Ready for Snow

Darren Wright

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Springfield, Missouri
Not a woodworking project, but had fun welding and fabricating the mounts for this today to get ready for the snow we're expecting tomorrow.
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My dad had it on one of his old cub cadets when I was growning up. He had mentioned that it was sitting on the fence line out at the farm if I wanted it. Has a little rust and a couple of holes to patch, but it was in good shape, especially after a good soaking of penetrating fluid to loosen it up.
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The cub cadet used a mount under the tractor, but my JD uses a clip on connection on the front, had to fabricate a couple of brackets for each side, then used some 5/8 cold roll to attach it to the clip. The bottom rod is stationary to the attachment and is welded on, the top rod is inserted through the front and pinned on each end. I welded on a piece of angle iron and used the two ears of the original attachment to connect the plow to the new attachment.
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Looks plenty skookum to me! :D

I think I see a bit there that would allow your to lower and raise the plow, but can you also turn it to the left or right?

Needs some time with the wire wheel and some paint........ JD green of course :thumb:
 
...and it ought to work just fine in your drive, Don. :rofl::rofl::rofl:
Might leave more rust on your driveway than removing snow though. :rofl:

Looks plenty skookum to me! :D

I think I see a bit there that would allow your to lower and raise the plow, but can you also turn it to the left or right?

Needs some time with the wire wheel and some paint........ JD green of course :thumb:

Yup, Welded my two cut-offs from the brackets together to make the angle I needed. It goes up a lot easier than one might think, little or no effort, seems well balanced too. There's a pin to pull and it can be swiveled left or right a couple of notches in each direction. Actually I think it's suppose to be JD Yellow. ;)

A "little" rust. Hmm. :eek:
Well that should work fine when you get a "little" snow...:rofl:
:D Well, it is older than me actually and I feel that rusty today after working in the cold and lifting the thing around. :rofl: Surprisingly all the nuts and bolts came right off after soaking with penetrating fluid, even the skids were able to be lowered. The front is the only part that is rusted through in a few areas. Around those holes I couldn't even bend the metal with a hammer. I do have some thin steel to sheet over it if needed, but looks like its going to be fine.

I also hope you have chains for your tractor :thumb:

I have a couple of wheel weights on each back wheel, but the local tractor supply has them if I do end up needing them. Figured I'd give it a try before spending the $80 for them. :wave:
 
Darren you amaze me.:thumb::thumb::eek: You guys with your mini tractors and country living. Call me green with envy, part of me feels deprived. Oh to get out of the suburbs and city.:(;)

Well done what a pleasure winter is going to be with that little baby. Have you not had snow yet? I guess you must have and the shovelling motivated you to get the tractor sorted.:D

So you gonna clean the plough up and paint it? You never said.
 
Darren you amaze me.:thumb::thumb::eek: You guys with your mini tractors and country living. Call me green with envy, part of me feels deprived. Oh to get out of the suburbs and city.:(;)

Well done what a pleasure winter is going to be with that little baby. Have you not had snow yet? I guess you must have and the shovelling motivated you to get the tractor sorted.:D

So you gonna clean the plough up and paint it? You never said.

We got a dusting of 1/2" the other night which was our first real snow. Last night we got a few inches and are expecting a few more today and tomorrow. My drive is about 70' to the house and about 130' long up to my shop. We'll see how well it does without chains. I'm hoping to at least clean off the concrete drive at the house, but may get the top part of the gravel drive cleared off as well.

I will be painting it, just want to try it out and make sure I don't have any modifications to do first. I think it's going to work just fine as it is and hopefully I'll knock off some rust. :D Will give a report tonight. :wave:
 
That rig will make quick work of a few inches of snow Darren, especially if you angle it off. I predict, however, that you'll be wishing for chains (I recently discovered tirechains.com. they have all sizes, mailorder) and all the weight on the rear end that you can arrange. We could bring Stu in to sit on the back, but that wouldn't work, he's too thin now :rofl::rofl:
Have fun!
 
Thanks for prompting me to look up the word skookum, Stu.

Yep, that's a very cool word, one which I'd never heard. As Stu is fond of saying: "I learned something new today, thanks!" :thumb:

I wish I had something cool like that to play with. A welder, I mean. It actually looks like lots of fun. :D

We're still waiting for the big snow here. A little tomorrow, but not huge. If the temperature drops just a few degrees, we may see it early next week.

Darren, I think you should get hold of some of Vaughn's purple paint. It'd look cool in the snow... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
You're gonna need those tire chains. I tried plowing without them for about half a winter before putting them on my little JD.

Even with my 250 pounds (Now down to 230, BTW :D ) sitting right over the drive wheels, and an extra 90 pounds of weight on the drawbar, the wheels still spum.

My plow is 48" wide, and I generally keep it angled. I can clean my 150 foot long driveway in four passes. Start in the middle, and go down-back-down-back and I've got a 10~11 foot wide path plowed.

Downside is that the little JD doesn't want to plow anything much more than 8" at a time. Plenty of power (18 hp) but even with chains, traction becomes a problem.
 
I trust you have the agg version of tires on you tractor and not turf tires?

I got some chains for my turf tires last year and they worked out pretty good.

Put some agg tires on my little lawn tractor and they worked pretty well in the snow this year for going up and down the driveway in the snow and muck. They work well enough I don't need chains this year, but I'm not trying to push a pile of snow out of the way...:rolleyes:
 
Sounds like I need to get some chains, only got the turf tires. I appreciate the advice. :thumb:

Bill, I might get shot by the locals for putting purple on a JD. :D Ironically though I have a surplus of rust colored paint from an outdoor project a while back.
 
"He shoots, He Scores!!!!"

Made quick work of the 4" - 5" of snow we got today. Luckily it was pretty powdery, only got stuck once, but definitely picking up some chains.
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