Hey All,

The last time I "plowed" snow was as a teenager, briefly, with a small, Massey-Ferguson tractor with a front-end loader. I've never done it with a pickup.

I have a 1997 F-250 HDSC LB, with an 8' Western Pro-Plow. The truck has a ZF 5 speed and manual hubs. And it looks like tomorrow will be my first opportunity.

I'm just doing our own driveway(s) and various areas of the lawn, for the dog to run in. Unfortunately, the P.O. removed the "shoes" or skids (the two, round thingies on the bottom of the plow) because he said he can do a better job without them and he said that they were for "for beginners" or some such.

Except that I'm a beginner....

The driveway is a little broken, the lawn has some gravel in one area, and the driveway is fairly steep for one half of it--it's about 150' long.

I was considering staying in low range until I get the hang of it, and possibly plowing in 2nd gear. Is there a problem with this? (I know to stay off of dry pavement with the hubs engaged). This is my first Supercab, it has an 8' bed and the P.O.'s snowmobile manufacturer logo-sticker blocks some of my vision out the rear window, so I thought low range would be safer, while I'm learning--the truck is 24' long with the plow attached--LOL. (I will be removing that sticker when it warms up outside.) And there are a fair amount of obstacles around our place....

Any tips/anecdotes/"Do's and Don't's" will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

BigSix1

 

I don't have too much to offer since the only thing I have ever plowed with was the front bucket of a backhoe. But congrats to you for admitting you aren't a plowing expert just because you have a four wheel drive with a plow on it. Too many people around me think that - including many plowing for the city.

My advice - take it slow until you get the hang of it. Keep the engine revs up some to avoid lugging your motor and never try to back-drag the driveway like my well-intentioned neighbor did to me while I was away. All you will do is pack it down and make a mess. And make sure you know where the obstacles are.

Good luck with the storm. We are supposed to get 10" tonight.

 

Having plowed a lot with both tractor mounted front end loaders and payloaders before using a pickup, the biggest problem I ran into is how much less capable the truck is than the big machines. You'll get stuck really easily and the truck can't take nearly the abuse the other machinery takes (makes sense, but when you're sitting behind the wheel it's easy to forget).

I would actually avoid low range, especially when plowing unpaved surfaces as if the plow hits a stone or gets hung up in the dirt your wheels will be more likely to just spin than have the truck hunker down and peel 4" off your lawn (I totally did that to myself earlier this season getting cute by the wood pile). I only use low range if I'm pushing a really big pile of snow up a hill or something. As with the tractor-loader set up, keep your clutch foot hovering over the clutch pedal when the plow is down so you can clutch really fast when you hit something unexpected.

When plowing off the driveway without shoes I like to put the clutch in just as the blade's leaving the hard surface and pick the plow up just until it starts to come off the ground then start pushing again. This leaves a little snow on the ground but is good insurance against tearing up the lawn. How heavy is your plow? I have a big Fisher and it's heavy enough to tear through the dirt even when the ground seems frozen.

Just take it slow, experiment where you can and you'll learn pretty quickly. The key is practice, as with anything else. Good luck!

 

I would agree with staying out of low range unless its really heavy. Being that the area is broken and gravel and turf I would really think hard about using a set of shoes to keep the plow from digging. If it was a solid surface (black top or concrete) not really an issue sans shoes.

The plowing I did was done with either with loader or 1 ton 2 wheel drive truck. Had plenty of weight over the rear wheels for traction.

On a loader kept the bucket fairly flat to the surface and kept the loader in float to prevent any digging.

 

Awesome!!! Another chance to throw up a pic of my truck!!!



I use low-range anyway, but because of the big tires and high gears (35's and 3.55's), but with 31's I always used high-range, and 1st gear (with the 5-speed) is perfect.Unless your on ice and need momentum, there's no point in barrel-assing down the drive unless you like watching the snow fly everwhere when you hit the bank.

