Craftsman  48'' Snow Blade

I'm calling this a preliminary review, because I was only able to pick-up and assemble the Snow Blade on my Riding Mower. By the time I received and attached the blade to my mower, the snow had disappeared. That said, I will be prepared for the next major snow fall. I gave the product a 3-star (average), because the shipping to Sears was not only ON TIME, but faster than I expected. Assembling the snow blade on my tractor was a bit more than I expected, but I'm disabled so it took me longer than it would if I were not disabled. It took me 2 to 3 days to assemble. Regardless, the assembly instructions were pretty much straight forward and easy for me to follow. I can't rate the product on performance yet, and I need to make some final adjustments before operation. My neighbor uses a snow blade on his tractor, and he inspired me to purchase one.

Does anyone have a non paved driveway and ever use this plow to clean up the snow? I just moved to a house with a non paved driveway and the prices that people want to charge to clean snow is absurd. So before I spend the money and this blade was wondering if it will work on non paved driveway?

I purchased this blade in Jan. 2011. Let me start off by saying I agree with most of the comments other reviewers have posted. Specifically, I think the key things to keep in mind are: 1) budget yourself several hours to install and adjust, and well before you need to use it, 2) tire chains are a must; however, unlike other reviewers' comments, I haven't yet had a need for wheel weights--might need them if you're moving snow deeper than 5" or so--and 3) double-check the parts bag: I was missing one cotter pin. No big deal on the missing cotter pin; I found a similar one in my garage tool bin that fit. At first, I wasn't sure if this "universal fit" blade would work on my old 1993 Murray 40" cut, 14.5 hp tractor with 18" rear tires; however, the universal front mounting bracket did work, to my surprise. You might have to be a little creative in working with it if you have a tractor other than a Sears brand. (I still plan to add a reinforcer bracket and one extra bolt on each side, just for added strength, since the front bracket only allowed me to mount one bolt into each side of the frame, which I don't consider to be adequate.) Also, I have to run my tractor at full throttle while clearing snow off my driveway; my 14.5 hp engine seems a little underpowered in handling the combined weight of both the heavy plow and in pushing 4+ inch snowfall. It remains to be seen how I'll fare when I have to plow a deeper, heavier snow. That being said, after using it 3 times (two 4 - 5 inch somewhat "powdery" snowfalls and one 2 inch snowfall), this blade has been a great investment! The 4-foot width and pivoting mechanism allowed me to clear my fairly long and two car's width driveway in about 25 minutes each time. Sure beats the heck out of back-breaking shoveling for an hour and a half!

 I purchased this 48" snow blade on 1/9/2010 in order to prepare for the winter snow.  I installed the snow blade on my 28 HP Professional Series Garden Tractor a week before an 8-inch snow storm came. I also purchased the 55 lbs wheel weights and the peerless chains for 23" rear tires.  With my added body weight, this tractor and snow blade had no problems pushing all of the snow off of my driveway.  In fact, the piece of equipment worked perfectly that I snow plowed four other neighbors driveway in my cul-de-sac and was ready for some more.  I can honestly say that I am ready for any amount of snowfall this season.  This blade was even awesome with the 20-30 inches of snow that fell 2/5/10 - 2/7/10. The snow blade pivots left, right, and center with ease and I have not had any problems with the cable.  To prevent the cable from wearing out and breaking, I found it helpful to make sure that when you install the cable mount bracket to the angle lock bars, make sure that you angle the bracket so that the cable is in direct line with the cable end fitting bracket.  This will prevent the actual cable from rubbing the black cable housing causing it to create friction.  Install the other end of the cable to the welded bolt where the lock release grip assembly is to be mounted, using the other cable end fitting bracket.  Make sure when you mount the cable end fitting bracket to the welded bolt, don't tighten the lock nut so tight that the cable end fitting bracket cannot move freely when you press the lock release grip assembly.  The cable end fitting bracket should rotate freely in Unisom with the cable.  This will prevent the cable end fitting bracket from cutting the cable.

plow works better than expected - moved 8 inches off my paved drive (4" at a time) this weekend - worked perfect. It did take a few hours to build and install and the transmission of my ys4500 hits the plow frame so you have to jack the tractor up to remove, but no big deal. Highly recommend.

plow works better than expected - moved 8 inches off my paved drive (4" at a time) this weekend - worked perfect. It did take a few hours to build and install and the transmission of my ys4500 hits the plow frame so you have to jack the tractor up to remove, but no big deal. Highly recommend.

Bought blade in the summer of 2008. Attached it to a cub cadet 1046LT. Was able to use this to level out a stone driveway (loose stone) Without wheel weights I was able to push a full blade of stone. Just had first real snow of the winter. Was able to move 4" of heavy wet snow with a weight box attached to the rear of my tractor. The only problem was that it was missing a few parts out of the box. However I called the number on the owners manual for missing parts. Gave the operator the part numbers I was missing and they sent them directly to my house FREE OF CHARGE!

Bought blade in the summer of 2008. Attached it to a cub cadet 1046LT. Was able to use this to level out a stone driveway (loose stone) Without wheel weights I was able to push a full blade of stone. Just had first real snow of the winter. Was able to move 4" of heavy wet snow with a weight box attached to the rear of my tractor. The only problem was that it was missing a few parts out of the box. However I called the number on the owners manual for missing parts. Gave the operator the part numbers I was missing and they sent them directly to my house FREE OF CHARGE!

Purchased this blade just the other day. Putting on the mounting brackets and determining the right bolts was a little confusing. It says to use carriage bolts, which wouldn't fit into the holes. I ended up using the hex bolts and one carriage bolt in the rear hole of the bracket. The other complaint is that no where on the website does it say this is for use on tractors with 23 in. rear tires. It does say it on the box tho. I figured it can't be any different than the 42 in. blade so i went ahead and installed it. Can't wait to try it on snow. I was gonna get the 16 in. dozer blade, but that one says on the website it is for tractors with 23 in. tires. The tractor i have has 18 in. rear tires. I'm guessing that the cables should be greased to prolong their life.

Good strong plow that will move snow twice the height of blade, depending on tractor power. I have cleared snow after a 12-inch fall. Must reposition blade angle by hand due to broken cable. Cable lasted one season. Have not been able to find replacement on Sears' website.