Snow plowing best practices? QH 54" blade on 1026R

NukeThemTillTheyGlow said:

New 1026R with the 54" QH front plow. Have not seen much in the way of comments or best practices regarding plowing snow with it, but I used to plow my driveway and private drive (and the neighbors too when I had the time..too much fun!) with my former tractor, JD LT180 with manual 42" plow.

I've seen the recent comments from another 1026R owner that it didn't do well esp when in float mode. I swapped the H120 FEL and the plow around this past weekend while my dad was here and I could focus on things and also move them around in my garage to free up a bit of room. So I am feeling much more comfy with all of the parts, functionality, etc.

A few questions:

1) I received two manuals regarding the blade and harness from the dealer. first is "Quick Hitch Front Blade, 54-inch", OMM147110 H2. Second is "Quick Hitch Front Blade for X400/X500 Series Tractors, 54-inch, Omm146400 B2. Not sure why I have the one for x400/x500. Am I missing anything? The first manual I mention seems accurate, but no mention of the 1026R or anything specific to it.

2) What is the proper way to plow? lower plow to surface and keep pushing jowstick to "Float"? When I want to change the angle, I assume I need to raise the plow, change angle, lower and go to Float?

3) Shoe settings. Blade came set on lowest settings and the bottom edge was really dragging on the concrete (no snow, just lowered and lightly pushed ahead for a foot or so). I moved it up one, but curious what others set it at. As a point of comparison on my old tractor I ran it on the lowest settings and I was always happy with how it did.

4) Is the squeegee blade worth it? Never seen it, but sounds interesting, esp based on how I set the blade in question #3.

5) I need to check this one last time, but I swear when I lift the blade and push the joystick to the right the blade turns toward the left (left corner closer to front of tractor). All hose are hooked up with proper colors matching. I'll double check tonight if i can.

6) All hoses are in the two hose holders (right name) that the tractor has on the right side between the SCV and the plow harness. It almost seems like it needs a third as one or two of the hoses want to get very close to the front right tire. Makes me wonder if hoses were swapped when dealer put it together (see question 5). I put a zip tie on the 4 hoses closer to where they connect to the SCV, but there is still some play in it. I should take a pic and post.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice you can give a noob (to a real tractor!).

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NukeThemTillTheyGlow said:

Quick update. We had an ice storm Friday night and into Saturday morning. about 1/4 or more of solid ice covering everything. the driveway was solid and you could skate on it. I got the 1026 out to see what it could do with its weight and plow. plow barely left a mark on the ice. the only thing i did was check/adjust my skid shoe settings and put it back to where it was when I received it.

Out in the cul-du-sac (public road) the snow plows had pushed some small piles of snow the night before after we received a trace amount of snow during the ice. so once it was apparent that I couldn't make a dent/scratch in the ice covering my driveway i headed for the street to play/plow. I was able to clean up the perimeter of the cul-du-sac very easily and play in about one blades width of snow. compared to my old LT180 with the manual 42" front blade this was heaven! Easily change plow angle from seat with joystick and the 1026 had very precise steering and control. this also gave me a chance to learn raise/lower and use float control.

one comment i had read in one of the other threads in the past few weeks was about the 54" front blade not being heavy enough. i didn't really understand the comment at the time since I used it pick up the old tractors 42" blade myself and thought it was pretty heavy...and I picked up the 54" with my wife the day it was delivered because I had left it at the end of the driveway and it was almost dark and we were trying to cram the new tractor and all of its parts into the garage. What I noticed when plowing the little i did sat morning was that with the hydraulics the blade has to be forcefully placed right on the ground then put into float in one motion, otherwise it sinks very slowly and doesn't seem to want to really ride in direct contact with the snow if you just put it into float while it raised up in the air. The mechanical lift of the old 42" was once you unlocked the pedal the blade would just drop/fall, you had to learn to let it down easy. I am sure I have more to learn once we get some real snowfall.

Lastly, I found moving the joystick to the left and the blade angling right to be a bit counter intuitive, but I left it as is. I'm going to swap it around this coming weekend as it looks like it might be very mild and I'm getting some firewood delivered and I'm going to put the loader on to move the wood.

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c-venn said:

..... I am always surprised how much snow this little machine can push. I feel you would run out of traction before hp.

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