Not the obvious fact that it's metal... What's it for? :P

One hint: winter necessity


The lego mini figures are there to irritate my kid, and have no other purpose or significance. He hates when I "misuse" his toys in ways he doesn't approve of, so I kind of go out of my way to do it every so often in an attempt to break the OCD tendency.

Super heavy duty boot remover.

Oh, it's super heavy duty, but only because I'm using stuff out of the drops to make it. It's also recommended that one wears boots using the device this goes with - so that's a good first guess! :D

I was actually looking for a piece of pipe to split down the middle and then weld some nuts to instead of going this route (part pictured), but everything I had was either too big or too small (1.125" dia radius btw). What I ended up with is far more elegant and probably easier on the parent application in the long run (trapping less water to cause rust).


Since my neck is all effed up, I haven't been getting any shop time. Doing this project is pushing my spine's capacity, but I'm not content with the marketed solutions available to solve this problem. It's also good mental therapy making chips again. I should be sparking up a welder in the next day or so as well. It feels good to be out back where I belong, but my neck is killing me at the same time. Waking up is not something I look forward to now that I'm crawling around under stuff again - it's just too much strain on the disks. Yesterday wasn't bad - today might be unpleasant; I probably over did it last night.

Kinda sad that 9am is bedtime. Tonight was a late one. ;)

What, no one else wants to play? :D

Ok, so here's another hint:




I guess the motor mounts being shot is why my case is leaking. I've got a warranty service trip lined up for next week after the long weekend up north. Might also be worth mentioning, this machine has 20hp less than my first car - they're known for trashing the motor mounts.

JT's kid is paying me to shun JT for misusing his toys.

I'm thinking on coaching the rugrat on how to misuse JT's toys.

And I thought my plow frames on garden tractors were over built.

He's probably using the blade to ram trees with!

Charlie, does your lawn tractor weight 1000lbs (with pilot) and have 50hp? :P

I would've used 1/4" but I didn't have any the right size, so I took a piece of 3/8 off the rack and called it done. The straps are 3/4" that was rescued from the scrap bin at school. I wanted to make sure there was meat left if rust got into them and I had to break the heads off.

I won't be ramming trees, but Franz isn't too far off. There's a local who's making FEL kits for atv's, and while my mud springs are way too soft for tractor duty, there's no reason I couldn't swap out the whole struts easy enough should I decide to go that route (and then do calcium chloride filled wheels with more tractor like tires while I was at it). I'm not buying his kit, but I am making the mounting plate capable of handling more than the frame (frame is covered under my insurance :D ). The plate will remain attached to the machine year round, the plow and other mounts will be quick change style needing only a couple bolts to remove/install. I might still end up with a real tractor, so I'm not putting much mental energy beyond simply allowing for a universal type adaptive system.

I'd actually love to find some of the little 3" diameter firestone air bags I effed up and didn't buy when I saw them a couple years back. I thought "how adorable! but what the hell would I use them for?" and now here I am wishing I had them for overload springs on the quad. Not having the slightest clue of their original application, I haven't had any luck tracking them down since. They were even rated at 500#. Live and learn...

Don't use calcium!
Beet juice is easily obtained in your area.

You could make good bucks being the guy who fills LGT tires with beet juice, because heavy tire shops don't want the jobs.

I mentioned this to a farmer the other day and he looked at me like I just said bama was a good prez...

Never heard of it `round these parts.


Any ideas on sourcing the micro-bags? I wonder if I emailed firestone if they would find out for me?

5" is minimum diameter in automotive JT. Google up industrial air bags and you can find 2" diameter. You may need to open up the air port to get sufficient speed on industrials.

Too small air line makes the bags act like suspension dampers.

Goodyear & off shore are eating Firestone's lunch.

If I did pneumatic blade angling, what are the chances the system would ice up on me?

I've already got plans to mount a 12v compressor on the machine, I'm just wondering if pneumatics would be silly to use in the winter given the condensate.

Unless you'll be devoting a lot of effort to deicing the air system, NOT WORTH IT!

Look to the equipment involved in keping air suspension & brake systems working.

That's pretty much where the mental block was for the pneumatics. I have a buddy who manages a surplus joint. I'm going to see if she'll cut me a deal on a linear actuator. Guys seem to have good luck with those if they keep them out of mud.

On-board air will be for light air tool use in the field (impact wrench, air nailer, etc), and overload springs if I ever find some again.

Is the blade configured to the pushbar with the normal pinned halfmoon?
If so on a machine of that size you can employ a short actuator or even solenoid to pull the pin, and ease the blade into a snowpile to change the angle faster than it'll swivel either hydraulicly or with a linear actuator.

You also have less components in stress, and less repairs.

I put hydroturn on my Western the second year I owned it and used it plenty. 2 years later I barely used the hydroturn. It ain't all that necessary unless you're doing hours on end of commercial plowing. Most use I got out of it was swiveling the blade so I could close the garage door.

The issue is going back and fourth up and down several driveways every snowfall.

I have a 96yr old widow we do across the street, then I help my neighbors who've been kind enough to help me time to time (pleasant surprise to wake up to a clean driveway after a snowfall) and look after our house when we're gone. Then again, I do fix their snowthrower when it breaks. :D I guess my somali neighbor thinks I should be clearing his driveway too, but that's going to cost him and I heard he's scheduled to be laid off in a month or so (he's fully capable of shoveling!).


I've got a control cable driven mechanism in my head as well, but need to get the machine back from service (should be fetching it friday) before I play with that idea more.


Using the machine instead of a snowthrower should be monumentally faster, and far more fun if I can get traction. :lol:

Well JT I only been plowing snow & dirt for 55 years, so I'll defer to your vast experience in the field.

