Hello everyone,

I bought my 1990 F250 XLT Lariat, 5.8L V8 a few months ago and have been putting in some serious work to get in road worthy. I hope to make it my everyday driver with the addition of plowing my driveway in the winters. Currently at the shop getting my inspection sticker today.

I'm new to plows and was hoping someone could help me understand what to look for while shopping for used plows. Craigslist never gives enough information so I was hoping to get a better understanding of what plow/plow mounts work with my truck. All the plow websites provide new plow information, but I'm hoping to save some money by going used (probably a 7.5 or 8 footer). It would be nice to be able to not have the plow lights and frame permanently mounted to the front because the truck will continue to need work and the plow lights will be in the way. I only plan to plow my own driveway so I'm hoping with the addition of a 200A alternator, the stock suspension will be adequate. Brand new front shocks.

Any information on what to look for would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Dusty

 

You do NOT want to try and make a plow truck into a daily driver. Period. But I'll leave it at that.

 

It’s going to happen. At least I’m going to try. So any advice on plows much appreciated.

 

Find a used Quick Hitch snow plow and then find the mounts that go on your frame. picture here for example. There are different brands of plows. You will need to match plow with mount for your truck.

https://snowplows.hiniker.com/truck-...nting-systems/

 

I had a 1986 F150 that was my daily driver, and pushed snow in the winter. Drive it for few years till someone pulled out in front of me and I hit her with the plow on. If driving long distances for work your better off dropping the plow. Gets to be a pain in the butt unless you can store plow inside and just drive up to it to put back on.

My 1989 F250 pushed snow for a good 7 years before cab rotted to far out and something let go in the motor. Loved pushing with a 9 1/2 ' plow. But had 6 brake drums off school buss in the bed for extra weight. You might have troubles finding good frame mount and setup for a 1990 F 250. I always liked Meyers plows due to lot of them around the area so getting parts or extra items pretty easy.

 

thanks for the info. Luckily my commute to work is only 10 miles. Luckily i do have a place to store indoors. I do think I can make it work. I dont plan to sell my current daily driver until I can find a plow and see how big of a pain it is to take plow on/off.

Is by best bet to buy a new frame mount? Then shop for a used plow? Anyone have advice on a frame mount (even new)?

thanks

 

Find the plow first and then get the mount. If it is older plow the mounts may not be available anymore then you would have to get someone to make it.

 

Yea pretty much what He said. For your truck finding a new truck mount is going to be tough ... Im willing to bet. I had issues finding a truck mount for my 97 F250 HD last year. Truck is still in the barn apart, plow mount is waiting to be installed once I finish fixing ALL the things wrong with the truck.

Small driving tip. With the plow on, driving down the road most new to plowing people will carry the blade with it angled to the LEFT >\ They do this as it gives more room to turn. When you see someone carrying the blade to the RIGHT >/ that's someone who has plowed for a while. Carrying the blade to the right give you less room to turn however should your blade catch a snow drift on the side of the road, with it angled to the right you slide off the drift and kind of toss the snow off to the side. Angled to the left and the blade digs in to the drift, if your lucky stops the truck, but most of the time it will spin the truck sideways. Be safe out there! First timers should drive about some before snow fall to understand how much extra room a 7.5' to 9' wide blade takes up.

Look about and see what plow is popular in your area. Check with local parts stores and see what spare parts they carry. Hoses, valves, pumps, motors fail at the worst of times. If you have a small local parts store Not a big chain like auto zone or advanced see if they rebuild plow pumps. Some of the NAPA stores do. depends on the owner. Find out what brand has some support in your area ( parts, or service ) Western and Meyers are the two main ones used in my area. There's blizzard, snow way, Curtis, Snow Dog. Snow Dog's are big money but most are stainless skinned plows. The newer westerns are kind of a drive in, pop couple pins, and plug in big harness. Finding a mount for a 1990 might be a issue. Once more look about town and see who's selling parts and or service and see what brand there supporting. Maybe you can find a place the installs and has a older used set up that will fit your truck.

 

This is a place that will ship. Shipping will NOT be cheap but will kind of give you a idea what to be looking for? This should be like 6 pages of new and used ford truck plow mounts.

https://www.storksplows.com/plow-mou...truck_type=127

 

god that reminds me, my 1980gmc is a plow truck and its got that same length of a plow and its really too large for the sector and a frame....

but i know itsb een fixed a lot by my grandpa, and i know WHY its so large. Its off a ****ing medium duty truck that did municipal cleanup, he just reskinned and put it on a smaller vehicle, a squares, setup. when it inevitably wore out from not being practical or him chaining the sucker and plowing the ****ing yards dirt with it,so he made his own designed off originals. but a couple flaws. so i have a huge *** blade that is kinkiing my mount

definitely stick to a nice designed unit

@SFaulken i think it depends on how it was used. a 2wd with a very light plow and kept leveled properly and used for during day parking lot cleaning will be far better than uncle joe down the rosad who kept the blade on his old bronco (why was it on a bronco is also a great question) all year round till he beat the **** out of it and leti t sit till next.

