tired of digging gravel and sod

[Whmaverick 54]

my driveway is 400' long with a 50'X100' parking area, planning to pave it eventually but for now i'm tired of pushing my gravel into my yard and scratching up sod here and there when i plow snow. so i got an idea. here are some pics of my driveway.

i took an old moldbord that was bent and wore past the wear plate bolts and straightened it, and welded a piece of heavy wall pipe directly to the front skin and the back channel. then cut caps out of 1/8" plate and welded them in place.

by the way i also had an old rough looking pre 73' short frame i got free some time along the way and decided it would be good for a second plow to use on my C-series tractors. so i cut it and added a piece and fish plated it, and added a cross bar at the correct lift point.]

then needed to lengthen the pivot point for the angle lever. just used a piece of 2"X 3/8" plate welded over the original bracket adding the additional 2" needed.

also the short angle lever needed 4" added to it so the throw length would be increased thus decreasing the lever travel so as not to contact the running board rod or the PTO.

and here we are. got snow today and other than primer and paint, which will come after the maiden voyage, its ready to push snow, and ONLY SNOW! I will let you know how it goes.

[Sparky-(Admin) 19,651]

Looks like a great idea. Interested in hearing your report on how it works.

Mike.............

[TT-(Moderator) 1,128]

There's no cutting edge in front of the pipe? :confusion-shrug:

[HorseFixer 2,012]

I Take it the Pipe is there to keep from digging in and pushing the gravel and scalping yer Yer Yard Like a Bunch of Wild Enjuns Correct? Great Idea!

~Duke

[JC 1965 1,528]

What size are the front tires on the tractor in the first pic ? They look great. Is that tractor a C-160 ? :thumbs2:

[Martin 2,130]

the pipe idea will be good for not scalping up your drive, but without a cutting edge i dont think you won't be able to get down close enough to the ground so that it does an effective job if you have any ice with the snow....... even with a solid link on the lift arm and the hyd lift pushing down i think the round pipe will slowly ride over what you are trying to remove and will gradually 'lift' or remove less material as you move along. especially if you have a mix of snow and ice on the ground. i could be mistaken on this, but you could compare it to having the blade tilted too far forward at the top and the cutting edge not doing its job. its unfortunate that in order to remove an effective amount of material that some scalping happens, thats just how it is. i have gravel and concrete surfaces to remove snow from(when we get some...) and the gravel is a challenge sometimes.

i think a better solution would be some skids placed on the outsides of the blade and that would limit your 'dig in' better.

thats just my opinion, i could be way off on this but from just my limited experience on my gravel, i know for sure that the pipe set up would absolutely not work for me whereas the skids definitely do......

compare to using a snow shovel in the same way, either with the edge thats on it or a piece of the same size pipe that you have on your blade welded on it. i know what i would be grabbing to use......

also looking at your driveway in the second pic, i dont think you will ever get away from digging up sod in the center as long as you have a straight edge on the bottom of the plow. with some decent size skids on at least you could limit the amount of 'dig in' and still do a reasonable job of snow removal.....

Edited January 26, 2013 by Martin

[rick 217]

I use the "Dial a Hite" and adjust to an inch or so clearance with the surface. 'Course, we don't get much snow here in Southside Virgina, it may not work as well everywhere.

[Whmaverick 54]

Nope, no cutting edge just the pipe. Tried it, it worked good, I got other plows and blades if things get bad and cutting in is required but at that point the driveway is usually packed and frozen and the cutting edge works good. But what I was looking for is a plow to push the light fluffy stuff without needing to watch the hight and the need to be ultra careful. I know how to do a good careful job and have for years, just hoping for some alternative. Anyway all this is just for fun right. I mean if I wanted to be serious about snow removal I would get the JD 2155 fwd out and get it done in a few passes. Thanks for the replies. Gonna post a video my wife shot for me.

[Wishin4a416 2,189]

Looks like a good fix for keeping the gravel where it belongs.

[Whmaverick 54]

Hey, JC1965, yep that's a 77' C-160 auto that my son and I restored last year. Found a pair of Carlisle turf savers for the front on eBay, they are 16x6.50x8 ,4 ply got them both for $60 , stopped at toro dealer they wanted $64 for one 2 ply. Seems the camera angle makes them appear larger than normal. I'm learning how to post pics and such so maybe I can put a post of the entire restoration soon. Thanks for the nice comments.

[TT-(Moderator) 1,128]

Glad to hear that it worked.

A few years ago, I was instructed to purchase & install a rubber cutting edge on the truck-mounted plow at work. Although it still removes the bulk of the accumulation, it now smears the surface instead of scraping it clean, leaving a very slippery and packed coating.

The people in charge didn't want the new blacktop sealer ruined "because it cost a lot of money", but now they're buying four times the amount of salt. :blink:

[Whmaverick 54]

thats funny, Terry, my father in law stopped as i was cleaning up down at the entrance and he asked if i was rubbing it down to a polish. but actually it clears down close and still jumps off of the gravel some. just takes away the need to be so careful in the light thin stuff. i'm happy with it so far. think i got my video about ready.