My hydroturn valve ain't done a lot of turning since about 75 other than positioning the blade leaving the garage and positioning the blade getting back in the garage. My preference is to throw the snow left, but yours may differ.

I'm not backing up and down 4 driveways to make a run in the same direction each pass like you would a truck... Therefore, moving the blade angle is far more important for me.

I start on the upwind side and stay there, making progress on every pass. Granted, this is my snowthrower technique, but I don't see how it would change given the tight turning radius of my atv. I'm near certain you can't say you'd do a U turn in the driveway with your plow rig.

Then how the mount looks under the rig:



The big hole in the middle is where the oil drain plug is. I eyeballed it from underneath to mark it's location, and then checked it before taking this shot - I did pretty damn good at centering that thing up! :)

The front frame straps are just J hooks. They're plenty stout enough to keep the torque from tugging the mount down, and there's a frame crossmember in the way of putting bolts on the inside, so that was an easy call.

Time for a test drive, then blasting and paint.

I don't have any experience with quads but the mounting bracket Looks well designed and strong so it won't have to be replaced. Good job Jim

Tack, my main concern is rust in the threads. For the mounting brackets, I'll use liberal amounts of anti-seize and pipe dope (engine builder's trick to keep water from seeping through the threads).

In the summer, when the bottom bracket is off long term, I'll put set screws in the holes to keep the crap out.

Worst case scenario, the plate is thick enough, I can easily machine a replacement plug anywhere that needs a helicoil rather than going up in bolt size or using a coil.

I should of thought of this earlier. Any boat yards, boat dealers, outboard shops in your area? I'm thinking a 12V tilt and trim unit from a junk outboard motor. That just might do it.

I did the driveway for the first time with it tonight, and this is going to make Franz choke at first and then gloat for the rest of time - I agree with him now.

What's needed isn't power tilt, but a faster elevating mechanism. The winch is too slow and needs overdrive.

It hangs a bit lower than I was after, but I love the lift height since the frame never hits the push tubes.

I'll make another lower profile mount for out in the woods. I wouldn't get very far with this little ground clearance. I may or may not cut the push tubes to make it still lift this high once I do that, but it'll likely be in the spring before that happens.

Any way you can connect a power steering pump to the power unit? That would give you a lift that flys.

NOTE: I'm pretending I didn't see the part where JT admits I'm right. I also ain't reminding him FranzShield is the perfect anticorrosive for the threads. [COLOR=red][SIZE=14]
It's my Bah Humbugh gift to JT.

Old GM truck starting solonoid will pull the spin pin JT. Used to employ them to unlock armored car doors.

The angle pin is a breeze to operate. It's got a honkin lever on it and travels freely. I was thinking a door lock actuator I have laying around would work for that, but once again, there's really no need. Some guys run a pulley off the blade and pull a rope from the drivers seat then run the blade into a bank to change the angle.

I moved the blade twice doing my driveway. The anal-lawn nazi 96yr old neighbor had already done hers (shoveled and swept) and there was too much crap in the neighbors driveway to do theirs. Looks like I might be getting off easy this winter now that I'm capable of doing all the work without any effort. This is way less effort than wrangling a snow thrower. :)

Power steering pump? The whole engine on my machine is sealed for full submersion - getting access to the crankshaft would require a lot of extra work to seal things back up again. I can't just slap a pump on it. There's someone who did put hydro on their atv and it's on youtube. Pretty cool!

Then grab a pump&motor off a pallet truck. That blade weighs nothing so you don't need much to pick it.

If you're running on asphalt you'll be ahead with a rubber edge on the bottom.

Chains may or may not be a traction improvement.
Extra weight for traction is always good!

Driveway is concrete and in good shape. The machine weighs 800# pre-plow and add another 220 for me on it - we're at 250# per corner with aggressive mud tires that act like blades pushing down through the snow. It did pretty good on the ice the other day when I was testing them.

I'm aware the blade weighs nothing, that's why getting things sped up should be a breeze - I'm just not sure how I want to implement that yet. Using the winch is sufficient for now, but it does leave one wanting.

Good plan for eliminating rusted threads. The plate should only need a sandblasting every so often and repainted, I like that part too. I hate to make something twice because I went to light the first time.

I'm living in fear of this plowing thing of JT's.

Next thing he'll tur into the 2011 version of Storrts Snow Removal. TV ads, snowed in call 555 JTPLOWS!

Oh well,
Jt take a look on http://www.jackssmallengines.com/ the plow section might provide something.

Nope, I'm not doing anything that isn't in close proximity to my house and I might not even bring the machine up to the cabin once the snow gets deep. We've got good snow shoes for the whole family now, and the Mrs needs to work off some belly.

I really liked being done with the driveway in 20 minutes taking my time. This beats the snot out of any snow thrower I've ever used (never used a three point mounted one - those look fun, but they cost as much as a tractor around here).

I also just got done installing the heated grips and thumb warmer. :D If the ape who owned this thing first hadn't over tightened the throttle housing screw, I could go play with it again, instead I had to drill the damn thing out as the screw head broke a phillips tip and then stripped trying to loosen it. I'll have to get one later today, as it's fine threaded and longer than anything I stock.

Decided to shorten the mount to change the blade angle a bit and free up some ground clearance. Sure, I could've just made a new mount, but this one only had one dimension that was off and a quick trip through the bandsaw was all it took to change that, then a few butt welds and it's ready for prime-time. I probably should've vee'd the joints and filled a little with the welds, but it's not like this needs more strength than it gets with the mostly autogenous 1/8" deep seams.