Snow Finally - some snow to try the new FEL plow on

[bandit67]

Well, we've had a pretty lame winter for snow this year - one of the driest winters in the last 20 years in our immediate area (fortunately the mountains still got a decent amount of snow this year).

Anyway, I put together a new-to-me FEL mounted snowplow during the winter, out of an old Meyer 6' truck plow. It still needs a final paint job, and I've decided on what the paint scheme will be, but that is going to wait until sometime this summer.

I was able to use the rear blade for most of the storms earlier in the winter, so this last storm was my first chance to give the new plow a try. Since it's been so warm and dry lately, I "summerized" my tractor, removing all the winter gear. Yesterday morning, before heading out to plow, I put the front chains on (didn't feel like wrestling with the rear chains for just one storm).

I have a handful of driveways and a 3/4 mile portion of road to plow for some folks further back in the neighborhood. Last storm took 3 hours to plow out the neighbors portion with the rear blade/front bucket combo. This storm, with only the FEL mounted plow, took only 1 hour and 45 minutes. I could probably shave another 15 minutes off that for the typical winter storm setup with the rear blade mounted, if I decide to keep it. It's kind of overkill, so if I find a buyer, I'll sell it.

Haven't yet set up the angle cylinders & hydraulics. I'd like to do that at some point, but it really wasn't too big of a bother with the manual pin-angle.

Attached is a before-FEL-plow pic, an after-FEL-plow pic during this latest storm, and an after-FEL-plow pic with all the chains and rear blade from earlier in the snowless winter:

 

[bx24d]

That's a really nice set up. How difficult is it to pin on to the lift arms? Can it angle side to side? How much fabrication did it require? Old plows are a dime a dozen for sale on the side of the road in Spring so this is an intriguing project.

 

[bandit67]

I have Kubota's pin-type quick attach, so it's pretty easy to hook up. ATI does make a pin type QA for your machine.

If you don't have any type of quick attach, I still think it wouldn't be too difficult - just a few extra minutes to get the loader arm pins lined up, then the single bucket curl cylinder wouldn't be too hard to pin on.

Yes, right now, since I don't yet have the hydraulic angle, I use the manual pin angle - just have to jump off and change the angle. The ability to hydraulically move the angle as you are plowing is very nice, but I've been able to plan my runs up & down the road and the driveways so that I don't have to hop off the machine to change the angle. I end up changing the angle quite a bit on my drive, but for the nearly 2 hours I spent plowing out the neighbors, I was able to get away without changing the angle.

As for the hydraulic angle, it's going to run at least $750-$800 in parts alone (I don't yet have the additional remotes), and after the first time out with the new setup, I determined that I could actually get through an entire winter of plowing without it, so it probably won't happen this summer when the paint does.

I don't weld, so I paid a retired welder to help put it all together. I came up with the design, did the prep work on the frame, then brought everything over to his house one Saturday to do the welding while I supervised the assembly. The 4 plates that my QA attaches to were cut and the holes were cut, on a plasma table after I emailed some cad files. That part cost $100 for the 4 custom cut plates.

 

[Charlesaf3]

Are you worried at all about tweaking the FEL arms? Or does the mounting braket "lock" them in parallel? That would be/is my big fear.

I was just up skiing in Summit/Aspen for a couple of weeks. Snowpack was sad :-( Started dumping just as I left of course.

 

[bandit67]

I'm not too worried about tweaking the FEL arms for a number of reasons.

The mounting bracket/frame is pretty stout with quite a bit of steel reinforcing - probably overkill, so I don't see any obstacle being able to tweak it.

The maximum speed I can run my machine is about 13 mph, with no load, on a flat, not pushing any snow, so high range maximum plowing speed is probably 10-11 mph.

There is really only one 1/2" diameter bolt attaching the moldboard to the frame, so there is a bit of play/slop in it.

I have the trip springs set to the lightest setting, so it doesn't take much pressure at all to trip the moldboard.

So far, I've not yet jarred the machine anywhere near the extent that I have while doing dirtwork with the loader. I've had a few instances doing dirtwork that made me cringe, but nothing anywhere near that while plowing. That FEL has a pretty stout cross bar up front - much stronger than I've had on previous machines.

All that being said, I do keep the thought of potentially tweaking the loader arms in the back of my mind, so I tend to be pretty careful, and ease up on the speed when heading into a potential buried obstacle.

 

[LBrown59]

WE shouldn't be getting any snow for about 9 months,

 

[NIdaho]

I don't think spring has come to this part of the country yet.

The following is from the National weather service out of Spokane:

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

A SPRING STORM WILL BRING MODERATE TO HEAVY MOUNTAIN SNOW AND A
MIX OF VALLEY RAIN AND SNOW TO THE REGION TODAY AND TONIGHT. IN
ADDITION WINDS WITH GUSTS TO 40 MPH CAN BE EXPECTED TODAY.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY

EXPECT THE WEATHER TO REMAIN UNSETTLED THROUGH THE WEEK...WITH
AREAS OF RAIN AND SNOW AND BREEZY TO WINDY CONDITIONS THROUGH
FRIDAY.
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