A couple years ago I found a 3-point back blade made by King Kutter for sale on Craigslist. I had been looking at buying one for a few weeks and came across one that was really dirt cheap. The ad had a few photos and the condition looked decent, but the sales description described it as “bent”. I really wasn’t overly concerned about the bend as long as it still swiveled and mounted properly. I was able to get in touch with the owner and they assured me that it was able to still function as it should, but they felt I needed to understand that it was in fact really, really “bent”.
It Was Really Bent
I knew the price was still great regardless of some bends (that I was quite confident I could fix anyways). I set up a time to meet and went to take a look at it. My first inspection upon arrival confirmed what they had told me about the bend. (sort of) It was really, really, really F*n bent. I cannot express in writing how bent it truly was, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. I made the purchase and hurried home to start working on my new restoration project.
Assessing The Bend
Before I could worry about repairing any bent pieces, I figured I needed to find out exactly how bent it truly was. When I removed the bottom blade I was shocked at how much force it had on it. The separation was so strong at one point during the bolt removal I had to re-clamp one end in order to continue the bolt removal.
Straitening Out The Bends
The main issue with the bent blade was the fact the rear support brackets were never going to allow the blade to be fully straight until they were straightened themselves. I wasn’t all that concerned with welding anything that needed to be put in the proper place later on, so I started by cutting the ends of the rear support away from the blade to allow for a little bit of flexibility.
Bringing The Fire
The next step in the process of straightening out the back blade was to apply as much heat as I could to the rear support bracket in order to have any chance at hammering it back straight. The process was quite slow and even though I was using a pretty large sledge hammer to reform the metal, I knew patience would help with the quality of the finished product. I actually thought the rear support straightened out pretty nice in the end, but I still had a massive amount of resistance from the main blade wanting to push back against it. I definitely needed to apply more force than I was ever going to achieve with a little heat and a sledge hammer.
Malibu’s and 8N’s
After enjoying a beer or three and thinking about how I could possibly apply enough down force to flatten out the back blade into a position where I would be able to weld it, I came up with this idea pictured below.
Welding It All Into Place
The idea with the car and the tractor actually worked out quite well, even though it seemed at the time to be completely ridiculous. The weight of the vehicles created the perfect amount of force to hold everything where I needed it just long enough to get the necessary welds in place, thus permanently straightening the back blade. One or two more “repair” welds and I was ready to start moving snow.
Back Blade Maiden Voyage
Well, I made it about two feet. I quickly realized that this back blade was the worst idea for moving snow in a gravel driveway unless I wanted the driveway to be completely re-graded each time I went to move snow. I also wasn’t really excited about the prospect of pushing all of the gravel into the yard as a result.
Never Quit
Most that know me, know that I am stubbornly defiant when it comes to problem solving (yes, I’m aware of this character trait/flaw) but I knew a fix to my issue would present itself eventually.
Google This, and Google That
After much research I came across a discussion on one of the tractor forums about using a PVC pipe to assist the back blades smooth travel and prevent the digging I was struggling with. I didn’t agree that PVC was a great long term solution due to the fact I would be dragging it across rough gravel. I thought that if I could somehow make a bracket and pipe that mounted to the bottom of the back blade I would be able to easily remove the pipe anytime I didn’t need it. I ended up using a 2″ galvanized pipe and 4 mounting plates. The mounting plates were drilled to match the the original blade mounting pattern so I wouldn’t need to use separate bolts.
The Second Voyage
The Second attempt was a completely different experience compared to the first. Everything worked as I had imagined it would while I was daydream driving back from making the original purchase of the blade. Sometimes things take a little more imagination in life than any of us intend them to be.