Mini skidwalk scraper

[TreeDimensional]

I was bannished to the shop while they had a Baby shower for my daughter and her baby (Born Nov. 27) and you know what they say about idle minds! The Blade came with a 4X4 garden tractor, and frankly didn't work very well.

Again, I didn't butcher anything, so it can be taken off and used as it was originally designed. Here is what it ended up as:

 

[Burnham]

There's a reason for that saying, isn't there . What was the flaw, Brent?

 

[sawinredneck]

Not to rain on your parade Brent, but why didn't you just put the third attachment point on the top of that mount making it useful for a lot of three point attachments, giving you control of up and down, and eliminating the "gin pole"?
It's slick, I'll give you that, I've got a 43" blade off of a lawn mower I want to build into a blade for my mini, so I'm not bashing the idea at all. Just trying to simplify if you will.

 

[TreeDimensional]

The adjustment on the arms of the 3 point hitch couldn't be adjusted enough to have the blade do anything but bounce all over the place. The ram that tilts the bucket allows me to change that angle. The blade will rotate 180 degrees so I can pull snow away from tight places, and can be angled left, right or centered, going either way. The V-belt lift support allows for some movement for dips and ridges.

Here this thing is just a toy! I have a 10' blade on a 970 Case, and its too small! I also have a 150 Versatile bi-directional tractor with a FEL. I might load the Mini up and haul it to the city for my Dad to use on his sidewalk and driveway!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Crikey! Where are the trees???

 

[Bounce]

Hey Brent - how far can you see from your house? The horizon in those pictures looks like it must be 50 miles away! Man, I bet the wind sure does blow, with nothing to slow it down. Brrr!

 

[TreeDimensional]

Believe it or not, there are more trees here now than when the first homesteaders arrived. Sean, you hit the nail-on-the-head, the wind (always present) kicks our butt daily. Most rural yards have shelterbelts on the west and north sides.
On clear evenings I can see the glow of the light from 2 towns that are 50 miles away. The first time I met Dr. Ed Gilman, he said "oh, your the guy that can watch his dog run away for 3 days", I guess my reputation proceeded me!

The wild thing about pushing snow is that when you have to move it, you better push/carry it a long way back. It sets up like cement and is a real PITA if you have to do it again. Plus the piles/ridges act like a snowfence and it can get deep for 20 yards on the downwind side. Back in my Senior HS year, we were stuck in here for a week. We were moving it from the top, a contractor who was opening up the highway with a big Cat loader worked from the bottom of the lane. When we were done it was like a tunnel, at least 20' high on both sides of the lane.

When the snow gets seriously deep (average depth) we have a snow blower. It is slow,tedious work but ya do what ya gotta do.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

The first time I met Dr. Ed Gilman, he said "oh, your the guy that can watch his dog run away for 3 days"..

That is funny I don't care who you are ...

 

[Al Smith]

Well wind blown snow can get about hard enough to drive on ,no doubt .

Nice try on the blade though,close but no cigar . Cabled like that all it will do is float which you already figured out .Back to the drawing board .

I'll tell what will work,a segment of big pipe like 20-24" ,either attached to the mini bucket or in place of it .You already have the roll in the blade because it's round and with a crawler you can pretty much put the snow where you want it any way . I've made several to go on the loader of a wheel tractor and they work great .

 

[TreeDimensional]

 

[Al Smith]

Unclear evidently ? Okay to get any blade to work it has to have some curvature . A longitudenal section from a big pipe works perfectly .

In addition to that you have to get it closer to the front of the machine else you have lousy control of it .Out that far with no positive down tie to the lift arms it's going to float,no way around that .

I suppose though you might be able to unbolt the three point hitch assembley from the blade and somehow mount the swivel to the mini bucket,blade what ever it is .That way you could angle it somewhat if so desired .

