Out with the old - snow plow, that is

[zmansmac]

After several years of using my 6 foot Landpride back blade as a loader snow plow I now converted to using an actual snow plow blade. Back in the spring I picked up an old Case 54 inch wide snow plow and procrastinated till about 2 weeks ago for making the conversion. I decided on this conversion for 2 main reasons: The back blade worked well for most snows but sometimes heavier falls and drifts would cause snow to come over the top since the blade is not that tall and secondly, I wanted to add wings to minimize my cleanup time. The picture on the left is my old setup. The one on the right is the new plow, in matching Kubota orange, of course. I made the wings from scratch and ended up making new casters with solid rubber wheels. I made accommodations to put the gauge wheels on the main plow in case I don't want to use the wings. Experience with the back blade tells me that the gauge wheels should be out near the end to prevent scalping the gravel part of my drive, especially when it's angled. Challenging parts of this project were bending the 1/8 inch steel for the wings. I ended up making a jig and used a bottle jack in my loader bucket (see pic) and having my mig welder act up and finally quit shortly after I started. Payment for my procrastination no doubt. But a "dry run" with this setup indicates that it should work much better. So now I can say - Let it snow, let it snow........

JohnZ
Kubota B7500

 

[grsthegreat]

After several years of using my 6 foot Landpride back blade as a loader snow plow I now converted to using an actual snow plow blade. Back in the spring I picked up an old Case 54 inch wide snow plow and procrastinated till about 2 weeks ago for making the conversion. I decided on this conversion for 2 main reasons: The back blade worked well for most snows but sometimes heavier falls and drifts would cause snow to come over the top since the blade is not that tall and secondly, I wanted to add wings to minimize my cleanup time. The picture on the left is my old setup. The one on the right is the new plow, in matching Kubota orange, of course. I made the wings from scratch and ended up making new casters with solid rubber wheels. I made accommodations to put the gauge wheels on the main plow in case I don't want to use the wings. Experience with the back blade tells me that the gauge wheels should be out near the end to prevent scalping the gravel part of my drive, especially when it's angled. Challenging parts of this project were bending the 1/8 inch steel for the wings. I ended up making a jig and used a bottle jack in my loader bucket (see pic) and having my mig welder act up and finally quit shortly after I started. Payment for my procrastination no doubt. But a "dry run" with this setup indicates that it should work much better. So now I can say - Let it snow, let it snow........

JohnZ
Kubota B7500

cool idea on the bending of the 1/8" plate. Having to figure out stuff like that over the years is why i finally bough a 48" roller. I do alot of that stuff. Your project looks nice.

 

[smiley]

Good looking job and neat way to bend with those HF pipe bending dies. I usually put the steel down on blocks like that and run over it with a tractor. Not too accurate but with a little sledge hammering gets the job done.
I'm wondering if because of the near center mounting point of the angle cylinder, is there a possibility of bending the blade there? If the new blade is as heavily built or reinforced as well as the backblade, it doesn't seem like there should be a problem as you say you've been using it for years.
I bet you'll agree with me, that anyone with a loader won't go back to a bucket after using the plow on it. You can still pile as high and don't waste time dumping the bucket on each pass.
Good job.
Smiley

 

[zmansmac]

Thanks for the kind words GRS. Yes Smiley I was glad I was able to use those HF dies for this project as they haven't gotten a lot of use bending pipe. I had a more powerful cylinder on my back blade, which is 1/4 thick. I had just welded a piece of 3/4 stock to accept the rod connection and on one occasion did bend the blade a little. I realized in the future I would have to have that load connection dispersed with some additional strengthening support. If you look closely at the picture of the new blade you'll see a "C" shaped piece just to the right of the cylinder rod end. That "C" piece is welded on 2 inch channel that horizontally spans that section of the blade. That was going to be my original connection for the cylinder until I realized the spring mechanism wouldn't work with it there. A mistake I didn't want to admit to but hey, that's how we learn. So now the cylinder is attached to a 3/4 inch rod which is welded to the main framework of the plow which is all 1/4 inch stock and strengthened by a bend in this area.