Snow Attachments Snow plow on FEL of my Kubota for woods

[MarkLeininger]

By the way, I know you said not to ask, but having grown up by you, horses cannot walk through 6" of snow?

Knowing what the cost to own, I guess it is safer to groom the trails for this type of investment.

My wife and some number of her friends walk the horse(s) and the dog(s) about 4 miles a day for exercise. It's tough for her to walk through the snow if it's very deep (old age sucks). After the 4 miles she jumps on the horse and rides another couple miles with the dog chasing along behind. So the plowing is really not for the critters, it's for the wife.

 

[MarkLeininger]

Mark-

My suggestion would be to find an old plow on eBay or other. Cut it in half and make a pull type V-Plow and simply drag it behind the tractor. With the "nose steel" the front tip should climb over the bumps and if either side catches something, it will simply slide left or right until it gets around it.

With this setup, you should be able to fly pretty good down the path without any concern of hooking something

Man, you even provide a drawing, can't beat that. This is simple, no moving parts, just my speed. Now if I can just figure out the shape to cut the intersection of the two halves I won't go through all my welding rod.

 

[MarkLeininger]

Hiya,

Here's what I use, it's a Curtis on a small JD. For the dirt road I put the skid shoes all the way down, set the loader on float and it doesn't catch on much.
Tom

Do you think the skid shoes would glide over the snow/ground or dig into the dirt? Once the ground is frozen good and hard it wouldn't matter, but it's well into January before the ground freezes real hard around here any more. Global warming or whatever. It was zero last night, supposed to be in the 50s this weekend. crazy

 

[john_bud]

If it's just a few inches, why not just drive the tractor over the path? It will leave a pretty wide tire track to walk in. Much cheaper and easier on the trails.
jb

 

[Deerlope]

Nice setup. What does a quick attach setup like that cost? What hydrauilcs are you using to angle the plow left and right? I could make up some removeable shoes to keep the edge up off the ground and let it float. Take the shoes off and do my drive.

I should share the story about my wife wrecking the Ariens. I told her she'd ruin it, but she doesn't pay any attention to me so off she went. Hours later she comes back pushing it into the yard. She says "you were right". Losing a snowthrower was a small price to pay to hear those precious words. I pulled the cover off under the area between the engine and the auger assembly and a handful of bearings came rolling out. Completely tore up the race and cage. Who knows what she hit, the auger was full of branches and mud.

I use the rear remote to angle the plow and the quik attach for the FEL was about 300 bucks and the mating plate about $130.

 

[MarkLeininger]

If it's just a few inches, why not just drive the tractor over the path? It will leave a pretty wide tire track to walk in. Much cheaper and easier on the trails.
jb

I've done that and it works OK. The problem is once you have a few thaw cycles the moisture collects in the tracks and they become like blocks of ice. They become impossible to walk in. The compression also makes them the last things to melt and you have these two solid ice tracks that you have to avoid until they melt. Nothing's a perfect solution, maybe that's the best I can do. But I thought I'd troll for ideas. I'm liking the idea of some kind of rear blade more and more, because that gets dragged over the tire tracks and smooths everything over. Horses tear the trail up pretty good so I don't feel too guilty if I do a little damage.

 

[bx24]

Well, when you finally come up with something .... you know how much we like pictures ....

 

[MarkLeininger]

Well, when you finally come up with something .... you know how much we like pictures ....

Someone at work asked why I don't make a plow out of wood that the horse can pull. Good question, she already pulls a little sleigh. Maybe the picture will be of a horse, not a tractor.

 

[DavidVT]

Before I had my tractor, I used several near dead plow trucks over the years. Since I have a gravel / dirt driveway, I never plowed with the trucks until I had a good 'base' of packed snow...

My packed snow driveways sounds like what you are trying to do with your trailes.

So, here goes:

I would slide a heavy pipe inside two side by side pallets.
I would put some ballast on the pallets ( cinder blocks or junk)
I ran a cable inside the pipe and brought that loop forward to my trailer hitch.

When pulling the side by side pallets, if they hit an obstruction the cable would just slide on the hitch and the pallets would swing around an obstruction.

The beauty of this is that the snow would be pulled into my tire tracks, eliminating the frozen tire track syndrome.

Good luck

 

[Aquaman]

I use a landscape timber bolted to my blade to keep from tearing up my gravel. This would probably work for your trails too. Run lag bolts from the front through the bottom holes of the cutting blade. I don't need no stinking skid plates!!