Skid Steer snow plow, Fixed or Floating?

[Gordon Gould]

Down pressure here too. Just dump the SSQA plate to collapse the chain and make contact with the A frame.

gg

 

[Cycledude]

Hard for me to imagine not wanting the ability to float .

 

[m5guy]

I used the mount for a pickup and welded it to the skid steer plate. Used a chain for float. It does stick out kinda far. Heavy snow will push you to the side sometimes. That's when the blower comes in handy. Tire chains would help with that though.

 

[oosik]

I have a mile long gravel driveway. It drives fairly smooth in the summer. Plowing snow in the winter - you find all the "stuff" that really makes it a gravel driveway.

I use a rear blade on the 3-point. It's a type of floater. Rigid mount would definitely tear something up and it wouldn't be the driveway.

 

[CH4Ohio]

You definitely want it to float -- suspended on a chain. You wouldn't mount a solid fixed blade to the front of your truck. By hanging it on a chain, only the weight of the blade is riding across the snow. If solid / fixed mounted -- you have to float your loader so you add the extra 1000 pounds or so of the loader to the weight of the blade.

Just bolt or weld an arm with a hook on the end extending out from the SSQA plate -- just like you'd see on a truck mount. The geometry is best if your chain hangs pretty much vertical when in use.

As others have mentioned, a fixed setup is a recipe to tear up your blade or loader or whatever you hit that breaks first.

I know that there are a lot of comments about the blade being too far out front. I get it, but if it's pushing you sideways you need more weight / traction or you're going too fast or you simply have too much blade for your tractor. I think the plow up front and snowblower on the back is the best combination for the relatively few hours needed each year.

 

[John_Mc]

For my long gravel road that is not always frozen float like a truck plow is way better. I used a standard old Fisher truck plow and mounted the push plate below and behind the SSQA plate to get the blade close to the tractor.

View attachment 1930036


More work but in my situation well worth it


View attachment 1930037

gg

The under-slung blade such as Gordon showed is definitely the way to go. You don't want the weight of the loader arms interfering with the float of the blade. Moving the pivot point back behind the SSQA plate avoids the problems caused by having the blade way out in front of the tractor: less leverage trying to push the front end sideways when the blade is angled, and not as cumbersome to maneuver.

 

[ruffdog]

 

[Fallon]

You definitely want it to float -- suspended on a chain. You wouldn't mount a solid fixed blade to the front of your truck. By hanging it on a chain, only the weight of the blade is riding across the snow. If solid / fixed mounted -- you have to float your loader so you add the extra 1000 pounds or so of the loader to the weight of the blade.

Just bolt or weld an arm with a hook on the end extending out from the SSQA plate -- just like you'd see on a truck mount. The geometry is best if your chain hangs pretty much vertical when in use.

As others have mentioned, a fixed setup is a recipe to tear up your blade or loader or whatever you hit that breaks first.

I know that there are a lot of comments about the blade being too far out front. I get it, but if it's pushing you sideways you need more weight / traction or you're going too fast or you simply have too much blade for your tractor. I think the plow up front and snowblower on the back is the best combination for the relatively few hours needed each year.

View attachment 1930357

I've got an 8' plow on my machine. Should probably have a 7 or 7.5', but it's what was in stock locally when I got it. It's worked ok enough for the past 7ish years I haven't cut it down or traded it out. But you can feel the leverage with it hanging out that far ahead. I ran just the blade for a couple years, but picked up the blower as well. Much nicer to have the blower to handle big drifts or windrows. A sub optimal blade is only a mild inconvenience now. You plow faster with a blade than a blower, but the blower will do a number of things the plow won't.

I have a client with a slightly smaller JD tractor & front blower rear back blade combo. The blower up front is nicer to use, but not as fast as my plow. The back blade is kind of useful for scraping the pavement clean, but not critical.

Loader float is useless, it just puts way to much weight on the plow & it digs in.