Snowplow mounted on truck (pictures)

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

I finished the snow plow and mounted it on my truck today. I just need to wire up the controls inside. I think this is the first time I'm wishing for snow to fall now http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//smile.gif

http://www.bbssystem.com/snowplow/plowd1.jpg

http://www.bbssystem.com/snowplow/plowd2.jpg

http://www.bbssystem.com/snowplow/plowd3.jpg

-Adrian

[Evan]

Adrian,

I'm not sure which will buckle first, the winch mast or the lower blade supports. I suggest fully triangulating the winch mast and hooking the cable to the top crossbar on the blade. When you hit a small bump with the truck the entire assembly will bounce with several gees of force.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Evan:
Adrian,

I'm not sure which will buckle first, the winch mast or the lower blade supports. I suggest fully triangulating the winch mast and hooking the cable to the top crossbar on the blade. When you hit a small bump with the truck the entire assembly will bounce with several gees of force.</font>

Yup, that's my main concern right now. The mast is 1 1/4" .120" wall so I think my push arms will bend first.. They have large rubber bushings so that's what you see compressing, then the blade lifts after the rubber compresses. Clearly not ideal but I'm getting close. I'm think triangulating the winch outward more towards the blade and lifting the blade itself at a more shallow angle would be good..

-Adrian

[aboard_epsilon]

I would have made it all out of two by two heavy section box.
that things going to be pushing over a ton and a half of snow.!!
thats me though.
no complaints about your workmanship..excellent.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by aboard_epsilon:
I would have made it all out of two by two heavy section box.
that things going to be pushing over a ton and a half of snow.!!
thats me though.
no complaints about your workmanship..excellent.</font>

I can push a ton and a half with my pinky finger..

[Luke55]

Nice work. This do not means good work.hé hé.
By experience this size of blade packed with heavy snow will weight close to a ton. Since Monday we had to remove 2 ft of that white ****. 21 miles of rural roads

[CCWKen]

Don't know where you guys are getting all this "tonnage" for snow. Even if it was packed solid into a chunk of ice, one cubic yard will weigh about 1,685lbs.

[Your Old Dog]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by CCWKen:
Don't know where you guys are getting all this "tonnage" for snow. Even if it was packed solid into a chunk of ice, one cubic yard will weigh about 1,685lbs.

</font>

edited to eliminate one mangled double post. Seems to take the servor some time to spit these post up there.

[This message has been edited by Your Old Dog (edited 12-29-2005).]

[Your Old Dog]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Your Old Dog:
</font>


Those figures look similar to the ones in the Western and Meyer's snowplow manuals. The figures take into account the weight of the snow has to be pushed down the drive. Oh heavy wet snow it is a chore for my 350 Chevy 4X4. Many times my truck is brought to a halt by the load of snow up front. When angled, the plow will be shot off to the right or left.

The vertical geometry will become important because the blade will tend to glide over top of the snow if the attack angle of cutting edge of the blade is not just right. You can use that trait to good advantage as you ride in on a bank you goose the hydraulics up a tad and the blade starts to trip. This allows you to stack the snow higher at the end of the lot then the cab of the truck if the springs are adjusted just right.

[Evan]

That's what I do with the Rover. Although the blade lift is only about 2 feet max the blade can go up to about 5 feet on the hinges. I can pile the snow about that high by lifting it as I hit the pile.

[BillH]

Thinking about it, for the cost of the body repair on your truck when that setup crumbles and smashes the front of your truck, you could of bought a new snow plow, maybe. The dinky little plow on our dinky little garden tractor was much, much more heavily built. I respect all the work you put into the plow, I just dont want to see you having to pay for body work if that fails, murphys law you know. Dont under estimate the forces involved here, you could end up having a very bad day.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by BillH:
Thinking about it, for the cost of the body repair on your truck when that setup crumbles and smashes the front of your truck, you could of bought a new snow plow, maybe. The dinky little plow on our dinky little garden tractor was much, much more heavily built. I respect all the work you put into the plow, I just dont want to see you having to pay for body work if that fails, murphys law you know. Dont under estimate the forces involved here, you could end up having a very bad day.</font>


What specifically do you think will fail?

[Doc Nickel]

Yo, Adrian (heh, not like you haven't heard that one before...)

