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.

 

[RjCorazza]

I am not a fabricator, so your work is out of my league. I do plow with an SSQA plow, and I will say that it was probably best that the plate gave out rather than something on the fel.
On the rare occasion that I have to push back snow, I try to take several smaller bites to move it.

 

[Rustyiron]

The next question is on the tractors ssqa, looking at them from the side, are they (left and right sides) flat on the same plane - or do they "agree" with each other if you lower it down to the shop floor.
This is another failure point involving a connection problem between the tractor and an implement that's fairly common. Basically the l&r sides become "out of time" because the tube connecting the 2 sides has twisted from the incident.
Check that out.

 

[zzvyb6]

On the positive side, I'd wheel off the paint and re-use it to cook burgers for the neighborhood. But as a snowplow interface, no way. Here is the QA kit I bought for my 80 loader. It should work for any width of loader arms via the adjustable cross rod (which syncs the cylinders). Even my bucket level indicator hooked right up. electric / momentary 3rd function gives me angle. I lock out the arm lift and use curl to raise & lower the blade. Now i have bucket, forks, post hold digger, plow, and tree puller options without any tools required.

Notice that I didn't need the travel extender multiplier hinges that newer loaders usually come equipped with.

 

[LD1]

Yup, 1/4" plate is way too weak.

That plate is designed to be welded onto the back of a bucket or something that has its own structural support.

I'd straighten that out, And weld something stronger to it on the plow side to prevent that. A piece of channel Iron, or angle iron, or 4x4 steel tubing....just whatever I fancied in my scrap steel pile. But Kubota MX is too much tractor for 1/4" SSQA plate

 

[Sawmillboy]

Yeah I should’ve known better, I got the plate off Craigslist and should’ve paid more attention to the thickness beforehand, you live and learn I guess. I was a little too excited to try it out, I’ve been plowing with a bucket for years and it takes forever. I’m going to bend it back and beef it up for now, but any other ideas on a better way to connect these things to the tractor? I’m not quite sure what I’m looking at on that John Deere

 

[Sawmillboy]

Or I guess maybe some links to some other threads with setups that have worked for people?

 

[LD1]

Do you have pallet forks?

I took the pallet forks off of the frame and used the pallet fork carrier to attach the plow. The bottom of the pallet for frame is some heavy wall tube. I made the mounts in such a way that that when I take the plow off I can put the forks back on.

You can click the link in my signature for snowplow install.

 

[nyone]

On the positive side, I'd wheel off the paint and re-use it to cook burgers for the neighborhood. But as a snowplow interface, no way. Here is the QA kit I bought for my 80 loader. It should work for any width of loader arms via the adjustable cross rod (which syncs the cylinders). Even my bucket level indicator hooked right up. electric / momentary 3rd function gives me angle. I lock out the arm lift and use curl to raise & lower the blade. Now i have bucket, forks, post hold digger, plow, and tree puller options without any tools required.

Notice that I didn't need the travel extender multiplier hinges that newer loaders usually come equipped with.

That looks like a prety crummy setup. Does that square tube scrape the ground when the plow is down? Does that grab hook unhook when the chain comes loose?

 

[zzvyb6]

Not at all. The tube gives me a trailer hitch stub when I pull the 2 pins from the plow mount (Like most folks, I don't generally plow snow in the Summer when I get the boat out of the shed). I prefer to see the hitch connect while looking forward instead of the owl technique favored by many.

The Made in USA hook never comes loose, un-done, falls off, melts, evaporates, or goes South or tries to return to the West when I drop the plow to attack the snow.

You must have missed the part where I lock out the loader arms with the stalk valve control pin and use only the curl control to raise & lower the plow. The arms are set so the tube never gets close to the ground. About 20" also gives me just the right lift & drop range plus the perfect plow pitch angle for the rubber strip to squeegee my driveway without chattering on a dry spot.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Here is one I built that I have been using for almost 4 seasons and am very happy with. I used a concept shown by TractorNH and Chim also built one. Mine is perhaps opposite from yours - stronger than needed. 5/16" plate welded onto a sturdy frame.

A Setback or "underslung" SSQA Snow Plow Build Story

I wanted to put a plow on the M5640. I found a guy who wanted to restore a '91 F150 and would give the plow to someone who would take it off the truck. So I did. The plan was to sell the pump, valve/control, head gear, and truck frame parts and start out ahead but that hasn't happened. I...

www.tractorbynet.com

gg