[How do I?] Modifying a snow plow

[dave_r_1]

I've got a fairly large walk-behind lawn mower (22hp motor, hydraulics running the 2 drive wheels, 52" wide cutting deck) that's so much fun to use during the summer, I've decided to re-purpose it for winter duty as well as a snow plow.

I'm working on a pair of caster wheels and a bracket for a lifting winch up front, and I bought a Warn 54" ProVantage Plow with an ATV center-mount, which I am in the middle of working on adapting to bolt onto the mower. Pretty straightforward to fashion the various mounts to connect the plow and casters to the lawnmower base.

The problem I'd like help with is that the plow is too wide for my truck. I'd like it to be around 36" wide or so when it's being transported, but I'd also like the possibility of attaching the "ends" back on when using it (hopefully it'll manage, won't know until it's all together and going) quickly without needing tools

I was thinking of welding some tubes maybe 8" long or so to the back of the plow, horizontally, centered on the vertical line where I would cut off the end of the plow on each side, maybe 2 or 3 on each side, then cut the plow and these alignment tubes with a cutoff saw.

Then slide in some solid pins into each of these tubes should keep the end piece aligned and supported, with some tabs with a hole in it and another pin inserted vertically to keep the end piece attached to the main plow.

The plow itself is 12 gauge steel, I was thinking of using 10" of tubing 1/2" id, 1/8" (maybe 3/16") wall thickness, with 1/2 solid steel for the horizontal pins. Does this seem like a reasonable plan?

Link to the plow itself:
https://www.warn.com/atv/plows/provantage_straight_blade.jsp

 

[cathead]

Have you considered hauling it around on a trailer? It might be an easier way to solve the problem without
having to rework the plow. You may have your reasons but that's what came to mind. Good luck on
the project.

 

[Terrywerm]

I did something similar with a blade that I built for a tractor that I have here. I made extension wings for it so that when using it to doze dirt or gravel, I was at normal width, but when plowing snow, the two 6" extensions could be added to wing the snow out a little further. The extensions did not have cutting edges on them however, and did not touch the surface at all. In this way when I was plowing the walkways at the local park, the extensions would push the snowbank further out onto the grass, but I kept the cutting edge completely on the paved trail. This kept the trail opened up to full width without tearing up the grass.

I did not do like you were planning however, as your plan involves cutting through the cutting edge and everything.

 

[dave_r_1]

I've considered using a trailer, but I do only residential snow removal, and between the residential roads not getting plowed and having several customers in cul-de-sacs (so I'd have to back out with it), it is just way too likely to get stuck. I've had to dig my truck out after getting stuck at customer's homes, and digging out my trailer would be even less fun. I've got a flatbed truck, so I can carry more equipement than what I could with a regular truck bed (currently I haul around 4 snowblowers and a power brush).

Anyway, I'm almost done with attaching the plow to the mower's power unit, just have to put on some weights on the front (as the power unit's center of mass is behind it's two wheels and the plow doesn't put any weight on the front when it is on the ground) and cleaning up the wiring for the winch that raises/lowers the plow. I'll give it a whirl with the plow as is, and then work on narrowing it.

 

[Dave Smith]

how about making the blade to be easily disconnected or able to angle with removing a pin---then you would not need to cut the blade----Dave

 

[Silverbullet]

Don't be afraid to cut it like you said a couple of pipes and a pin will work to make removal and attachment easy . You could even mount a set of pipes on the back to store the wings. I've got a nice snowblower attachment in my stash if you want ill sell it . All the mounts and belts too. It's 42" wide . Shoot I bet you could make them fold too.

 

[dave_r_1]

how about making the blade to be easily disconnected or able to angle with removing a pin---then you would not need to cut the blade----Dave

That is a good idea. It current does detach from the drive unit fairly easily (3 pins and unhook the winch), except they are all under the drive unit, so it's basically lying on the ground in the snow to attach/detach it (and getting up to shift the plow a bit to get the pins to all line up right). Not really something I'd like to do multiple times a day while doing snow. I'll look at how the plow itself mounts to the tubes going to the mount, but it already has a setup for angling the plow left and right, and I don't think it can readily be made to have some easily accessible pins to remove the plow (at least not with my skills/tools available)...

