I did a little metalworking recently. I adopted a snow blade from an IH cub cadet to a John Deere lawn tractor. I did as little metalworking as p ossible with no mods on the Deere and one hole on the snow plow. Still nee d to add some wings to the snow blade. The existing blade in 42 inches wid e and not as wide as the tractor. Also need to buy some UDMH poly to be th e lower lip of the blade. But I think it will work as is.
I am getting too old to be shovelling the driveway by hand.
Dan
My old (1982) JD yard tractor came with a blade , no need for wings because it can be angled to either side as needed . How are you raising/lowering the blade ? Mine is hydraulic with power down , which comes in handy . Gotta get the chains on , in case we do actually get some snow . Been so long since I fired it up it needed the battery charged ...
THe blade can be angled. But without wings the blade is 42 inches and the JD lawn tractor is about 62 inches from the outside of the tires to the outside of the other tire.
The blade is raised or lowered by running a nut up or down an some all thread. Fortunately the drive is pretty flat and there should not be much raising and lowering.
I have a float charger keeping the battery charged.
I really should get some chains. If worst comes to worst, I can shovel it by hand. Have done that before. It is only about 200 yards long.
Dan
Many years ago I did a high school shop project and made a plow blade for our simplicity tractor. I used a cable from the lever for the mower deck to a pulley bolted to the side of the front and down to the blade to rasie and lower it. Much nicer to be able to raise it up for manuevering at the top and bottom of the driveway.
Remove 333 to reply. Randy
I've seen a blade mount with long arms back to a pivot in the rear. I think you remove the mower deck and connect its lift hooks to the centers of the arms.
-jsw
it by hand. Have done that before. It is only about 200 yards long.
This morning there is a lot of white stuff all over the place. But it real ly is not snow. It is sleet. At first I thought the aluminum grain scoop would be the bee's knees for shovelling. But the stuff is too heavy, so I went back to the square shovel. And shovelled the walkway from the front d oor to the garage doors. But have not bothered to try my snow plow. The s lush is about three inches deep, but very heavy. The lawn tractor would n ot have enough traction to push it around.
Dan
This morning there is a lot of white stuff all over the place. But it really is not snow. It is sleet. At first I thought the aluminum grain scoop would be the bee's knees for shovelling. But the stuff is too heavy, so I went back to the square shovel. And shovelled the walkway from the front door to the garage doors. But have not bothered to try my snow plow. The slush is about three inches deep, but very heavy. The lawn tractor would not have enough traction to push it around.
Dan ================
I had to put ag tires and home-made chains on my Sears garden tractor to give it enough traction to move wet snow with the loader bucket. They made quite a mess of the turf unless it was frozen before the snow came.
I originally bought the tires to pull a trailer loaded with firewood up hills. They weren't too bad when the lawn was dry and solid.
-jsw
I run turf with 2 link tire chains and a LOT of weight on my Cub Cadet. Rear tires are 23 10.50 X 12 loaded with RV antifreeze in tubes, Then
100+ pounds of custom wheel weights on each side (Sears plastic shells filled with buck shot and mortar mix) Add a 200 pound steel cab, and my a$$ in the seat and I don't have much issue with traction going forward.Have the same issue if the ground isn't frozen. Have to rake the driveway back out of the lawn in the spring.... People think I'm crazy because I toss the rotary broom on and use it (actually does a great job sweeping and de-thatching).
On Wednesday, March 15, 2017 at 8:18:43 PM UTC-4, Steve W. wrote: Dan But have not
Well some good came from all this. I shovelled the drive enough to be able to get out to the road. And it has warmed up enough that the rest is melti ng. But thought about next year and so checked a couple of Ag tires that I had in the basement. I knew they were smaller than the tires on the lawn tractor. They are tires I got at the local scrap yard for next to nothing . In fact they might have cost nothing. Tires are not some thing that th e scrap yard wants.
But checked the John Deere booklet and the Ag tires are an optional tire si ze. And checked the tire bolt spacing and the Ag tires will bolt right on with no fuss. I do not think it would have helped with this snow and sleet , but should be useful next year.
Dan
Well some good came from all this. I shovelled the drive enough to be able to get out to the road. And it has warmed up enough that the rest is melting. But thought about next year and so checked a couple of Ag tires that I had in the basement. I knew they were smaller than the tires on the lawn tractor. They are tires I got at the local scrap yard for next to nothing. In fact they might have cost nothing. Tires are not some thing that the scrap yard wants.
But checked the John Deere booklet and the Ag tires are an optional tire size. And checked the tire bolt spacing and the Ag tires will bolt right on with no fuss. I do not think it would have helped with this snow and sleet, but should be useful next year.
Dan
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I tried turf and ag tires bare and with chains. Chains on ag tires had noticeably the best traction and caused the most lawn damage and erosion on uphill trails, I think because only the small sections of the chains that crossed the tread ridges bore all the weight. The worst condition for damage was snow after a brief thaw when a thin layer of wet soil couldn't drain through the ice under it.
-jsw
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