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).