First thing that's going to happen, is it's going to fold or fail where the lower arms attach to the blade. You have two pretty small bolts in single-shear, and worse yet, rubber mounted, which will allow them to twist (which will in turn force the tab to start twisting.)

The rams are stronger than the arms and pivot, so I suspect the first time you run into any sort of obstacle at all, the blade will pivot on the ram mounts as the lower arms bend and spread (or snap bolts or tabs and spread.)

Past that, your pivot-to-body framework is FAR too spindly, and poorly triangulated. Depending on what you hit, look for it to rapidly fold sideways.

I understand you have a short, paved driveway and will be moving minimal snow. But as the other guys pointed out, the weight and sliding friction builds up in a big hurry. You shouls have made the blade literally about a quarter to one-third the size it is. That would reduce the forces and probably allow your structure to live.

The homebrew plow on my truck (I didn't build it, but I've had to fix and upgrade it) probaboy weighs 800+ pounds. The face is 3/16" steel- and it's been bulged by snow a little bit- with 1/4" plate wings. The A-frame pivot is gusseted 1/2" wall angle, with a 1" grade-8 center pivot and two 3/4" hitch-pin frame pivots. The ram structure is welded to the frame (old Chevy beater) and tied to the frame from the pivot back to just ahead of the axle bumpstops, by 2" by 3/8" angle and bolted on with spreader plates.

And yes, we've bent everything at least once, sheared the 1" bolt at least once, and w ekeep piling on weld and reinforcement every time we break it again. http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//smile.gif

It's finally to the point I haven't had to fix it in a couple of years, and admittedly I have way more to plow than you do, but really, unless you're very careful, and take small, slow passes, I doubt your build there will last even most of the winter without some serious repair and reinforcement.

Doc.

[Fasttrack]

i think i'd be most worried about the winch mast, very nice craftsmanship though. Looks very neat and well put together. I'd also be worried about your tabs/brackets bending. They look like mayber 1/4 or 3/16 strap. If it was me i'd feel more comfortable with a clevis and clevis pin with 1/4 or thicker. Theres alot of weight in snow; i was asked to weld up an "industrial" snow plow my school had for several years. They broke a mount that was 1/2 thick, about 5" wide piece of strap rolled into a half-cirlce.

[hsmike]

Adrian,
How are you going to actuate the angle cylinders?

Mike

[Fasttrack]

lol What Doc Nickel said! I didn't post fast enough evidently

[BillH]

Adrian, What doc said. The frame from the truck to the plow should of been made out of .5" steel plate welded together, and reinforced at that.(.5" is my safe guess, done no engineering on that thought)
The arms going out to the base of the plow, again, should of been made out of .5" steel welded into a massive A frame. AS Evan pointed out, springs to allow the plow to tip over when it hits something hard, and it WILL, even if paved road. I've done a lot of plowing on our paved driveway on the garden tractor, there were still hard patches of ice and seams in the pavement.
IM just looking at your picture and I cant get the thought out of my head that thing is going to crumble and smash the front of your truck the moment you lose 100% concentration on being careful.
And if you do get a lot of snow, there will be times you'll want to ram the plow into the snow, like for moving snow banks over.

[CCWKen]

Did someone say BODYWORK! ???? http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

Heck, I can fix the front-end of that truck for around $2000. http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//wink.gif

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

Well, I can't wait for it to snow now and test everyones theory. Someone should setup a betting pool http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//smile.gif

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by CCWKen:
Did someone say BODYWORK! ???? http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

Heck, I can fix the front-end of that truck for around $2000. http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//wink.gif</font>

I think I'd rather pay you $2000 to stay away from my truck http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//wink.gif

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by hsmike:
Adrian,
How are you going to actuate the angle cylinders?

Mike</font>

They are manual long ram jacks so I'll have to manually open the valve on one, and pump the other to angle the blade. If I pump both it tilts the vertical angle of the blade.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by BillH:
Adrian, What doc said. The frame from the truck to the plow should of been made out of .5" steel plate welded together, and reinforced at that.(.5" is my safe guess, done no engineering on that thought)
The arms going out to the base of the plow, again, should of been made out of .5" steel welded into a massive A frame. AS Evan pointed out, springs to allow the plow to tip over when it hits something hard, and it WILL, even if paved road. I've done a lot of plowing on our paved driveway on the garden tractor, there were still hard patches of ice and seams in the pavement.
IM just looking at your picture and I cant get the thought out of my head that thing is going to crumble and smash the front of your truck the moment you lose 100% concentration on being careful.
And if you do get a lot of snow, there will be times you'll want to ram the plow into the snow, like for moving snow banks over.</font>

What diameter bolts do you suggest using with that 1/2" plate? Would 3" dia be good?

