Snow pusher box

Rustyiron · Jan 30, 2018

I'm building a (snow) pusher box for the 3 pt. hitch. Mostly for pulling snow away from doorways & garage doors. I run a Fisher V blade on the front of the tractor that is mounted to the frame. It's sort of a cross between a regular "box blade" and a pusher, but with a twist. I started designing a more normal box blade type that had swing out side plates that could hydraulically be set anywhere from the "normal" box blade position to pointing 180* backwards allowing it to be a pusher while backing up, to a 12' wide straight scraper blade. Some of the bigger lot's I plow would save some time pushing snow while on my way back in reverse (win rowing) trip that otherwise is wasted time. My CAD skills are limited to Cardboard Aided Design (stolen from another TBN member

) and I could not come up with a linkage to get 180* rotation out of a cylinder so I came up with the idea of a more normal designed pusher box that the 3 point attachment portion would uncouple from the box and mount on either side of it for pulling snow away from doors.
This is where I'm at right now.

I got some old cutting edges from the town's garage that were worn out and cut them down to a straight edge that I'll never wear out, at least on a tractor, they are 5/8" thick!

The "box" is pretty much done and I'm working on the attachment then the actual 3pt hitch. I'm doing a variation of the "euro-global" type connection that should be easy to switch around with only a couple of pins to attach it. I have a hyd. top link that will aid in this hook up.

texasranger556 · Jan 30, 2018

Looks like a good start!

Check this thread starting at post #17 for hydraulically controlled "wings" that swing 180 degrees:
Plow Build #2 - The Garage Journal Board

Rustyiron · Jan 31, 2018

Thanks Ranger, that guy is slick! I'm on at GJ but missed that one but remember other builds of his:thumbsup:
That is exactly what I was trying to figure out :confused2:

PILOON · Jan 31, 2018

I've made a couple also. One for my buddy from a 9' fisher plow on which we made 3 ft sides from 3/8" plate. side braces out of 2" x 2" tubing at 45 deg from side front back to the blade.
3 years of pushing and no problems so far.
The big challenge was the structure to attach to the tractor front but good design and a shop that did clever waterjet cutting did the trick.

On my CUT I have a 6 ft pusher that I use th FEL (minus bucket) and chain for the lift. Again the mounting structure to the tractor is the challenge. (I posted details for that one a while back)

Thomas · Feb 1, 2018

Interesting...keep the updates coming. :thumbsup:

Stomper · Feb 1, 2018

Nice build. looking forward to seeing the end result

Rustyiron · Feb 17, 2018

I'm a slacker at keeping up with a build.

Those E looking things are the brackets to hook to the tractor part from either side. I simply cut a slot in the top & welded them in carefully trying to align them all the same so the fit would work from either side. There are 3 sets of 2 & I made the middle one a little different so that it would force alignment with a pointed type bracket.

Here's the middle "aligner"

One reason I love metal working....... I screwed up the location on a set of brackets, they were a pita to make and were not going to survive cutting them out to re weld them. Then a light went off. cut out the whole "panel", flip it over and re weld. Problem solved.

When I laid it out, I went the wrong direction for the 2nd bracket. cutting the "panel" with an offset on the short side made it right when I flipped it over.

This is the foundation of the tractor side (3pt hitch) that will move to either side of the box depending on if I want to pull snow away from a doorway.garage, or use it as a pusher box reversed. If I had a normal box blade I prolly wouldn't have built this, it's just that I have other equipment for dirt work that a box blade would do and don't need one.

Here's a little more of the tractor side including how I'm going to "pin" it on at the bottom.

More later. I didn't get many pics of the pin levers, it was time consuming figuring out the linkage so that both pins will engage with a single cylinder so it felt like I wasn't getting anything done so no pics needed.:laughing: