I was about to start on the plans for my plow but when I pulled the blade I had I realized it was not in the shape I thought it was when I set it out back a few years ago. I'm starting the search for a suitable donor blade (read between the lines: I'm cheap and want to find a blade as close to new as possible for as little money as possible) before I start with the fine details, but I've still got a larger design issue that I'm wrestling with...
Let's start with the basics:
Approximately 7.5' blade width (likely to be fisher due to geographical availability)
Blade will have a trip edge, or potentially entire blade trip depending on brand / model
JD H165 loader with quick attach (300 series)
Factory 3rd function for blade angle
I've looked at a lot of the threads on here with people's designs, and also looked at the pictures online of the commercially built offerings, though it's hard to see the details with a lot of the canned thumbnail sized pictures available. What I'm struggling with is blade float - from what I can see most of the commercial offerings are fixed mount and would assume that the loader is run in float. Many of the low-brow homemade ones I see are also this way. A lot of the builds I've seen on here would assume the loader arms to be set to a slightly elevated height and then allow the blade to pivot up and down to follow terrain changes - usually with a limiter chain.
I would think the fixed mount with loader float would be the easiest to build and use, so what's the benefit of having the plow pivot up & down with a fixed loader height instead? From what I can tell the consensus is that the loader arms make it too heavy to float the entire unit and steer. Would standard or oversized shoes be enough of an equalizer to offset it? I'm generally wanting to plow completely straight ahead anyways. What about with a poly blade - would you choose differently without the extra blade weight?
Let's start with the basics:
Approximately 7.5' blade width (likely to be fisher due to geographical availability)
Blade will have a trip edge, or potentially entire blade trip depending on brand / model
JD H165 loader with quick attach (300 series)
Factory 3rd function for blade angle
I've looked at a lot of the threads on here with people's designs, and also looked at the pictures online of the commercially built offerings, though it's hard to see the details with a lot of the canned thumbnail sized pictures available. What I'm struggling with is blade float - from what I can see most of the commercial offerings are fixed mount and would assume that the loader is run in float. Many of the low-brow homemade ones I see are also this way. A lot of the builds I've seen on here would assume the loader arms to be set to a slightly elevated height and then allow the blade to pivot up and down to follow terrain changes - usually with a limiter chain.
I would think the fixed mount with loader float would be the easiest to build and use, so what's the benefit of having the plow pivot up & down with a fixed loader height instead? From what I can tell the consensus is that the loader arms make it too heavy to float the entire unit and steer. Would standard or oversized shoes be enough of an equalizer to offset it? I'm generally wanting to plow completely straight ahead anyways. What about with a poly blade - would you choose differently without the extra blade weight?
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