Dang Nice! I have an old tube loader that I will be attaching a snow-blade to by next year...Hopefully ;-) Your setup is what I would term a 'Dozer' type blade as opposed to a 'Snow' blade...At least here in Vermont that is what I would call it... What I think may be the answer to the lack of 'down pressure' is the angle of the blade itself...From what I see you have the blade cutting edge (actually the underside edge) parallel to the ground when in the fully down position...This leaves the top edge of the blade perpendicular to the ground and inline with the bottom edge...Most chain-lift 'snow' blades will be at a slightly greater angle so that the top edge is in front of the bottom edge...This allows the bottom 'cutting' edge to do its job, which is to physically 'pull' the plow downward into the snow, gravel, lawn edge, etc., and to roll the snow up and over in front of the snow that is yet to be touched by the blade...Your setup, although handy as heck, might benefit from re-angling the whole blade in relation to the ground... I have both a Meyers (on an old CJ) and a 6 foot Fischer chain-lift snow blade here...They both only work well if the bottom edge is 'cutting'...Otherwise they tend to dig, ride up, and then over a pile of snow or dirt...With a 'snow-blade' at the correct angle, no down pressure is needed, and skid-shoes are highly recommended to keep the blade from digging too deeply into the drive, etc... Also...Most snow blades are spring loaded to trip back and ride over immovable objects due to the usual inherent speed used for snow plowing...This is a safety measure that was incorporatd in many snow blade designs decades ago when they found that there was lots of wear and tear and breakage of expensive parts of vehicles... I guess the gist of this diatribe is that, I am betting that, with a good snow blade at the correct angle when in the fully down position, instead of the blade you are using, you will not need down pressure on the front or ever miss it... Sorry about the length...
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