Building a snow plow for a ZERO TURN MOWER

[roadkill636]

After looking at a few plows for zero turn mowers and lawn tractors iv decided to build my own. Started with a 120gal propane tank for the blade.

Looking for advice on how well do zero turn mowers do with blades to push snow?

[roadkill636]

The mower i got has a 2" receiver on the rear AND on the front. Im thinking its made to pull a load . And it also has a 4 cyl Caterpillar Diesel engine.

[89LASER]

I like the idea and want to see how it works when you're done.

[roadkill636]

Moc up

[Greg G]

You can probably get it to work ok for light snow. First thing is you'll need to put chains on it. Also if you can mount some extra round weight inserts in the wheel wells that will help as well.

[CDave]

How much bracing are you going to use to reinforce the blade?

[roadkill636]

Most all manufactured plows attatch to the very front crossmember bar on zero turns. But i dont like that design. Makes too much of the weight out front. So i got some 2x2x1/4 tubbing and welded on some sceduall 80 1/2" pipe for a bolt to attach the arms to a deck mount bracket about 2 foot back from the front.

[PlumCrazy]

I've been using a John Deere Z425 with a plow for 8 years now. Works like a charm. The plow was made by a guy in Michigan. He's online at zeroturnsnowplows.com. It's a simple design. Springs lift it up and you just push it down with your foot. You can angle the blade in either direction, too. I used the front tires from a JD Gator for traction in the snow. They're the same size as the Z425 rears.

[roadkill636]

How well does your Z425 push with the plow fully angled? Im thinking it would want to push the front of the mower sideways pretty good.

[PlumCrazy]

Using the plow at an angle doesn't cause a push. I have a 500' driveway and run it this way all the time. The only time I've had trouble is by catching the edge on a hardened snow bank. This size of mower and plow does have its limits, though. I can plow 8" of light, fluffy snow or 6" of wet, heavy snow. Beyond that, I have to bust out my 38" snow blower which takes sooooo much longer. It can handle more pushing with a straight blade. As you can see, it can make some nice snow banks, too.

[roadkill636]

What is the rrason for taking the mower deck off? Seems the weight of the deck would help with traction. How wide is your blade? Wider than your rear tires?

[PlumCrazy]

I'm not going to drag a mower deck through deep snow. No sense in having it get all rusty, either. The plow is 48" wide, about the same as the rear track. There really is no issue with weight. I take care of that.

[roadkill636]

My mower will weigh about 2400lbs with me on it

[89LASER]

I would put a wear plate across the bottom, bolted in so you can replace it without replacing the whole blade. I work at the airport, for the runways, we have poly-blades on the bottom.

[roadkill636]

Ya. I was thinking that also. Dad has a couple of old scraper blades from plow trucks that i mite cut down to fit across the bottom