[CCWKen]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by 3 Phase Lightbulb:
I think I'd rather pay you $2000 to stay away from my truck http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//wink.gif </font>

Will that be cash, check, MO or credit card?


<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Someone should setup a betting pool</font>

I'll take a piece of that. The problem is... We only have YOUR word on the results. http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by CCWKen:
I'll take a piece of that. The problem is... We only have YOUR word on the results. http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

</font>

I'll have the wife video the entire thing from beginning to end.. It doesn't really matter to me what happens because fixing anything that does break will be almost as much fun as building it was.

[wierdscience]

Ahhhhh hell I ain't worried about,after all it's a late model truck,Adrian's mount has more metal in it than the frame tails on the truck so the rest don't matter.I give it a 2 in 3 chance of success.

[CCWKen]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Your Old Dog
Those figures look similar to the ones in the Western and Meyer's snowplow manuals.</font>

It's just the weight of water at 32 degrees. (62.416lbs per cubic foot)

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by wierdscience:
Ahhhhh hell I ain't worried about,after all it's a late model truck,Adrian's mount has more metal in it than the frame tails on the truck so the rest don't matter.I give it a 2 in 3 chance of success.</font>

Don't give away technical details please http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//smile.gif

[CCWKen]

Oh please, no more videos. This dial up crawls. Hey! I know! Send the $2000 so I can get a satellite link.

[Arcane]

From the looks of it, the hydraulic jack rams are going to extend fully when the cutting edge hooks something solid, that is if nothing folds up first. Should be interesting.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by CCWKen:
Oh please, no more videos. This dial up crawls. Hey! I know! Send the $2000 so I can get a satellite link.</font>

If you're still crawling, are you sure your ready to start running? You probably should progress to standing, then walking, then start running http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//smile.gif

[Dawai]

I built a frame extension so I could use my cherry picker on the front of my truck. It was the handiest thing you ever saw. Everyone said it would break the truck frame or destroy the front end..

Now, I miss the extension, I got a 3/4" plate welded onto the bumper and the cherry picker on it. I have loaded 500lb welders, loaded engines and transmissions. Everyone continues to say it "won't work"..

I built a bed crane to go in my 85 silverado, it was a slick truck. It was light guage tube. Surprise, each time it got borrowed it got a little rougher. It wasn't thiers and they didn't care. It was a work truck when it left here.

Building a cherry picker mount would give you a place to mount a bulldozer blade on that truck. AND, you'd be surprised how much your back would thank you.

The one I put on the 2wd ford? It stood up on it's nose, the rear wheels came off the ground and it would not move. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v85/ibewgypsie/Dscn0870.jpg
It worked much better on the rear. Poor engineer should have been fired. Yeah, that is 3/8" plate.. No, I don't have hands or feet under it either.

My everyday ride? It is screwed, Lowered, You have to pump up the air shocks before I put my electricians toolbox in the rear. (100lbs)
That sucks, but it sure goes around corners.

[Millman]

Adrian, excellent craftsmanship, especially on the blade. Sure you don't want to beef up the framework like these guys said?It should work fine for 1-3 inches. for about 50 ft. If the blade survives; how much do you want for what's left?? Ha! Overall, great job!

------------------
Dave da Slave

[CCWKen]

It's just like going bear hunting. You don't have to be the fastest--Just faster than the person you're with. http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Arcane:
From the looks of it, the hydraulic jack rams are going to extend fully when the cutting edge hooks something solid, that is if nothing folds up first. Should be interesting.</font>


I noticed that tonight! I didn't realize that the long rams don't hold the blade from moving forward. I was thinking about that tonight and might either use springs to pull the blade into the rams, or just have chain/hooks to prevent ram extension.

[Dawai]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v85/ibewgypsie/truckcrane.jpg

Left out the picture of it "welded" to the bumper.. yeah, it shouldn't work. The braces are tack welded in too. I was drinking, I needed to load something I could not pick up, there you are, Redneck engineering at it's finest.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Millman:
Adrian, excellent craftsmanship, especially on the blade. Sure you don't want to beef up the framework like these guys said?It should work fine for 1-3 inches. for about 50 ft. If the blade survives; how much do you want for what's left?? Ha! Overall, great job!

