Homemade wooden snowplow - thoughts?

[ray66v]

I fabricated my FEL plow from steel, on a low budget.

There are lots of plows, and parts out there used.

Unfortunately, now is obviously the worst time to get one cheap.

 

[panamaguy]

I have a Kubota MX6000 cab tractor. Normally I use a 7' rear blade for snow plowing. However, it is a pain to be looking behind you all the time. What do you guys think of making a wooden front plow?

Here's what I'm thinking:
1.) Buy a 1/4" SSQA metal plate
2.) Buy a 4x8' sheet of 5/8" flooring plywood ; cut it in half the long way for two sheets of 2' x 8'
3.) Using large thick washers and heavy duty bolts, bolt the doubled-up sheets of plywood to the SSQA plate. Next, screw a couple of 2x4x8 boards to the plywood "plow" just above and below the plate, for some additional rigidity.
4.) Use a couple of pieces of angle iron 8' long - one on the back and one on the top, bolted together through the wood at the bottom, as a cutting edge of sorts and to protect the wood.
5.) Paint everything for a bit of waterproofing effect

Obviously this "plow" might now last for more than a season or two, but the only thing needing to be replaced would be the wood. It seems like minimal effort to have a functioning front plow. A couple of wooden wings on the front would essentially create a snow pusher. The whole setup would be light enough to where the wood would just break before any loader arms got bent or anything like that, but still heavy enough to put the loader in "float" and scrape the snow.

I'm open to suggestions or criticisms and thoughts. Just an idea I had running through my head.

Pay once, cry once. Get a steel blade and be done with it. It only costs twice as much to do it the correct way the first time

 

[Rockbadchild]

your asking for trouble … to make it sturdy enough plus your fabrication time plus future damage = not worth it regardless the way you look at it

 

[Brendanspapa]

I have not seen any used snow blades with SSQA for cheap money at all.
I actually have a 9' Fisher hydraulic angle plow that I could weld a SSQA plate to, but I think that's a bit too heavy for my tractor and risking bending the arms, despite the plow having a trip edge. One sheet of 5/8 Advantech is $53 and the SSQA plate is about $120 shipped. The angle iron might run me $75 for the two pieces, plus a few bolts and washers. I don't think I could have a functioning plow for less than $250.

I suggest cutting down the unused Fisher and putting it on an adapter plate. Remove the blade from the mounting frame, cut down the length and height to suit, and attach to plate.

 

[Skypilota72]

What I do with my MX6000 works great and it’s a cheap option. I installed some edge tamers to my loader bucket and then turn my rear blade 180 degrees so it won’t pick up the road gravel. With the bucket pushing the bulk of the snow and my 8’ rear blade angled to clean the road it works great.

Amazon.com

I have been using those edge tamers for 6 years now on my FEL for rural snow removal. We live in Wisconsin and get quite a bit of snow, and my Mahindra Max-24 surprisingly handles this well.

 

[Deamon]

I have a Kubota MX6000 cab tractor. Normally I use a 7' rear blade for snow plowing. However, it is a pain to be looking behind you all the time. What do you guys think of making a wooden front plow?

Here's what I'm thinking:
1.) Buy a 1/4" SSQA metal plate
2.) Buy a 4x8' sheet of 5/8" flooring plywood ; cut it in half the long way for two sheets of 2' x 8'
3.) Using large thick washers and heavy duty bolts, bolt the doubled-up sheets of plywood to the SSQA plate. Next, screw a couple of 2x4x8 boards to the plywood "plow" just above and below the plate, for some additional rigidity.
4.) Use a couple of pieces of angle iron 8' long - one on the back and one on the top, bolted together through the wood at the bottom, as a cutting edge of sorts and to protect the wood.
5.) Paint everything for a bit of waterproofing effect

Obviously this "plow" might now last for more than a season or two, but the only thing needing to be replaced would be the wood. It seems like minimal effort to have a functioning front plow. A couple of wooden wings on the front would essentially create a snow pusher. The whole setup would be light enough to where the wood would just break before any loader arms got bent or anything like that, but still heavy enough to put the loader in "float" and scrape the snow.

I'm open to suggestions or criticisms and thoughts. Just an idea I had running through my head.

I made one, 4 years ago. It was easier to install/remove, as it sat insde my bucket. Like this guy here:

Mine is beefier than his cuz I used 2x8, I made it to follow the curve of my buckets sides. It doesn't break because i got 2 supporting upright pieces inside the bucket spreading the pressure and cutting the moment of force produced by snow weight. I covered it with old sheet metal for protection. It slides on a bedframe angle iron that i replace every other year depending on wear. The sides are 2x6 lagged and reinforced with angle iron and rods. It works awesome with the snot we been getting these last couple years instead of snow. The blower is useless in the wet stuff,
My 2 cents. Good luck

 

[BryceSteiner]

I made a sidewalk snow remover out of wood and it works pretty well for some scrap laying around. It's purpose was sidewalks only.

 

[IndyIan]

2x4's and angle iron will work for light snow or until you have frozen banks, and then you'll catch a corner of the plow and break it off...
You are running your rear blade pulling forwards? I do that unless I've got 8-10"+ of snow then I reverse it and plow backwards.
If you want to try the free plow with wood method, find a 10-12" diameter hard maple or white oak log and use that as your cutting edge support, then you might twist your loader up first before it breaks!

 

[Bentrim]

Years ago my uncle took a water tank and cut it in half to make a V snow plow. Mounted it on a Case 730, and found it was very hard to push thru deep snow because it had to push the snow to the sides. If you look at most road plows you find they lift the snow so it dosn't have to push all the snow to the side but lifts it over the snow at the side of the plow.

 

[Mattsy Fergy]

This is the setup I made for my Massey. I found a used ATV/UTV blade and hitch online and bought it, not cheap but a real nice blade. 60" Aluminum, could angle, with a large thick rubber edge.
I made a mount that would fit in my bucket, this is the second one, the first was too flimsy. The upright fit up under the lip to prevent the mount from riding up.
The chains were to hold it in place when dumping the bucket, because snow would fill it up. Also I could use the bucket for scraping and this way the plow would just lift up out of the way.
The blade floats up on those upright bars, and the rubber prevents damage to grass.
I would plow with the bucket a foot or so off the ground and let the blade float. I could tilt the bucket to assist cutting.
I could not back drag with this because the blade is meant to lay down when reversing. This was built for an ATV/UTV with no lift.
I could push snow well into the ditch, or stack it high, because it stuck out so far in the front of the bucket.
It worked well for a couple winters and then I found a nice Kubota snowblower that I modified slightly to fit the Massey.
If you want to make a plow out of wood use treated 2x8 or 2x10 lumber, not plywoood, and make sure to allow it to give rather than break.