First Snow Plowing Experience With X900

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ncridgerunner

Member
We got about 8 inches of snow overnight so I got my first experience plowing snow with my X900. Our neighborhood has about a half mile of paved road on a mountain ridge so there are few flat areas and one very steep hill. I have plowed it many times using my Kubota BX23 tractor with a back blade. I only had a 4 foot scrape blade on the tractor so it took a long time to clear the road and by the time I was finished my neck and back were in considerable pain from turning backwards for several hours.

Pros and cons of the X900 with front mounted blade vs BX23 with rear scrape blade:

Pros:
The blade on my X900 is a 6 foot blade and it moved snow much quicker and more efficiently
There was no neck and back pain when finished
The larger blade could be angled better to push the snow further to the shoulder
The front mounted blade was less damaging to gravel driveways
The X900 felt more stable than the tractor
The X900 seemed to negotiate unplowed snowy hills better
Time to finish was reduced from 4 hours to 1.5 hours
There was no neck and back pain when finished
The wind chill factor was about 8 degrees and heavy snow was falling but I was not cold and wet with a roof and windshield. (No doors)

Cons:
The forward and reverse pedal on the tractor was really missed
Changing from forward to reverse on the X900 is clunky and if the vehicle is in any bind (not on level ground) it is hard to get into gear
It is easier to pull snow away from the front of parked vehicles with a back blade
It is still snowing and I will have to get out there again soon. (Not really a con just the way it is)

Overall I really like the new plowing setup. After I get more used to the plow I can probably make some more adjustments get it to clean the road better. Hopefully shifting the transmission will get easier on the X900 with a few more hours. (Currently there are 24 hours on the machine) Usually to get the X900 back into gear I have to rev the engine up and back down to get things synchronized unless the machine is level. Sure wish Kubota installed some transmission synchronizers.

The best part is the significant time savings and did I mention that there is no neck and back pain when finished?
 
Great to hear your new setup is working well for you! It has been 15+ years since I have had to push snow. We just don't seem to get enough snow anymore where we live in Indiana to have to deal with it, and I am NOT complaining. I don't have my X1140 yet but when test driving the X1120 and X1140 I noticed what you are talking about. The X1120 seemed to be a little worse than the X1140 at going from Reverse into High or Low. I wondered how that would work pushing snow with it being under load. Like you said, a quick touch of the throttle seemed to get them both into gear. I read several places that when possible to go into Neutral before selecting another gear. I am not sure how that would work pushing snow as you sometimes need to push the snow into the pile. Hopefully it all loosens up for you!
 
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With my 04 900, which is obviously broken in, even blipping the throttle won't let me smoothly change gears when I plow snow into a pile. I need to raise the blade a bit and then it shifts quite well usually. Even if it feels like it doesn't want to slip out gear easily then a foot on the brake or blipping the throttle will work well.
It just becomes natural motions when I plow. It's a small price to pay for a unit that has preformed flawlessly since I bought it 9 years ago and it was obviously not babied before I got it.
 
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Wow TechJunkie, I'm surprised that Indiana gets less snow than Western North Carolina. Most of our snows are just a few inches but this one ended up being 12 inches. I had to scrape again today and it did pretty good but shifting between low and reverse was still frustrating.

Avantiguy, it seems that lifting the blade on my machine before trying to shift doesn't seem to make much of a difference. If it continues, I may have the dealer take a look at my machine to make sure everything is normal. A few times today, I was beginning to wonder if it was going to shift at all.
 
ncridgerunner said:
Wow TechJunkie, I'm surprised that Indiana gets less snow than Western North Carolina. Most of our snows are just a few inches but this one ended up being 12 inches. I had to scrape again today and it did pretty good but shifting between low and reverse was still frustrating.

Avantiguy, it seems that lifting the blade on my machine before trying to shift doesn't seem to make much of a difference. If it continues, I may have the dealer take a look at my machine to make sure everything is normal. A few times today, I was beginning to wonder if it was going to shift at all.
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We seem to get one or two snow falls with accumulation and roads a pushed but my truck gets out of the drive just fine and it seems to melt off fast enough I just haven’t had to push. Used to be we had snow fall from December though late January early February but just haven’t had enough accumulation to bother with it. It is cold however. Weather patterns just seem to have shifted.
 