</font>

It was a very fast 2.5 day build. I built the entire blade in one day, I spent one night building the pivoting system and amrs, and one day building the truck mount.

[BillH]

Dave, that does look handy as hell.

[Your Old Dog]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by 3 Phase Lightbulb:

What specifically do you think will fail? </font>

Adrian, I would expect the first problem to show up at the mount to the truck. Commercial mounts are about 24" apart and much heavier material. From the photo's your mount appears to be about 1/2 half of that. The lighter material used there will be severly stressed. Once you've made your first pass, the mount will be subjected to much differant stresses.

I'd look for the second problem with the blade up if you hit a bump. I can see a small vertical riser going from the mount to the trucks radiator region but no gusset or support under that riser. It may fold there if you hit a bump with the blade up.

I think your blade will hold up fine for blacktop use. The geometry of having the blade tilt is only a concern in so far as the cutting edge where it meets the snow should be trying to get under the snow a little so as to promote the rolling action of the snow and not push or ride up on top of the snow.

Doc Nickel, Go near my truck and I'll shoot you dead http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif I plowed 6 commercial lots with a Chevy Blazer for 5 years and trashed the Blazer doing it but the Western Blade only showed wear on the paint http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

And Adrian, I wish I could post movies like you do, I'd show you a movie of just how well my new wood hauling doly works going up the 5 stairs in the garage! http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif It was a project that pales the Hoover Dam Project ! I envy you your ambition and drive.



[This message has been edited by Your Old Dog (edited 12-29-2005).]

[Luke55]

3 phase sorry I think I blow your balloon

[topct]

I would go slowly, very slowly.

ANY change of the position of the blade and you could get out a see whats going on.



------------------
Gene

[Dawai]

Yeah, My point being, somethings that "should not work" sometimes works.
Adrian tried his best, lets see how the story unfurls.

I wonder more than "if" it works, how hard it is to connect, remove, lights above it, neighbors that stand there begging, seeing the driveway at all in a "world of white". I remember hearing someone say I need to flag the antennae on my car so the plow would see it??? Meaning earthmover.. (Montana) I guess that is why I returned to this part of the world.

I want a one ton front axle for my old flatbed, a divorced transfer case, (or ford) and a COE chevy cab from the 50's. Perhaps then a dozer blade as a ram, Problem is I lack the ability to make it all happen right now. MOney and energy. If I can't find a COE cab? I'll like to build a diamond plate "rover-humvee-tank" indestructible body.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by David E Cofer:
Yeah, My point being, somethings that "should not work" sometimes works.
Adrian tried his best, lets see how the story unfurls.
</font>

Actually if I tried my best I would still be building the blade. I tried my best to make a snow plow as quickly as possible. I'm sure there will be "Version 2" next year, but I like to complete projects that are clearly not perfect vs. never completing a "perfect" project.

-Adrian

[Evan]

You have a good point Adrian. I expect mods will be needed to your snowplow, I had to modify mine a bit.

However sometimes building the project is the end in itself. I like to build things and take a lot of enjoyment from the process even if the end result doesn't have much use. I also build things because the item is useful and needed. In those cases I usually don't waste much time on pretty, just make it work.

[Wirecutter]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by David E Cofer:
I was drinking, I needed to load something I could not pick up, there you are, Redneck engineering at it's finest.</font>

That's pretty cool, really. Redneck, shmedneck - if it breaks, just stay out of the way. Better than breakin' your body, right? Seems like you've had enough of that.

I've always liked the idea of mounting heavier tools to a truck - my favorite is the bench vice on the bumper of a welding truck. But no, I don't have such a thing, and I can't weld anything to the plastic bumper of my Nissan...

[Evan]

Beats lifting stuff by hand.

http://vts.bc.ca/pics/hoist1.jpg

[tattoomike68]

I bet it works just fine, hell he might have to throw a ton of sand bags in the back, chain up and let air out of the tires to get enough traction to break anything. kind of a safty factor right there.

With a nice shop like adrian has building the bigger better part would be a piece of cake if a part was to break.

At the rate we get snow here in walla walla washington that plow would last me a lifetime. You would think we get more snow up here but we dont, its a desert.

