Welcome to our informational web pages
This is a shared collection of pictures and information for our New Holland TC-40D SS tractor
Links to our other informational pages include

Our TC-40D-SS New Holland tractor
Adding front hydraulics to a TC-40D-SS
Building a bucket grapple for a TC-40D-SS
Adding a snowplow to a TC-40D-SS
Building a dolly for a 757C New Holland backhoe
Building a boom sprayer with foam marker
Dealing with wheel weights on a TC-40D-SS
Adding a larger toolbox to a TC-40D-SS
Removing 17LA loader on a TC-40D-SS
Adding rear remotes to a TC-40D-SS

This section covers adding A Quick Attach Snowplow To A 17LA FEL On A TC-40D

In the past we have always used a combination of the loader bucket to remove snow from our 650' gravel drive and a Woods 3 point mounted snow blower. The snow blower proved to be extremely slow and with the gravel drive we seemed to go through 5 or 6 shear bolts every time we had a decent snow. It seems that no matter how the adjustable skid shoes are set on the blower sooner or later the larger gravel finds the auger or impeller.

We have had a snowplow project dancing in our mind for a couple of seasons now so when the wife told me a that a neighbor had a Meyers snowplow sitting in his yard with a for sale sign attached to it I figured it was time.

The Meyers plow turned out to be a 7'6" width, just right for the TC-40D and with the exception of some surface rust was in pretty sound shape. It had a new cutting edge and was only lacking the plow shoes which are readily available. The first picture shows the plow just as we acquired it.

Click on any thumbnail to see a full size picture

The game plan was to keep the project as simple as possible and still end up with a usable snowplow that could quickly be mated to our 17LA loader using the quick attach feature.

I called Andy Tatro in Illinois and had him fabricate me a set of heavy duty 3/8" steel QA plates to mate to our loader. Andy has access to a CNC plasma cutter and really knows how to use it. If you need a set of these plates, a bucket grapple or help with another project call Andy at 815-688-3112 and be sure to tell him where you got his number. Believe me, Andy's one of the good guys!

Then it was time to sit down and scribble a rough drawing on paper. Once that was completed we headed off to Summit Equipment for the steel to set the project in motion.

Randy Wyan, a friend of ours was kind enough to let me use his band-saw to quickly & cleanly cut the 1/4 inch 2 X 2 square tube, Thanks Randy!

You can also see the QA plates in position on the loader arms in the next picture.

Time to get the saw horses out and start tack welding some steel.

Needed to cut and drill the 4 pivot brackets.

Further assembly of pivot brackets

Time to mate the assembly to the 17LA loader.

Let's add a parking stand to keep the plow assembly out of the snow when it's not attached to the TC-40D and a chain hook on top for adjustment purposes.

Different angle.

Let's add a little primer to the mix before we splash on some final color. We also needed to clean up the hydraulic cylinders a bit before we finished the hydraulics.

Added a flow control valve to each of the hydraulic angling cylinders so that we could control the speed of each cylinders arc. Flow control valves are readily available at Surplus Center  

Close up of hydraulic cylinder plumbing and parking stand.

This is how the plow looks in the parked position.

There are still no plow shoes on the blade. Meyers gets just under 50 bucks for each shoe.  So we went to TSC Tractor Supply Company and picked up a set of plow shoes for a Western plow at less than 16 bucks each.

The Western shoes use a 3/4" mounting shaft which we quickly cut off and replaced with a 1-1/4" mounting shaft that the Myers snowplows use.

Side shot blade straight.

You can now easily see the modified plow shoes in this picture.

We kicked in the power angle in this picture to show you the range of travel on the blade. The flow control valves once set make angling a very smooth operation.
Blade angled full left.

Blade angled full right.

The 17LA handles the weight of the blade very easily. I'm going to use the blade through this winter and if all goes well come next summer we'll have the assembly sandblasted and painted so it looks like new.

Moving forward one season you can see that we disassembled the plow and are using the electrolysis method to clean the rust from the plow. Here the blade is about to be lowered into the tank.

Here the blade is cooking in the tank.

Cleaned up blade

Plow now painted and reassembled

Moving forward another season I wanted to show you a couple of modifications that we made to our snow plow. First we used an adjustable top link to keep the quick attach mounting plate frame from tipping over as we were moving up to the snow plow to make the hook up. Now we can nudge the plow for alignment, make the connection to the quick attach plate, jump off the tractor to lock the handles, remove the top link, and attach the hydraulic hoses for the angle feature.

We also added plow shoes to the rear of the plow frame. This modification allows us to plow with the FEL in the float position. The position of the shoes allows the plow to follow the contour of the drive better and prevents the rear of the plow from digging into the drive. We are now very happy with the way the plow works.