After tiring of only pushing 4 in. of snow with

his small garden tractor, Andrew Vincek designed

and built his own hydraulically-driven

mini skid-steer snowplow.

He began by welding a 3-in. channel iron

frame and added 8 by 20-in. lawn tractor

wheels. He already owned a 13.5-hp. gas engine

and mounted it on the frame. A hydraulic

pump was fi tted under the engine.

Vincek bought two hydraulic motors and

valves to drive the rear axles and connected

roller chain to homemade sprockets on the

front wheels to make the unit 4-WD.

To keep the transmission oil cool, he

welded together his own large reservoir tank.

“For the reservoir, I mixed up some weld

epoxy and smoothed it over the welds to help

seal everything. This helped to make sure

there were no pinhole leaks,” he says.

Vincek built the plow attachments from

scratch but bought the 4-ft. blade for $100.

To operate the tilt and angle functions, he

adapted old shock absorbers as hydraulic

cylinders.

He estimates the snowplow cost about

$1,000 to build.

“It drives like a skid steer because you

steer it with the valves,” he says. “I can spin

it right around in a circle and push at least 6

in. of snow without getting stuck.”

Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Andrew

Vincek, 64 Smith Bridge Rd., Saratoga

Springs, N.Y. 12866 (Vinandrewrv@gmail.

com).