[Dawai]

Imagine that snow plow on evans old 4wd come running up behind you on the interstate? Ha.. Almost as bad as the terrorist truckers that tailgate.

[Evan]

Uh huh. I sure would be terrified if I saw me roaring along in my 50 hp Rover at the blistering speed of 45 mph...

In high gear it still has a 5.1 to 1 final drive ratio.

[plastikosmd]

Well gettin a N.Easter tonight from what I heard, Boston is lookin at some snow, not a terrible amount but enough to test your set-up. BTW the gift worked out perfect adrian, thank you
scott

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

I've already got a problem and I haven't even tried the plow yet.. My driveway currently has sections of ice that built up from the last storm. I was expecting all of the ice to melt before I used the plow so I'll have to keep the blade 2-3" above the ground to avoid the ice.

I didn't design it to handle anything except snow ontop of blacktop so hopefully we get a lot of snow that I can clear (I'll plow everything above 2-3"). Maybe I'll try dragging the blade to clear the remaining 2-3"...

-Adrian

[madman]

Nice workmanship but not strong enough. I built parts for my friend who does snowplows. I was never amazed to see what came in snapped broken off sheared off bent to rat**** and so on. Just had a brand new loader blade in yesterday. Its the type with hydraulic wings that extend. It was 3 weeks old weve had not much snow and the welds on the swing scraper were sheared right away. Bottom line is they take a beating. Yours does look nice.

[cuemaker]

Or Adrian, you could throw some salt on that ice spot and break it up........

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

There is a section of my driveway that water runs across when snow starts to melt in my yard. It also causes ice to build up and it's about 3" thick right now. There are some holes in the ice and you can see water running inside of the holes. When I drive over it with my truck the tires drop into some holes, and also sometimes break new holes so it's really a mess. The ice seems to be building up from the top, and melting/erroding away from running water under it. I might try to break it up manually if it doesn't go away itself.

-Adrian

[BillH]

Sounds like you need a plow that can take on the ice.

[Evan]

You need a grader with a toothed blade to break up ice and it's hard on the pavement. There isn't a truck blade that will break it up. The idea is to avoid breaking up the blade.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

Has anyone tried O/A cutting ice? http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//smile.gif

[Evan]

Adrian,

I've tried nearly everthing. This was my driveway last year:

http://vts.bc.ca/pics/driveway1.jpg

Water has an amazing heat capacity and melting it with a torch is like pissing in the ocean. It doesn't make a difference. I made a big steel tooth that I can fasten to the front of my blade and drag backwards to help break it up under the 300lb weight of the blade. Trouble is it will also lay a pretty good groove in the pavement if I had some.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

I was thinking about cutting 1 foot by 1 foot by 3 inch blocks of ice from my driveway and just picking up the blocks sand throwing them to the side.. I can either use a big pick and break the chunks up that way, or I was wondering if I could quickly cut chucks out with my O/A cutting head.

[Evan]

You might as well try the torch but it isn't worth the gas. It's amazing how slow ice melts with even a tiger torch on it. Don't cook your pavement.

[BillH]

It was mentioned before, how about Salt? There ya go, another project, a salt spreader for your pickup truck.

[lynnl]

Use fertilizer, rather than salt.

[Evan]

Trouble with fertilizer is it makes the weeds grow faster http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//frown.gif

[lynnl]

Then be selective in the weeds you grow. Then you won't mind.

[Your Old Dog]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by 3 Phase Lightbulb:

Has anyone tried O/A cutting ice? http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//smile.gif </font>

Don't know about O/A but I can tell you with some assurance you'd be wasteing your time with propane. I had what was described as the mother of all icsicles (sp http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif ) hanging from our roof. I did the propane thing for about 10 minutes before I decided it wasn't working. I then when to an axe, too slow and finally a chainsaw when it occured to me if it broke it could crush me under the weight. I ended up shading the skinny part from the sun so it would always have the support of it's bottom till the top part thawed. It hung from the roof in front of a very large window!

Evan's right, ain't no plow commerical or ortherwise, going to do any serious damage to ice. Use rock salt. Much cheaper and easier than O/A, axes and chainsaws !

[Rustybolt]

DO NOT PUT SALT IN THE BED OF YOUR PICKUP! Even in bags, if there's a small tear, it will beguin to eat away your truck. If you haven't seen it, it's amazing how fast steel rots away when exposed to salt.

