Snow plow

My advise is move somewhere you don't have to plow.

 

My buddy runs a poly with down pressure... Can't recall the brand at the moment. He's had it for years and works great.

 

Some of you will give me a hard time, but I do 2 small lots (16 parking spaces each) for my company. They pay me $1,500 per season extra and, well, I like that. I have a 7'-6" Fisher Homesteader which I've been very impressed with. As others have mentioned the blade will lock down but it does not have "down pressure". And I'll be honest, even if it did, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable using it. Even with the blade only "floating" I feel every bump in those lots. If the hydraulics were actually pushing down on the blade the bumps would jar the truck even more.

Because I only do 2 small lots, I know where all the obstructions are, so my risk of hitting something hard and screwing up the truck is minimized. I take it very slow (not more than 5 mph) and the truck does just fine. I rarely even have to use 4wd. With all the tools I keep in the bed, there is plenty of weight over the back wheels.

 

$1500 bucks for both lots for the season.... regardless of how many storms that year or how many times you have to hit it each storm ?

 

Yeah that's how most plowing contracts work around here, and that's what they were paying an outside contractor to do before I got the plow. I already do a lot of the maintenance at both buildings so I'm there nearly every day anyway. The lots take about 5-10 minutes each to plow.

 

http://www.yotatech.com/f199/86toyotas-1994-pickup-plow-truck-build-up-thread-199078/

 

Sounds more like you've never plowed with anything before. These trucks are certainly heavy enough to plow. In fact, they are ideally suited for plowing. The fact that a GM rips off its upper control arm, or twists its frame by the front cab mounts, is meaningless. GM's are not heavy enough to plow. Tacoma is *very significantly* more solid in the applicable areas, and does a wonderful job of handling a plow.

On the 4wheeler suggestion... I've tried that. I have a plow for my 4wheeler. Big wheels and no weight = a very bad time pushing snow. Not worth it except for the very smallest dumpings.

 

As I understand it, snoway has a patent on down pressure. The only model they offer for Tacoma is the "22", which is some kind of clear poly.

Down pressure is *not* the most complicated function to add, just requires a little bit of ingenuity. Most plows have a hydraulic cylinder that moves an arm, that pulls up on a chain that is attached to the plow. If you swap out the hydraulic cylinder with a 2-way cylinder, and add a 4-port 2:2 solenoid or servo valve and tap into the BOTTOM of the fluid reservoir, and swap out the chain with solid bar... then you have added downpressure.

 

Down pressure is for back dragging. I.e., a residential driveway with a garage. You front up to the garage, drop the plow, give it some down pressure, and back up. You pull the snow just far enough that you can BACK up to the garage and drop the blade to push the snow the rest of the way out.

You can actually beat on these trucks pretty hard with a plow, they're tough and can take it.

 

t gear what plow do you run on your truck? and what model tacoma do you plow with? i just went the other day and got quoted 3700$ for a buyers snowdogg md75 installed.

 

Good price. I have used and am still using that setup on my '06 TRD Sport since new in NH. You won't be disappointed.

 

I run an Arctic Standard 84" http://www.arcticsnowplows.com/snowplows/poly-snowplows/standard
Its a semi-non-standard option, with some modifications. Specifically, Arctic only offers "light duty" for Tacoma, because its simpler for them to make the kit as a result of the front cross-member (right under the front bumper) being about 1/2 inch too low for the clearance they ask for. So they offer a hybrid light/standard "kit". I was unsatisfied with the height of the receiver, so modified it up to standard height. Essentially turning a light/standard hybrid into a custom standard. If I were to do it again, I'd go with their "universal" standard kit -- some welding required.

I've heard that snowdogg makes a good plow, but haven't ever used one. Personally, I favor the poly face over steel because snow doesn't stick to it.

 

I use to plow big heavy stuff with an F150 in back the day. Lots of good input here already. All I'll say is be prepared to put money into keeping your rig on the road. Plowing of any kind is hard on a truck and eventually will catch up with it. This means transmissions and suspension. Make sure you've got some cash in the bank ready esp if your going to do it often. My other advice is, skill. Takes time to build, so nice and slow. Good luck!