 

There’s a few options for plows out there, best I can suggest is maybe signing up for an account on ‘plowsite’ and start reading there, they might even have a classified section…. Might be hard to find one with a frame mount for that year now.

If you are just doing your own driveway, a straight blade is probably the easiest, lightest, and least expensive route to go. The lighter the set up, the easier it is on the machine. The heavier it is, the better you can plow with it and back blade, it’s a bit of a trade off. You will have to decide depending on the type of snow you’re dealing with in your area.

Sometimes, if your in a real heavy snow fall area that gets 8-12” of heavy wet snow, or more in one snow fall, it’s best to use a snow blower, roughly blow 75% of it, then plow to clean up.. depends on big of an area you are doing too.. And don’t forget, you need an area to push all the snow. Generally speaking, where ever you put your first snow banks, is where they are for the winter once they freeze, and then the rest of the winter they encroach on your area as you can only push up to the last spot, unless you have a way (loader/backhoe etc) to move snow piles or frozen banks.

Being able to remove it, a quick connect set up is probably best for a daily driver. Driving around with them is hard on them. Hard on the plow in the salt, hard on the front end etc. Lots of people do it, just hard on them is all. Expect front end Mtce. And if your driving around with them, expect less airflow through your rad/coolers.. Edit. It is generally speaking hard on the whole truck, not just the front end - transmissions, differentials, everything in the drivetrain… back and forth, back and forth.. etc etc.

As far as 2wd, I can only assume yours is 4x4, personally I wouldn’t bother with a 2wd plow setup.

If you have a garage to keep the plow in, I’d recommend connecting and disconnecting when not needed. I like snow machine dollies, two under the blade and one under the jack. Keeps the plow mobile in the garage, you can roll it around where ever you want out of the way. Keep your wiring connectors lubed up with some dialectic grease. Personally, I usually just put the plow on in the fall and take it off in the spring, and use electrical tape on the connectors, keeps the salt etc out of the wiring, but I don’t use mine for a daily driver.

Keep your eyes open in your local classified/Craigslist and see what pops up. Personally, I wouldn't buy the plow with out the frame mount, you can, but might be a very expensive way to go if you have to have a mount fabricated/built for you…but I don’t know your circumstances either. I haven’t priced them out in years, but you might be able to pick up a new light weight Meyer or something along those lines for the cost of a used HD set up.. but again, I don’t know what your plowing out - small suburban driveway or 500 acre farm with multiple driveways and rough access roads?..

As far as suspension, alternators… all depends on what you end up using. Stock will probably suffice for a small driveway, and removing it to drive around daily.


Good luck with it.

 

for a F250 you want at least a 8 foot plow, 8.5 is better.
7.5 plow you will be running tires on the plowed windrow when angled.
i daily drove my 88 for 20 years and 350,000 miles, and plowed roads all winter. the secret is to wash the truck and plow off when done each plow event.
you want a good heavy plow too. the cheap plow do not last.
i ran Meyer commercial grade plows for 35 years, the past 5 years i am running a western ultramount 2 8.5 plow. takes all of 30 seconds to put on the truck.

 

Swap to a 3G 130 amp alternator. More than enough output for running a plow so long as you don't plan on putting all kinds of lights/stereo equipment on too.

Mixed feelings on plowing with a daily driver. On one hand, at least your plow truck will be well maintained and not sit for half the year, on the other hand it's a lot of extra wear and abuse on your daily driver. I find it better to find a junk truck with a good plow and run the truck into the ground, then move the plow to another truck. Tom's advice of washing the truck after every plowing is about the only way to keep the truck in good shape for any amount of time.

Around this area, there are a bunch of Western Unimounts for sale that are in varying condition. The mounts from those plows in particular are fairly easy to modify from one truck to the next. We just transferred one from a late 90s chevy to a 2000s F250 last winter. Not much work.

 

I bought a used plow for my ‘89 from a friend. It came off a 250 so I traded in the 250 mount for the 150 mount and had Stork’s install the plow and wiring.


After high school I worked at a service station where the owner used early and then late model Broncos to plow driveways and his lot. He used them because of the small turning radius. Those trucks pretty much only got used to plow so the plow stayed on year round. That didn’t matter since they weren’t used much 3/4 of the year.