Snow Horst HLA 3000 84" Snow Blade on JDx320

[Killer_B]

KB, do you have the 72" or the 84" Frontier?

I have the 72".

 

[Killer_B]

You guys have all got me nervous now. Got tired of going in reverse with a rear blade and trying to use my regular bucket on my large parking lot. I just purchased an 84" Q/A blade for my tractor. I haven't got to use it yet and all I keep reading in different post is how bad they are.

JK,

In my experience these things DO work as advertised. The catch is that they require an expert touch to work properly. With the frame mounted units you just drop and go. With these things you need to keep a constant hand on the rudder, so to speak. Consider it a challenge. The payoff is that they are much simpler to put on and off, and a lot less expensive.

KB

 

[kennyd]

Kenny Dave - Is it just deep / wet snow that causes the problems? We don't get deep / wet all that often. Most snow comes 2" - 3" - 4" - 6" at a time. Actually my little Honda with the 60" frame mounted blade will handle most of the snowfall we get and if it can't I just use the bucket on the JD - maybe 3 times last year.

Didn't matter for me. It was just a constant battle to keep it adjusted so the front wheels did not lift up.

Basically, when the blade meets resistance-and the rear wheels keep pushing the front gets light. So then you raise the blade a little to put weight back on the front-but now your not plowing all the snow!

In my experience these things DO work as advertised. The catch is that they require an expert touch to work properly. With the frame mounted units you just drop and go. With these things you need to keep a constant hand on the rudder, so to speak. Consider it a challenge.

Exactly!

You guys have all got me nervous now. Got tired of going in reverse with a rear blade and trying to use my regular bucket on my large parking lot. I just purchased an 84" Q/A blade for my tractor. I haven't got to use it yet and all I keep reading in different post is how bad they are.

JK,
I don't mean to scare you or anybody else, I am just posting my experience, on my tractor (smaller than others), with my blade (that I built) and trying to describe WHY there is problems. YMMV

This is definitely something you need to try for yourself-but you probably can't get a money back guaranty!

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Didn't matter for me. It was just a constant battle to keep it adjusted so the front wheels did not lift up.

Basically, when the blade meets resistance-and the rear wheels keep pushing the front gets light. So then you raise the blade a little to put weight back on the front-but now your not plowing all the snow!

Kenny has a point there, I think alot of it has to do with how its setup and how its used. Mine & My Dads are just plain straight blades, no angle...so I can adjust the angle and which the blade is tilting (foward or backward) to adjust how the front wheels react...much like how you adjust your bucket when/if you float it. Not only that, but I think that by putting the blade as absouletly close to the pivot pin as possible, it reduces the tendency of the front end being light. The Angle plows mounted on the FEL stick out what...2-3 feet from the the Pivot pin? Thats that much more leverage acting AGAINST you. Push hard enough with a frame mounted plow and you can make the front end light just the same.

The second part is HOW you use it. The blade for me is merely a "clean up" tool....I got a rear mount blower and use that to actually move snow. I use the blade mainly to scrape snow away from the buildings to the point where I can "grab" it with the blower, because of that, 95% of the useage of my blade is back blading.

One thing I like about my plow setup is I can bank snow to the moon...

 

[Nuru]

I thought about a rear blade, but I just don't wanna have to go in reverse. I used both a FEL mounted boom blade and Frame mounted blade in the past and for me, the Frame mounted blade was the best.