After this past weekends snowstorm in the northeast, I am considering the new Fisher Homesteader series snowplow for my Expedition to plow my family's properties, no commercial work. I'm looking for comments from owners with this snowplow or other brands on their Expedition as to how well the plow and the Expedition performs.

 

All I know is the owners' manual says "do not use your expedition as a snowplow". .....................

 

You are gonna kill the expy with the plow. If you need to do plowing, get an old jeep, for F-250 or 350 to plow with. It will do a much better job, and it won't wreck your expy. Better yet, if you have a tractor you could get one for the tractor.

 

I agree with 'mistercmk'. When I lived up north (South Dakota), I saw lots of 1/2 ton trucks totally ruined by having plows mounted on them. The frame and suspension is simply just not designed for the added weight (even a light weight plow).

Do yourself a favor and find an old beater truck for under a thousand dollars and use it for a plow. I would hate for you to see the investment you made in an Expy be ruined by plowing snow with it.

Good luck!

 

Put in another vote against using the Expy as a plow. If you look at a snowplow package for a truck, it includes super-heavy springs up front, huge transmission/engine oil coolers, and other goodies. The only way you could get away with plowing in the Expy (and even this is a bad idea) is get one of those really lightweight non-fancy fiberglass plows. Even then, though, plowing puts huge amounts of stress on the transmission.

Dakota Viking's got the right idea - find an old truck.

XXL

 

I'm going to disagree a bit here. I think for your normal, light-duty snowplowing, the Expedition would do fine. There are no differences in the suspension construction between a F150 with the plow package and an Expy, except for the spring rate and the shocks. The ball joints, bearings, etc., are all the same. The engine and tranny are both more than adequate, as well--and if you have the tow package, then you've got engine and transmission oil coolers already. The biggest issues are in how you treat the truck. Make full stops between shifting from Drive to Reverse. Use 4Low when pushing very heavy snow. Go easy on the truck--no running starts, etc. The extra cost of buying, maintaining, licensing and insuring a 'plow only' vehicle doesn't make sense unless you start doing commercial plowing. Use some common sense, and you'll be fine.

I live in Naperville, IL, and down the street from me is NICOR, a large natural gas company. They have a 1999 Expedition XLT 4wd with a Western 7.5' ProPlow (steel) on it that they use every year to plow their lot. Their lot is probably 40 acres or so, and they use one wheel loader, one loader tractor, and the Expedition. When it snows, the Expy is in service for stretches up to 30 hours at a time--and I've talked to their maintenance guys...they've never had a serious problem with it. The only problems they've had: burned up an alternator last winter, and they overheated the truck the first winter because they put cardboard in front of the radiator--but no damage was done. I seriously wouldn't hesitate to put a plow on my Expy, especially a plow like the one you're discussing. I don't need one, though, since we currently have an F-250 with an 8' plow, and two farm tractors running 12' and 13' plows (we plow for the City).

Again--use a bit of common sense, inspect the serpentine belt frequently, use a good battery, and monitor your gauges. Don't ram piles of snow, don't get running starts. I'd be happy to give you some more pointers as well. But I wouldn't fear running a plow. Again, the minimal problems that NICOR has had, especially given their extensive use, support this point.

 

FarmLaw may be right, but IMO, only for the 5.4/4R100 equipped model. There is no way that I would want to subject the 4R70W to the stress of plowing.

 

Farmlaw -
If he was able to pick up an old truck just for plowing, I wouldn't think he would need to register nor insure it if it is not gonna leave his property.

 

Thanks for all the responses.
My initial thoughts were along the same lines as FarmLaw. For years I had an International Scout with a 4 cyl engine which I used for plowing 4 driveways (smallest fits 4 cars, largest fits 20 cars). I used some common sense while plowing and never had any serious problems. Unfortunately three years ago I finally junked the Scout because the body was shot and bought an Ariens 11 hp machine which takes too long plus needs to be transported to each property. I am not keen on the idea of having a beater for plowing only as I have space limitations to store an extra vehicle, then there is the extra insurance cost which is high in MA, where I live, plus each additional vehicle requires maintenance, which is difficult enough to keep up as is because of time limitations. Also the other factor that I have to deal with is here in MA the vehicles rust out before they fail mechanically.
After working with the snowblower this past weekend for about 10 hours, I saw an Expedition with one of the new plows mounted, came home, went online and found it interesting when I learned that Fisher had developed a new line of snowplows specifically for the light duty pickups and SUV's.

 

Because it states in the owners manual to not add a plow, most insurance agencies will not cover the vehicle if a plow is attached. Better check with your insurance company.

 

Again, some may have had different experiences than I have had...but Tyger, at least in my experience in litigating cases with insurance companies, they cannot refuse coverage because the vehicle was being used in a way prohibited by the owners manual or if the vehicle was being used in violation of the law. The only way this would be possible would be if the insurance policy contained a rider expressly indicating this provision. Moreover, the provision would be against state law in most, if not all states, since the exception would eliminate your mandatory insurance coverage in a great many circumstances. Warranty coverage may be affected, however, if you break a product that the dealer links to the operation of the plow.

If you do decide to do commercial plowing of any sort, you will need to get an extra policy or rider on your existing policy to cover the commercial activities.

 

I rather keep my Expy without the "bulldozer" face and pay $20.00 to my landscaper to plow my driveway. My truck is not a "plower". Why risk-it, IMHO...

 

The only reason I would even consider a plow for the Exp is that plow manufacturers such as Fisher and Western have developed new plows that are rugged yet much lighter in weight than the heavy duty versions they sell and are offered specifically for the lightweights and they do not recommmend them for commercial plowing. I can't think of a manufacturer that would knowingly sell a product that would leave them exposed legally.
In one manufactuer's advertisement, the following statement appears: "The ... complies with Federal standards and vehicle manufacturers' weight ratings".
If I was plowing commercially, I would not consider a vehicle lighter than a F350 for the winters we have here.

 

I was going to install a blade on my 98, but after hearing all the discussion I realized that placing a blade on my expy will not be worth it. Be sides the fact the last time I pushed snow a rock creaked my windshield with the blade off the ground. Go figure!
My old eye sore (blazer) will have to hang around.

 

I know that this is an old thread, but I just found this site.

I have a plow on my 99 Expy; works great. I have the trailer package, so I have the larger alternator and tranny cooler. I added a tranny temp guide and Timbrens.

I'd attach a picture, but I don't see how to here.