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bigblue12v

My snow behemoth

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bigblue12v

Here it is....

92 520H

23x8.50 ags on rear

chains on front (stole idea from someone on here, wrapping roller chain around center of tire, works great thanks!)

46" Craftsman single stage snowthrower modified to attach to rear hitch on axle, lifting is achieved using tractor hydraulic lift. I motorized the chute using a wiper motor. One light is attached to show the work area, the other is attached to the chute to show the area you are relocating snow to.

60" Wheel Horse plow up front. This one took a LOT of modifying... where to start... it began as a 42" plow, presumably for a rear engine rider or a very small frame tractor perhaps. It is Wheel Horse, but the frame for it was very short, and not the Tach-Matic style. Being that my rear hitch and the hydraulic lift was already being used for the snowthrower, this took some engineering to configure it for this tractor... I redesigned the frame to enable it to attach to the front Tach-Matic hitch. Then I had to figure out how to raise and lower it. I had a big honking 12V actuator cylinder that i've used on a few different projects before. Plenty strong enough. I cut it down a bit as it was too long. The mid hitch is already in use as well for the pulleys for the snowthrower (use same pulleys as for the tiller that we have). I made mounting tabs for the actuator and welded them to the pulley hitch pin shaft. Then I made slotted tabs for the other end of the actuator and welded them to the lower section of the blade frame. The slots are so the blade can float a bit. Then I had to figure out a way to angle it. This took more engineering. The angle lever that came with the blade was determined not to fit around the big body of the 520 no matter how I extended and re-angled it. So... I ordered another actuator off of good ol' Flea-Bay... being a smaller 4" stroke model rated at 225# I got it cheap, $54 brand new. But this meant I still had to use the locking lever to hold the blades position so it didn't destroy the actuator when hitting a hard spot or a pile. I had to get even more creative here... finally yesterday I figured out the perfect solution. I originally had a cable in mind like a bicycle brake cable with a handle or pedal to pull the lever and release the blade to angle. But then I had a better inspiration.... take a piece of cable and clamp to the outer shaft housing of the lift cylinder, then to a spring hooked to the release lever. A lighter spring pulls the lever back forward. This way, if the blade is raised up at least approximately 4", it is released to angle and I hit a switch for left or right. When I lower the blade back down, the locking lever is drawn back into the slot and locks the blade's position. Very simple and very effective. The blade shouldn't be angled in the down position anyway as it might become too much strain on the actuator. At some point in all of this I decided 42" was simply not wide enough so I extended it to 60". After I got done with all this I got bored and went total overkill.... I had used it twice now and the actuator to raise and lower is a bit slow and the slot for float position doesn't leave a lot of room for guess work, it allows it to float only a few inches and uneven areas make it bottom out if you get too close to the back end of the slot, you loose steering traction. But if you wanted down pressure you run the actuator to the back of the slot and it will lift the front tires if you choose. So I needed a good way to know when the blade was "level" if you will. I dug out a spare safety switch like for PTO or a seat switch. I fastened it to the lift cylinder and made a spring loaded cylinder to hit it just right, so when the blade is in the perfect float position, it hits the switch and turns on a light bulb on the dash. You can continue to use down pressure if you like, the spring loaded cylinder keeps it from smashing the switch.

I use this machine for my driveway and a couple of elderly widow neighbors drives. It handles the 60" blade fine but if it gets too deep I'll turn around and back through it. The thrower is great for moving piles and cutting through drifts that we all seem to get here and there. It just is a lot slower than the blade and uses a ton more fuel, gets more snow in your face and hurts your neck a lot more.

You could say its extremely complicated setup and sure it is WAAAY overkill but overkill happens to be my middle name and I have a lot of fun building stuff and making it cooler than the next person's stuff... "he who dies with the most (or coolest) toys wins!" LOL

On with the pics... If you read the whole post they will hopefully make sense. If not you're gonna be scratching your head trying to figure out what all the cables and wires are for LOL

Now if I just had a cab..... thought bout building one but can't make myself spend the money on it just yet...

