Back Blade Plowing

Saxman

New member

Equipment
L3830 ZD21
Jun 19, 2010
154
3
0
Mt. Vernon, IL


I found this Kwik Way skid steer plow at a salvage place and got it very cheap. I replaced all the hydraulic hoses, repainted it and added decals. It’s very well built and was not bent or sprung at all. I don’t have remotes on my L3830 so I unhook the dump/curl hoses at the loader control valve and hook the angle cylinder hoses in there from the plow. The loader dump cylinders remain rigid and it works great


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sheepfarmer

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L3560, B2650, Gator, Ingersoll mower
Nov 14, 2014
4,444
662
113
MidMichigan
I never thought of trex. I wonder how tough it is and if will last a season I looked up a poly edge and see how much a piece of trex is.


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I am still on the same piece after 2 years. The end corners have worn down as i have used the blade to clear out a v shaped concrete alley way. It was free, not sure if Trex or one of the other brands. Left it on year round since I didn't need any serious cutting edge and it scrapes fine. It is well supported by the blade, When you drill holes in it to put it where your metal edge is, you can choose how much sticks out.
 

Paluch1

New member
Aug 28, 2018
44
0
0
Buffalo Ny
I am still on the same piece after 2 years. The end corners have worn down as i have used the blade to clear out a v shaped concrete alley way. It was free, not sure if Trex or one of the other brands. Left it on year round since I didn't need any serious cutting edge and it scrapes fine. It is well supported by the blade, When you drill holes in it to put it where your metal edge is, you can choose how much sticks out.


Do you have it on your FEL or snow plow? Just wondering

Thanks


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Jchonline

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
Kubota L6060, KX040-4, M7060, RTV X1100C, M62 (sold)
Oct 28, 2018
1,388
598
113
Red Feather Lakes, CO


I found this Kwik Way skid steer plow at a salvage place and got it very cheap. I replaced all the hydraulic hoses, repainted it and added decals. It’s very well built and was not bent or sprung at all. I don’t have remotes on my L3830 so I unhook the dump/curl hoses at the loader control valve and hook the angle cylinder hoses in there from the plow. The loader dump cylinders remain rigid and it works great


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Very nice I like it!
 

Stmar

Active member

Equipment
B2650HSDC
May 23, 2017
906
42
28
Buffalo, Wyoming
For my gravel driveway I have a snowplow and a back blade with a lot of adjustment. I angle them the same way, offset the back blade a bit and get a fairly large swath. Most of the time I have the back blade turned around so that it does not cut.
 

NoBiffBetter

Member
Oct 30, 2018
193
7
16
Silver Creek, NY. USA
Hey guys, just wondering how many guys use a back blade to plow along with a FEL and I'm thinking it will save a lot of time. I am using my BX1880 god the first season and trying to figure out the fasted easy to get my drive way done.

And if you do use a back blade do you go in reverse or forward? I know it sounds dumb but just wondering what's easier.

Thanks
I have a backblade on my 2370 Along with my loader in the winter time.. I basically use the backblade for hard to reach areas such as getting up close to my porch from my walkway and getting snow away from the edges of things such as the porch and my house.. I just back up to the porch or house with the backblade, I get it so that the blade is about touching my house then I drop the blade and drive away forward, once I have pulled all the snow back far enough I then use the loader to scoop the snow up and dump it in with the rest of the snow piles.

A back blade is a great tool for those hard to reach places in the winter time.. just make sure you have it pitched and leveled properly for best results.

Happy plowing!
 

Paluch1

New member
Aug 28, 2018
44
0
0
Buffalo Ny
I just finished getting everything done. Back blade on, rubber tire chains, hope they are tight enough and made a scraper edge for my FEL out of a piece of trex that was on sale at lowes.

How do you know if the chains are tight enough? I don't think I can get another link on the Hook and they don't seem to slip



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flyidaho

Active member

Equipment
L 3301 HST
Feb 28, 2017
423
233
43
IDAHO
Ha! Like me, I see your ROPS is still folded in half, no doubt due to where you keep it, with the door height being the deciding factor. Just today, while I had the L3301 in the heated shop, I took that unused section off, I'll put it back on when I sell the tractor. It is highly unlikely I'll raise the outbuilding it's kept in just to accomodate that roll bar. The remaining lower section still offers quite a bit of protection anyway. I briefly considered folding and unfolding it everytime I used the tractor, briefly meaning, for about 2 seconds.
 

NoJacketRequired

Active member

Equipment
B7510 & LA302 FEL & B2782 blower, B7510 & B2781 blower, B2410 & B2550 blower
May 25, 2016
415
48
28
Ottawa, Ontario
I am still on the same piece after 2 years. The end corners have worn down as i have used the blade to clear out a v shaped concrete alley way. It was free, not sure if Trex or one of the other brands. Left it on year round since I didn't need any serious cutting edge and it scrapes fine. It is well supported by the blade, When you drill holes in it to put it where your metal edge is, you can choose how much sticks out.
Your posts are always interesting and informative. Earlier today I was at our local building supply yard, asking if they had any ugly/scrap TREX or similar synthetic material in hopes of capitalizing on your advice. Everything is frozen in or buried under snow so he's told me to come back on Monday and he'll have a piece for me. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works on the paved ramp area in front of our row hangar at the airport.
 

