front mount snowblade question

[tooltimejim]

Well , They are hard to find here in minnesota. I was wondering if anyone has made a nice home made front mount blade setup for N series tractors. I have welding abilities, but have no good plans to follow. I have a 6 ft snow blade off a old jeep that the neighbor will sell me real cheap.. $ 50.00 iF anyone has any ideas or have built such a thing, and would like to share , it would be much appreciated. Thanks,Jim

 

[old]

Biggest problem with a straight blade up front is that they tend to push the front of the tractor side ways once they have much snow up front of them. I found years ago the best and easiest way to set up a front blade is to first have a loader then it is just a matter of having or making a blade to mount to it which I also did by making a V plow that mounts to the loader bucket of my 841. Works good and I only have to make one pass to clear my mile long driveway. Blade is 8.5 foot wide

 

[Paul in MN]

Jim,

If you are near Minneapolis (NW side) I can invite you to come and measure up my plow frame rig. I think it was home made, came with the tractor in 1970. Currently it is beneath the snow in the tree line, but I know right where it is. I haven't used the front blade on the 8N for many years as I have bigger plowing tractors with heated cabs and at my age I need the heat.

Also what "old" said, the 8N gets pushed around quite a bit with the front blade because it is relatively light weight. I do not have pictures of the front blade system, or I would share them with you.

Thinking back to how that rig was designed and built, it attached to the drawbar mounting plate beneath the rear end of the tractor. That is probably the strongest point on the tractor. The sub-frame was made of stout pipe, and it could pivot maybe 4 or 5 degrees so the blade could follow the ground instead of being held totally rigid. The subframe connected to the blade's A frame a bit forward from the engine oil drain plug. The blade was Arps I think and would be lifted by a small diameter hydraulic cylinder from the tractor's hydraulics (but they are slow). I'd be glad to show you what I have and maybe you can improve on the original design.

Paul in MN

 

[Dell (WA)]

Jim.......Ultradog has some neat pics of his "closed circuit" hydraulic lifted frontmount snowblade. It does NOT use enny hydraulic pumps. Just the 3-point lift arm "squeezing" one cylinder to remotely lift the front cylinder. Slicker'n'snott. You might try searching the "archives" at the top of the page. .......Dell

 

[chevyNford]

I have a FEL on my 8N and have found that it pushes much more snow than it lifts which made me consider adapting a plow to the loader frame but have not because I already use my snow bucket as a plow most of the time. The nice thing is that with the loader I always have the option, when pushing snow, to lift and move it also. I have seen a couple FEL for sale on line here in Mn. If I were starting from scratch I would add a loader first and adapt a blade to the loader frame if I felt I had to have one.

 

[Ultradog MN]

I was trying to think; has it been 8 years already since I built this plow? Hard to believe how the time goes.
These photos have been all around the web - posted by me at first and many others since. But I guess I have't seen them linked to for a year or two. So here they are again.
These photos are just after I completed the plow. It went through a couple of modifications after that - mostly to the pivot on the back of the blade which I rebuilt to tilt and swivel. I added skid shoes to it too. I never did take any photos of those mods before I sold it with the 2N it's on.
With tire chains and wheel weights that plow on my N would move an incredible amount of snow.
If I were to build another one I wouldn't use the twin cylinder method with captive oil that you see but would use the test port on the corner of the pump and just chain the lift arms down.
It worked great but was more expense than needed. I know more now about Ns and tractors than I did back then. I might however still use some sort of lift amplifier on the front like I did. Just because it was cool getting 20" of lift out of a 12" cylinder. I would use hydraulics to lift it for sure. With a cable lift you have all those doohicky cables and brackets hanging everywhere. The old Dearborn and Arps plows would only raise the blade about 8" where I could get a full 20". I've had a couple of Dearborns since then and mine
worked better for piling up snow.
If you'd like more help with ideas email me your phone # and the best time to call. I like yacking about tractors and sharing/trading ideas about stuff like this.
Where in MN are you? I'm in the Cities - Columbia Heights. Paul is not far from me here. If you were close maybe the three of us could meet for coffee or an Ale and hash out all the details.
Good luck
Jerry
Snow Plow

 

[Ultradog MN]

Thanks Dell.
Just posted and then saw you had beat me to it.

 

[Charles Krammin]

If I had a "blade from a jeep" I would think of a setup with the more modern pickup snowplow design. There blade contains all the necessities, in the plow, and only requires a jumper cable to the battery and control electric control levers in the cab.
If you have the underbody frame for the jeep plow, I would fabricate a frame to attach the plow frame like it hooked up to the jeep,but have it attached to the wishbone (brace rods to front axle). For hydrulics, I would purchase or make a hydrulic pump attached to a 6 or 12 volt motor and a control lever that activates the motor by an electric switch. This hyd pump-motor could be attached anywhere. This setup would eliminate all the other problems of old idea Ford snowplows ie: pump attached to front pulley, thru crank hole or belt driven, using test hole and chaining lift arms and no full time lift when you disengage clutch.
I saved all the hydraulics from a junked JD 45 combine, including pump. 2 3 foot cylinders, control for header lift and vara-drive resevoir. Since I have 12 volts on the Ford 600 "Denso alternator", 65 amp". I would just need the 12 volt starter for a motor or possibly a more purchased motor like comes with the rigs. Another idea I had was having the hydrulic pummp powered by the PTO.
Hope this gives you some ideas for your "dream machine" currently I will finish up fabricating my rear mount for a "Dearborn Model 19-1 Bulldozer". For this rear mount I purchased a commercial harware store stabalizer hookup for a Ford tractor, that is an a 3 and 1/2" angle iron that bolts to the axle and a snap-link pin for stablizer attachment. I will only have to make a hole for the 1 inch connecting pin in the piece of steel I welded on to it. This works so nice for the Dearborn Model 19-1 as the width across the rear hookup is exactly the same and I finally got my much desired stablizer hookup. 2 for 1
Charlie

 

[Charles Krammin]

PS
Buy an old PTO crop sprayer pump and replace the centifugal water pump with a hydrulic pump. Serpitine belt hookup and big pulley oPTo drive, should get about the right RPM for Hydrulic pump. They come with the guick PTO disconnect.
Charlie

 

[tooltimejim]

Thanks everyone for the Ideas, My head is swimming now. I will probably do a combination of things with the old plow off the Jeep, I still have to go look at the plow, its sat outside for years, hopefully its something I can work with. Thanks again.Jim

 

[tooltimejim]

Ultradog, I live about 1 hour west of you and Paul. Little tiny Town...Dassel, Minnesota 55325. It would be nice to meet sometime. Thanks again, Jim

 

[tooltimejim]

Charles ,thanks for the ideas. I will come up with a master plan, probably be a combination from every ones thoughts. Thanks, Jim