Personal snow plowing

I've plowed with 2 different Yotas with 4 different plows (yeah.... I know). I plowed commercially with 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks for years as well. My impression of plowing with the Yote?: Better than you would think.

With my 01 4cyl 5 spd with Timbrens and a 474lb 6'9" steel Fisher LD plow with 23" tall mold board and a trip edge, I plowed my 600' road, 2 neighbors, and my house during a year we had 140" of snow. The only problem was the banks on the side of the road shrinking up. I had a tractor and pushed them back once, but the little Yote hit plenty of 12" plus storms all at once since I work 12 hour shifts and couldn't plow in the middle of some storms.

I usually would plow in high range 1st gear no problem with Nokian Hakkapellitta studded snow tires. The tires are fantastic on the road especially with the weight of the plow. Plowing in deeper snow though, I wished I had a little more tread.

In heavy snow I would drop into 4 Low and plow in 2nd gear.

Then my family grew and I got an 08 Double cab with a 6cyl auto. and put some 265/75R16 Duratracs. All that Fisher offered was the 250lb plastic 6'8" Homesteader with little 20" tall moldboard (I'm in Maine... so lots of used Fishers vs other brands since they are built just 1.5 hours from my house). I plowed 2 storms at my new house: HATED that little plow! Maybe it's ok for some parking spots or a tar driveway, but with the small rocks in my driveway the mold board tripped and bounced over everything and the pushplates were WEAK compared to the real Minute Mount plates available on the 1st Gen trucks!

I found a customized set up for another 6'9" Fisher LD steel plow for a 2nd gen Tacoma and set it up on my new Double Cab along with Timbrens to help the front end. I plowed x2 2ft storms (I plowed twice) and another heavy 8" storm. Not a bad plow and the 6 cyl auto did better than the 4 cyl 5spd because the engine could rev up slip while putting power to the ground without spinning. With the 4 cyl on heavy snow you have to worry about keeping RPM's up enough to keep it from bogging. The trip edge plow was MUCH better on my bumpy driveway.

I was going to customize a set of Tundra Minute MOunt Plates for my Tacoma since the Fisher SD and the Fisher HT plows weight 490 and 460 lbs respectively and have a taller moldboard (and 7'6" wide so I'm not driving in the windrows while turning). The Tundra frame is 35" wide just like the Tacoma, so customizing is easy.

Anyway.... learned about the new Boss HTX-V plow made for half ton trucks (just came out in 2016). The plow weighs 490 lbs, 25" tall in the middle and 32" tall on the ends, and has pushplates for the Yota. Found one, mounted it, and I'm VERY impressed! The pushplates are 10 times stronger than the Fisher's that are available for the Tacoma. Since I run a business out of my house and this was a business expense, I sprung for the more expensive new plow and mounted it. It's FANTASTIC!

I ran it down an unplowed dirt road with about 8" of snow. I was amazed how high the flared V would throw the snow instead of just barreling out the side like my older straight blades with no flare. I am greatly looking forward to using the scoop function on my new house's driveway. The road is dug into a hill and the yard works against me for winging snow to the sides. I need to push all the snow to the top of my hill then stack it. The V should reduce my trips to the bottom from 10-12 to hopefully 3 or 4.

For those who think a little Yote can't plow... they have not tried it. I know several guys that commercially plow with their 1st gen Yota. Do they plow parking lots? No.... they plow the smaller driveways that are a nightmare for full size trucks. They do normal driveways too. They hold up well. Like I said, I commercially plowed driveways with 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks. YOu do need a little more momentum since you don't have 8-10,000 lbs of truck to move the snow with, but they still do VERY well and surprised me how well they plow without me feeling like I was beating the truck.

YMMV

 

thanks for the info, lots of experience there

 

That's pretty hilarious on the little plastic plow you briefly had, how the plow lights are sitting there below the truck's own headlights.

