Rear Push Blade for a 316

Thanks-

I ended up using some garage door parts for the final assembly. The angle arm and the long connecting bar (with holes) are from a garage door - (the parts that connect the trolley to the garage door). The seem to work rather well.

Tested it pushing some dirt. Works well.

Now I need to clean and paint it and I will be ready for winter...

http://picasaweb.google.com/redLS5454/RearPushBlade#

Thanks -

I was wanting to mount it in front, but since I already had mounted it to the rear of my old Sears tractor, it was fairly easy to make it work on the JD.

I am not sure how well it will work with the turf tires and no chains. The first snow should be a good indicator.

The other concern was how well it will start when it is really cold out. It was close to 30 degrees when I started it today and it fired up after only a few seconds of cranking. And that is one reason I did not get a blower for this year. I would hate to drop $300 on a snow blower, spend the time cleaning it up, and then when it is good and cold, I can't get the tractor started. So if it works well this winter, I may look for a blower next year.

-Chris

The bottom edge of the blade has an angled piece bolted to it - so there is roughly an inch wide "bar" of flat surface for the blade to ride on. It worked fine on my other tractor. The trick is to mount it so that when the blade is lowered, the angled piece is flat on the ground.

If you don't get the initial angle (mounting) right, it will either have a tendency to dig in as you mention, or ride up over what you are trying to push.

If I do anything, it would probably be to raise the angled piece slightly (relative to the ground) and bolt a strip of UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight polyethylene) so the blade won't leave scrape marks on the driveway.

Oh - and I really like your 4-wheel wagon in your avatar. I have an old rusty white 2-wheel wagon that I need to clean up and "John Deereize". Got any up close pics of your wagon?

red454 said:

The bottom edge of the blade has an angled piece bolted to it - so there is roughly an inch wide "bar" of flat surface for the blade to ride on. It worked fine on my other tractor. The trick is to mount it so that when the blade is lowered, the angled piece is flat on the ground.

If you don't get the initial angle (mounting) right, it will either have a tendency to dig in as you mention, or ride up over what you are trying to push.

If I do anything, it would probably be to raise the angled piece slightly (relative to the ground) and bolt a strip of UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight polyethylene) so the blade won't leave scrape marks on the driveway.

Oh - and I really like your 4-wheel wagon in your avatar. I have an old rusty white 2-wheel wagon that I need to clean up and "John Deereize". Got any up close pics of your wagon?

Click to expand...

http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=56681
Thanks for the compliment on the wagon. slkpk

If the old paint is still intact (no rust) then all I do is lightly scuff it with sand paper (400 - 600 grit). Then paint.

If there is rust, then I will use sandpaper to knock the rust off, then give it a coat of rustoleum before painting if there is any pitting. If the part is small enough, I will take it into work and sandblast it. Unless it is a tractor that sat outside for years, I wouldn't think there would be much rust (on the tractor). The deck is usually where you see the most rust from years of exposure to wet / dew covered grass.

For me it was easier since I had already used it as a rear pusher on my other tractor. It had a snow blower on the front of the old one, and a rear blade was a nice compliment when there was a need to push.

On the JD, it would have required more fabrication to make it a front blade. Plus, at some point I would like to have a front snow blower for this tractor. I will (at some point) then end up with the same setup I had on my Sears tractor.

And yes, it is a little bit of a pain to always have to twist my body around to push backwards. We got about an inch of snow overnight, so I had fun trying out the "new" blade. Worked fine.

However, I realize that with single spool hydraulics, I will have to figure out another way to raise / lower the rear blade when I get a front blower. My old tractor had a manual 3 point hitch, and I modified that to work.

This was the old setup on the Sears tractor...