Upgrading Dozer Blade and Bucket Loader Actuators to PA-17

Dozer blades and bucket loaders often require heavy-duty components to maintain optimal efficiency and operations in harsh conditions. One of our customers, Shawn, uses his ATV Dozer Blade and Bucket Loader Combo system with our PA-17 heavy duty linear actuators to enhance versatility and efficiency. This combination allows for maintaining snow parks, tubing chutes, and cross-country ski trails in the Montreal region during winter and excavating, and hauling heavy loads of concrete, and boulders during summer. Learn how Shawn @the.log.yard was able to upgrade his failed third-party actuators to our PA-17 heavy duty model to enhance his Dozer Blade and Bucket Loader combo.

Shawn initially used third-party actuators from Amazon for his tiller and dozer blade to turn his ATV into a snow park maintenance machine to make backyard snow park maintenance easier. He started with a cheap ATV plow, heavily modified the carrier to convert it from a 4 way blade to an 8-way blade, and added his third-party actuators to drive the motion. He repeatedly folded the actuator when trying to control the angle of the left/right blade and sometimes the shaft would fail under tension. Due to the constant need for replacements every 1 or 2 seasons, Shaw had to uninstall each failed unit by dismounting the front and rear mounting holes and removing their mounting pins.

While there were never any failures in the motor drive, the thin-walled aluminum shaft of each third-party actuator had regular failures. Inspecting the labeled stickers on these initial actuators confirmed their listed ratings of:

1. IP44 ingress protection (Suggested for indoors)
2. 12V operation, 5A current draw
3. 10% duty cycle (1minute/10minute)
4. 6000N (1348.85 lbs) push/pull force

Given these specifications, Shawn was interested in upgrading to a different model with shafts that offered higher durability materials and specifications that were roughly the same or greater in terms of force and speed. Higher duty cycle ratings and greater ingress protection would also be a nice bonus to upgrade the longevity of the actuators.

By doing a Google search for "heavy duty 12v actuator", Shawn discovered our website and was able to find the PA-17 heavy duty linear actuator. The main selling points that made Shawn consider Progressive Automations PA-17 models include the ability to:

1. select the length and gearing to different force ratings
2. handle high dynamic and static force ratings
3. come with durable stainless steel shafts and sturdy housing

Shawn had a positive experience with our customer service team and was able to greatly benefit from our informative, clear, and thorough product knowledge. This helped in the selection process of choosing from our range of electric linear actuators for his 8-way dozer blade.

Our team assisted in providing the information requested by Shawn including the tube used, wall thickness, material, and diameter for the inner shaft of the PA-17. While our customer service team initially had concerns about the duty cycle and heavy use case, Shawn found the specifications of our PA-17 actuators worth the upgrade over his third-party actuators:

1. Ingress Protection: IP65
2. 12V operation, 20A current draw
3. 25% duty cycle
4. Force options: 850 lbs - 2000 lbs (Dynamic); 1700 lbs - 4000 lbs (Static)
5. Stroke options: 1" to 40"
6. Full load speed: 0.55"/sec (850 lbs model); 0.27"/sec (2000 lbs model)

Besides greater force options at 2000 lbs and the 850 lbs model for higher speed ratings, our PA-17 model also offered an ingress protection rating of IP65 for dust and water resistance in outdoor environments. A higher 25% duty cycle was also another bonus from the previous 10% rating of the third-party actuators.

The tillers themselves are powered by 48V batteries while the actuators for the tillers receive power from the 12V ATV battery, topped up by the stator. Electrical, hydraulic, and pneumatic actuators serve different benefits and drawbacks to suit specific requirements and environmental conditions. Because his ATV has a 12v power system, no hydraulics available, and no way to easily add a power take-off, going with the electric PA-17s was the easiest solution. Shawn works in winter building a snow park overtop of his gardens to grow food, so he also greatly benefits from not having to worry about hydraulic fluid from blown hoses or leaks.

Laying out the mechanics of a dozer blade with 8 ways of articulation, and as much articulation as needed to shape snow park features was challenging. Achieving 8 ways of articulation was possible with 5x PA-17 actuators:

1. 2 are used to run the blade cut angle/dump mechanism to achieve a full dump capability
2. 1 for up/down motion
3. 1 for left/right angle motion
4. 1 for left/right tilt motion

He first only upgraded the up/down function actuators and left/right angle, due to cost, and initial uncertainty. After testing for a couple of days bulldozing through sod this spring with ease, Shawn decided to upgrade the last two cheap third-party actuators on the blade. He also ended up deciding to try to see if they were strong enough to run a bucket, so he built a bucket that clips on the blade and ordered an extra PA-17 actuator. Shawn modified every aspect of it using scrap metal, his cheap flux core welder, and an angle grinder. This required a redesign of the cut control function for the blade and having it controlled by two actuators to get enough articulation for the bucket "wrist" (blades cut function) to both tip the bucket back to contain material, and tip forward enough to dump the material.

Waterproof connectors allowed for blade removal while wiring the electric actuators was quick and simple since they all had a basic 2-wire operation for their brushed DC motors and were 12v compatible. A custom weatherproof plastic box mounted to the handlebar has simple polarity reversing momentary switches that are used as the controllers to operate each PA-17 actuator. There is a singular power feed-in, with a 30 amp fuse for electrical protection. Shawn found the extra size of the motor mounted to the side of electric actuators made installation more of a challenge than with hydraulics, however, the easy routing and flexibility of wires over hoses helped offset those difficulties. From Shawn’s experience, he could run 3 actuators at once without blowing the fuse.

The clip-on bucket was used during the summer for hauling massive loads such as 600 lbs of boulders and cutting through 3" maple roots. Shawn ran them at over 60% duty cycle, days on end, for weeks. Sometimes he'll run them at 100% duty cycle in the winter with no problems yet for shaping and maintaining his snow park, however, we suggest using our PA-17 actuators within the recommended 20% duty cycle rating. The speed added by the 850 lbs gearing has been a great benefit for Shawn, and the PA-17 stainless steel shafts have no failures yet after 1 year in conditions that were 3-4x the abuse of the third-party models with aluminum shafts that failed.

“I have used the blade to push out man-made snowmaking piles, build many snow parks, break down and move old Icy snowbanks, and now, spread, and shape earth. The loader bucket I have used to excavate 1200 sqft of sod, and boulders and cut through 3" maple roots, down to 4ft. I have used it to excavate sandy soil with dense maple forest roots to build mountain bike jumps, and haul potted plants, bags of concrete, and 400lb granite boulders.” – Shawn

Our PA-17 offers heavy duty capabilities with high environmental protection ratings suitable for many rugged outdoor applications including the adjustments of ATV dozer blades and bucket loaders. Thank you to Shawn & Kate for sharing your success story with us!

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We hope you found this as informative and interesting as we did, especially if you were looking for guidance on upgrading the current actuators on your dozer blades and bucket loaders. If you have any queries or wish to discuss our products further, please do not hesitate to contact us! We are experts in what we do and will be happy to assist however we can.

sales@progressiveautomations.com | 1-800-676-6123