Home-Built Snowplow Pushes Lots Of Snow

Home-Built Snowplow Pushes Lots Of Snow SNOWBLOWERS After tiring of only pushing 4 in of snow with his small garden tractor Andrew Vincek designed and built his own hydraulically-driven mini skid-steer snowplow He began by welding a 3-in channel iron frame and added 8 by 20-in lawn tractor wheels He already owned a 13 5-hp gas engine and mounted it on the frame A hydraulic pump was fitted under the engine Vincek bought two hydraulic motors and valves to drive the rear axles and connected roller chain to homemade sprockets on the front wheels to make the unit 4-WD To keep the transmission oil cool he welded together his own large reservoir tank “For the reservoir I mixed up some weld epoxy and smoothed it over the welds to help seal everything This helped to make sure there were no pinhole leaks ” he says Vincek built the plow attachments from scratch but bought the 4-ft blade for $100 To operate the tilt and angle functions he adapted old shock absorbers as hydraulic cylinders He estimates the snowplow cost about $1 000 to build “It drives like a skid steer because you steer it with the valves ” he says “I can spin it right around in a circle and push at least 6 in of snow without getting stuck ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Andrew Vincek 64 Smith Bridge Rd Saratoga Springs N Y 12866 Vinandrewrv@gmail com

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