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Custom 4 Wheeler Plow Project

Blue91Ex

Well-Known Member
Joined
February 12, 2013
Messages
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City, State
Maine
Year, Model & Trim Level
91 XLT
Alright so I have yet another school metal shop project. A science teacher at school has tasked me with taking his ATV and a cheap plow and sticking them together. This seems pretty easy but with new shop teacher trying to intervene and change my plans on it, and limited class time, it turned into a reasonable project. So anyway, I thought I would share my progress with you guys on it.

Start of the project: Mount the Winch.

The atv has a tube frame. This includes a brush guard like portion at the front, this is where I started. I cut out 4 pieces of steel plate to make into a winch-plate to bolt the new winch to, inside the tube frame.

oUMRqZ4.jpg

This is the only close up pic that I saved of this part, its one horizontal plate, one verticle plate with a hole cut for the fairlead, and two triangular pieces, cut with a curve to match the bend of the tube guard/frame.

Test fitting:
gsoCJxT.jpg


cnYeUN8.jpg


For my first large welds since last year (lots of sheet metal work this summer, no plate) I think they came out kinda purty.
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Now that the winch plate was built, I started on the structure for the plow to mount to.

I didn't take pictures of just the new part, but these are both pieces put together as they would be on the atv, you can get the idea from these I think.

These pictures are rough builds, tacked together to test fitment and what not.
mpgAQ2h.jpg


I chose to use washers to space out the sides of the plow plate (as I will call this second part from now on) from the tube guard, so that I could still bolt everything to the existing mounting holes on the frame of the atv, without adding odd bends to the plow plate to make it fit.
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Skipping ahead a little bit, I added the tabs for the plow to mount to on the plow plate, these are made of 3/8" thick 3" angle iron, with the corners ground off to allow for articulation of the plow up and down without clearance issues with the tabs, which act as hinges as well.

These pictures show the progress as well as the paint the owner/client? provided. (I don't like flat black)
Sbjfzht.jpg


ynIWuTY.jpg
 






So more test fitting, The plow plate and winch plate in all intensive purposes are finished. I also built a single long hitch pin to use in attaching the plow easily and quickly as well as making it easy to remove. The plow plate and winch plate were designed to not impact approach angle too much, as he still wants to use his atv in the summer for atv-things.

Here you can see how the plow mounts to the plow plate. The back of the plow is light so one person can attach it easily on level ground.
NPF8ELe.jpg


This picture shows the minimal approach angle impact with just the plates.
Jxl6iZK.jpg


Some over-all pictures.
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vRST0Yd.jpg


Ld30zQH.jpg



I still have work to do, which I'll explain in the next post, to keep the thread broken up a bit.
 






So on the to-do list for this project.

1. run wiring and power for the winch and switch, etc.
2. Check all connections and grounds on the ATV (he said it was having issues with the starter wiring, may as well go through everything while I'm at it)
3. Add 10" of plate to each side of the plow blade, as well as a new cutting edge on the bottom, and bracing to make sure the new width doesn't make the plow bend
4. Weld on the exhaust clamp I'm using as a lift point for the winch to attach to to lift and lower the blade
5. Add some sort of marker to tell operator when the plow is lifted all the way (reduces risk of him bending stuff by making the winch pull too far)

Thanks for reading so far guys! Leave a comment with thoughts oppinions or ideas!
I will be adding to this thread as progress progresses!
 






If you're only going to use the winch for plowing, I would rip out the steel cable asap and replace with synthetic rope. When the steel cable snaps while your plowing (and believe me, it's going to snap), you're not going to want to deal with the prickly sharp ends of a snapped cable.

By asap, I mean before you even try to plow for the first time. The steel cable can warp and burr the drum making it more likely for the synthetic rope to get cut when you replace it.
 






If you're only going to use the winch for plowing, I would rip out the steel cable asap and replace with synthetic rope. When the steel cable snaps while your plowing (and believe me, it's going to snap), you're not going to want to deal with the prickly sharp ends of a snapped cable.

By asap, I mean before you even try to plow for the first time. The steel cable can warp and burr the drum making it more likely for the synthetic rope to get cut when you replace it.

good advice but it isnt my atv, im just doing the metalwork, I will bring this up with the owner but honestly i doubt he will bother, i havent heard of people having issues with it before.
 






I have been working on widening the blade a bit.
First I used the roller to bent some plate to match the curve on a 10" wide piece. I unfortunately did not have my camera during that process.

