OK folks I am a newbie on plowing snow with my track loader. Snow plow used only for plowing gravel road, not hard pavement. Trying not to scrape up my road that I spend so much time every year smoothing! ASV, HT80 track loader. Bought a neighbors old plow, 7 ft wide, has a couple of removable, steel feet under each end, basically round discs. I understand they are best used ONLY when the road is plenty hard and found out why: they gouge furrows in the road in warm weather when the road has partially defrosted. Previous owner said only to use them after the road is frozen hard for a couple of times then take off for most or rest of winter so you can get the blade close. Fine. But when the road softens in late winter SOMETHING else seems to be required because trying to run the blade close to gravel is painful, especially each time I scrape up a bunch making more divots in my road. I hate that! So, I am thinking the way to solve this is build a new pair of shoes shaped like skis so they DO actually float the blade. If I make a tiny keel on them(like a sailboat keel) they will self straighten. Does anyone think this is a useful idea or am I NOT understanding some basic thing about how to plow snow? thanks!
I think for the soft conditions, only a wheel would not gouge things up like you are describing...
plowing snow with a track loader is like swatting a fly with a sledge hammer..lol....how are you connecting the plow blade to the track loader? one suggestion is to make a blade cover for the bottom, take a 3 inch steel pipe and cut a slot in it so the bottom of the blade( cutting edge) sits into the side of the pipe, so instead of a sharp edge cutting into the gravel you have a rounded edge to glide over the soft stuff, you can weld on some d rings to chain on the pipe to the blade.....I have several pieces of equipment for plowing a new holland tractor with 6ft bucket that I tilt the bucket edge upwards and let the bottom of the bucket glide on the gravel and the cutting edge is an inch or 2 off the ground and use the float setting so only the weight of the bucket pushes on the ground, a ford 555 backhoe, position bucket the same, but no float option, so anything it digs into gets dug up, and a john deere 355 track loader, I only use this to push large piles of snow as there is no finessing the bucket on soft stuff with this one..lol..and in the spring I still have some duvets to put back into place.. other than back blading you will dig up ground pushing snow on soft ground, I have not tried the 3 inch pipe as I dont have a standard plow blade and curling the bucket up works almost as good..
X2 on the 3" pipe with a slot in it. Been doin that, on the farm, fer years. Was at a conference, once, bigwig from Ladue Topiary gardens, thought he had invented that trick. Kinda hated to burst his bubble, when he put a slide up on screen, and asked what is this used for question...
Set the blade a couple inches off the ground and plow. No need to go all the way to the gravel, eventually it'll get packed, then put the blade down & hit the float button. Ed