Bought a snowplow, now what

agree with everything you said here. I had 300 lbs, maybe 400 at the beginning before i robbed some sand. It was definitely needed. I will say having the plow allowed me to back up a snow covered drive with that nice weight up front, something i have to do a lot. That would have been a no go without it.

 

The biggest piece of advice I can give you about plowing is this; it can be very tempting to try to use brute force to plow, but its the last thing you want to do. Not because it will hurt your truck, but because you will get stuck. If it starts to slip, let off the gas, back up, and take another angle.

I've maintained a 3 km bush road since the 80's, and I don't have the opportunity to plow with the storm. Its VERY rare that I have to pull out the heavy machinery.

 

another good piece, almost did that. Truck wasnt stuck, but plow hooked around a bank. It wouldnt do much, just make me look like an idiot in front of my neighbors at the bottom of the hill

 

I wish i had something to limit the early season non frozen ground scalping, any ideas. I see some people make a slitted pipe accessory for the blade. Plow didnt come with shoes, but i figured those would dig in as well

 

I am curious what others do for this, but I try to slightly lift the plow just before I reach the yard to avoid causing too much damage. But I still do end up with chunks of turf that I have to put back in place.

 

I added some small wheels to the plow I use on my lawn tractor. Took care of both that and pushing my gravel around. I used 360 degree swivel casters.

 

Yep, <sarcasm>unfrozen gravel is lots of fun</sarcasm>.

The pipe thing might work, but I haven't tried it myself to confirm. Shoes are useless -- they accomplish nothing at all.
What I do while the ground is still soft, is lift the plow just slightly off the ground.

Here is the thing about plowing gravel; an ice base is not actually a bad thing, because it gives you a hard smooth surface for your plow to run on. If you leave an inch or 2 of snow on the ground, then driving over it the next few days will compact it down, resulting in better heat dissipation (cooling of the ground), and a hard ice surface.

Don't worry about making the results perfect the first few times you plow gravel. The only thing you're worried about right now is to push the snow back as far as you safely can. Once you have a frozen base, then you can scrape it a lot better, and you can start plowing at a higher speed. You will benefit from a higher speed in order to throw the new snow over the bank, otherwise the snow will stay on your road, which will get narrower every time it snows.

 

Its my lawn im worried about. , my drive is asphalt. Its been hard to lift the plow just a hair. not enough and the plow will scalp, too much and it will ride up and leave too much Probably because its on the lower end of the weight spectrum. I've though about a poly edge. The wider area would help and overall be more gentle on everything

 

Nope. Poly edge is for people who are worried about scratching their hard surface.
Not digging up the lawn is a matter of knowing where the lawn is. Perspective changes when the snow is down, so if you're trying to come up close to soft landscaping, you may need to stake the boundaries.

 

everything is staked, very well. Im in a little bit of a special situation.

Where i push the snow off the driveway to pile up, it is also a runoff area for backyard drainage in the winter. the grading isnt great so any build up would effectively cause water to rise and freeze.
Anywho, i wanted to be able to scrape close to the ground going across this area. If its just a feel thing, i can get better at it but it id going to be lawn, or buildup no matter what. Also, buy some seed and deal with it in the spring.

 

For everyone still following along, i have another update. I have now been through three good storms. The last one was about an inch of mostly ice. It would have taken me hours with a snowblower, then scraping with a shovel.

This last one is noteworthy because it was a first test of also having to go uphill first, on top of being ice. I have also since fitted some firestone winterforce 245 75 16 on the taco. I did not stud them. After doing some housekeeping at the bottom, i dropped the plow and started up the slope. I had the taco in 4 low with atrac on. I expected at least some slippage, and at worst having to back down. The combination of everything made it go right up the driveway. The grip was incredible. I really like the firestone winterforce. My last tires were blizzaks and so far i think these are better. Mileage and durability will tell the rest of the tale. The plow only being 300 lbs scraped excellent. Back dragging ice wasnt good at all, but normal snow has been adequate. I am at the point now where in front of the garage doors i just push snow forward and clean up with the blower for 5 minutes.

 

I have the big Honda Trak Drive snowblower. It works great and no matter how much snow, its just a walk for me as the machine does all the work. Its so powerful that women faint and men get hard when they see it!

 

i also have a tracked snowblower, but i started this thread to give people interested in plowing some info. As an aside, I went ariens track, and its been a beast for 10 years.

 

I've been plowing with an ATV for over 20 years. It has yet to be beaten by any snow so far. I'm really tempted to get a plow for my Tacoma, but they are too expensive.

 

One of the reasons I put a plow on the Tacoma was it was much cheaper than an atv with plow. I wanted a atv plow setup in good condition, or preferably new, and I like buying quality for the resale. A Yamaha with plow would have been 12k easy, used in good condition, 5-8000. Yeah you can find something cheap, but you get what you pay for. That was the rate in my area, no need to tell me you can find cheaper, i did my research. My plow was a hair over 4K installed.

after already having an active winter, I know i made the right choice with the steep driveway. I would have been out there forever with an atv. And of course , the whole reason for the plow in the first place,my back.

 

Another storm, another update.

we had another ice storm, this one much heavier/wetter. Tacoma pushed it fine, the scraping on the western was great, been really impressed for a 300 lb plow. I have found that using four low with a-trac to have incredible traction. I hate to harp on my driveway being steep , but if it works for me it will work for just about anyone. Also, paired with firestone winter force tires. I was worried about ice storms, but not as much anymore. If it’s a thin glaze that would be problematic I think.

on the western defender, been overall happy with it. It’s certainly not contractor grade, but holds its own. I would say the hydraulics are a little weak, but probably more for safety to the vehicle and plow, for instance, trying the scrape back some packed/icy road banks for the mailbox, plow can give some. The trip works good, maybe a little too sensitive, but I have no plans to change. It does it’s job and doesn’t trip unnecessarily. I have found my first year of plowing that no matter how careful, you’re going to find tree roots rocks, etc. i stay 5-10 mph and feels safe for the truck. Just don’t be flying around.

 

I've been plowing with a Taco for fifteen years or so, half mile of gravel/ dirt road with a couple of hills. I run 300 lbs of gravel in the bed, over the axles as I still need to put stuff in it. Since I live about three miles from Fisher in Maine, I ran a Fisher Homesteader on my T1, a plastic bladed metal cutting edge plow. Worked pretty well as long as you stayed ahead of the snow. Double low in second and take it easy. T1 didn't make inspection this year so now its a plow truck for a friend who lives in the woods, and I found a 2015 T2 with very low milage, virtually new. Got it at a good price so sprung for a new Fisher HS, now a steel blade. Serious dough, 4k or so. But it is easier to mount and can fit shoes which lifts a blade a defined distance. I had them on my old Jeep and they are a god send. Plowing with an automatic will be kinder on my left foot but I'll miss that double low shift and the easy reverse to 2nd in low range, but friends who plow for a living would never do manual.

 

You have the same plow as me, just western. They are identical. It does a great job for a lighter plow.