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Hello and Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! I didn't see a Scotts specific forum, so I'm guessing either I need to post about it here, or I'm the only one on this forum that's foolish enough to own a Scotts lawn tractor. :laughing:

I'm working on installing a snow blade on it for the first time this year, and I'm fabricating it all from scratch. I'm planning to use it for my house, my work (I'm responsible for clearing the parking lots and although I've got a snow blower, it still takes upwards of 3-4 hours to do it), my church, and for helping out any friends and family that need it. I've got a trusty ol' 1991 F-150 and ramps to move it with, but soon I need to get a more family-friendly vehicle so I'll be looking for a small trailer to tow it with.

Pictures to come, but here's what I've done and am planning so far:

I cut the steel for the blade out of an old 100 gallon propane tank (about 12 gauge steel) and I'm going to weld 1/8" steel shoes (cut from flat stock) to each corner. This will save having to purchase material for a wear edge, and 1/8" is enough clearance to avoid most changes in surface level. It's also low enough that simply spreading sand and salt will melt what's left.

The mounting bracket is going to be made from 3/8" flat stock and 1/4"x2"x2" angle iron and (more or less) be square in shape. The flat stock is going to mount to the frame just ahead of the engine. The flat stock will extend out far enough on either side for the angle iron to clear the hood, and then a piece of angle iron will stretch across the front of the hood and connect the angle iron on either side. I'll also be reinforcing the frame as necessary. The one thing I haven't decided on is whether or not to weld the angle iron to the flat stock, or to make it bolt on so that it can be removed during the summer.

For blade-to-bracket attachment and adjustment: there will be a set of "ears" on the blade and the bracket made from 1/4" (possibly 5/16") flat stock. The ears on the blade will have one 9/16" hole drilled (to accept a 1/2" solid rod) and the ears on the bracket will have 2 - 9/16" holes drilled in them, one set in front of the other with about a 1/4" of space between them. The basic idea is that the front set of holes will accept the rod and be used for when I want the blade to be straight ahead. If I want the blade to tilt right or left, I can remove the rod from its respective side, then push the blade back far enough to get the rod into the rearmost hole on the ear (that's what she said). I'm opting for solid rod instead of individual pins b/c if, for example, one side of the blade catches and the other doesn't, the rod will help distribute the force of the impact across both mounting points instead of focusing it all on one.

I'm still looking for ideas on a lifting mechanism and a way to keep the blade off the ground for when I'm loading and unloading it. Obviously it will be manual, but I don't want a lever that's bulky and in the way of being able to climb on and off the tractor. I've thought about making a linkage that would reach back under the tractor and mount to the arms that raise and lower the mower deck, but I'm not sure on the details of how that would work.

I've got 2 new tires on the way from an ebay purchase, and I got a great deal on chains from NAPA.

I've heard that it's useful to have a weight bracket on the rear end and obviously I understand why, but I've no idea what it looks like or what to do/how much weight to add.

...I think that's everything. Ideas/suggestions/criticisms? I'm open to any and all words of wisdom.

Thanks for your time.

no less than 100lbs, I use 200 lbs and it makes a huge difference. If you cant find wheel weights build something on the back that will hold weight plates from a gym, they are cheap to purchase used.

mowerman05 said:

no less than 100lbs, I use 200 lbs and it makes a huge difference. If you cant find wheel weights build something on the back that will hold weight plates from a gym, they are cheap to purchase used.

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Sounds good. Regarding the weight - can I use my body weight as part of the equation? It sounds funny, but I'm a little more than 200#, so if I add another 100# to that, it seems like 300# is a little excessive and might be overworking the mower.

I'am 200 plus and still use 200lbs weight. It might be overworking the tractor but I don't think it works near as well with anything less. you can always try it with 100lbs and add more if its needed.

Gumby83 said:

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! I didn't see a Scotts specific forum, so I'm guessing either I need to post about it here, or I'm the only one on this forum that's foolish enough to own a Scotts lawn tractor.
Thanks for your time.

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You said you have Scotts, which one do you have? Is it a lawn tractor or garden tractor? Lawn tractors (mower) are not the best snow plow rig. You need to be careful not to overload the rear axle with too much weight, if you use it in the summer for grass cutting but you wrecked something plowing......
Are you planning to use it this winter?

gfp55 said:

You said you have Scotts, which one do you have? Is it a lawn tractor or garden tractor? Lawn tractors (mower) are not the best snow plow rig. You need to be careful not to overload the rear axle with too much weight, if you use it in the summer for grass cutting but you wrecked something plowing......
Are you planning to use it this winter?

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Well I'd say I have the lawn tractor, since it's got the mower deck on it. I don't have the model info available right now but I'll check it later.