The pads you speak of are to keep the cutting edge off the ground a tad, but since you don't have them, any loose gravel will end up in the snow banks, which are usually on the lawn, which means you'll hafta rake a big mess come spring. My driveway's paved so I remove the shoes to scrape right down, and although it will eventually wear the cutting edge out faster, I like having a bare driveway in the winter. Once I get the actual driveway done I put the shoes back on and push the snow out back. I also leave them on for my parents gravel driveway. But once everything is frozen enough it shouldn't be much of a problem.

And I usually have my sled on back, so I just use my mirrors, and keep the ice scraped off. I only have 1 working back up light,too, so just back up slow and watch your mirrors. And be especially careful when backing out into the road

Um......

Don't ever hit a bank unless the plow is on the gound, or it'll ride up it and there you'll be, stuck.....

Start on one side and angle the blade and work across (common sense stuff, really)

If you blades angled all the way to push the banks back, your tires will be oh so close to the bank so if you back up other than straight you'll probably end up stuck.....

That's all I can think of for now......other than if you are stuck lowering the blade and angleing it left and right into the bank might help push your truck backward....

Have fun!!


PS....If you do get rambuncious and like to ram the banks (it is fun, I admit) be sure to clean the snow out of your grill to keep things cool.

 

I have plowed commercially for going on ten years, using equipment ranging from backhoes to bobcats to 1 ton pickup trucks. First thing, get some weight in the bed of the truck. The blade is very heavy, and acts to remove weight from the rear wheels, which causes a loss of traction. I usually have a de-icing spray rig in the beds of my trucks, but this year the truck I am using is filled with gravel. Never, ever use heavy loose objects like wood rounds or concrete blocks. You get in a wreck, that stuff will come right through the back window. Tires are important. I use studded snows, but if you don't want to spend the money, a set of chains on the back tires works fine. Never chain all four wheels, causes too much binding. Don't just run bare all terrain tires, you'll spin way too much, which ruins tires and stresses the drivetrain.

One very important thing to consider is where you will pile the snow, and realizing the pile gets bigger and you run out of room real quick. You need to learn to stack the snow with the blade. It takes practice, but you are basically pushing the snow to the pile, and raising the blade as you hit the pilt, pushing the snow up the pile. It saves a lot of room, but if you do it wrong, you can sink the blade in the pile and get stuck. This is why weight in the bed, and chains or studded tires are needed, to pull yourself out of a stack. Otherwise, it's shovel city.

If you have good traction, you can push on low range, but it is not necessary unless the snow is deep and wet. It also can cause the blade to dig into the ground easier than if you are going faster. In your situation, you need to learn to unweight the blade. It isn't hard, just drop it, and then blip the control to pull the blade up slightly. You'll see the front of the truck drop a little. That should be enough to ride the blade over the grass and gravel without digging in, but if the lawn is uneven, you might dig in no matter what you do. Once you have a froxen base, then you can fully drop the blade.

Make life easier by plowing down hill, unless you have awesome traction. Be careful though, if you push downhill into a pile and get stuck, it is much harder to get unstuck while trying to back uphill. If you are angling the blade to push the snow to the side, you need to start really wide, as the driveway will get narrower with each pass. Then you have to go back and push out at an angle, working your way up the driveway to make it wider. Since you are only dealing with 150 feet, just push it all to the end and pile it.

This will ultimately just take practice, but youll get it. Just don't slam the truck. If you have ever seen those guys that are just bashing their truck around trying to be fast, those are the retarded ones that get to fix the cracked and bent frame of their truck just so they can save 2 minutes. Nice and easy, take your time, and you won't kill your truck in one season. The truck I am using right now is a 91 1 ton GMC with almost 200,000 miles on the original drivetrain, a 454 with manual tranny. It still works very well because I am gentle with it, and I am plowing roadways, huge parking lots, driveways, for 14 hours straight every time. Our other truck, a 95 Ford F350 is almost dead because the guy that runs it is a basher and he isn't finishing the jobs any faster than I am. Good luck, and have fun with it.

