Snow Attachments FEL Blade Question for Snow

[Anonymous Poster]

I have a JD 4410 with a power angle blade for the FEL. I plan to use it to plow snow. I tried it a little on the gravel driveway for some light grading and the skid plates dug in to the drivway and made a mess. Is there any solution to this other than waiting for the ground to freeze?

Can I remove the plates? or can I raise the blade and use it differently than I am obviosly doing?.

Also, the blade has two springs...but I am not sure if I have the pins set up correctly...how do I know if the springs are set right so they will trip?

I am new to this operation so any help or advice wpuld be appreciated.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

You can certainly remove the skid plates from your blade if you choose. You can also raise or lower the blade as conditions warrant. As to the spring set up, one sure way to check it is to take the bottom edge of your blade into a stump at 4-5 mph.. If the blade folds forward then straightens back up when you bounce off, the springs are right. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

Or, I suppose you could look in your owner's manual. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[hazmat]

You can remove the skid plates, but I'd look into making them bigger so that they float better. I had a JD garden tractor with 54" front blade. The skids dug into the gravel all the time (ground never seemed to freeze before it snowed last year). However, I found that I ended up with less gravel in the grass using the skids than without.

Now I have a NH with a Landpride rear blade. It's skid shoes (optional) are significantly bigger than my old front blade. For fun I tested it this summer. It still drags thru the gravel, but "floats" the blade above it much better.

In any case, the plow will work better once the ground freezes.

Good luck & happy tractoring

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I like the idea of bigger skid plates. They should keep the blade edge off the gravel better. Are you using your FEL in the float position when you do this or are you setting the FEL height?

 

[treeboone]

I have a 7 foot curtis blade on my L4610 and plow all gravel yard and driveway. It came new with the mushroom shape skidshoes (think of them as training wheels on a kids 2 wheel bicycle) They are new and unused if anyone wants to buy them.
The hard fact is this...
Slow down, and learn to raise and lower the blade when dirt shows.
It is a learned skill, and learning is frustrating.
When the ground freezes, you can plow much faster and not make a mess of things, but the first couple of clearings will be slow going
I find that a backblade, reversed, on the first couple of snows is usefull. Not all snow plows the same, and it can change from hour to hour. Sometimes it moves nicely and sticks together, sometimes its like plowing popcorn.
The goal I shoot for is too clear as close to the soft ground as possible without piling up dirt in the snow berm.

 

[EdwardSeeley]

I built a quick attach snow blade from an old truck plow for my NH TN65 FEL, I do not use the skid shoes, it is awesome for plowing snow, but when the ground is not frozen you will make a mess no matter what if you have the blade too low. How you angle and tilt the blade make a difference, you will need to practice to get the best results. Trust me, plowing with a tractor you will trip the springs, my plow has 4 springs and they are always tripping the plow, especially when you have too much down pressure on the loader arms or when you hit hard snow underneath soft snow, I live in Western New York and last winter I had snow banks at least 10-12 feet tall in my yard. I run the snow plow on the front and a 7 foot blower on the back, all depends on type and amount of snow and what you need to do. My drive way is part black top, part hardpack gravel and part lawn.

 

[Fly_Rodr]

I agree with Treeboone, the first snows or until the drive is frozen I just push the snow in reverse with the rear blade, this position has no cutting action and pushes all the snow leaving maybe an inch on the drive. Once the ground has froze I use the rear blade in the normal manner with the position control adjusted about one inch above the surface. I also drag some snow using the float position on the FEL.