Snow Equipment Buying/Pricing Plow on truck or buy a tractor

[DavidVT]

I think if you search the entire forum for QA snowplow or FEL snow.... you will find several ideas that you might try yourself or perhaps ask a local welder to make for you. Many stories of a few hundred dollar less than perfect craigs list snow plow being mounted on the Front End Loader of a tractor..

I made mine years ago as a very novice welder. I bought a QA plate on the web and welded the truck's plow mounting point to it. I added side to side control by having the third lever added to my woods loader for $600. There are less expensive ways to do that. With a used plow I would hope you could do this entire setup for under one grand, including a rusty plow board.... (you mileage may vary, especially heading into snow season)

There are professionals here who have made private setups that look better than Fisher or Meyers might ever dream of building in some tractor color.

There are even QA skid steer attachments that will work out of the box but come with a cost.

I have a friend without a quick attach bucket (which gives you the skid steer Quick Attach feature). He simply put tabs inside his bucket and uses heavy bolts to attach the ends of the truck plow to it.

I move most of my snow with the very simple rear 3 point scraper blade. that needs to be robust as they don't usually have a trip edge to absorb impacts like a snow plow does.

good luck

 

[Eric1973]

I LOVE this thing. Now i need some good deep dry snow. I need to earn $$ to pay this stuff back into my bank account

Looks like this might be a good year to make your equipment pay you back.

I've gotten about 15" so far in the last two days.

 

[GPintheMitten]

I have lived almost my entire adult life in the country in Michigan and mostly on properties with looong driveways.

After plowing snow with my Ford tractor with a back blade for about 20 years, I bought a used 4wd truck for hauling horses. Later I bought a used plow for it for about $1000. It was certainly nice to plow in a warm truck.

But I wouldn't be without a tractor, personally. I don't have the plow truck any more and am plowing and snowblowing with a small Kubota tractor. But I don't have a long driveway anymore. And I'm retired so I can take a more relaxed approach to it.

I think you need to consider whether or not you need or want a tractor for any other purpose. I have a small 27 year old Kubota that is dependable and does the job. You could probably buy a dependable used tractor and blower or blade for your budget.

But also consider being warm in a dependable truck. Maybe buy a used plow.

 

[Smalljobs]

I used a roadworthy Nissan Pathfinder SUV with Meyer plow for years. When the Pathfinder became unroadworthy I used it for several more years for only plowing my 400 ft gravel drive. Since the vehicle was rarely driven I started it periodically but it was a never ending process of mice in the heater, mice eating wires, the damp smell, rusting rotors, rust, rusted 4WD/Low Range floor levers, etc.

I bought a low cost tractor and grafted the Meyer onto the loader. First the plow mount was made in plywood and then brought to a weldshop for fab work and tacking. After one final fit, it was welded and painted. By adding two remotes in front plus a valve, I could angle the plow.

Since I use the tractor all year round this system works much better for me. I couldn't split wood or dig stumps with the Pathfinder

 

[grsthegreat]

I finally got to use my Quick Attach loader mounted snow blade to move 9-10" snowfall today. With all 4 tires chained with 2link ladder chains i found the following.

1. The initial 2 passes to handle both sides of the center of the road i was able to operate my 84" snowblade with my DK45HST tractor in high range with maximum angle deflection IN FULL float mode and it worked fantastic. Moved alot of snow at a good fast clip. The tractor DID NOT get pushed around at all like it did without the chains.

2. The last 2 passes on the outside section of the roads was done in mid range as the snow was now very deep. It worked great also. Never bogged down the tractor and the finished product was about 22-24' wide clear road.

3. The side gate option to the blade was way worth the cost. Kept any blowback off of the road

4. The hardened shows worked OK, but the road isn't frozen yet, so they tended to dig in too much.

Overall i was impressed. Was a little leery of how much snow a 45HP tractor could push. The answer was alot :thumbsup:

 

[bunchgrass]

What brand QA blade did you buy?

Also - what's a side gate option or at least how does it function?

 

[grsthegreat]

What brand QA blade did you buy?

Also - what's a side gate option or at least how does it function?

I purchased the "Quick Attach" quick push style brand snow blade
Snow and Light Material Blade : Quick Attach Attachments, Inc.

the side gates simply are hinged on the blade and swing into place and lock down to allow for conversion from snow blade to a snow pusher...or for controlling snow from escaping out one side while you plow.

When im plowing the street, i can prevent snow from wrapping around the high side of the blade and leaving a trail on the road. It truly works slick
Here are some pic's a took that someone else wanted to see.

the first is with both gates closed . then a few pics of the gates closeup.
The 4th is the hinging area. the gates stay with the plow.
their latched in place. You simply rotate it open and pin in place when not used.

 

[bunchgrass]

Thanks!

 

[akraven]

This discussion fits right in to where I am at right now. I have an ancient plow truck which is probably not worth repairing. I mainly used it on the long driveway and used my JD 790 with scraper blade and FEL around the house and shop. The tractor struggles to keep the banks pushed back on the long drive since I don't have room (or time) to angle push the berms away from the road. I am debating mounting the plow on the front of the tractor but am concerned if the tractor will have enough power/weight to handle the long drive with a 8' plow on it and keep the banks back.My drive is narrow with some steep sections as well as some narrow cuts and other areas with steep dropoffs. Anybody have any thoughts or experience with that or a similar setup?
Thank you for any ideas anybody has.

 

[RoyJackson]

This discussion fits right in to where I am at right now. I have an ancient plow truck which is probably not worth repairing. I mainly used it on the long driveway and used my JD 790 with scraper blade and FEL around the house and shop. The tractor struggles to keep the banks pushed back on the long drive since I don't have room (or time) to angle push the berms away from the road. I am debating mounting the plow on the front of the tractor but am concerned if the tractor will have enough power/weight to handle the long drive with a 8' plow on it and keep the banks back.My drive is narrow with some steep sections as well as some narrow cuts and other areas with steep dropoffs. Anybody have any thoughts or experience with that or a similar setup?
Thank you for any ideas anybody has.

You're probably right about the 790 lacking weight (traction) for an 8' plow.
At the very minimum, you'd want enough ballast on the 3PH for traction...maybe (probably) tire chains too.
However, that's probably not going to be enough to keep those banks back (since you wrote you didn't have the room to push back).
I suggest you consider a 3PH snow blower...about 60-65 inches wide.