Say Hello to "Jack"

[ri702bill 8,292]

It's been long overdue, but we finally got the driveway and the parking area behind the house repaved. I then needed to better match the height of the grass to the new surface - some of the grass was too high, most was too low. I was impressed by the different designs of the two interchangeable buckets on the Bobcat that the paving contractor used - the finish one was smooth, but the one used to tear out the old pavement had replaceable teeth on it. I figured I could do the same to my 42" short frame plow on the 854 eight speed, using some leftover metal in the shop. A little cutting, 2 holes, and some welding later I had the ripping edge I needed - known here as Jack the Ripper. Traction was a problem, even though the 5 tooth ripper is only 12 inches wide. I wanted to use  the 10.50 wide tires to pack the finished surface so I added the winter wheel weights, 150 pounds of lead ingots in the toolbox, and a 50 pound cast iron weight on the hitch - traction problem solved. I used the low range second gear and ran without the hood so I could better see the tape mark on the back of the moldboard that lined up with the last tooth. Once done ripping it was easy to remove one fastener, loosen the other and flip it up and refasten the bolt to use the blade for grading.

 

Bill

[ebinmaine 67,308]

Nice idea!!!

[Pullstart 62,800]

All with a round hood!  

 

what’s the detail on those front barbell weights... and how they mount?

[ClevelandBrown 47]

Brilliant solution!

[JoeM 7,871]

1 hour ago, ri702bill said:

I figured I could do the same to my 42" short frame plow on the 854 eight speed

A mazing how much power these small machines have! Workers for sure. 

[ri702bill 8,292]

Kevin:

 

The way over the top price of genuine WH 25 pound front weights got me going a while back. We needed to add weight to the front wheels to better steer the plow in the snow. I have a local guy that advertises on CL that buys and sells used gym equipment. He sells individual broken set weights for 50 cents a pound. When I went to see his inventory, he asked what barbell hole size I needed - I said that it did not matter, I was looking for 2 matched flat plate 25 pounders. He said "So, you're making tractor weights, huh?".....

I made a centering drill  jig at work and I drilled the two 1/2-13 tap drill holes thru and partially tapped them about 3/4" from the back to allow me to double nut the 2 pieces of threaded rod and bottom them. Did the same for four 5/16-18 setscrews placed 90 degrees apart to fit just inside the wheel lip to keep them centered. Had to do the same for another set for the C81, as the hole size is 3/8" not 1/2" and the spacing is different. The cast iron they use for weights is terrible to drill and even worse to tap - I had to start off using an under sized carbide tipped masonry bit and had to go one drill size up on the tap drill to reduce the percentage of thread just to get the tap to bite without breaking them.

 

Bill

[ri702bill 8,292]

An added bonus to the paving project - 3 years ago I scored a barn find NOS, never used 1962 32 inch snow blower that fits the 854. It was complete down to the last nut, bolt & hairpin. The old driveway had about a four inch crown in the middle so I just used the old 24# Ariens walk behind. There were several upgrades in the mid sixties to the original WH design - floating auger end bearings, rerouting the drive chain to have more wrap on the sprocket, and adding the assist spring to the lift flag. Yup, those are all done and ready to go.

 

Bill

[ri702bill 8,292]

Joe:

The key to having the power running about three quarter throttle and the crawling speed needed for this is the 8 speed Unidrive - never could have done this with the original 4 speed ( I think Kevin aka Pullstart will agree).

First gear on both the 4 speed and the 8 speed in Hi range is 102 to 1;First gear in  Lo range on the 8 speed is 408 to 1!!