Horst 3000 new loader snow blade arrived.

[VTjohndeere]

Enjoy it! I have a JD 3520 with the Horst (HLA) 3000 84" blade and fluid in both rear tires, 3 wheel weights on each rear wheel and rear chains (and R4 tires). This rig will move mountains. However in wet heavy snowfalls, if you angle the blade, it will force the front end of the tractor in the opposite direction. Therefore, I also plow with an 84" Tuffline backblade with offset (angled in then same direction as the front blade) to act as a "rudder" to keep the tractor straight and clean up any remaining snow. It sometimes helps to raise the front blade slightly off the ground to put more weight on the front end to keep things straight. I plow a 0.6 mile gravel driveway in central Vermont hills, and wouldn't do it any other way!

VTjohndeere

 

[DP Property]

DP, great looking blade and tractor! If you don't mind can you explain the "little button keypad" a little better? I'm having trouble trying to figure out what you mean by this. Of course photos are a plus. I know on the Kubota that I have my front loader blade is controlled by the rear remotes but I use the lever on the right side of my seat to angle left and right. Thank you! Stanley

Ok had a couple of questions on the button or third function on the loader control. I have been told not all 3000 series tractors have this button on the controls. I think the reason is it has to have the rear SCV factory installed at time of order to get this extra control on the loader handle. I made up a little video to share with the group got the blade set up enough to test it today. The lines are very long to run to the rear remotes a little bit of a pain tying them all down with big zip ties. I am going to get some quick disconnects on the crossover valve at the blade. This way I will be able to disconnect the lines and throw the bucket back on if any loader work comes up without having to undo all my handy work securing the hydraulic lines front to back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_bplvmO8AY

 

[DP Property]

Enjoy it! I have a JD 3520 with the Horst (HLA) 3000 84" blade and fluid in both rear tires, 3 wheel weights on each rear wheel and rear chains (and R4 tires). This rig will move mountains. However in wet heavy snowfalls, if you angle the blade, it will force the front end of the tractor in the opposite direction. Therefore, I also plow with an 84" Tuffline backblade with offset (angled in then same direction as the front blade) to act as a "rudder" to keep the tractor straight and clean up any remaining snow. It sometimes helps to raise the front blade slightly off the ground to put more weight on the front end to keep things straight. I plow a 0.6 mile gravel driveway in central Vermont hills, and wouldn't do it any other way!

VTjohndeere

Nice idea on the rudder set up , I am glad to hear the 3000 cx loader can handle the 84" blade. This is one heavy duty blade I hit some bumps today and the loader was really bouncing around made me a little nervous don't want to damage the loader. I thought about the 84" blade but have had such great success with a HLA1000 62" blade on my Kubota 7510 I figured the 72" would be fine on the 3720. Thanks for your input VTjohndeere - I can only imagine plowing in the central Vermont hills must be beautiful scenery. Post some pictures for use this winter if you can :thumbsup:

 

[Chuck on lake]

DP,
Nice looking blade, good luck with it. I have a 3320 with R4's. They work pretty good on my long gravel driveway but the front end drifts around a lot and that's with the Deere 59" blower so I would think that you might want to look into chains for your turfs.
What happens is that once the snow gets a little wet the tires lose traction right away. Last year I slipped off my friends driveway and it was a pain to get it back up because the snow turned to ice under the tires.
This year I got chains and I'll see how it goes. I just put them on and the traction difference is huge. The trouble is going around on the road with them to get from one house to another takes a long time because I don't want to push the chains on the road.

Rob

I am very interested in your experience with chains for the fronts. I have a 3720 and noted the same problem with direction control even using the differential wheel brakes. So, I too, have purchased chains for the fronts. I would really be interested in hearing from anyone about the effectiveness of front tire chains for steering. My rear tires are Rim Guard loaded.

Thanks, Chuck on Lake

 

[srs]

Dave, great video. That is a real nice set up you have. thank you.