Also, I notice in your pictures that the tip of the V-plow is held up a little off the ground while the outsides are touching. Take a peek at your mounts, the blade should be on the ground evenly front to back. V-plows are a LOT more sensitive to the mount height than a straight plow.

 

I went old school and bought an old work truck. Cost less than half of what having a new plow installed on my DD would have (I was quoted $4500 for the new install on a Fisher and $4200 for a Boss), the parts are much more heavy-duty (and they're much cheaper if I do manage to somehow break something), and it's dead simple to work on myself. I'm 99% sure I could completely disassemble the entire truck with a basic socket set, a breaker bar, and a flat and phillips head screwdriver, lol.
Costs me around $100 a year to insure and $75 a year for registration.

Edit- Plus, it saves me the hassle of taking the plow on and off. I put it on in November and take it off in March or April, and only really drive it when they're forecasting snow.

 

I have the Meyer on my Taco. I also have a Scan Gauge. Mind your transmission temps. I was plowing some 11" snow on a 30°f day a couple weeks ago and it only took a little while for the trans to get to 190°f I took a break after that.

 

I just picked up a Snowsport 180 plow. Can't wait to use it.

 

Finally got a pic. This thing works pretty good.

 

The SnowSport is a decent, simple, easy on/off, low-cost, and very light small plow for small trucks doing smallish home driveways. After a year with mine the only problem I notice with it is that the plow rungs tend to scrape the paint off the push rails and plow plates as the blade rises and falls, leaving them open to rust (and they do rust). So if you don't mind the rust or doing some post-season touchup work or a mod to somehow protect the paint, the SnowSport is a pretty nice option for Tacomas doing home driveways.

 

When it comes to rust on my plow, any scrapes and exposed metal get a blast of fluid film, both during the winter and for summer storage. A lot easier than paint touch up. Plus, it will lubricate those rungs for you during the season

 

A coat of rustproofing would help control rust and offer lubricating qualities (I use a DIY version on my truck frame and it works well) but rustproofing also collects dust/dirt, is messy to work on and doesn't exactly do much for the looks (a slippery off-colored shiny mess looks ok underneath the truck, not so much on the front grill area). If the plow company would just do a better job with the finish to begin with (i.e. a harder/slipperier/more durable finish) the problem would be minimal...and in terms of how the plow performs it IS minimal. But still annoying. A mod may be coming.

 

Is there enough room to add some high wear plastic on the slide areas, like UHMW or delrin?

Fwiw, I don’t find fluid film all that messy, maybe just a hair when applying, but it eventually dissipates into a thin film, and dirt attraction isn’t a big deal, but that’s just me

 

Yup, some type of plastic add-on is also what I had in mind...will have to think about it. In the meantime some rustproofing or petroleum jelly on the plates, rails and rungs might have to do for this winter. Snow isn't far away.

 

a strip of plastic and a hose clamp at the top and bottom may get you through the winter, or as a trial. Not sure of the room there but the clamp will tighten to the square shape.

 

Still plowing just my driveway and a couple of family members.



I must confess I did use my dads snow blower to clean up in front of the garage and up by his door. This light weight plow doesn't back drag very well.

 

One day when you get a chance, can you measure how far from the front of the radiator that the back of the plow frame sits? I have an ARB bumper and wonder if it sticks out too far. PM the info please (and thank you).

 

Ill will check and post up the results next time I have the plow on the truck.

 

Looks like you got about what we did near the lake down in Charlotte - 14". Nice job! I just use my Ariens 10/28 these days.

 

These pictures are from Spencerport and the last one East Irondequoit. I didn't measure but it sure seemed like they had more snow in Spencerport. I actually live out in Ontario up near the lake and Id guess we got around 14 or so.

 

Moved to eastern North Carolina from Connecticut...Don't miss the snow but in two days we might get five inches ! What do we do !

 

Yeah I moved from NJ to Raleigh a couple years ago. This weekend is supposed to turn the town upside down. Thankfully it will be warm in the next day so we should just drink a beer and let it melt out.