Time to hook-up the snow plow UGH!

[PineRidge]

It does work great. I built mine from Mike's plans and my BH fits like a glove. It was my first major welding project and having Mike's detailed plans gave me the confidence to even start such an undertaking.

I've got the rest of my stuff on wood dollies and that is better than nothing. I need to get up the nerve to design some made out of steel.

Barry glad the design worked for you too.

 

[PineRidge]

Mike,
Since your drive is gravel like mine, do you have a problem with the blade gouging into the gravel and rolling it off the drive with the snow? I do, especially when the ground is not frozen. My skid shoes on the blade look just like yours, and the sink into the soft drive and are worthless. I came up with an idea for a long skid but don't have a welder yet to make it. By the looks of your blade, my idea would work on yours too.
I plan to get a length of 3" schedule 40 steel pipe and weld a couple 10" long rods to the ends. The rods would be the same diameter as the skid shoe bracket holes on the back of the blade (1" ?). They would be welded perpendicular to the pipe. It would look something like this l==============l The pipe would probably need to have caps welded on first and then weld the rods to them. The finished skid would be the same length as the distance between the skid shoe bracket holes. Drill a couple pin holes at the top ends of the rods, and use washers or nipples as spacers just like the shoes use. You could add or remove the skid in seconds. By curling the blade back, the pipe would drag on the gravel (skid over it) instead of the cutting edge. Dump the blade slightly forward to raise the skid and use the cutting edge when needed.
I'd love to make one for my blade some day. I tried to get a local welding shop to build it, but they were too busy to take my order. Please let me know if you decide to build it, and if it works. Or maybe you don't have the same issue with the loose gravel like I do.

Today I gave the snow plow a closer look and I'm thinking in your case you might want to add a piece of flat steel where each original shoe was mounted. The idea is that they would act like ski's on the front of a snowmobile to keep the plow from digging into the soft gravel. Once the gravel froze you could then take them off. Naturally they would couldn't stick out forward from the plow face itself or you might be hitting the garage doors with them.

Look at my drawing and see what you think. I'm thinking your idea might have a tendency to push soft gravel.

 

[Ford850]

Today I gave the snow plow a closer look and I'm thinking in your case you might want to add a piece of flat steel where each original shoe was mounted. The idea is that they would act like ski's on the front of a snowmobile to keep the plow from digging into the soft gravel. Once the gravel froze you could then take them off. Naturally they would couldn't stick out forward from the plow face itself or you might be hitting the garage doors with them.

Look at my drawing and see what you think. I'm thinking your idea might have a tendency to push soft gravel.

I'll have to play with that idea some. The rebar might get in the way when the blade folds forward. I like the idea of something to tie them together, but maybe a loose pinned connection would work so the skis could track straight in tandem when the blade was angled.
Another idea I had earlier was to use the 3" pipe, cap the ends, and put an axle through so it could roll like a anti-scalp roller on a lawn mower. I think it would still roll even with the blade angled.
But maybe I just need to weld an old disc blade to the bottom of each skid I have now. That would create huge dinner plate sized skids. If I had scrap laying around I would play more with these ideas.
Thanks for your help.

 

[PineRidge]

Let us know what you come up with in any case. Good Luck to you!

 

[scott_vt]

Good Afternoon Mike,
That plow arrangement came out very nice !

We have white out conditions here, your welcome to come try out your new setup up this way !

 

[PineRidge]

Good Afternoon Mike,
That plow arrangement came out very nice !

We have white out conditions here, your welcome to come try out your new setup up this way !

Scott thanks for the compliment and the kind offer. However I think I'm just gonna sit here in Ohio and wait for the snow to come to me.

 

[JASTN70D]

Nice idea.. If you need to test it out I have the perfect testing grounds..

Nice to see you posting.

Now that somebody taught me how to weld I may have to try some more projects like yours

 

[PineRidge]

Glad to be back John. I sent you a PM

Merry Christmas to all!

 

[LBrown59]

Glad to be back John. I sent you a PM

Merry Christmas to all!

Marry Christmas to you too.

 

[PILOON]

Basically the ski idea is good, however having tried that myself I can say that it is not as easy to do as it sounds.

If we were to plow always 'squared off' OK, but when angling the blade the trick is to get the skid or ski to track foreward and not skid sideways.
That is why all plows basically use the dish or mushroom shaped skids.

Larger dishes would do the trick.

Around here what we do is 'back blade' eg pull the snow backwards to compact a base which when frozen now supports the skids.
Then again once you have a good base of compacted snow you don't need skid shoes.

Last week we got 5-6"s followed by a good thaw as well as rain!
Then a sudden cold snap.
What a mess!
Bases melted, deep ruts formed so you needed to quickly push that mush aside otherwise you had deep frozen ruts impossible to remouve.

The best drives were the ones whereby the folks were away as after the freeze you'd simply scrape away whatever came and had a great base.

Those used became skating rinks and sand/gravel needed to be added as even walking was impossible.

Joys of winter!

Our city roads contractor took out his grader equipped with carbide toothed grader blade to scrape down to the pavement and then plowed all that mush high and clear back as we still have another 200 inches to expect before winter's end and then comes "where do I push that stuff"?