Push with 3 point?

[magicheater]

I will add this: When pushing snow one tends to add the factor of speed to the equation which can lessen the effect of losing traction. Speed amplifies force and hence stuff can break when encountering the "immovable object". I have done more damage to my blade than the tractor BUT I have a fairly stout tractor. In all the things we do with our tractors, usually we get to thinking the tractor is a little bigger than it actually is or that we can afford.
Prudence is the key, like always parking your tractor 1.5 times the height of the tree you are cutting down, away from it. CUT's have amplified the amount of work that one (1) person can do, ALL of us know this and will continue to share those experiences with each other.

 

[ayelvington]

Like a few people have said, "caution" is the word.

I hit a railroad tie recently and bent my back blade (in forward motion). It also bent one of the swing arms. I'm going to limp through winter since it still works, but bad things can happen going in either direction.

My son-in-law bend a rear swing arm backing and ramming with my box grader. It takes family to do these things.

But, on the whole, I've moved a lot of snow in reverse, and I'll probably more a lot more in reverse in the years to come.

 

[Bob_Young]

Like BigDad, I often push snow in reverse using the convex side of the rear blade. Half the driveways I do are gravel and pushing with the backside of the blade is much easier on them. If I hit a half-buried stone, the blade rides up over it without transmitting a big shock to the tractor.

The other thing that I do that helps (I think), is to tighten the turnbuckles on the lower lift-arm stabilizers as much as possible. This takes all the slack out of the 3PH mechanism and does not allow the blade to shift side-to-side even slightly. The intent is to make sure that both sides of the 3PH bear some of the shock from an inpact when pushing, rather than to have it concentrated on one side alone. This may or may not be helping as I'm fairly cautious when pushing in reverse and have yet to break anything.
Bob

 

[SPYDERLK]

Thirty years ago I ran a blade service with a Ford Jubilee w/7' rear blade and a Ford 861 w/8' rear blade. I kept extra lower arms for each. Broke at least two per tractor each winter. Would break them at the bolt hole where the lift link attaches to them.

When you have pushed out twenty or thirty strange driveways and a dozen business drives over a period of 10-12 hours "caution" kinda goes away.

Exactly. This is a compression buckling weakness of thru drilled lift arms made from stap iron as they seem to be these days. However 50 yrs ago at least some of them were made from undrilled box section tubing. Virtually indestructible in either direction. - - There you want to look for adequate strength at the tractor pinned connection. My 2010 has telescoping lift arms so constructed.
larry

 

[dboacres]

I bent one of my lower bars pretty bad pushing a grader blade. Neighbor did same to both of his on a small Kubota.

 

[DiskDoctr]

I have been thinking about this thread while plowing these past few days.

I hadn't thought about it before, but my back blade (using it now for snow because of angling vs box blade- snow too deep) has a few pins in strategic locations.

One of the pins holds the rotation position of the blade and I've sheared off the old one, a "new" old pin, and bent a bolt used in its place.

All happened in a few moments when hitting something in the snow. A concrete pad, an unexpected bank (dirt, not the $$ kind), etc.

I also remember from years back we would use an extra set of flat bars on the bottom pins when hooking up discs and plows. I always thought it was primarily to control the sway, but would absolutely add strength to the lower arms.

Just my $.02

- JC

 

[JB4310]

I also remember from years back we would use an extra set of flat bars on the bottom pins when hooking up discs and plows. I always thought it was primarily to control the sway, but would absolutely add strength to the lower arms.

Just my $.02

- JC

That's a good idea, instead of chains or threaded turn buckles, have a solid structural link?

I have a quick hitch that never comes of except for BH. I think QH helps to spread the load a little, could probably do some extra cross bracing for non pto apps.

JB.

 

[DiskDoctr]

That's a good idea, instead of chains or threaded turn buckles, have a solid structural link?

Yes, that's what we used on the TO20 for many, many years. We had two pieces about 2" wide by maybe 1/4" thick with drilled holes on each end. One end went over the implement pin, the other on the lower pin of the tractor. Same for the other side.

IIRC, they also had a bend to them, to keep the implement away from the wheels. Had to make sure we put the bend the right way

- JC

 

[firefighter jim]

Yes, that's what we used on the TO20 for many, many years. We had two pieces about 2" wide by maybe 1/4" thick with drilled holes on each end. One end went over the implement pin, the other on the lower pin of the tractor. Same for the other side.

IIRC, they also had a bend to them, to keep the implement away from the wheels. Had to make sure we put the bend the right way

- JC

My 8N has a similar setup

 

[ovrszd]

Yep, all the little Fords used them. Their intent was to control sway of an attachment such as a 3pt planter, kept it inline with the tractor. I used them when pushing snow to control side sway of the rear blade. Still broke 3pt arms and bent the sway bar.