Then I cur out some 2" angle iron and a 3" wide flat band to brace the back where the new portions of the blade attach to the original bent metal.
The blade had a press-bent brace along the back, which I used the angle iron to extend.
EYp2xAL.jpg

Most of these pictures are at the beginning of class today, so everything is just tacked for the most part to make sure it was all straight.

I apologize for the photo quality on some of my pictures. My new camera is VERY picky with movement.

This is a view of the back on the side I've been working on, showing the original rib (that braced the ends of the blade) on the new end, as well as the angle iron, top lip/brace, and support band.
aYiF8R9.jpg


Heres a fuzzy picture of the front. The welds on the seam between new and old blade will be ground smooth.
QGqXnEb.jpg


The top edge has a piece of flat stock to help brace it to avoid twisting under load.
sFFGFpd.jpg


The holes I drilled out to remove the spot welds holding the end rib on made perfect spots for rosette welds to the strap brace.
8prWuUw.jpg


I'm still working on welding uphill/against gravity, this one penetrated well but looks scrawny because my travel speed was a bit too fast.
Me1wAse.jpg
 






Wow, looks pretty dang good to me! :eek: I'm impressed with all of the thought and detail you put into designing and building this, so I hope your "client" is too.

Keep up the great work man, it's cool to see all of the 'work-in-progress' pics. :biggthump
 






Wow, looks pretty dang good to me! :eek: I'm impressed with all of the thought and detail you put into designing and building this, so I hope your "client" is too.

Keep up the great work man, it's cool to see all of the 'work-in-progress' pics. :biggthump

Thanks! While I do most of the planning and all of the building, I'm not the only one with a say on the design, I get some help from my shop teacher when I am stuck on how to do something, an believe it or not (and I know this isn't the "correct" way) most of the design is sort of as I go. I have the basic idea, look at what I have and what I need to do, and go scavenge the shop for materials that may work, come up with a few different plans, pitch them to the teacher, and usually go with what I think will work best. He is very much a "nay-sayer" and usually shoots my ideas down without providing a better method, so I tend to just go and do it haha. So far it has worked out but I know it is not as safe a route to just make it up along the way (only sort of).

It is always nice seeing positive feedback on things like this, as I don't get much time to build random stuff like this for myself due to money and spare time constraints, and it helps me stay interested and focused on what I do get to work on. This is probably the most intricate/involved fabrication build I have done so far, most have been smaller progects (see my explorer registry in the sig) though I should have more cool fab projects for my ranger when all the frame and body work are finished (also in sig). These may include a back rack/bed rails/boat rack and locking toolboxes built right into the sides of the bed, maybe even another brush guard that's a bit fancier than the one I made for the explorer. Anyways thanks for the input on this build, I plan to have more on it soon!

The science teacher I am building this for has come in to look over it many times and seems very pleased with it so far. I am at the point on it where all I really have to do is mirror the other side of the blade and add a hook for the winch to lift it by. Then some sort of marker to tell him when to stop the winch (probably a stick above the blade that will hit an inch or so before the blade maxes out in distance from the ground, if that makes sense, just so he doesn't brake things with the winch.
 






Cool, I really want to see how this turns out once you're finished with everything; definitely need a video of this beast in action! :burnout: (Even though there's no snow right now...)
 






:rangerred:
Cool, I really want to see how this turns out once you're finished with everything; definitely need a video of this beast in action! :burnout: (Even though there's no snow right now...)
If I can get some sort of video of it working I will, though due to a change in design that my teacher made, the blade is going to be very wide for a 4 wheeler, like getting into small pickup plow size, which is what I wanted to avoid but what can you do.. anyway im not sure how well it will be able to move snow this winter, but if he throws some wieght on it it should manage okay.
 






Working on the other side today, The welders ran out of gas at school (new teacher needs to get his sht together when I tell him 3 times that we are almost out of gas on the last tank, or the tank before that...) so it will be monday when i start really welding up all the seams, as it is all tacked together right now, then after that it is drill some holes (and mill out square holes in the cutting edge with the milling machine for carriage bolts, yay I love the milling machine!) and putting that on, I could weld it but since the only metal we had for a blade is mild steel, I felt that doing it that way would be screwing him over in the future when the blade dulls. Then finish up wiring and get a mount for the winch hook onto it.
 






Alright I got all the welding done on the other side of the plow, now for lots of grinding and finishing touches (cutting edge mainly) but here are some of the better pictures I took of the progress I made the last couple class periods. Sorry about the bad picture quality in a couple.
bVUTYqg.jpg


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mmmm welds
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blade is freaking gigantic for a 4 wheeler but teacher is the boss..
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