Good job.
We got 8 inches here in SE Ohio. I used my Kubota Grand L 3010 to push it out of the way with a 5' blade.
Would love to put a blade on my RTV x1100c but I'd have a hard time justifying that expense due to the lack of snow we get. I plowed once last year and so far once this year. The 2 or 3 years prior to that I did not have to plow at all. Snowfalls were 1 or 2 inches and that was it.

I'm curious how you handle the gravel part of your drive with the blade. I cannot use my blade facing forward on my gravel. Tears it all up. I have to reverse it and drag it backwards. Gravel stays in place but so does some snow. It clears it enough to drive on but sure could be better.

And if you don't mind, ball park price of adding a blade to your RTV please.

.
 
Doc the front blade on the X900 has "feet" allowing the blade height to be adjusted so it is not as damaging to the gravel as my tractor back blade that does not have "feet". Today I scraped about an eighth of a mile of gravel road for neighbors who couldn't get out. Some the high spots on the road did cause some gouging and I moved a little gravel with the snow but the damage was minimal. Basically I adjusted it not to scrape too deep and let the melting process do the rest. Living here in the South we generally don't have much more than a few days of sub freezing weather before having a thaw.

Since we don't get a lot of snow I purchased a blade that is operated up and down by my winch and is manually adjusted for the angle. It is a six foot KTI blade that is not one of the higher end blades but does what I need. Not including the winch, I purchased the blade from the dealer for $800 installed. I probably could have saved $100 by installing it myself as it is pretty simple to mount on the machine but I didn't know that at the time I ordered my X900. It would take more time assembling the blade components than mounting it on the machine.

If I had a lot of snow to deal with an electrically raised and adjusted blade would be a better purchase but that would have cost $2500 to $3000 and for me it just wasn't worth it.
 
Thanks NC RidgeRunner. That is in the price range that I would consider. Similar situation here in that we don't get enough snow to justify spending thousands. And I already have a winch so .... seems doable.
How hard is the blade to put on and take off. I do not hare room to store my RTV in my garage with a blade on it.
Would love to see some pics of your set up when you have a chance. Thanks.

Edit to add: Looking for pics in case you'd already posted some, didn't find any but did find where you were having a hard time removing the blade.
 
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I took a piece of pipe the same length as my blade and cut a grove from one end to the other such that it would slide over the cutting edge of my blade. I then welded two tabs on it to line up with the holes already in the blade used to attach the cutting edge and bolted it in place. Works great. It lets the blade "follow" along the surface without cutting. It will still pick up some on the loose surface gravel, but does not cut like before. This is on an 8 foot blade on the rear of my tractor. I'll try to get photos later today.

Member on here (Keifer) posted (on Dec 13, 2018) about doing this to his plow. Sorry I didn't figure out how to post the link. I think he welded the pipe to the plow though. The way I did it would leave it easy to remove.
 
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I ran with the pipe for 3 years, and it worked awesome on 95% of the stuff i plowed.
Only issue I had with it was my neighbors 1/4 mile drive with large (3/4" to 1 1/4" stones). I only plowed occasionally when they were gone, but it would rattle your teeth loose.

On paved or nice small stone driveways, the pipe was the way to go.
Oh, and all we did was tack weld the pipe on. touch of a grinder took it off.
 
I'm curious, doesn't using the pipe leave an inch or so of snow on pavement and gravel? My blade can clean the pavement of snow all the way. On gravel I've been back blading and I leave an inch or so layer of snow.
 
cchaffee can probably speak to that better, but I'd expect some snow to be left especially on gravel. My use of the piped plow on snow so far is very limited. I have used it to smooth loose gravel after they spread it on my driveway. It worked pretty good. Did not cut nearly as deep as it would without the pipe.

And I didn't manage to get photos of mine today. The weather was not very cooperative.
 
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I’ve found that when the gears don’t completely “mesh” when changing from N to R or from R to H (which passes thru N)…. that it’s really not necessary to Rev the engine at all…. just barely depress the “go pedal”. to re-position the gear teeth and it goes into gear just fine.

(But it is a bit irritating that Kubota hasn’t got this figured-out better.)