 

[bubbacuse77]

Chuck,

Chains on the front work great but depending on your surface you will want to watch that you don't do any damage. I just ordered a set of tire cables for the front to see if that provides a happy medium. I mostly use the blade as a squeegy as I have a 3 pt blower.

 

[JB4310]

Ok had a couple of questions on the button or third function on the loader control. I have been told not all 3000 series tractors have this button on the controls. I think the reason is it has to have the rear SCV factory installed at time of order to get this extra control on the loader handle. I made up a little video to share with the group got the blade set up enough to test it today. The lines are very long to run to the rear remotes a little bit of a pain tying them all down with big zip ties. I am going to get some quick disconnects on the crossover valve at the blade. This way I will be able to disconnect the lines and throw the bucket back on if any loader work comes up without having to undo all my handy work securing the hydraulic lines front to back.

Horst 3000 set up.wmv - YouTube

First of all, that is a wicked HD plow, built like a dozer blade. I have Horst forks and am very happy with them.

As far as the width goes, it is a trade off. Wider covers more area of course but smaller cuts and pushes heavier snow better. That thing is heavy though I can see from our video how the tractor bounces when you curled and dumped the blade.

As far as chains go, it's not gonna be a complete snow monster package with out chains. IMO you most definitely need them at least on the rears and maybe all 4.

A couple of things I don't like. First of all you have to make the hydraulic line set up foolproof. you can't have it be a "I got to remember not to raise the loader to far" system. You should set it up with the lines on the loader arm with disconnects just like the loaders. There must be a kit for that??

Second is that remote switch on the loader stick. It is the perfect spot for the snow plow or other loader mounted implement (grapple) but I don't think it a good position for rear implements. I guess I could get use to it, but I'm use to having my hand down on the 3pt lever, my 3rd scv lever is right next to the 3 pt lever, which I think is a more natural spot for rear implement control.

Also I noticed the plow angles very slowly. This is just a thought but how about using the curl circuit for plow angle and the extra remote just for the curl. If you plumb it like it should be on the loader arm it would be easy to swap the lines to try it. I'm not sure if that would speed the angle up, as that might be due to the cylinders design, but it might and it might be more intuitive using the stick to angle instead of the button. though like I said the button is in the perfect spot for a plow.
But if that was not a cab tractor and you were wearing gloves moving the stick would be easier than the button.

JB.

 

[DP Property]

Thanks JB for the ideas I am going to set up some quick disconnects off of the blade itself and have since moved the lines around a little on the hood guard so the loader can go higher but there is really no reason to have the plow able to go almost 90 degrees vertical over the hood IMHO.
The speed of the plow does go faster when you increase the rpm but I have another HLA blade on my kubota 7510 single cylinder and it also moves fairly slow but if your making decent plow passes it is not really a big deal to me.

Cheers

 

[Glen Watkins]

Hey Dave don't you think it's worth it to put the dedicated 3rd SCV steel line kit from JD to run FEL attachments?

 

[JB4310]

Thanks JB for the ideas I am going to set up some quick disconnects off of the blade itself and have since moved the lines around a little on the hood guard so the loader can go higher but there is really no reason to have the plow able to go almost 90 degrees vertical over the hood IMHO.
The speed of the plow does go faster when you increase the rpm but I have another HLA blade on my kubota 7510 single cylinder and it also moves fairly slow but if your making decent plow passes it is not really a big deal to me.

Cheers

But still the potential is there to do damage, no reason for that with such a nice new machine. I think there is a hard line kit for the loader so you would have QDs right where the loaders qd's are and a set out by the plow.
Or just a set down by the loader QDs and longer hoses off the plow zipped tied to the loader arm.

That would eliminate the potential for damaging your hoses, especially during the height of a storm while you're making money.
You've never backed up, looking backwards with your hand on the loader stick raising it, thinking about 3 other things, till you realise you have raised it higher than you intended? I know I have.

JB.