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This one shows all the switches... I didn't wanna go knockin a bunch of holes in the dash so this was the best I could do for now... It started out last year as just one switch for the lights on the rear, but it grew from there.. A little cluttered for my taste, may have to redo it later... The left side switch is for the blower lights, and beside it is the light bulb to show the plow is in "float" or down pressure. The right side, where there's two switches side by side is the blade controls. The one below that controls the snowthrower chute.

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The wiper motor isn't the best thing to use, but I had it laying around already. I'd suggest using a window motor instead... Wiper motors as I figured out, are only meant to run one direction as the case is grounded. In order to reverse its direction you have to insulate its mounting so that its no longer grounded through the case... This was tricky to figure out but works fine now.

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The snowthrower also provides excellent counterweight for pushing with the blade.

4 way trailer plugs disconnect all wiring for the attachments. I haven't got all my wiring wrapped in split loom yet so disregard the messy appearance please.

Happy plowing or blowing!!!!

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rickv1957

Looks like an awesome set up!!! :ychain: Rick

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Sparky

ZOWIEE Batman!! That sucker is a monster. You know we all want action pics and maybe a video of this machine in action!

Mike.........

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bigblue12v

ZOWIEE Batman!! That sucker is a monster. You know we all want action pics and maybe a video of this machine in action!

Mike.........

I'll see what I can do..... thanks!! :ychain:

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porkchop

Nice setup!! I believe that plow came off an electric tractor.

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bigblue12v

Nice setup!! I believe that plow came off an electric tractor.

I haven't a clue, could be. I don't think I have any pics of it before i cut it up. Dad saw it in the paper for $75 and drug it home assuming it surely would fit ours. He ain't real tractor savvy but since he wasn't real familiar with the tractor it woulda been halfway safe to assume it somehow fit since almost all Wheel Horse's use tach-matic. Anyway, it was in like new condition and looked like all the parts were there, however I scratched my head a while trying to figure out what it was supposed to fit. I have some early 90's brochures that show blades on rear engine Wheel Horse riders and this reminded me of that. It might be older and was for an electric one I have no clue. I wish I was with him when he got it, I doubt they had the right tractor for it but if they did then I'd like to know what it fit and if it was an electric one I would really like to see it in person.

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dgoyette

Wow. I bet plowing traction is no problem with that blower hanging off the rear. I too would like action shots!

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COMMANDO1

Bet you cant wait...

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bigblue12v

Yea any more traction would probably start destroying stuff... the thrower isn't light by any means.... oh yea the thrower was bought at auction for $40 like new then, a few years ago.. came with a like new belt that i re-used and had the crank rod for the chute rotation (that I couldn't use on the tractor). I use to have a lawn business and had an Exmark 17hp V-twin dual hydro drive walk behind mower (52") I took the deck off in the winter and used this snowthrower on the front. It was awesome, we got 3' blizzard the first year I had it on there and it was bad to the bone on driveways, walking speed right through drifts twice as tall as the thrower... made a fortune with it! Sold the business and last year I put this on the tractor with no way to rotate the chute, just reached around and turned it by hand. Worked so well I had to improve it this year :ychain:

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Operator

Nice job Eric! I'd like to see how you run the belt for blower. Electric or hyd. lift on blower? It all looks great.

Randy

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bigblue12v

Nice job Eric! I'd like to see how you run the belt for blower. Electric or hyd. lift on blower? It all looks great.

Randy

It runs the same as for the rototiller except I added an additional flat idler on the front of the transaxle to keep the belt from getting up into the hydro fan and other stuff back there, when raising the thrower. If ya raise it more than a couple inches off the ground the PTO must be shut off as the lower belt loop will rub the top one at the extra idler. At the thrower, there is a flat idler that comes down on top of the belt exactly like the tillers, except its spring loaded instead of solid mount on the tillers. I use the hydraulic lift on the thrower (again similar to the tiller). The thrower would have been originally fitted to the front of the tractor but the PTO input is on the wrong side and would spin the wrong way. No good way to fix it but put it on the back. In the long run I feel its better this way as the blade will be used more.

