Bought a snow plow

[Jim Oaks]

I've been thinking about getting a snow plow for the Ranger. I'm tired of plowing my driveway with a blade and lawn tractor.

So after doing some looking, I settled on a 82" Snowbear plow I found on Craigslist for $250.00.

It's in pretty good shape, but I'm going to clean it up and repaint it. I also need to fabricate a new mounting bracket to compensate for the lift on my Ranger.

I chose the Snowbear for the value and the fact it's lighter than the hydraulic setups. I also like that it came with the cradle to move it around on when not in use.

These are the Craigslist photos. Right now it's sitting on my trailer.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

That seems to be a great deal. I paid the same for a three point hitch blade and still had to make mounting.

Richard

 

[Mark_88]

Eh? No lights?

That looks like the plow I had on my Dodge Ramcharger back in 1980 but mine had lights that were part of the truck mounts...don't think I ever ploughed a driveway with it...

Anyway...does it actually help to coat the blade with something like ski wax?

 

[Doofy]

Great Score! My plow weighs about 500 pounds or more on the F-350. Bought several old Meyer's plow pumps (T-6) off ebay for $35 each, and they have no problem lifting the blade.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Eh? No lights?

That looks like the plow I had on my Dodge Ramcharger back in 1980 but mine had lights that were part of the truck mounts...don't think I ever ploughed a driveway with it...

Anyway...does it actually help to coat the blade with something like ski wax?

Supposedly some stuff called Fluid Film is supposed to be about the best for coating the blade with. I haven't really experimented yet though so I can't say myself. But I've heard of using waxes or non-stick cooking spray on a blade to help keep the snow from sticking to it.


Looks like a nice score on the plow Jim. Make sure you check it over good and replace any worn bolts. The Meyers I got didn't look bad until I started pulling bolts out and found that the holes were egged out and the bolts were worn. I had to do a little welding and grinding to fix things. Mine took grade 5 bolts to put it back together, oddly enough.

 

[Mark_88]

Supposedly some stuff called Fluid Film is supposed to be about the best for coating the blade with. I haven't really experimented yet though so I can't say myself. But I've heard of using waxes or non-stick cooking spray on a blade to help keep the snow from sticking to it.

I did a bit more research on this and, apparently, there are several paints and waxes that can be used...didn't see fluid film but there is a graphite paint that is, apparently, the best product for this application...

I don't have a plow now but I am using one of those Honda tractor snow blowers and the blades are a bit chipped so I was thinking of painting it and coating it to protect them...

The worst problem with snow blowers is the chute gets plugged with slush...and there isn't too much that can be done about that...but this model actually came with a metal bar attached to the back of the chute...for just such a problem...but try to get that puppy off with soggy frozen mits!

 

[Jim Oaks]

I've been thinking about getting a snow plow for the Ranger. I'm tired of plowing my driveway with a blade and lawn tractor.

So after doing some looking, I settled on a 82" Snowbear plow I found on Craigslist for $250.00.

It's in pretty good shape, but I'm going to clean it up and repaint it. I also need to fabricate a new mounting bracket to compensate for the lift on my Ranger.

I chose the Snowbear for the value and the fact it's lighter than the hydraulic setups. I also like that it came with the cradle to move it around on when not in use.

These are the Craigslist photos. Right now it's sitting on my trailer.

UPDATE:

So, you saw what I started with, this is what I ended up with:

 

[Jim Oaks]

In the last photo you can see where I was making a frame out of 3-inch square tubing to drop the plow mount and compensate for the lift. Also, the 4th photo shows the plow mounted, and in the 5th photo I added additional braces to support the frame. I had found a crack that needed welded because so much force is applied where the plow frame slides on to it's mount. The frame moves a lot when you lift the blade. The added braces that I bolted on should eliminate that and keep it from cracking again.

I cleaned everything up and repainted it, and replaced all the hardware with new pieces so it looks new again. Vanessa took the photo of me plowing with it for the first time. Works good.


Before:

After:

Not bad for $250, some spray paint, and new nuts and bolts.

Oh ya, with the lift in my truck, I can still use my headlights, even with the plow off the ground.

 

[kunar]

you guys have snow already? must be that lake effect stuff, we havent had more than a couple dustings that are gone in a day. plow looks good, jim. ive thought about a plow for my ranger, but for now im stuck with the tractor...

 

[twb4525]

you'll get some good use out of that the next few days, jim!

 

[Jim Oaks]

Holy crap, we got around 10-inches of snow yesterday/last night!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Holy crap, we got around 10-inches of snow yesterday/last night!

Lucky! I was hoping for the 8-12" they were calling for around here. I got the plow on the tractor and working yesterday and got the truck ready to hook the plow up and go at it. Used the tractor to clean out the driveways of the 2-3" we had and hoped for more. Instead we got freezing rain out the arse.

 

[a31ford]

Hey Jim.

I've owned a Snowbear like that for over 7 years, waterproof the winch by wrapping the case joints with RUBBER tape (NOT electrical), use electrical overtop of the rubber tape to hold it in place.

The winch warms up with use, and melts the snow on it causing the brushes to freeze and the winch dies.

Do you have the "dead Winch" winder ? and the safety hook for extended travel with the winch up ? (if not, I can post pictures of them if you need).

The center bolt wears quite quickly, I stacked a pile of washers together with a long grade 8 bolt and welded the washers to make a larger bushing for the bolt to wear against, that was like 3 years ago, and haven't had problems with it since.

As well, because your truck is so high, you might want to change the recline angle of the blade to somewhat closer to what it would be with a stock height truck (it will push a lot more snow without digging-in, (which you might have noticed already........

Greg

Oh, PS the "super winch" econo series uses the same brush mount style so when the brushes wear out you can fix it for like 40 bucks instead of the 250 Snowbear wants.....

 

[Jim Oaks]

This winch squeaks like crazy, but still works. When it dies I'm going to replace it with a Harbor Freight winch. You can get them for around $50.00.

UNFORTUNATELY....

I went out to plow the driveway and found that my driver side axle shaft is busted. Not sure how that happened because the truck barely works that hard plowing my driveway. Doesn't take much gas to get things moving.

 

[Diesel_brad]

I guess no angle?

I had to adapt and lower the plow mount on one of my old rangers with 4" lift. I found out the hard way that with about the modification when the plow is angled the far conner DIGS to china and the close corner is 6" off the ground