First year with a plow

[Bray D]

I got my hands on an old 7' 6" Western Unimount and modified the frame to work with my truck. We'll see how well it does this winter. Just doing my driveway for now. Nothing commercial by any means.

Still clears the headlights, so I could run it down the road if necessary. I drove into work with it the other day. It's damn heavy. I'll avoid highway driving it at all possible this winter.

 

[RonD]

Very nice.

I am sure you will make alot of new "friends" this winter, and a few relatives will be calling "just to say high.....", lol

Just as a heads up if you haven't done it yet, snow plow and winch will draw more power than just winch, and you spend most of the time at low RPMs, so 2nd battery is a nice add-on.

Adding a little weight in the back to balance load and give traction won't hurt either.

 

[rangerbum]

Do you have it mounted directly to your axle?

 

[RangerSVT]

Do you have it mounted directly to your axle?

Yes. If it was mounted to the frame, it would pull the front end way down. Bray has soft springs on his truck for wheeling. Putting a plow on the front would require a lot heavier springs than he's currently running...

SVT

 

[PlumCrazy]

I almost did this exact setup last year...winch and all.lol Found a 6.5' poly blade setup for $200..but decided my Rangers winter/Salt days were over.

 

[Doofy]

Very interesting...never saw a plow mounted to the front axle. Keep us posted on how this works out.

 

[Bray D]

Thanks for the comments, guys. Regarding the electrical, I have a 135a alternator so I'm hoping that helps a bit. I have a beefy deep cycle battery that I got when I first installed my winch years ago. With no more than I plan to use it, hopefully it'll be sufficient. I'll be sure to keep an eye on it though.

Mounting it to my axle helps while the blade is down (absolutely zero load on the suspension), but the suspension is still supporting the entire weight of the blade when I have it lifted. It's actually supporting more than the weight of the blade right now, because I'm lifting it from behind the assembly's center of mass.

Here's a pic to show how it squats with the blade lifted. I have about 1.5" of compression before I'm on my bumpstops.

Think of carrying a bowling ball with the finger holes vs carrying it while it's cantilevered out on a 4' rod. Your arms (my winch and suspension) see a far greater force when lifting a cantilevered load. I may modify the lifting point to take some of the weight off of my suspension when I'm going down the road, but it's drivable right now.

I picked up a flat 2" strap to replace my winch rope as well. That'll prevent damaging the end of my winch rope from lifting and lowering at such a steep angle.

And yes, I've already heard from relatives and friends, haha.

 

[rangerbum]

I understand the reason for not mounting it to the frame, my concern is the stress it's going to put on the links, driveshaft, and steering components.

 

[Bray D]

Other than the radius arms, the stress on the other components will be minimal. It's mounted to the caps of my radius arms, so the plowing force should be driven through my arms straight to my frame.

I'll be plowing in 4low. Slow speed stuff. I like to think that wheeling introduces far more stress on my components than this plow will.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Might wear the RA bushings a little faster but as long as you take it easy and don't snag anything I would think you would be ok. But those fancy truck blades have springs on the back that help with that too.

I actually throw 4 75# slab weights on the front of my tractor to help with steering when I have my rear mounted blade on for moving snow. The blade isn't all that terrible heavy either... but it adds up quick when you put leverage to it

 

[rangerbum]

I guess it just depends on how much snow you get where you are, and how heavy it is. I've seen frame mounted plows crack frames on one tons up here in Montana. I'm sure it'll be fine though if it's just your driveway and you take it easy.

 

[Bray D]

Everything in moderation. Plow trucks get beat up because they're plowing at much higher speeds, catch things that aren't snow, and are pushing up into huge banks. I don't plan to do any of that.

 

[bigmark303]

Nice fab work and good thinking of placement for the force to follow at least the path through your axle to your frame via radius arm.

Just keep an eye on it. No axle is designed to take force direct like it will be applied by having the plow attached and pushing. Make sure you at least have a couple inches of play in the slip yoke for the front driveshaft just incase those radius arm bushing shred and push through.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Everything in moderation. Plow trucks get beat up because they're plowing at much higher speeds, catch things that aren't snow, and are pushing up into huge banks. I don't plan to do any of that.

Time is of the essence and they are not driving their personal truck most of the time is a lot of it.

If they were in their own trucks I bet a lot of guys would be easier on the equipment.

 

[RangerSVT]

I'm sure Bray knows what he's doing

SVT