Snow snow plow scraping the pavement

[m7040]

There has hardly been any snow this year to be able to test the 8 ft snowplow on the tractor.
Tried it once and it is scraping the pavement pretty hard. Figured out to place the FEL in the float position to let it follow the road but still scrapes hard. Next used the curl to tilt it to ride on the pads but the pads are still making white stripes on the pavement from scraping. Talked to the dealer about checking out the float position on the FEL at the next opportunity. But it looks like it works OK to me since when pushing the stick forward to lock position the FEL goes to the ground. Maybe the pads needs to be bigger or replaced with castor wheels. There is a lot more weight on these pads than in a typical Pickup truck set up since the whole weight of the plow plus the FEL is resting either on the pads or the cutting edge.

Would be interested in your experiences/comments out there??

 

[andover farmer]

M7040

Having the same problem up here in northern Massachusetts. I maintain a
400 ft private pave driveway w/ turn-offs etc for myself and 2 other neighbors. Just replaced the cutting edge on my L3010 FEL bucket.....it left alot of scuffs on the blacktop.

I'm awaiting delivery on a new L4330HSTC / FEL, which I also equipped w/ a rear blade. Figured I'd use that set at an angle when I cleanup after the "dusters"

 

[JackIL]

There are a couple of possibilities to consider. 1. You may want to install a thick rubber strip behind the blade to actually wipe the road surface. Some people have cut these strips from rubber mats for horse stables. Heavy belting or plastic has also been used. 2. If the scraping marks are being produced when you have the blade angled left or right, the problem could be that the main blade angling pivot is not perpendicular to the roadway. If the pivot is tilted forward or rearward, when you angle the blade one corner will rise into the air and the other will gouge into the roadway. This is an extremely sensitive adjustment to make--on your loader setup, this would be controlled by the curl function.

JackIL

 

[Scrounger]

I had similar issues but solved it with a product from Fall Line. FallLine Corporation | Snow Removal

I bought a plow blank and cut it to length then drilled for thru bolts. I recessed the bottom bolts with a paddle drill bit. I used a 1 3/4" thick piece. I'll post some pics when I get near the tractor again.

The stuff wasn't cheap but it works like a charm.

 

[c-and-a]

I bought plow blade rubber from RubberCal in CA - they also offer a poly board... may be worth look...rubber was cheap, poly was not so cheap

 

[DDT]

There is another reason I got a seperate front blade, I run it in float on the concrete and pavement with on problems. The blade is not as heavy as a loader bucket or a plow hooked to the loader.

 

[Jdengr]

I replaced the cutting edge on my FEL bucket, and 6' rear blade with strips of HDPE from McMaster-Carr. Also, I have plans to add a strip to my 5' rear blower. I needed to do this because last fall I had my gravel driveway was covered over with 6" of concrete and after paying for 350' of driveway (more like Road) I really don't want to mark it up, at least for a few years. My drive is mostly all steep downslope and the gravel would washout into deep ruts with every moderate rain. Thunderstorms were a disaster. With the little snow we are getting around here in PA, it doesn't look like I'll need that snowblower for a while. I've plowed the driveway twice; once we had about 1", another time almost 2". The plastic doesn't look like its wearing at all and it cleans the snow off even though its been packed by driving over it a couple of times.

 

[Mike5252]

I've only used the FEL once for snow on my JD 2520, but had better than expected luck.

I would lower the bucket to the ground (such that only the leading edge of the bucket was in contact w/ the pavement) and then ever so delicately raise the bucket a fraction of an inch. that seemed to work better for me than leaving it in float position. I am fortunate in that my driveway is virtually flat.

 

[caddison]

After our last recent snow fall I put my loader bucket in the float position and it worked great.

 

[m7040]

Thank you for the responses. Ordered a poly strip to bolt on to the blade from Fallline Nevada. It is 8 inch wide, 8 ft long and 1 1/2 inch thick, Plan to bolt this on top of the existing wear strip and protruding 1 1/2 inch down. Fallline recommends to take off the skid plates as well and just run it on the poly strip. These strips are being used a lot by airport snow plows and should be quite durable. Will let you know how it works out later.