snow plow

I am going to install a 86 inch blizzard on my 2007 anyone on here plows with their trucks.... ? any tips or watch out for..

Thanks

 

86? So... 720LT?
Should be ok, bit of a light plow though -- only 1/4" edge.

 

720LT.... would not want to go any bigger, doubt that the Tacoma is built for heavy plowing. I just plan on blowing my drive way maybe a neighbors , definitely no commercial work..

 

@smcgill

 

Ugggg
I'll be going home and hooking up the plow and throwing some weight in the bed along with some sand/salt in prep for Mother Nature's furry!


Get er done!

 

Commercial or not doesn't matter. The plow needs to be strong enough to stand up to the truck, and I've broken much stronger plows than that.

 

A 720LT should be plenty heavy for a Tacoma. As long as you treat them reasonably, both Tacomas and the plows made for them are plenty strong enough to plow with. Just plow with the storm instead of waiting for it to be done and trying to pound out 2 feet of snow in one go. Plow when there's 5-6 inches on the ground, don't beat on it by trying to shove back frozen banks, and you'll have zero problems with equipment strength.

I opted for buying a dedicated work/plow truck instead, but it was mostly cost-motivated. I was quoted around $4500 to have a plow installed on my Tacoma when I bought it, and I was able to find an older American truck with the plow already installed for less than half of that.

 

It isn't the amount of snow that you need to worry about. Its what is UNDER the snow, like ROCKS or CURBS.

 

Blizzards have a 'trip' feature, though, don't they? I think they're a full-trip setup. So, if he's not abusing the equipment the OP shouldn't have any problems with it. If he hits a rock the plow should just trip and slide over it.

 

ALL plows are supposed to trip, but the ability to trip depends on how you strike the obstruction. Hit a low obstruction dead center, and it will probably trip over it. Hit anything with the trailing edge, and it may not be so inclined. Hit a TALL obstruction with the trailing edge (which can include a hardened up snow bank), and it isn't going anywhere.

I've been plowing for 25 years. Non-commercial, but significant and sometimes brutal. Toy plows BREAK.

 

True, but unless you're plowing at a high speed you're not going to damage anything by bumping up against a snowbank or a curb.
Edit: You might rash the plow a bit, but you shouldn't bend/kink or break anything. I've been plowing snow for a long time, and the only times I've seen properly maintained equipment get broken it's been because of the operator.

 

You've got 5000 pounds of truck behind it. It doesn't take much speed. All it takes is the right geometry. In fact, most of the breaks I've had have been at very low speed. Windrowing a road at 30 kph is smooth work. Its dealing with driveways that kills you.

 

Have you looked @ Curtis: http://www.snoproplows.com/sno-pro-snow-plows/

 

Yeah, until you hit a pothole that'd swallow a Volkswagen.
Cruising along, rolling snow back off of the moldboard....*BANG!!!*

Better heart-starter than a cup of coffee.

 

A pothole won't do anything. A plow will just glide right over it.
Like I said, I've been plowing for 25 years, and windrowing is the easy part. You need to keep the speed up in order to actually move the snow over/past the bank, there IS no moving the bank once its set, and if you don't clear the bank in subsequent storms, then the road quickly narrows to the point of being unpassable.

Low speed multi-pass driveways and crap like that is where the danger lies.

 

You haven't seen some of the potholes around here, then. Some of them are pretty damn epic once the frost sets in. And they get worse in the spring when the frost starts coming out. Especially on the back roads in some of the more rural communities.

 

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about PUBLIC ROADS. The government handles those. I deal with a private single lane 3 km long gravel road.

But as far as huge holes go, as long as your plow is long enough to bridge it from one side to the other, you won't fall into it.

 

Association road in a subdivision? Or one homeowner with a long-ass driveway?

 

Long-ass driveway.

 

Lucky bastard. I look forward to the day that I have a driveway long enough that it means I can't see my neighbors.