 

dang i don't miss snow at all glad i have moved south good luck lots of good advice my fav was keeping the weight in the back to compensate for the weight up front good luck

 

Yeah, it sucks, but we have made over $50,000 since the beginning of December. We are up in Northern Idaho, and it has snowed almost 7 feet so far this winter. Good times....

 

7 feet?! NICE!!! white gold.

to BIGSIX1, even though Ive never plowed Id say do what everybody else said. slow and steady wins the race. better to be done late than get hurt. good luck.

on a side note, anyone ever use the lexan plastic plows the got now. idk about that, i dont trust plastic as a structural material, even if a quater inch of it will stop a bullet. call me old school, but id prefer metal. sry if its off topic. figured id ask.

my 2 cents.

 

The plastic plows are light duty, okay for a small driveway. It would be destroyed in one day of commercial operation.

 

yeah figured that. lol.

 

Wow, you guys! Thank you for so many insightful, informative, well-written posts!

First, on a sidenote: I was pleasantly surprised to see one or more mentions of using the clutch. For some reason, I was under the impression that most people who plow have automatics. From my informal research when looking for this (manual trans) truck, I’ve concluded that less than 1 in 10 Ford pickups have a standard trans. Not to hijack my own post, but I’d be interested in how many of you plowing posters have manual transmissions….

But back to the issue at hand—snow plowing tips! All of your posts were just great, and very helpful, so I don’t want anyone I don’t mention, below (which is most of you) to feel slighted if I mention a few of you by name because, again, you were all really helpful.

Having said that:

Chevenstein—to answer your question, it’s a pretty heavy plow, IMO. It’s a Western “Pro-Plow,” and it’s a full 8’, which the P.O. informs me is necessary with a SC, as the additional length of the SC means that the rear wheel would run outside the plowed path in a turn, if the plow were less than a full 8’. On top of that, the Pro-Plow comes with triple “ride-over” springs (not sure what they’re actually called) and a shock absorber, so I think this plow is pretty heavy, compared to some. It’s a Unimount setup that you only have to connect the electrical leads to—the hyd. lines and pump all stay with the plow, when you remove it.

I will also follow your suggestion about declutching, prior to leaving the pavement, and easing back into the push, after raising the blade slightly.

Similarly, I will follow the many here who have suggested not "slamming" the truck, or otherwise abusing it. While I enjoy getting frisky with motorvehicles, where safe and appropriate, (I'm a motorsports fan, as probably many here are) I am rather conservative with equipment, generally, as I don't enjoy performing unnecessary repair$. Using equipment for its intended purpose is fine, but abusing equipment makes me sick, generally, so I appreciate everyone's tips on how not to do this, while plowing. I plan to take it as slow and easy as I can....

Waynaferd—I had wondered if I could use the plow to push out of a snowbank, if stuck, or if the “blow off” valves would blow off and not allow the angle cylinders to push hard enough to possibly assist in getting myself unstuck. So I appreciate knowing that, if I happen to get stuck near a bank, that I might be able to use the angle feature to get unstuck. Of course, I’ll try to avoid getting stuck in the first place—LOL.

Jason—You confirmed my hunch about the benefits of trying to plow downhill, where possible, but I hear your warning about it being much easier to get stuck this way—I was assuming that was the case, and I will try to be especially careful as, currently, I just have “all season” tires, two open diffs, and no weight in the back—unfortnately, I even have the tailgate off as I’m doing some rust-preventative painting on it.

I also appreciate your tip, and those of others, on “unweighting” the blade, prior to plowing the lawn, some of which is uneven. I will do as you say and “blip” the lift, just enough to cause the nose to squat a little—obviously I will have to experiment with all of this, as has been suggested.

On a related note: I plan to have my girlfriend watcing, on her cellphone, with me using my Bluetooth headset, when I do the lawn plowing—that way, hopefully she will be able to tell me if I start rolling up 4” strips of the green stuff—LOL. I am concerned about this because the P.O., who is my neighbor, came by last storm to plow me out, as he knew I have an injured my shoulder, and hadn’t yet hooked the plow up. Anyway, he curled up what turned out to be three wheel barrow loads of turf, next to our driveway, from digging in just one corner of the blade, on a single pass. He’s very experienced, and I was in the truck, but neither of us realized it happened—at least, I don't think he did, though he did say something about the lawn--I didn’t know until the snow melted.

