need advice for ataching snow blade

[Anonymous Poster]

Here is my situation. I have a 700 ' driveway that i used to plow with 4x4 pickup , i recently bought a kubota 2410 with FEL and MMM. My question is can i mount the old western plow in a way that i can still use the FEL? Kind of like a slide the bucket into a bracked and pin type deal?
will it be too much stress on the loader arms? i also have a back blade, not a very stout one but one anyway.any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.
i am a very capable builder/fabricator with torches welder and some knowledge, but that could be a bad thing...

 

[hazmat]

scott,

you can and many have. Do a search here on Snow plow.

 

[gbirky]

If you can cut and weld steel, then you could definately rig up a mount to put the blade on the loader arms in place of the bucket. If the bucket is a quick detach type, then it is better to replace the bucket with the blade when plowing. I don't think I'd want to put the blade and bucket on the loader at the same time. Make sure you have a way to angle the blade, but keep it in as close to the tractor as possible to minimize the load on the loader when you raise it. The loader should be made to take the stress of normal snow plowing this way.

Another possibility is to use the "not very stout" back blade in the same way as I outlined above. That of course rules out using it as a back blade in the future. It is probably quite a bit lighter than the Western Plow.

Another possibility is to mount the blade to the tractor under the loader. Of course, you couldn't use the loader while the blade is on...

Check out the attached photo. This is not my tractor, but I picked up the photo a while ago and kept it on my HD because I thought it was a great idea - and a neat tractor too.

 

[Thomas]

If you go to Photos and bring up DFB..bucket to plow,than scroll down to Muhammad reply you shall come upon some photos in which might give you and idea or two.this is the setup I put together and works just great..little advice..do consider rear ballast...more photos if you request.

 

[Rowski]

Take a look at this <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=implement&Number=33722&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1>LINK</A>

Basically I mounteed it off-set to wing back side snow banks, that's why its of-sett. It didn't work well for me, but did push snow well other wise. I can just unhook the plow just like on a truck and use the bucket.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

thank you all for the advice. i really enjoy this forum. lots of good ideas for me to ponder.
i did find a picture from mike in nh and that looks like it might work. it keeps the loader bucket on, since i dont have a quick detach its better for my aplication.
but i am open to other ideas, so keep em coming, thanks

p.s. over the summer i built a topsoil screener, works pretty good, a friend with a digital camera gonna get some pics so i can post for you all. if interested.

 

[Rowski]

Sure....I would like to see your screener.

 

[MossRoad]

I thought about doing this to the loader on my IH2500B. I was going to weld two small brackets into the FEL bucket to accept the plow with the same pins that it used to attach to the truck. Then weld a bracket to the center of the top of the FEL bucket and use a rigid strut to connect to where the lift chain would be on the plow.

The bucket curl hydraulics could be adapted with quick connects to provide the angle power for the plow.

To operate, set the tilt of the plow with the bucket curl control, then disconnect the quick connects and connect the plow angle cylinders. The bucket will stay where you put it and you can still raise and lower the plow to push up high bank stuff. The bucket curl control will angle the plow. The plow will still function with its trip springs, etc... and can be moved back to your truck with no alterations.

Materials:
3 brackets
1 strut
1 pin
2 longer hydraulic hoses
2 female quick connects
4 male quick connects
And anything else that I forgot /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Rowski]

<font color=blue>Then weld a bracket to the center of the top of the FEL bucket and use a rigid strut to connect to where the lift chain would be on the plow.</font color=blue>

If I understand it correctly you want to use a strut in place of the lift chain? You would want to use a chain rather than the strut. Snow plows are ment to follow the contours of the ground. If you have a solid link you'll alway have to adjust the height of your bucket. I don't think the "float" position will cut it. Also another factor (for constantly adjusting the hieght) is the length of the lever (you plow sticking out in front of the bucket). Also the strut will put a lot of force on the top of your bucket.

 

[Hoeman00]

The plow u have might be too
much weight to lift on the front of
bucket.
I would check that first.
With Q-T loader u might take off
then build frame on front of tractor
using loader mount points for a Q-T blade.
Does the loader have seperate joystick?
If it does use that for angle and a cylinder to lift plow.

 

[MossRoad]

I was wondering about that. I think with those big round skids on the plow it would still float. Also, the tractor isn't going to get anywhere near the speeds of a truck when plowing so a manual poke of the FEL lift could be done in reasonable reaction time should the plow start to bite in on gravel. After it was all said and done, I decided not to do it. I already had the plow mounted on a truck for quick runs down the driveway and I could hop on the tractor with the FEL if I needed to push back anything that the plow couldn't move.

 

[Rowski]

I pick the truck too... especially plowing 50+ drives (we actually have 110, but two driver's). The truck is a bit warmer /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif.

I did mean to come across that is couldn't be done. Just that you wouldn't have to always be watching the plow. I'd much rather look at the views!

 

[MossRoad]

Unfortunately, around here, we just don't get much snow anymore. I haven't had a plow mounted on a truck for many years. For that matter, I'm parting out my 1/2 ton chevy 4x4 and sticking with my van and car! Just no need for 4X4 for me anymore. Although I do have a 71 Toyota Landcrusier FJ40 that will get the chevy V8, but I don't need it, it is just a toy. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif That is what I used to plow with. Great for small jobs and tight places. Bigger than a jeep but smaller than a pickup.

 

[Rowski]

You need an International Scout II, if you get more snow/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. My father is in the process of rebuilding one from the ground up. We run it with a 7.5 ft fisher plow. Its one of our main plow trucks.

 

[MossRoad]

Too late, I already have a brand new fiberglass body and front end for the FJ40 /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I still have the plow, a 7ft myers. Worked great!

 

[Ed2410]

Can't help on the snow blade but would like to see your pic's on the top soil screener sounds like what I will need next summer.

 

[jlong]

Hi all,

From reading the replies, it sounds like it can be done, but when I tried it, it didn't work out as I had hoped.

I like alot of others, have torches/welder and I decided to devise a "quick connect" blade to my existing bucket. After some thought and more cutting, I came up with a system that only needed two pins to secure the mount to the bucket. I angled the blade to push the snow to the side of the road since I clear snow for a development.

Once it was all done, it looked pretty good and I was off to see how it worked. Since I have a 1000' blacktop driveway, I figured I could try it there. There was no snow yet. Even with the bucket in float mode, the blade worked more like a bulldozer, shaving off asphalt as I went. The blade was adjusted so that when the bucket was level, the blade was also level. I found that I could not use the angle of the bucket as an adjustment, since the blade was angled left, curling or dumping the bucket made the part of the blade farthest from the bucket much higher than the rest of the blade. I did not have skid shoes on the blade, but never needed them when pulling the blade on the rear of the tractor.

I took it all apart and went back to the old way of using the blade on the rear of the tractor. I still have to change to a spreader then back to blade.

Maybe the others can point out what I must have done wrong and you can make it work for you. Good Luck!!!

 

[Boone]

I've seen a front mount using the three point arms on the back. A large square tube, guessing like 6 by 6 inches running to the back 3ph. This was a non loader tractor and unfortunately I didn't get to see how the blade hydraulics were mounted. Looked easy to attach the beam part of this setup.

Tractor was large, blade was an old county road type and drive 1/2 mile long.