Yes, I am planning on using it this winter.

What's the typical problem with too much weight? I don't expect to do a lot of "heavy duty" work with it, and even when using it I'm not going to be pushing it to its limits, by which I mean trying to push a "snow mountain" all at one time. The use it will see will be relatively light - if, for example, there's a heavy, wet snow, I'll probably only push about half as much as it can actually take for the sake of not destroying the engine or the clutch.

The problem with lawn tractors is the weak transaxle (transmission & axle) Pushing snow puts a lot of stress on the transaxle. Lawn tractors were designed to mow the yard a maybe pull around a lightly loaded little dump cart.
Garden tractors are designed to push a blade and pull a plow, tiller, box blade... ect. Garden tractors have heavy duty transaxles.

javjacob said:

The problem with lawn tractors is the weak transaxle (transmission & axle) Pushing snow puts a lot of stress on the transaxle. Lawn tractors were designed to mow the yard a maybe pull around a lightly loaded little dump cart.
Garden tractors are designed to push a blade and pull a plow, tiller, box blade... ect. Garden tractors have heavy duty transaxles.

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Okay. Is it possible to use a different type of fluid or maybe an additive that will help with the added stress, maybe through friction modification or heat dissipation?

I'm an auto mechanic, so while I'm no lawn mower expert, the same principles that operate a car transaxle *should* apply to the transaxle in this mower. It does have a hydrostatic clutch so I can understand why pushing snow would burn it up quicker than normal.

I don't know. It never hurts to change the fluids more often. I also didn't think to ask, is it a hydro or gear driven? If its a gear drive you might be ok.

It's a hydro drive, which is why I was curious about using a different type of fluid or an additive. It's probably due for a fluid change anyway, so now would be an ideal time to do it.

Gumby83 said:

Sounds good. Regarding the weight - can I use my body weight as part of the equation? It sounds funny, but I'm a little more than 200#, so if I add another 100# to that, it seems like 300# is a little excessive and might be overworking the mower.

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if you are worried about axel Wt. fill the tires with Wt., powder or liquid, that will take the Wt. off of the axel,.

de dee said:

if you are worried about axel Wt. fill the tires with Wt., powder or liquid, that will take the Wt. off of the axel,.

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Thanks for the suggestion, but I was just curious about how much weight was acceptable b/c I didn't want to overwork/overstress everything - not just the axle, but the transmission and engine also.

It's been a surprisingly mild winter so far in central Iowa - we've only had 1 snow "storm" that amounted a few inches of very light powder. I'm still working on the snow blade - it's been difficult to find time to do it - but since we haven't had a lot of snow fall I'm hoping to get it done before we do get slammed.

So this is a story about what I think God's humor is like:

Today I finally finished my snow blade build/install. It's been challenging - nothing has really gone wrong, it's just been interesting trying to fabricate the brackets and "engineer" a linkage to raise and lower as needed. It's by no means perfect, but it's good enough to work for this year, and throughout next summer I can work out all the things I'd like to improve on for next year.

Anyhow, the first thing on my to do list for today was to add a "stopper" to the blade. I was having an issue where the blade was just dragging and attempting to roll completely forward (before I'd gotten the linkage finished, I was trying to load it in my truck and the blade dropped, rolled forward and lifted the front tires off the ground via the bracket), so the simplest fix I could think of was to cut some 1/4" angle iron and position it to catch the ears on the blade.

Then I had to put something together to keep the blade in the raised position when I needed it to be. I settled on drilling a hole through the lever, drilling a hole through the rear fender, and hooking a bungee cord between them. Not the most sophisticated set-up but it works.

Finally I had to get my new tires and chains installed. That proved to be a bit more challenging, but in the end, a bead blaster got the job done. :thumbsup:

This all took about 3 hours. So I'm finally ready to load it up and head home (did all this at my shop at work). I'm running the mower, working on turning it around inside the shop, and all of a sudden.... the steering linkage breaks. :laughing: More specifically, the drag link from the steering shaft to the right tie rod - the ball joint end of the drag link gave out. I attempted to rig it with wire just for the sake of getting it loaded, but no luck. After about 10 minutes of wrestling with it, I finally just lined it up manually and pushed it into the truck by hand.

But, the local JD dealer has the drag link in stock for about $35 dollars, so I'm gonna pick it up tomorrow and then I'll be ready to go.... now if I only had some snow to push...:banana:

I just thought it was hilarious to finally get done with this month-long endeavor (working on it part time), praying the snow holds off until it's done, and then I finally get it done and the steering linkage gives out. If I'd of been a little more tired it would have been a lot more :smiley_aafz: :mur: for sure.