I’m waiting for him to come by and say something, because he’ll no dobut assume I did it with his old truck—I can’t wait to tell him it was him! LOL If he’d angled the blade slightly, it wouldn’t have happened, but in fairness to him, he didn’t realize the lawn rises slightly, on one side. I’m sure I’ll make similar mistakes elsewhere, as part of my learning curve, but thanks to the tips of all of you, I’m much better prepared than I would have been.

I have a question for everyone, but particularly for owners of Western plows with the “Isarmatic” hydraulic lift system: when you drop the plow, does it fall very quickly, like a guillitine, or not?

Let me ask this another way: does anyone’s plow allow them to stop, mid-drop? By that I mean, although I can “bump” the plow, when raising it, to raise it a quarter inch at a time, if I wanted to, once I hit “down” on the joystick, it doesn’t stop until it hits the ground, whereup it rings like the Liberty Bell. (Okay, it’s not that melodious, but it drops HARD, and it can’t be stopped, at all, on the way down, no matter how quickly I release the joystick).

Is this intentional, or is it malfunctioning? I thought perhaps it was intentional, to allow the blade to “cut” any ice on top of the pavement, but I wish it was at least adjustable, as it seems really violent, both to me, and friends who have observed it. Also, I’ve seen other plows that drop about half as fast as mine.

Thanks again, especially to all of you I didn’t mention specifically—there was just too much good advice to comment on all of it, but I really do appreciate it!

BigSix1

P.S. My girlfriend was very impressed with how well-written all of your responses were. I told her: “It’s usually like this—perhaps you should spend less time on the cooking and pet boards, and more time on FTE!

Update: The “big storm” has been a disappointment so far—just two inches and, somehow, incredibly, it is now raining, despite a temp. at our place of 24.9F. I didn’t think that was possible, to rain in such temps.? So, for now, I’ve not yet made my maiden voyage with the plow.

 

Deleted--Indavertently double-posted.

 

We would like watch you plow snow.

but be careful with old style plow mount that are permanent mount to frame. Don't try stack that. Have see several hit hydraulic pump make hole.


Don't try ram in snowpile hard. It would break bolts on mount.

I would use 2 gear when plow since 1 are granny gear on that F250. Try not to ride on clutch. Several guys have manual transmission and enjoy plus cheap to replace clutch than automatic transmission.

 

The two blades I use, a Boss V blade and a Hiniker straight blade, both drop fairly quickly, but I can stop them with a blip of the controller. There might be an adjustment, it would probably be a sunken hex screw somewhere on the pump manifold. Might just find a blade installer who sells that blade and see what he says. You will not find a plow that will cut ice except for the rear blades that mount on the back of the truck and allow for positive pressure, and even then it is difficult. A front plow just rides over ice. As far as auto vs manual, a manual is more work to operate, but it is a stronger setup. Even with a burly tranny cooler, it is possible to heat the snot out of an auto, though if cared for it would last. I find I get more power to the pavement with a manual than automatic, and unless you are really bashing it, a clutch replacement on occasion is generally all you are looking at repair wise. Given a choice however, I'd take the auto, just a lot less work to operate.

Maintenance schedule needs to be bumped up to the Extreme level. Even just plowing your own driveway regularly puts more wear and tear on a truck. Also, check the plow mount regularly. Things loosen up, and when they do, then holes get wallowed out, and it is never the same after that. Make sure you have an awesome battery, and try not to just plow and then shut it down. That leaves the battery low. A plug in battery maintainer works well, or plowing and then driving to the store or whatever tops the battery off. And keep your snow on your property. If you push snow across the street you can get a ticket, at least in my state.

Sorry about your anemic storm, maybe next time.