Paluch1

New member
Aug 28, 2018
44
0
0
Buffalo Ny
Your posts are always interesting and informative. Earlier today I was at our local building supply yard, asking if they had any ugly/scrap TREX or similar synthetic material in hopes of capitalizing on your advice. Everything is frozen in or buried under snow so he's told me to come back on Monday and he'll have a piece for me. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works on the paved ramp area in front of our row hangar at the airport.


Lowes had them for $14 for an 8' piece


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JerryMT

Active member

Equipment
Kubota M4500, NH TD95D,Ford 4610
Jun 17, 2017
528
156
43
The Palouse - North Idaho
Here's a design for a "snow blade " edge I designed and fabbed in 1989. I used it on a JD435D I had at the time, then on a Ferguson TO-30, I sold earlier this year and now on our Kubota M4500.
I designed it for gravel driveways but it works equally well on pavement. After almost 30 years use, I will need to replace the pipe soon.
 

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majorwager

Active member

Equipment
MX5100 FEL ford 1620 FEL International 484 FEL Lull 844C
The pipe wear edge is a nice design for snow but for ice or stone, it might ride up and over?

Skid shoes will provide a similar result and can be lowered or easily removed for other tasks, without dealing with a series of bolts, rusty as well unless stainless.
 

troverman

Well-known member

Equipment
MX6000 HSTC; 2020 Kubota Z421KW-54 zero turn mower
Jun 9, 2015
1,188
268
83
NH
Hey guys, just wondering how many guys use a back blade to plow along with a FEL and I'm thinking it will save a lot of time. I am using my BX1880 god the first season and trying to figure out the fasted easy to get my drive way done.

And if you do use a back blade do you go in reverse or forward? I know it sounds dumb but just wondering what's easier.

Thanks
I use a back blade extensively for snow removal. Mine is a 6-foot blade, King Cutter from Tractor Supply. Nothing special, but made in the US. I used it on both my B2920 and my MX4800.

On a small tractor like a BX or even a B, I would go for nothing more than a 5-footer. My 6-foot blade, once loaded up with heavy snow, would actually push the tractor around and it would lose traction. On lighter snowfalls, it worked great. My blade has a center position and two left and two right angle options. I use both sides of the blades. The cutting edge side works great on paved or concrete surfaces and scrapes well. The rounded side works well for not ripping up dirt or gravel areas, but doesn't scrape well. I love the versatility of these blades...drive forward pulling snow, lift, drive ahead, drop, and push backwards into a pile. I have two plow trucks and often just use the tractor for my neighborhood jobs because they are more nimble and efficient. Here's my B-series with a mighty large back blade on it...but all the snow you see in this driveway was plowed by it.
 

dirtydeed

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
B2650 BH77, U27-4R2, BX23TLBM, box blade, rear blade, flail mower, Stump Grinder
Dec 8, 2017
2,898
3,257
113
Wind Gap, PA
same here.

First pic is on asphalt, second pic is on second driveway made of millings.

I know, not much snow really but the tractor at the time was new and this was it's first snow. I have used the very same rear blade on my old BX23D for years. It's 6 footer and was a tad big, but the blade was free!
 

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JerryMT

Active member

Equipment
Kubota M4500, NH TD95D,Ford 4610
Jun 17, 2017
528
156
43
The Palouse - North Idaho
The pipe wear edge is a nice design for snow but for ice or stone, it might ride up and over?

Skid shoes will provide a similar result and can be lowered or easily removed for other tasks, without dealing with a series of bolts, rusty as well unless stainless.
Skid shoes hold the blade above the surface while the pipe snow edge rides on the surface. The large radius does not bite into the gravel like a grader blade does so very little gravel is moved around. On pavement it just rides on the surface.
It is true you have to deal with bolting it on. In my case, after the snow started, the snow edge was on until Spring.
 

chim

Well-known member

Equipment
L4240HSTC with FEL, Ford 1210
Jan 19, 2013
1,792
874
113
Near Lancaster, PA, USA
................................Chim,
Did you build you own snow pusher ??.....................e.
Sorry, I missed the question. The snow pusher is simply the FEL bucket with ears added. I made them so they slide onto the bucket sides and can be secured with one bolt. They are a lot more effective than the bucket by itself.
 

Kabota

Member

Equipment
Kabota L1801DT special
Nov 30, 2018
80
0
6
Summerville Pa.
Until I get my new old Kabota running I am using a Deere utility with fel and back blade. Before I got the fel the plowing job was killing my back and neck doing about 800 feet of private lane. I have a simple solution that I have not tried but I thing a rear view mirror would be a big help and also a safety feature when I wonder out onto the public road.

My 2 cents
 

John Lash

Member

Equipment
B2100, B2650
Nov 23, 2017
47
0
6
Elizabeth, Pa.
I've plowed a quarter mile long driveway for about 32 years with a rear blade.

I've done all combinations of using the tractor in forward and reverse with the blade turned forwards and backwards. It's worked good enough.

The driveway has evolved from all gravel to all asphalt over the years. It's much easier now that it's all asphalt since the blade plows gravel the same as it plows snow. Requiring a light touch until it freezes. Once the drive was all asphalt I bought a rubber cutting edge to replace the metal one.

The hard part was going fast enough to get the snow flowing off the blade while maintaining enough control to stay on the road. A lot of the drive is on a sidehill.

Got a new tractor last fall and a front mounted snow blade. Much easier to use of course. The guy that bought the used tractor was happy to finally have a snow blade even thought it's back mounted.

When plowing up at the road and mailbox I feel more vulnerable with the front mount blade as I have to put the tractor out on the road to plow. With the rear mount the tractor could stay in the drive and the blade on the road.