No more soft edge

jdgreg · Dec 6, 2005

I tried my soft edge last night on the little bit of snow we got, didnt like how it sat, the blade cutting edge still rested on the asphalt, and snow would get packed up between the mat and the blade edge. It didnt matter how I adjusted the 3PH. It only seemed to sit correct if the blade was turned around and I would push the blade in reverse. Pulling the blade (concave side towards tractor), didnt work like I had hoped.

Here's my previous
thread on using a horse stall mat.

Oh well, only $45 down the toilet.

Gator6x4 · Dec 6, 2005

Weight:

I had a friend who did the same thing. He had to add weight to stop the blade from riding up on top of the snow. He used tractor wheel weights. One way to check is to have someone ride on the top of the blade as you are scraping snow.

jdgreg · Dec 6, 2005

I dont think weight is the problem, the 6' Land Pride (with tilt) is a pretty heavy blade. The issue (in my case) is the angle of the moldboard of the blade. With the concave facing the tractor in normal pull mode, the angle is fairly steep towards the rear, making the soft edge lay forward rather than the softe edge sitting perpendicular to the ground (even when being pulled) allowing the blade edge to still hit the asphalt. To correct it would need to adjust the 3PH to a ridicously low angle, that it would probably not be effective.

I may mess with it later, but right now, it's on the back burner.

bigpete · Dec 7, 2005

Edit: After looking carefully at your pics, I am sure this will fix your problem:

Hi, JDGreg. Just a couple of observations. First, every application I have seen for a soft rubber or plastic edge starts with the soft edge (cow mat) "sandwiched" between the cutting edge and the moldboard. This will most likely have the effect of making the soft edge a bit more ridged because it is shorter. Also, it puts the cutting edge in front of the soft edge where the downward force of the weight will keep it on top of the rubber if the rubber collapses under the weight. Make sure that the soft edge sticks out 1-1/2 more (longer/lower) than the cutting edge.

I don't know how much change in your angle of attack you can get by shortening your toplink, but that's all I can think of on that issue. Good luck!

bigpete · Dec 7, 2005

Here's a link to a post by JohnDeere2210 that shows what I mean by "sandwiched." Obviously its a front blade but the same principle applies:

JohnDeere2210's Front Blade Post

jdgreg · Dec 7, 2005

I saw thost posts previously, but it seemed the problem with doing it that way was the mat had little to no support behind it, causing it to flop down on top of the blade. This is why I didnt sandwitch it, but used a 3" by 6' length of strap steel to secure the mat to the blade edge. I may try the sandwitch method and see if it's any better.

Oh yeah, and I did adjust the top link, but to get the mouldboard at a less aggressive angle so that the mat was more perpendicular to the ground, meant the 3PH ams would be dragging the group with the level full up. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Thanks