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jtmoyer

looks like you will get another chance to use it tomorrow. :ychain: i plan on being out after work and a quick stop at the gas station.

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sgtsampay

Very well done. I really can;t wait to see it in action!

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C-160 Tractor

Very well done. I really can;t wait to see it in action!

x3 me 2, very cool

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RyanC

This is very cool. What a great idea for adding weight to the back of your plowing machine.

Did you get all of the actuators off of Ebay? I've been trying to think of some places to scavenge some used ones. I think I'll start digging under the power seats at the junk yard! :D

I think the coolest thing about your rig is how the spring pulls the pin when you lift your blade so that the actuator can perform the tilt. Good thinking! :ychain:

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porkchop

:ychain: Here,s the one for the electric wheel horse. It has the same pivot release.

milleroct.jpg

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HorseFixer

:D Yep that's Quite an Outfit! :ychain:

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JimD

Man that thing is a beast. Not exactly the "Six Million Dollar Man" setup that Duke has, but as you said, not up to your own standards either, and you did mention making improvements as time permits. But when it's "crunch time" and ya gotta git er done to be ready, you do what you have to. I too can't wait to see it in action. Pics, video, whatever you get, I'll be glued to the puter screen. Nice job! :ychain:

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Coadster32

Kick butt!! :ychain: Pics in action here also!

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sgtsampay

I saw one of these types of set-ups on youtube, But this one is much nicer.. Hmm. I'm getting ideas now!

This is why I love this forum.. :ychain:

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bigblue12v

Randy the blade looked similar but the mounting was quite a bit different. Guess I'll hafta dig out a brochure n see if It matches rear engine rider.

The actuators are available on eBay and for used ones they are used on camper slide outs, camper electric tongue jacks, and only other use of them I know is the huge old satellite dishes. These are supposed to be 36 volt. Mine says 12V on it. The 36's are said to work ok on 12V just slower and not as strong. You might be on to something with power seat motor assemblies.

Looks like we all will be waiting on pics/vids. We got 2" of slush which it moved fine but I did my drive in the dark last night and didn't have a cameraman nor would it have been very glamorous.

We are anticipating another system to move in Friday. Keep fingers crossed!

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buckeye

do you have any pics of the snowblower setup? belt routing ect...

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bigblue12v

Buckeye, sorry I don't have any pics of the belt routing. Every time i mess with the tractor its dark out and the lighting in the garage is horrible for pics (or anything for that matter) the belt routing is identical to the factory Wheel Horse roto tiller that we have for this, has a large drive pulley on the blower and has an idler on top which is spring loaded unlike the fixed idler on the tiller. I use a different belt that is longer than the tiller's belt, and use the mule drive pulley setup from the rototiller which goes into the mid hitch. Without a lift having the tractor in the air to get a pic from underneath, pics probably won't show much.

I made some dual wheel adapters today out of some scrap metal and 1/2" all thread. I patterned them after some I saw another fellow post pics of on here. Works great. Spaces the tires about 1 1/2" apart. My geometry isn't perfect on them but the outside duals have minimal spin out, not even noticeable when driving.

Some will argue that duals are worse in snow, and in pure logic in my opinion they should be, but I have ran duals on a snowplow garden tractor before and it would push anything. This one definitely has its limits with singles so I'll try duals. Worse case scenario I take em off and use it as single wheel no biggie I'll use the duals for something else in another season I'm sure. I'd like to have some wheel weights for it and I have an idea for that too I will probably mess with another day. My plow covers tire width then some even angled still has couple inches of overlap so we're good there but if using the blower the tires will ride up on or mash down unplowed snow, so I may put small extensions or "wings" on the blower to better cover the tire tracks.

Pics don't do justice to how tough this thing looks with duals! Tires are Carlisle 23x8.50's the inside ones are on slightly narrower rims than the outside ones.

Can't wait for some good snow to try it out! We are stuck with rain and temps in the 40's now :ychain:

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d180man

Hi nice set up ! :ychain: :D

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bigblue12v

Hi nice set up ! :ychain::D

Thank you sir! :D

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