Don't be afraid to cut it like you said a couple of pipes and a pin will work to make removal and attachment easy . You could even mount a set of pipes on the back to store the wings. I've got a nice snowblower attachment in my stash if you want ill sell it . All the mounts and belts too. It's 42" wide . Shoot I bet you could make them fold too.

Thanks. I have considered also attaching a snowblower assembly from a riding mower to it, as the drive unit is more than powerful enough to power the blower, and it has a horizontal pto that can be enabled/disabled, like riding mowers that would be used for powering the blower. It just wouldn't see a lot of use, as most of the time for the past couple of years I've used a backpack blower/toro 21" (for smaller places)/ariens 36" power brush for larger places, and only maybe 3 or 4 times a winter do I need to use the 28" 2-stage Ariens blower because the snow is too much. Naturally, next winter I'll need to use it every other day...

 

[dave_r_1]

Well, I've got the main part of the project to get the plow attached to the lawn mower "drive unit" (it's a hydro walkbehind).

I would say it's not the ideal install, as the plow came with a center-mount for a quad atv, so the mounting point wound up further back (behind the wheels) than I wanted (but I also needed to keep the overall length as short as possible for loading onto my truck). I've got 70 lbs of extra weight on the front, mainly just to counterbalance the drive unit, which has the center of mass behind the rear wheels. I'll probably add another 70 or 140 lbs to make it a little more front heavy and to give the whole thing more weight to get better traction.

Here's a shot of the front. I had to fab up casters as front wheels, then a mount for the winch to raise/low the plow and then some supports for the weights. Of course, now I'm considering cutting off the mounts at the current locations and making them vertical at the ends of the top winch crossmember...and I've already had to cut them off once already because the first spot was too close to the plow when it is angled...doh!



And a shot of the rear mount. This is the primary attachment point of the plow. There are two pins that hold the plow to the mount, allowing it to go up and down, but keeping it straight in front. I am a little concerned about the way I've adapted the mount to the drive unit, as while it is solidly connected to the frame for pushing forward, I'm not entirely sure of how well I've got it handling torque from the plow (as in, when I'm turning around and the plow hits something solid, that torque is transmitted about 1.5m from the plow to the mount. The crossmember bolted to the back of the frame is pretty solid, but I won't really know until I wack something.



Finally, a shot of the winch control to raise/lower the plow. This works nice and fast, but I do have to be careful not to raise it too much, otherwise things start bending...I did get one of cheapest winches I could readily find new, $100cdn, 2000lbs, way more than it really needs, as the plow is maybe 100lbs.



I did take it for a spin this afternoon, as we got about an inch of really wet snow, as it was +3C, and it could readily plow that stuff to the side from a sidewalk, the wheels would only slip on an existing ice patch. Also took it on the park to try it on deeper snow, it could move 8-9" of snow when it got traction, but the grass wouldn't always give enough. I might also try to track down some wheel weights for it.

Anyway, so far, I think this has been a success, but I still have to check out how it goes up and down the ramps on my truck, as well as seeing how good my idea of cutting off the ends of the plow and making them extensions works...

 

[Dave Smith]

after seeing your pictures ---how about backing it into your pickup and letting the blade stay just behind the back of the bed with tailgate under it----no need to cut it shorter then---looks like a nice unit-------Dave

 

[dave_r_1]

I've got a Sierra 3500 Cab&Chassis with a 9'x7' flatbed, it's more of a matter of having space for it, and other snowblowers and a power brush and shovels and so everything can get on and off the truck via the ramps I attached to the truck. I'm trading a snowblower for this, and there isn't that much extra space for the full width of the plow.

Even if my plan winds up not working (making the ends of the plow attachable) and I wind up with a plow only 40" or so wide, it still will work find and will still be MUCH better than shovelling the snow by hand.