 

[tntree]

Could you duplicate the tube that the blade turns on and weld it on the skid mt plate -- might work better

Made this one which had turn issues when tilted wrong the plow would not level on the driveway, long story short - the plow mount has to freely swivel on 2 axis's

Nobody makes a good snow plow for the minis, I have a cool V plow I am working on will unveil here first

 

[sotc]

, long story short - the plow mount has to freely swivel on 2 axis's

Velly intelesting. I bought a lawn mower plow I have intended to mount on a plate for the boxer, I learned something I had no clue about

 

[sawinredneck]

I think? the majority of that problem. Dave, was it was too far away from the machine. I've learned with the mini's if you want to lift or work it, it needs to be close to the COG to be effective. The larger machines don't give a rip, they have weight to spare, the mini's need every pound they can get!

 

[squisher]

Velly intelesting. I bought a lawn mower plow I have intended to mount on a plate for the boxer, I learned something I had no clue about

Yup watch a truck plow in action one day.

V for the mini would be cool cause it kicks ass on a truck.

 

[sotc]

Not many small plows here, all up it the hills. I can see the floating rotation but whats the other axis? The spring back for shock?

 

[squisher]

Two axis, up and down and able to pivot on the center. A blade just needs to be able to 'trip' so you don't destroy it or the truck or the mount. Heh but I've still managed to do all of those?

 

[sotc]

So how would you get the up and down float and still have ground pressure? Must need a strong spring. 3 inches about right? Maybe 2 for a mini?

 

[squisher]

Very few truck plows have downpressure they work just like Al said they wouldn't. Chain to lift and the weight of the plow and angle of the cutting edge is what does the plowing no downward force is applied. Downpressure is nice but on a heavy unit it comes with the price/responsibility of being able to do massive amounts of damage to the equipment or 'obstacles'. That's where really good trip systems come into play. I know of two pick-up mounted plows with downpressure and one the guy had it for like a week and broke it, whereas there's literally hundreds of plows around similar to what I'm running, no downpressure.

 

[sotc]

Hmmm, I can't imagine this plow having enough weight so it must be a pretty critcal angle. I'll try and look that up

 

[sawinredneck]

The 8' plow I ran on a Bobcat had six 2" diameter springs seven inches long for the tripping mechanism. Saves the hell out of the machine and the blade!
Set the blade down, put the boom in "float" and go, the curve of the blade would get under and curl up anything but glass ice. Nothing is going to get up glass ice anyways, so salt it and move on.

 

[squisher]

On something that small downpressure would be a big bonus I think. My plow 'pivots', like the rotational axis on a big huge bolt/pin in the center, if down pressure was applied directly in the center as well it would still pivot fairly freely I think. But I imagine not as well, in order to get a plow to follow the contours of the land it needs to be able to 'float'. Check out quad plows they just work off of the winch, no downpressure either. My truck plow has a float position on the controller or I can lower it just as far as I want but it will always be able to 'float' upwards as there's just a chain (two actually) that lifts and drops it.

But you mean the angle the plow sits at as in forward/back. Yah I'd assume that's a critical angle and I would imagine could vary a bit with the amount of curl the moldboard has.

 

[squisher]

My plow has a trip edge so just the cutting edge trips/folds under not the whole plow folding over and losing all your snow. Superior design imo.

 

[sotc]

Could you put up some pics of the pivot one of these days?

 

[sawinredneck]

I've got a small blade, off of a lawn mower I suppose, that I've toyed with building what Dave made above. Use a small cylinder so you can tilt it side to side. But really, the bucket works just fine for me, other than not having any springs and it hurts like hell when you hit a curb or expansion joint that doesn't match!
I sprung that Bobcat blade many times, that wasn't a great feeling, but didn't hurt anything, especially you when you hit something!
The critical angle with that large blade wasn't all that important, it had enough curve in the moldboard it was pretty forgiving. Like I said, and you've observed, with the curve of the moldboard, it will pull the plow right down and let it float over medium obstacles.