I bought my X900 with a couple hundred hours on it and at first it didn’t want to shift gear at ALL.…the shifter-knob refused to be moved.
Then I realized the cable from the brake-pedal to the transmission relief-valve was not properly adjusted. I re-adjusted it so the transmission drops its’ pressure when the brake is applied and …Voila!….no more shifting problems. (I added a short placard to the lower windshield just above the “Kubota” which states “Apply Brake to Change Gears”.
 
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If you have all paved/concrete to plow, yes the regular cutting blade is the way to go.
On those the pipe does leave some small amounts of snow.

My issue is a love of plowing. I plow out widows, single moms, older couples, anyone who needs a little help. I will plow 6 to a dozen places every snow.
So i see every style of driveway there is. for GENERAL purposes I liked the pipe.

PS.
a. I have never called in sick to work. I do however take a "neighbor day" at least once a year. (and just plow all day).
b. only acceptable forms of payment are baked goods or beer.
 
Very nice. cchaffe. :clap: :clap: :clap: :tiphat:
I have 1/3 paved area near the house and 100 yard gravel drive leading to it.
 
Doc said:
Thanks NC RidgeRunner. That is in the price range that I would consider. Similar situation here in that we don't get enough snow to justify spending thousands. And I already have a winch so .... seems doable.
How hard is the blade to put on and take off. I do not hare room to store my RTV in my garage with a blade on it.
Would love to see some pics of your set up when you have a chance. Thanks.

Edit to add: Looking for pics in case you'd already posted some, didn't find any but did find where you were having a hard time removing the blade.
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Sorry about the late reply. I'm retired (and don't want a job) but it seems everyone wants me to work for them. So between church and working at my cousin's sporting goods store I haven't been on line as much lately.

I'm out of town now but will get some pics this coming weekend. When I first took the blade off and on I had a terrible time but found one of the mounting brackets was bent causing one of the pins to be misaligned. Once I got that bent back in place it is not hard to mount the blade. The hardest part is driving up to the blade to get it as close as possible to the proper alignment. I put a block of wood under the blade when I take it off to keep it close to the correct mounting height. It attaches using just 2 pins.

To attach the winch cable is a simple matter of removing the pully placing the cable under it and replacing the pully. The cable is then attached to a strap that is secured to the brush guard.

I can now do the whole process in about 15 minutes (after some practice). I park my machine under a shed but when I leave the blade on it is exposed to the elements because my shed is not deep enough. I remove the blade when there is no threat of snow.
 
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geohorn said:
I’ve found that when the gears don’t completely “mesh” when changing from N to R or from R to H (which passes thru N)…. that it’s really not necessary to Rev the engine at all…. just barely depress the “go pedal”. to re-position the gear teeth and it goes into gear just fine.

(But it is a bit irritating that Kubota hasn’t got this figured-out better.)

I bought my X900 with a couple hundred hours on it and at first it didn’t want to shift gear at ALL.…the shifter-knob refused to be moved.
Then I realized the cable from the brake-pedal to the transmission relief-valve was not properly adjusted. I re-adjusted it so the transmission drops its’ pressure when the brake is applied and …Voila!….no more shifting problems. (I added a short placard to the lower windshield just above the “Kubota” which states “Apply Brake to Change Gears”.
Click to expand...
I need to look at adjusting the relief valve cable. Depressing the brake pedal has no effect whatsoever in shifting gears on my machine. Maybe that is part of my problem. How difficult is this process?
 
ncridgerunner said:
I need to look at adjusting the relief valve cable. Depressing the brake pedal has no effect whatsoever in shifting gears on my machine. Maybe that is part of my problem. How difficult is this process?
Click to expand...

Someone had posted a link a while ago for a service manual but the link doesn't work anymore, so here's a copy of it for you to grab off my Google drive. It's got the unloader adjustment procedure. I actually just replaced the cable on mine because it broke. Takes about 5 minutes to adjust.


rtvx900.pdf

drive.google.com drive.google.com
 
tfdr1 said:
Someone had posted a link a while ago for a service manual but the link doesn't work anymore, so here's a copy of it for you to grab off my Google drive. It's got the unloader adjustment procedure. I actually just replaced the cable on mine because it broke. Takes about 5 minutes to adjust.


rtvx900.pdf

drive.google.com drive.google.com
Click to expand...
Much appreciated tfdr1. I'll try to get to that next week.
 
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