Plow failure

So it looks like I didn't get the right measurements when I went to go see if the plow would fit.  I looked at length, arbor and things like that, but there were a few critical elements that I missed.

For starters, where it mounts:  I had a pretty good idea this would happen.  Because of the welded on hooks, the post isn't tall enough.


As I mentioned, I had a pretty good idea that would happen, and was planning on just bolting it together using the hole for the ball; not a big deal.  There is one other thing you might notice about the above picture though, the frame rail for the plow is right up against the brake drum and the differential, the frame rail is too wide.  The problem gets worse if you use the ball to mount it to the wheeler because of the angle that it sits at.


That was the first error.  The second was on the front.  I did measure the front part that hooks into the frame, but I didn't measure exactly where it would lie when the plow was attached.  It doesn't reach far enough back to directly bolt to the frame; it only reaches the front part where it widens.  This would actually be really easy to fix with some large U bolts attached to the framing I had for the wood plow, so this isn't really a big issue.


The last error I didn't even think to measure for.  The framing angles down a bit at the back, and then comes up again a smidgen in the front, so that it clears everything underneath the wheeler.  This plow came off a 2002 Polaris 500HO though, and while it is a universal style plow, it was nonetheless made for a much bigger machine.  Even with the back clamped up to the hitch, and the front as low as it would go, the plow still didn't have enough angle to actually hit the ground.  It needs the wheeler to be a lot taller.  And this was without me sitting on it.  It wasn't quite high enough to fit my foot completely under it, but it was close.


The first two I might be able to come up with something to work around it, or build an adapter for the back that runs underneath the differential and brakes for example, but those kind of kludges would make the third issue much much worse.  Unfortunately I don't know how to fix the third one without destroying the plow itself.

While I was up there, I tried to finish it with the snowblower.  That was a bad joke.  It has been raining the past two days, so everything is slush, and the snowblower wouldn't throw it.

This is probably the last post for a while, I am going on a work trip for the next two weeks to France.  I hope to visit Switzerland and the south shores of France over the weekend, maybe go swimming if the Mediterranean is warm enough.  I will take lots of pictures and will post them when I get home.