Personal snow plowing

Had a an 98 ac cab 4cyl auto
My brother in law begged me to sell it to him when it had 170000
He used it to plow his house and 2 business shops he owns
Never had a problem untill the frame rusted out with 300,000 about a year ago
First plow was a small cheap one that he burned out motor then bought better one no problems
Go him through some pretty big storms we had here in Jersey over the past 10 years

 

Or you could build something like this:

 

Uh, you do realize that the plow comes off, right? You don't go and commute with the blade on. You put the blade on to do the work, then when the work is done, you take it off.

 

I keep hearing people say this, but nobody has substantiated it.
In fact, it is quite the opposite. 2nd gen Tacoma has a much sturdier frame than 1st gen, or, in fact, any pre-Tacoma pickup. It is essentially the same frame as T100 and first gen Tundra.

 

I tried that for a couple of years.
There is nothing more UN-FUN than trying to plow with a 4-wheeler.
1) Out in the cold and snow.
2) As you plow, snow blows off the blade straight at you.
3) Stress the hell out of a 4-wheeler.
4) Its COLLLLLLLLLLLLLD.

 

I always enjoy it. It's a lot more fun than shoveling and a lot easier than dealing with a truck.

That's a trap. My dad did that with me and mowing the lawn, got me hooked thinking it was fun with the toy mower and then tossed me the real one as soon as I was big enough to just barely push it.

 

The only thing that would concern me about your truck and plowing, is the automatic transmission. Because of the severely varying load up in front of the plow, the automatic will occasionally need to shift hard under pretty severe strain. This is VERY bad for it and will contribute to premature failure.

Aside from that, I'm running pretty much the same truck (mine is manual), and have been plowing for several years. Tacoma loves to plow.

You will want a plow that is as close to 7 feet long as possible, without going UNDER. Wider plow means more snow per push, which means getting stuck more.

I went with Arctic brand STANDARD plow: http://www.arcticsnowplows.com/snowplows/poly-snowplows/standard
Note that if you ask for a "TACOMA" kit, they'll try to sell you a "light". You don't want that, and you don't want their Tacoma "frame" kit, which has a severe weakness where it mounts to the truck. You would want the standard 7' plow with the UNIVERSAL frame kit (some welding required).

 

Sounds like you've never actually done any plowing with a truck.

 

Ok Chief. I'm not sure how your plow blade goes on & off so easily, but they do take a little bit of effort. If you're able to do it - all the power to you. Seeing how I wear business attire for work, I really wouldn't want to wallow in the snow to take that thing off.

Edit: Before you bother - yes, I've plowed with several different trucks in the past.

 

Well that's why you take it off when you're done PLOWING, not in the morning when you're ready to go to work.
Not sure why you think its so hard to take off two 5/8" pins, two hydraulic quick couplers, and a chain.

 

I guess the snow only falls in the afternoon where you live. See - sometimes it snows overnight at my house and I have to clean it in the morning before work.

Edit: Obviously you're a better man than me so I'll stop now. The Op can make up his own choice. Enjoy your afternoon.

 

Something so wrong with leaving the snow on the driveway until you get home from work?
Its just snow. It isn't like its going to eat your dog or something.

 

some people with steep drives like me cant leave it till i get home, or the wife isn't going anywhere.

The steep drive is also the reason ive been holding off on an atv. there will be lots of storms im afraid it wont be able to handle, and i dont want to go out every 20 minutes to keep up with it. Then theres dealing with the snow. Not so much in years past, but previous years when we get hammered the atv wouldnt have any place to put the snow at some point. Im sure at some point soon my care factor will dwindle and a plow will be on the tacoma.

 

If the commute isn't too bad, and you are mindful of the extra weight and greater propensity to bottom out if you're rough on it, then it isn't a big deal.
Last place I lived and old work location (about 20 minute commute), I occasionally left the plow on the truck. Now that work has moved further south and I moved further north (45 min to 1 h), its not so much of a good idea.

Put your wife in a vehicle that can actually deal with a fair amount of snow. I put mine in a Forester -- its pretty impressive how much snow those things can get through. Just a week ago we drove up north in it and found snow depth up to the TOP of the front bumper cover. Made it all the way in to the door of the house.

Like I've said, 4-wheelers SUCK for plowing. They simply aren't heavy enough to do much. If you have another (heavier) vehicle or a snow blower that you can use to fix things up when the 4-wheeler gets inundated, then it might be an option to work with the 4-wheeler, but by itself, you just can't do the job with something small like that.

My last house had about 100 feet of driveway that ran along the side of the house with a fence on the property line. Couldn't windrow it because that would fill up the driveway, so it had to ALL be pushed all the way in or out. Once you have 50 feet worth of pile of snow... well, its bad. So got the truck plow and didn't have any trouble at all the rest of the time I owned that place.

I haven't even mounted my plow on my 4-wheeler since getting the truck plow, nor do I transport it to the city any more for the winter.

 

Curtis Home-Pro 3000 .... I plow with over 300,000 miles..Yes 300,000 miles

 

Before someone freaks out about that being impossible, I think you mean that the TRUCK has 300,000 miles on its odometer, not that you have accumulated that many miles WHILE plowing.

 

I'm running a 22 series Sno-Way 7'6" for the first time this year in NY on a 2010 DCLB. No complaints so far. Last 2 storms I had 4 driveways to do including one that involved a lot of moving snow to different areas across the yard since there's nowhere to put the snow otherwise. Granted I tried to stay ahead of the storm since that driveway is also uphill. Bought plow and frame mount on CL and wiring on eBay. Did my own install. All said and done total cost was about 1500 or less including flashing lights, etc. Takes 3 minutes to disconnect - put plow down, disconnect light harnesses, pull pins back away a little, disconnect power, done. (Took almost as long to write that). Sure beats snowblowing for an hour for one driveway alone. That being said, I have a 4.0, not sure I would do it with a 2.7.

 

Ye of little faith....

The 2.7 is literally the MOST POWERFUL plow vehicle I've ever had. Does a wonderful job.

 

If I recall, you have better gearing in rear as well....I may stand corrected.

 

Perhaps, but any advantage there is lost if you drop it into low range, which gives you closer gear spacing as well, and you can really never run out of speed for plowing in low unless you genuinely want to die.