Plowing Mishap

[Sawmillboy]

First time poster…
I’ve been trying to get ahold of a plow for my driveway as I’ve been using the bucket and it takes forever. I finally got one last weekend and got all the hydraulics and everything set up for this storm that the northeast was hit with the last couple of days. Anyways I took my first pass down the driveway and it worked awesome! Second pass I was pushing the snow bank at the bottom of my first hill back and the tractor disconnected from the skid steer plate and blew a hydraulic line. I guess maybe too much power mixed with the heavy wet snow? The skid steer plate is all bent up so I can’t connect the tractor back onto it. It hooked back up to the bucket just fine so I don’t think it messed anything up on the tractor.

Anyone have any similar stories? Also, I was going to try and straighten the skid steer plate and maybe weld some channel on it to beef it up and give it a little support? I was trying to get an inexpensive plow setup but it totally backfired. I guess you get what you pay for.

Picture pre storm before I bent it and my ridiculous truck/trailer setup I picked up the plow with.

 

[DK35vince]

Sounds like QA isn't latching into to plate properly. (maybe the snow blade QA plate needs modified to latch better)
The blade should never fall off or be able to be knocked off if its latching/mating properly.

 

[MossRoad]

Welcome to TBN!

 

[Rustyiron]

We need some pictures of what's going on with the tractor and plow during hookup. The plow looks like a home brew and some of the ssqa plates have a little sloppy fit. I'd imagine that DK35vince is right and somehow it got disconnected on one side and probably bent the other.
Welcome to TBN.

 

[Gordon Gould]

That's a bummer ! ^^^ What RustyIron said. There are many accounts on here about poor fitting SSQA plates. The one I bought for my plow needed rework to make it fit properly.

gg

 

[LD1]

Looks like a truck plow not a tractor plow.

So what homebrew method did you come up with to attach to the tractor? Pictures of whats going on is needed.

As to a hydraulic hose blowing.....what hose blew, and what was the position of the plow when it blew?

Truck plows have what is known as a crossover valve, or double pilot check valve (DPCV). This is to protect the hose/cylinder on the extended side of the blade. Because if you try and push too hard......the plow becomes a big lever acting on the cylinder full of oil (just like the long handle pumping a small piston on a floor jack). If you exceed the pressure rating of the hose....it blows.

On a truck with a DPCV.......it will open before that happens and allow oil to transfer to the other cylinder and angle the blade rather than blow a hose.

So after you get the mechanicals figured out and how to reattach the plow....sounds like you got some hydraulic plumbing to tackle as well

 

[zzvyb6]

My guess is that he used a rigid top link instead of a chain and / or disabled the trip springs. Something had to give, so maybe....

I us a former Western truck plow without any problems. If I snag an edge of a rock, it trips or bounces upwards. The chain acts as a 1 way float.
I have also seen a LOT of new QA plates at local auctions that are less than 1/4" plate. When I decided to convert my JD 80 loader to QA, I went with the JD QA system with cast steel hinge brackets, then made a Rube frame from 1/4" square tube and spherical joints to marry the truck mount to this frame. Chain upper 'link'.

 

[nyone]

Snow can get pushed into the bottom of the SSQA plate at hook up making it not latch. Either way I suspect poor fitment or operator error. Get things hooked back up and test out the fitment by pushing down on the blade with the loader.
How much did that plow cost you? Also post some pics of the back of the blade. The pics just prove you have a plow..we dont need any proof of that..

 

[ruffdog]

There are many threads about the latch pins connecting ssqa attachments not holding. The springs on the pins only provide adjustment to the variations between attachments while the cam-over feature and the small clearance once latched is what ensures it doesn't release.

As far as the ssqa plate being bent, some pictures are worth 1k words.

 

[Sawmillboy]

Here are some pictures of the plate and the plow. You can see in one of the pictures how much of a gap there is to the floor. I think what happened is there was so much pressure when I was pushing the snow bank back, that the plate gave out. It fit just fine when I first hooked it up but the plate itself is only 1/4” so it was a little too flimsy for what I was trying to do. I guess you could call it operator error as I shouldn’t have been ramming the snow bank back. It was a titan attachment quick attach plate. No top link, I was just using chains. I misspoke when I said I blew a hydraulic line, after the plate bent and the plow dropped off the tractor, a 90 I had going into a flow valve on the plow cylinder, broke off. I just took the 90 off and went straight into the cylinder so that was no problem.