Snow blade learning curve

skeets

Well-known member

Equipment
BX 2360 /B2601
Oct 2, 2009
14,215
2,874
113
SW Pa
olkid,, What I use was a piece of old water pipe wasnt black iron some kind of steel I found at the scrap yard the ID of the pipe was just a tad wider than the cutting edge. That way it goes over the cutting edge and more or less is clamped to the blade it self. Other than that i cant tell you any more than that. Just one of those things you have to play with,I just happend to get it right the first time,, dumb luck on my part.

Here is a youtube for the PVC pipe, steel would be the same way

https://youtu.be/HP2lzPbtXc0?t=4
 

Stmar

Active member

Equipment
B2650HSDC
May 23, 2017
906
42
28
Buffalo, Wyoming
I have a piece of 2" PVC but will check with my neighbor and see if he has any larger.
Played with the snowplow today, feathered it to skim and reversed the back blade and it produced a decent looking job. HST is definitely better control than the old 8Ns trannys and iffy clutches and brakes.
 

flyidaho

Active member

Equipment
L 3301 HST
Feb 28, 2017
424
236
43
IDAHO
I built a plow about 35 years ago for my pickup, being too poor at the time to go store bought. I used a 12 volt winch to raise and lower it, with a rudimentary manual angle change. I ran into the exact same issue, when angling it, and all these years I thought it was my poor design, glad to see a "real" plow with the same issue! I eventually learned how to make it work, that is I didn't make any structural changes in the plow, just learned to work around it, solid frozen ground solves a lot of any issues.

Fast forward to the present, my brand new QA 6' blade from Attachments Direct (their Minnesota location, built locally "we know snow", sold me, plus the guy I talked to on the phone, on a Saturday no less, knew his snow plows and sold me, shipping it out the next day. I did cheap out, telling myself simpler is better, and did NOT go with a hyd. angler, just manual. I don't have a cab, so I'm wearing a snowmobile suit when I plow and blow anyway, plus my property layout is such that multiple angle changes aren't needed. I of course had to try it out, at least put it on, not enough snow yet to mess with, and noted the very same angle issue, bringing back memories of my homebuilt one! One big difference: now I can roll the bucket up or down, plus I have easily adjustable skids, have a proper spring overload/kickback system,on top of that I'll wait until winter really hits and it's all rock solid, no problemo.

I still have my 5' ProTech snow pusher (unless I sell it locally, been trying, $400.00) and as this winter progresses it will interesting to see how I mix and match the FEL bucket, the new blade, and the pusher. I'm above 5,000', near a ski area, with lots of wind, so it's a fairly serious business, all gravel driveway.
 

olekid

Member

Equipment
B7510,loader, Curtis heated cab, loaded tires snowblower,grader blade,snow plow
Apr 9, 2013
92
8
8
Mount Uniacke, Nova Scotia
Thanks skeets for the info and the video, I'll be adding the steel to my blade, gravel driveway for the first few snows is a pain until we get a little frost to freeze it. later
 

skeets

Well-known member

Equipment
BX 2360 /B2601
Oct 2, 2009
14,215
2,874
113
SW Pa
Hope it works out for ya,,let us know how it went
 

afret

New member

Equipment
L3901, MX5800, U55-4
May 7, 2015
167
0
0
North Idaho
I've had good luck using a rubber blade on unfrozen gravel. I make the rubber blade hang down low so it can bend backwards when plowing. It kind of acts like a windshield wiper blade and doesn't dig into the gravel much.

Also it helps to have a blade that has lateral oscillation so it can follow the road contours better and corrects for the tilting blade when angled. And another good feature is to have the blade floating on the SSQA plate like on a truck plow. That way you don't have the added weight of the loader arms causing the blade to dig in more.
 

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