Carried on with improving the plow attachment I made for one of my mowers.
Originally, I used some rods & pipe to connect the plow ends to the main part of the plow (I had to shorten it so it would fit on my truck with the rest of my equipment). The rods promptly bent, so I switch to much larger square tubing that can slide together. Last year, I just welded on the bottom two square tubing setups, and left the top rod&pipe alone, which worked ok, but the remaining rod still didn't work too well, and the tabs I welded on to hold the extensions onto the center section permitted more free play than I'd like (the extension could separate a bit from the main section and then it would vibrate out the top rod).
So, I cut off the tubes for rod that were on top, and replaced it with square tubing and then drilled holes through the square tubes that I insert pins through, and now the extensions can't move outwards at all anymore.
As well, I made a better mount for the winch control. It came with a mount for attaching to a tube (ie, a quad handlebar), and I tried using it, but it was pretty annoying, as I had to lock the handlebar controls, then reach for the winch control, use the plow, then lock/reach/move. And the bolts would work loose, so the control would flop around until I retightened them.
I decided to make a mount for the switch so I can use it with my thumb while my hands are still on the controls, and so it's firmly bolted down.
The result:
I should have bent the mounting tang on the far mount the other way, so the whole control would be about 1" over, so the near mount would clear the engine speed control, but I didn't think of it until I started writing this post. :-(
And what's a little work without making a mistake...I made both mounts together by holding two pieces of 1/8" plate together, then cutting off the bits that didn't look like a mount, but I don't have a particularly accurate method of bending the pieces (ie, draw a line, stick it in a vise so the line is along an edge of the vise and then hammer it over). After drilling the holes in one side of the mount for the winch switch, I found that the other side of the mount was a bit higher, and the lower bolt on the switch just missed the mount. Here's the pic of the mount after I welded the section I had previous cut from the mount.
Tomorrow, I take it for a tour of the park and see how it all works.
I still have to think about how to rework the cutting edge of the plow. Now it's in 3 sections, and each of the ends can/will catch on cracks/edges of concrete. It's not too bad for the middle section, but it could cause problems for the extensions (possibly bending them or the mounts, which is what happened with the previous rods/pipes setup). I need to come up with some way to attach a full-width cutting edge after attaching both extensions so it stays at the right angle, distributes the force evenly to the plow, and goes on and comes off easily.