 

I, personally, wouldn't touch a snow plow with an automatic transmission. The only truck I've ever owned that had a transmission go BOOM on, was an automatic, used for snow plowing, and it was about 2 miles up the highway after plowing. Now if you've got a fleet of trucks that you're putting in the hands of morons to operate, you might consider automatic, but for your own use as a competent person who takes care of his/her own vehicle, its a lot easier to keep a manual in good shape.

While its true that plowing can be a bit hard on a truck, just keeping yourself under control goes a long way to keeping the truck operating without undue maintenance expense. In fact, the ONLY plowing related mechanical failure I've ever had on a truck was the aforementioned transmission.

The *vehicle* you put the plow on also makes a big difference in terms of its longevity in handling a plow. I'm on my 4th plow truck, and I keep with smaller vehicles; a Nissan, 2 YJ's, and now the Tacoma. The Nissan was the one with the tranny that went boom, retired it due to substantial frame rot. The first YJ was retired due to engine problems (which actually started before plowing). Still have and use the second YJ, but its out of commission for the rest of this year due to a mouse nest in the bell housing preventing full clutch engagement. As far as how they got in there... your guess is as good as mine :S

Another truck I've owned with the intention of plowing with, was a GM S10. Couldn't plow with that though. The portion of the frame that curves inward to clear the front wheels is way too thin to push with. Its just amazing how thoroughly inadequate it was, parked beside the Tacoma for a direct compare, just a night and day difference. The Tacoma is comparatively enormous in that area. I've also heard of some serious problems on the larger GM's in the same general region, but a different component -- apparently the rear mount of the upper control arm will pull out from the frame, because when its pushing in 4WD, its pulling out at that point. This failure would be pretty similar to how some of the 05/06 Tacoma's had the problem of the motor mounts caving in. Similar solution too -- reinforce the heck out of it. So I'd say that for plowing, GM is probably not the best choice.

 

Like a few people have mentioned already, just take it slow. I've been using a 7'6" Homesteader for 2 years. After the winter we had last year in New England I have 0 complaints. It's all about your technique. I plow about 9 accounts during each storm. I put a new cutting edge and tires on this year, and it made the truck handle great during the snow storms. Just dont let the snow pile up to feet...



Kyle

 

For those experienced with plowing with older 2.7L Tacomas (mine is a 2008 5-speed) I would be interested in knowing what if any special precautions/recommendations you may suggest for plowing with trucks like this that don't have dashboard traction control features (Auto LSD, VSC, Stability Control, etc.) like the newer trucks. Mine has nothing but the H2/H4/H4L 4WD control on the dash, which I assume means it has mechanical LSD (it does get less power in 4WD or when making sharp turns so I suspect there is brake-assist occurring via the LSD). It'll be lightly used with a 200# plow (blade, mounting plate, hitch mount...Snowsport HD) and only at home, so I don't anticipate any major effects on the truck. But, I also suspect there may be some plowing tricks (technique, adjustments, do's-don'ts) that could make plowing easier. Any tips are appreciated.

 

Plow and truck work pretty good...

 

Sorry I can't help with your questions. But I'd point out you tagged onto a thread over 5 years old and most of the participants haven't been around in a while.

Could be why you're not getting any hits.

But it looks like you got done what you needed, so good for you!

 

Thanks Clearwater I appreciate the feedback. I realized the thread was older but for those considering buying a plow for their Tacomas I thought threads like this one would be a good reference source...some folks will look for even older threads if it might have info they can use (I know I did before buying mine). The Snowsport website needs to have available more user vids from actual owners of their plows...the vids they have on the site are good for installation purposes but pretty weak from a 'user/buyer interest' standpoint. They'd sell more plows with a little more marketing effort in the way of more video footage from actual users. Anyway, overall I'm pretty satisfied with my truck/plow combo for what I plan to do with it. It's not for heavy wet snow moving or commercial applications but for normal powder snow on small to medium lots it'll do fine.

And no, you don't need to put a winch on it to get good performance. It works just fine the way it is and there's no worries about messing up your truck's electrical system or maintaining any complicated hydraulics.