New Snow Plow for the 4060

[LD1]

I agree about the newer air bags, but any accessory that impacts how the sensors and crush zones work would open up the after market vendor to legal issues, etc. Simply put, a rugged steel frame mounted to the front of a truck will cause a higher resistance to impact and transfer that energy to the passenger compartment instead of crushing to absorb the impact.

Perhaps. But just having the plow on will change the characteristics.

I don't disagree about the mount height. I think we are saying the same thing in different ways.

Perhaps. All I know is meyer plows of the classic style arent the greatest design. I have seen other plows with lots more clearance, when lowered, raised, or plow detached. And it all comes down to the A-frame. It HAS to be pretty darn level otherwise it wont be when angled. A simple pivot like your plow would solve all of that. You could raise the mount height, and the plow will be able to compensate.

 

[LD1]

Here is my meyer plow on the truck.

I took some measurements, and the issue with meyer, as I have said, is that where the sector meets the plow is only 7" off the ground at the center line of the pivot pins.

The pin CL is ~1" above the bottom of the sector, and the a-frame is under that yet. End result is with a level plow.....just a tad under 4" of ground clearance on the underside of the a-frame.



In this configuration, the pin height would need to be in the 8.5-9" range. I raised the pins on this plow 3" because my bottom holes on the truck are at 10.5, and the top are at 12. This is with a new cutting edge and I am running the top hole to get a level plow.



But all of my modification is irrelevant. The a-frame is where it needs to be for a level plow. And when raised....still only ~4" of clearance at the a-frame right under the pins. Which you can see hoe easy it is to glide over a parking block, and get hung up.



If the plow were unmodified, and the pin height as per factory spec, the a-frame would be on a downward angle, 3" over its 31" length. (5.5 degrees) With a 10' plow, on full angle, that translates to about a 6" height difference between leading edge and inside edge of the plow. And progressively worse as the edge wears. Pin slop takes up a little bit of difference, but not enough. And the result is not scraping clean on the inside edge of the plow.

On my old ST7.5 on my chevy, it had a longer 38" a-frame. So a few inches translated into less angle. bout 4.5 degrees for the same 3" difference over its 38" length. And being a shorter plow, didnt magnify the issue over its length as much. The same 3" a-frame difference, would only be ~3.5" difference at the plow ends when angled fully. Usually not enough that plow wear and pin slop couldnt account for.

I am really thinking about either modifying the plow to be like yours, in that it pivots. OR have even considered slotting the two existing holes in my mount, so instead of two holes centered at 10.5 and 12", it would just be a slot from 10.5 to 12". Then I would consider removing the 3" spacer I have on the plow

 

[ovrszd]

I do use the third function to attach the blade, but I could have used the loader valve and simply detached it after it was attached if I so desired.

I added two clevis pins to the fold down guard so I don't rely on the latch pin to carry the load. (Only one on my guard) I'm pretty sure it would have worked without them, but I did not like the movement the original pin allowed. I do consider this to be the weak point in the entire installation and I'm going to keep a close eye on it to make sure it holds up. My dealer insists the guard should carry the load and I cannot detect any deflection in it when I raise the blade, but it just seems sketchy to me.

I considered making an entire guard to replace the factory guard when I had the blade on. But that meant I would have to remove the factory guard and install the new one every time I mounted the blade. My next option is to reinforce the vertical pieces of the guard by welding a piece to the back of the vertical members since I'm pretty sure any failure will be a buckling of the vertical members. I also considered using a slide in mount like Meyers does, but it moved the blade further out and I'm not sure it would have been that much stronger.

Like most amateur engineers I tend to over build what I do and I really tried to resist that tendency when I did this. Time will tell if I'm right or wrong.

Me too....

If it fails it will be when you have a blade full of snow, up against a pile, and lift the blade while pushing forward to extend the pile. Your grill guard will then be withstanding the lift forces of the blade cylinder. I assure you that grill guard was not built with those forces in mind.

 

[Fxfymn]

If it fails it will be when you have a blade full of snow, up against a pile, and lift the blade while pushing forward to extend the pile.

Maybe, but I'm more concerned about just carrying the weight while going down the road with the impact load of it bouncing. When pushing I think most of the load will still be on the blade mount points. As I said I used a similar system on the 3430 that worked just fine for 15 plus years, so we'll see what happens.

The good thing is my primary use is in my subdivision plowing about a mile of private road and most of the neighbors driveways, so I'm never very far from home to make emergency repairs. And now that I have a cab I won't even have to thaw myself out before I start fixing whatever I broke.

 

[Fxfymn]

But all of my modification is irrelevant. The a-frame is where it needs to be for a level plow. And when raised....still only ~4" of clearance at the a-frame right under the pins.

I have not checked out the newer blade mounts and now I can see why you are concerned. That seems really low to me. Kind of makes you wonder what the engineers at Meyer were thinking.

 

[LD1]

Even meyers new "lot-pro" plows are pretty low



Look at how high western, boss, and curtis are



The higher the mount pins that attach the sector to the moldboard.....the more leverage the cutting edge has over a full trip plow, and stiffer springs are required. Trip edge plows can be mounted higher.

Almost like meyer should have put the a-frame ABOVE the sector.......