Adrian. Take on the snow in little bites. Even the pros do it that way. Saves the frame of the truck.Ive seen frames bent when there was no damge to the plow. Better the plow bends than your truck frame.

[aboard_epsilon]

"Better the plow bends than your truck frame."

There is a big possibility of that happening http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

all the best.mark

[This message has been edited by aboard_epsilon (edited 01-03-2006).]

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

So I bought 4 of these Meyer Trip springs and I'll start thinking about a new A-frame and truck frame setup.

http://www.northerntool.com/images/product/images/10394_lg.gif

I've looked at a few trip designs and it seems the Fisher just let the cutting edge trip? Also, of the Meyer blades, it's hard to see if the entire blade trips (pivots) where the A-frame connects? What about the angle rams, those must have to pivot too?

Does anyone have and good close up pictures of their trip/pivot points?

-Adrian


[This message has been edited by 3 Phase Lightbulb (edited 01-03-2006).]

[Evan]

Here is what mine looks like. I used to have a shock absorber in the middle to the pivot frame and blade but it broke off and I didn't bother to replace it. I put a fixed link there when I want to push dirt.

There are some rather crappy welds on the angle drive arm but that happens when you have to do a quick repair at -30.

Not tripped down:

http://vts.bc.ca/pics/rblade1.jpg

Standing on the end to trip it over.

http://vts.bc.ca/pics/rblade2.jpg

How it is attached to the truck. The Rover makes it easy because the box frame rails stick out the front. I use an electric camper jack to change the angle.

http://vts.bc.ca/pics/rblade3.jpg

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

Thanks Evan. Does it flip over that easily with your foot? I'm wondering how much tension I should dial mine in for. I guess not enough is better than too much.

-Adrian

[BillH]

I should clarify about my statement on taking on the ice, yes, use those springs so the plow does not self destruct when it hits something it cant move. And yes, dont put salt on any truck parts you dont wish to rust away. It sure does a good job of melting ice though. NY uses salt on the roads, pressure washer would be a good investment.

[Evan]

You're welcome Adrian. Yes, it flips pretty easy when pushed from the top. However, it takes a lot more force to get it started from the bottom because the lever arm is so short. The pivot points are only 2 to 3 inches from the bottom of the blade. That also gives it a sort of over center effect because of the angle of the springs.
Here is a little better shot of it.

http://vts.bc.ca/pics/rblade4.jpg

[This message has been edited by Evan (edited 01-03-2006).]

[Brian_h]

The Myers plows work just like Evan's. But it is hard to tell what is going on at a quick glance.....or looking at a picture on the net.

[cam m]

For cutting ice, warmed water and a pressure washer is probably faster and less expensive than any flame device.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by cam m:
For cutting ice, warmed water and a pressure washer is probably faster and less expensive than any flame device.</font>

Actually, I bet cold water would work good too.. When I first got my pressure washer (little gas powered 2800 PSI unit) I was trying out the different nozels on my driveway. The nozel that shoots a single stream was cutting groves into my driveway so I stopped using that one http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//smile.gif

I bet that could cut into ice nicely.. I bet I'll probably need to wear a sand blasting hood as I expect water and bits of ice will be shooting right back at me.

Well, we never got any snow so I guess that's a good thing because the ice in the driveway is really bad now. When I do finally plow with it, I think I'll keep the blade at least 3" above the blacktop.

-Adrian

[PHiers]

Ok Adrian, back to the top. Did you ever have any damn snow? How did it work? Was the people that said it would "fall apart in furries" correct? Or did it do the job? Inquiring minds "kinda" want to know! http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

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Paul in NE Ohio

[This message has been edited by PHiers (edited 01-18-2006).]

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

No snow yet.. I'll post a video as soon as we get the next snow storm.

-Adrian

[PHiers]

Snow on the way, sent from NE Ohio! Ok, not really, supposed to be 45 here tomorrow! I just love this 'global warming" LOL
( I know what is coming soon)


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Paul in NE Ohio

[Your Old Dog]

Sorry Adrian, I haven't kept up with this post. I have a meyer's and will get you some shots of the trip spring arrangement when the opportunity presents itself. At the moment I'm laid up with a bad cold and home from work. Heavy winds and snow outside so it'll be a few days but I'll get some shots for you.