Anyone plow snow with a skidsteer?

When we owned our commercial properties I had a Ford F-250 dedicated plow truck. Sold the properties and sold the truck, now I just have my personal pickup with a small Snow Sport plow that I've had for 15+ years. It does a good job and has for years, but this last 18" snowstorm was a bit too much and ended up getting the truck stuck. I had the go get the skidsteer to pull it out and finished up moving snow, not plowing with it. The next day I decided that it was time to put a door on the SS and look for a plow blade. That was back on 12/28/2020. I found and purchased one from an attachments vendor that I've used in the past. Unfortunately it arrived damaged and was sent back. Long story short, I ended up cancelling the order and decided to explore converting a regular truck plow assembly to the SS.
 

In true GRM fashion I bought a blank mounting plate and set out to making my own plow set-up. I called a friend who plows snow for commercial customers and asked him where I can find a cheap plow to experiment with. He said to come up to his barn and "pick one" as he has several that are fine for home use but beyond their useable life for commercial work. I ended up grabbing an old Meyers 8'  blade with attached a-frame mount for a case of beer. Now the fun begins, seeing what it takes to get this to work. 
 

The original hydraulic plow set-up was going to cost $1800 and I was fine with that, but after thinking about it a while how many times am I really going to use the plow? How many 12"+ snowstorms do we get? I figure I can build one for under $500 since the plow was $32 and the mount plate $138. I ordered a hydraulic valve that should be here today and I picked up some steel earlier in the week to make some adapters and brackets. Hopefully I can get a bunch of the cutting/welding done today.

Anyone have experience using either a wheeled skid steer or track loader for plowing snow? 

I rent them with a snow program here at the new job. Wheeled works better than track. we usually run 74-80" light material buckets (deeper and hold more). Works great if its got a cap and heater.

EDIT: make sure you lube and grease more often if there's salt involved. Like franks redhot sauce that E36 M3 gets in everything.

I have a 78" bucket on the machine that I used to move snow during that last snowfall and the new blade is 96".

Mine is a John Deere 270 wheel machine but I installed a set of McLaren OTT(over the tire) rubber tracks on it 3 days prior to that snow storm. It's a huge difference with the tracks!

There won't be any salt issues since I'm only using it on our gravel/modified driveway, but I try to keep everything well greased all the time anyway.

The biggest issue is that it's an open cab. Years ago I make some LEXAN side windows which are nice, but it was DAMN COLD with no windshield. This model never came with a windshield from the manufacturer and aftermarket ones are $1000+. That wasn't in the budget, so I bought a piece of 1/4" LEXAN and made a "loose fitting" windshield that fits over the handles on the cab and uses 2 magnets to attach it on top. It certainly doesn't seal but it does keep the snow from ending up on my lap when plowing.

Snow bucket (large and lighter) and skidsteer.  Nobody, or very nearly nobody uses a truck mounted plow around here.  All skidsteer, all bucket, no plow.  The bucket turns into a plow when its full.

I sold my quick attach 7' blade and bought an 8' snow pusher with back drag instead and it is a lot easier to use.  Mine is on a tractor with an angled blade on the back for good cleanup but for quick, bulk snow moving the pusher is a better tool. 

In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :

I'm spoiled, almost all of our units have heat and ac with enclosed cabs

Well, done and it actually works! Pretty easy actually, so if anyone has a skidsteer and wants a snowplow here's how I went about my little GRM project. 
 

- Pick up a used/old/tired plow assembly and mount. Any manufacturer will work since you will be making mount tabs for your specific mount. Luckily mine still had the hydraulic rams/cylinders attached. They are pitted, but this is for my driveway, so not a huge deal at this point. 
 

- purchase a 3/8" or 1/2" blank mounting plate.  I did 1/2", but a word of warning, it's heavy at 125# and a good bit heavier than that once done. Next time I'd do 3/8".

- purchase a cross-over relief valve "IF" you want to build your hydraulics the right way. It bleeds pressure if you hit something hard with the blade and doesn't over pressurize the rams. Cheap insurance.

- purchase 2 adjustable flow control valves. These allow you to reduce the pressure from the skidsteer auxilary hydraulic couplers from ~3000psi down to 300 or so to actuate the plow angle rams. It just slows them down rather than slamming them side to side at full pressure. 
 

- purchase 2 flat-face connectors in the appropriate size to couple to your machines auxilary hydraulics. Most use 1/2".

- purchase 2 pins to attach the plow mount to blank plate.

These are the items that can be purchased rather than relying on a local hydraulic supplier. You can save some money doing it this way.

My plow frame is mounted to the blank plate with 4 pieces of 1/2" angle iron which I cut and drilled. Pretty easy.

Now, you could stop at this point and just put some sort of hook on top of the blank plate to attach a lift chain. If you did, it would only allow the blade to "float" under its own weight, there would be no ability to apply down-pressure. By adding just a few feet of heavy steel tubing to both the plow mount and blank plate, down pressure is possible.

After everything is welded up, I threw the entire assembly on the trailer and made a quick trip to the local hydraulic hose supplier. They made 2 hoses from the rams to the cross-over relief valve and 2 hoses from the cross-over up to the couplers.

BAM, DONE!!! Got home yesterday, pulled it off the trailer and hooked it up to the skidsteer. It worked just as planned with only a 1/2 turn needed on the flow control valves from my initial setting. 
 

All total, about $725 invested and a few hours cutting/welding at the shop. Could have been done for around $550 without the cross-over and flow control valves, but those are just insurance so nothing gets damaged.