Spent some time over the last couple of days on my blade. I notched the side like Chris has done, to clear the deck mounting bar on the lift bar. This mod turned out to be not needing done, as you will see further on. Got more ground clearance, but I wanted more. I also wanted some way of applying down pressure. Feet are not really a good idea. After much thinking, pondering and fiddling, I worked out a solid bar arrangement.
This will attach to the short bracket on the lift fulcrum and down to the blade. It does have to be curved at the top, to clear the plate across the chassis, that carries the steering quadrant. To get the shape, I made a cardboard template. Made a hole in the top and fastened it to the short bracket. With the blade on the ground and lift lever down, I could see how long the bar needed to be and the bottom hole.
From this template I made one out of ply wood. A bit of trimming was needed. The round bar the blade pivots on needed shortening a bit. I'd already cut some off when I moved the bracket.
Today I made the bar from 1/4" x 1" flat bar. Sorry about the picture quality. The reason for the two holes is simple. Somehow I drilled the second from right first and in the wrong place.
The second photo shows part of the bar side relieved. When the blade was down, that part fouled the swivel pin.
Next a couple of shots of blade down and up. The bar just clears the lift arm and as you can see, the chain has been moved to the rearmost hole. You can now see why that cut out is not needed.
So does it work ok? Yes and no. Yes, with the rubber strip fitted. Great for on concrete. Without the strip a slight error showed up.
I'd measured up for the lift bar, with blade down on the ground and rubber fitted . With the rubber removed, the blade is slightly proud of the ground. So now I've three options.
(1) Make another lift bar.
(2) Make a deeper wear strip.
(3) Leave as is.
Three is a no-no. So first I'll try number one.
