I came across an idea I thought was so good, I needed to share it with the forum. I've never seem this idea before, if it's old news, humor me. A friend plows alot of roads with a blade on the front of his hoe and was tired of making several passes. He took an old pickup snowplow blade and mounted it to the back of his stabilizer arm. Front plow goes one way back plow goes the other and keeps everything going straight! He said you have to mount the stabilizer plow on the back of the stabilizer and be careful about the mount, so that when you raise it in a real hurry, it doesn't come through the back/side window. I'll see if I can get pics, but what an idea!:thumbsup Wings are great for moving a lot of snow and clearing road edges but the biggest obstacle to using them is the plumbing and mechanism to get them up and down, on a backhoe you've already got all that stuff and it's heavy duty! Plus the stabilizers move over 90 degrees of travel so you could blade banks and snow walls etc. you could even modify the mount so that you could plow down and off the edge of a road, very versatile! On the downside, I'm sure you wouldn't want to use it on a 3' wet snow and it will increase wear on your stabilizers and probably make a real mess when you hit a big rock, but for everyday cleaning of roads it works great and if nothing else it's got to be just plain fun to run a wing! Hope some snowplowers get some help from this.
I plow with backhoes also. I have always thought i would put a 7' plow blade on the side of the backhoe bucket. Then bring the hoe around to whatever angle or height you wanted to wing the top of the snowbanks back. :beatsme
While looking for a pick-up plow I came across a wing blade for pick-ups. It was 7' and attached to the frame. I can't find it anywhere now though.
Try it first with just the bucket.The leverage that even the bucket alone will have will spin the backhoe out of control unless the wheels are on dry ground in which case you will destroy something mechanical instead.I don't see an outrigger taking too much abuse either.Just one obstruction like frozen snow could spin you out AND damage the machine as well to say nothing of what you could destroy if you hit other vehicles/mailboxes etc while you are along for the ride. Something tells me that other brilliant minds have attempted these things before and there wasn't much to tell which is why we are not hearing about it.Ron G
Sidewing snowplow for pickups: http://www.norweb.se/sidewing/index.html
It can be argued that the stabilizer/outrigger is the strongest part of a backhoe. It has to support all that the backhoe pulls and lifts while supporting the weight of the rear of the machine at the same time as stopping the forward and rearward motion of the entire machine, many times in shock load. Of course it's not made to hold a snow plow wing, so use your head and take it easy. "Just one obstruction like frozen snow could spin you out AND damage the machine as well to say nothing of what you could destroy if you hit other vehicles/mailboxes etc while you are along for the ride." One of the reasons I like this forum is that you don't have to remind people to not stick sharp sticks in their eyes. Most people seem to have common sense and most people seem to use it. Of course a wing has leverage and will spin a backhoe if you hit something hard. If you put a wing on a garden tractor the leverage will push the rear end out if you hit something, Likewise if you are driving a Cat 140G with a wing and you hit something big enough and solid enough, the same thing will happen. Any machine with a wing might spin wildly out of control if you hit frozen snow, it depends on the snow, the weight of the machine, the traction the speed and most of all the operator. The wing on the stabilizer is a currently working idea; be careful, use your head but if it might help and save you some passes with a plow, try it. If you don't think it will work, don't try it.
Seems to me that you will get alot of uneven tire wear as well, and with the plowing being done with ice on the road , that backhoe is gonna pull like hell to one side and it will be hard to control. Just my thoughts but heck, i guess you wont know what happens until you try!
Front tire chains make a world off difference. And I agree with you Deere9670. I plow with our 580 with a 10ft blade and thats enough to make a turn with on any slick asphalt and a full blade of snow. We have chains but have yet to use them. Ive run another hoe with them on and it helps alot.
I have not tried on ice, but I do use my out riggers to plow rock occasionaly. I work for a railroad contractor, and from time to time,we have to push clean rock off of the rail so that a tamper can get through the hole. I am not saying this is a good thing on my tractor, But you do what you have to do.
Welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums knucklehead98! :drinkup
thanks C.B.
I've run many trucks with wings, owned 2 of them. A backhoe with a wing does hold promise. Depending upon how it is used, it may work well. I suspect that for shelfing it may work well. Your biggest obsticle will be getting the geometry correct. Copy some design from a truck to get your angles correct and I see no reason why it at very least it will help. As for chains on the front, a backhoe should have enough running gear to handle it, but you may as well run them on all four corners. Good luck.
I think ATGREENE is on the right track. The truck style drag wings have trips to help if you hit something, and most around here have gone Ft. mount wing setup. That should leave a supply of old inexpensive junk plow setups. I wonder if would be practical to use the outrigger to run a cable and pulley to raise and lower plow, similar to the old graders. perhaps quick disconnects on one outrigger, save buying and installing auxillary valve.-mount a Hyd. foldup drag plow mid point of machine- should give great visability, and more of a tendency to push off rather than spinout. Just some ideas that have not been thought through yet.