Hydraulic power angle

[zmansmac]

Last year I modified my 6 foot rear blade so I can mount it in place of the loader bucket on my B7500. It worked great, but it's a hassle getting off and on the tractor to change blade angle. So I'm thinking about setting up a power angle. I don't know much about hydraulics, but I'm starting to learn. A friend at work with some experience in this area told me that I need to plumb in an open spool valve in series with the inlet line going to my loader valve. And then use 2 single acting cylinders like they do on pickup truck rigs. Just wondering if anybody out there has already done this and how.

 

[Junkman]

You can use a single double acting piston (2 hoses on cylinder) and use the loader valve to control it. Less work to do welding on one cylinder vs. 2 and no change to the hydraulics.
The only advantage to using single acting plow cylinders is if you hit an immovable object, the blade will change its angle. A double acting cylinder will have no give like the single acting.

 

[zmansmac]

Junkman,

Thanks for the quick reply. It made me realize that I neglected to say that I don't want to sacrifice either the up/down or the dump/curl functions as both have been very useful last winter. So I would need another valve to control the power angle function.

 

[srs]

zmansmac, you wouldn't happen to have a photo of your blade would you?

 

[zmansmac]

srs,

This is the only decent picture I have from last winter. I meant to post more detailed pictures of my setup but decided I should wait until I used it a bit and made sure there were no problems. It's proven itself out last season but now I'll probably wait until I get the power angle set up to post a bunch of pics.