1026R - FEL with 54 Front Blade

the brush gaurd is no problem w/ the quick hitch mounting. once you install the quick hitch the first time, there is a no tool installation from there on out.

there is not a permanently mounted sub frame. the only frame is the mount plate for the quick hitch. but there is no interference with the parking stand or the grill guard.

There is a bracket that bolts across the front of the frame. It holds the top cross bar of the quick hitch. It does not interfere with the FEL, but you can't hang any sc weights from the front frame bar. The lower bar of the quick hitch fits into an adapter that is pinned into the tractor frame. This adapter also has a place for two carrier bearings for the front PTO shaft.

As I look at it, they could have integrated all of that together like an x700, but it should do the job. There are so many other nice design features across the rest of tractor that the debacle on the front can slide.

I have suitcase weights, but don't plan on un-bolting the mount so that I can use them.

XSKIER said:

There is a bracket that bolts across the front of the frame. It holds the top cross bar of the quick hitch. It does not interfere with the FEL, but you can't hang any sc weights from the front frame bar. The lower bar of the quick hitch fits into an adapter that is pinned into the tractor frame. This adapter also has a place for two carrier bearings for the front PTO shaft.

As I look at it, they could have integrated all of that together like an x700, but it should do the job. There are so many other nice design features across the rest of tractor that the debacle on the front can slide.

I have suitcase weights, but don't plan on un-bolting the mount so that I can use them.

Click to expand...

there wont be a front pto shaft for a plow. so just the quick hitch

XSkier,

Thanks for those awesome photo's of the front quick hitch. It gives me the confidence of knowing the permanently bolted brackets do not interfere with the loader. I can see where the blade will be fine but if/when I purchase the front snow blower it will involve a little more work to switch between fropnt attachments. When the front QH bracket is mounted, it looks to be quite low to the ground. I figure there is only about 4 inches of ground clearance with the lower brackets pinned in place. I should have my own front blade within a couple of weeks. I realise that I am not in the bracket of most owners because I did buy the front loader for landscaping work. I bought the RB 2060 rear blade that Frontier makes but I found it to be a lousy snow clearing tool on a gravel surface. Its going back to the dealer after one heavy snowfall and being replaced with the front snow blade; which I used with great success on my previous X304 machine.

It would be a nice completion to see the front blade mounted on the machine. Did you get the full hydraulics?

Gngyoung, I finally got to use the blade this morning in a substantial snow. Up till this point I've been using an old 72" rear blade to handle 2" of snow or less. I assume that you being in NS have had some snow to deal with? Did you get the 54 quick hitch blade yet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ9ilwhQRjI

Got the blade

I almost forgot I started this thread..... While I don't have a picture to share, I did get the 54blade fitted to my tractor and it works a treat. I particularly enjoy hydraulic angling as it is so quick! It used to take al out an hour with my x304 44 blade to clear my driveway and parking areas but. It now takes about 25 minutes, which means a lot more time for other joys.

Absolutely no problem with the loader mount or parking stand. However the bracket that is. Ow bolted to the front of the frame to hold the quick hitch does prevent the use of the front weight bracket extension and therefore prevents the use of front suitcase weight. To me, this hasn't been an issue thus far. Has anyone else figured out how to use front suitcase weights when the quick hitch brackets are bolted to the frame?

I did have to modify the pathetic skid shoes that came with the 54 blade to prevent the blade edge from cutting into the gravel drive. I had 1/2inch plate cut 3x6 inches long, bent up at 30 degrees at each end to form one inch ramps leaving me with a 3x4 surface area that I then had welded to the bottom of the existing skid shoe. This was a major improvement as the blade now floats whereas before I had to jog the raise/lower scv lever to keep the blade from digging and removing stone. Now I can drop the blade, angle it and go full speed ahead with the blade raise/lower hydraulics in float mode. It's awesome.

The other modification was to add a second trip spring lock. The blade comes with one but it's drilled for two. I guess John Deere was being frugal!! I'm talking about the spring loaded bent steel hook that locks the blade and prevents the trip springs from allowing the blade to rotate forward when the blade comes into contact with a rock. That mod used John Deere parts and it only cost 30 dollars to implement (bent steel hook, spring, collar and split pin)

Winter in Nova Scotia this year has been somewhat milder than previous years thus far but I can tell you this set up should be able to handle lots of snow. With 5 inches of snow down, the 1026r with rear tire chains can cut through the snow and pile up a nice windrow with no problem and that also means the front of the tractor doesn't get pushed around. I have kept my snowblower until I get to see how it handles a foot of snow, but honestly the snow blower may have its days numbered. Time will tell.

I will try to get a picture of the modified skid shoes in the next week so everyone else can see my idea.

Thanks for the help with making this good decision!

Gord