft components of the blade ride the contour without rippling the roadway. Just use the float position on the valve to isolate the plow vertical degree of freedom from the tractors. That's another reason to not use a loader frame based plow: its too far forward. If you can't float the blade, then the roadway smoothness goes bad real fast. Of course the other obvious reason is that the rotating moment on the tractor mass makes it really hard to drive straight. Yes, the advantage of the quick attach is a big plus. But you definitly need a power angle on a plow for adjusting the plow blade for snow conditions, missing objects in its path, pushing masses of snow, and changing path directions.

Knight · Dec 24, 2008

I have angle cylinders, I just have not installed them yet. Christmas is taking my time right now. I want to rebuild the cylinders before I install them.

I have something else I made. I want to show you guys. It is something I made years ago and is huge time saver. After Christmas.

ktm250rider · Dec 24, 2008

By rotational forces Im thinking that if you were to hit something with the far edge of the plow (or plowing a pile off center) there may be less strength to the assembly as the weld joint gets closer to the point of the plow frame. I would think that the trip springs would prevent that.