Sno Commanders?

[hihoslvr]

Hey, I'm interested in hearing about any of ya'll that use your rigs for plowin'
RBV's or otherwise. What kinda set up ya got? Manual or auto, body style preferance, tires, ballast, all the dirty details, and any funny stories too, please and thanks...

 

[racsan]

my '93 is a snow eater, i run stock size tires (235/75-15) with 3.73 gearing, manual hubs, 500 pounds in the back. last sat. i had to pull out a stuck dodge caravan. the only hookup point i could get to was the trailer hitch. so i drug it backwards 1/4 mile to the trailer park. i dont have a plow for it, save that kind of work for the 3/4 ton.its nothing special, just a box-stock '94 f250 with a 351 and e4od. 3.55 gears, the real snow machine was the old farm truck. '77 f250 400 with a C6 and 4.10's full-time 4wd too. got 6mpg no matter what. would git-r-dun though!
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Honda Ballade specifications

 

[Will]

I showed you my truck in the other forum. I took that blade off of a '64 CJ. It was mounted to the frame and ran under the front leafs--won't work on a TTB and I didn't want it hanging down because I use this truck to wheel and go through the woods over fallen trees and such. So I made a mount:

and it's high up--just pull the pins and drop it--no frame. Worked real well as you see it until I put a corner of the blade into a culvert and twisted the hell out of it. It's 3/8" angle and I couldn't bend it out so I cut it apart and added another 50# of steel--boxing it all in and gusseting it. Then the next time I hit it hard it bent the 4" x 1/4" angle that it mounts to the frame with--but that bend forced it against the frame of the truck and it can't bend anymore. I also have a piece of chain with hooks as a limiter so it doesn't jerk on the winch clutch--and that I hold it up while I'm driving on the road. With the loose coils I have on this truck I had to bag the coils with Airlift 1000's. It's rock solid on the road now and I just pop the cores out when I take it up in the woods or offroading. I live on a steep hillside and you don't want a stiff front when you are picking your way across the slope over fallen stuff--so it's nice to be able to go from super stiff to super floppy in a few seconds.

Only thing I can say about plowing with a RBV and this heavy of a plow is--check your lug nuts regularly. I had a wheel come loose on the road once and then full off another time after doing a lot of plowing--something that has never happened to me before--and I have always torqued wheels with a torque wrench so I don't break the lugs.

I would much prefer an auto for this. I do my neighbors drive and it is long (quarter-mile) and steep enough that you have to shift twice going up it. My feet are always wet and the clutch pedal surface has long worn smooth so I've gotten my foot tangled in there when it slid off while slapping through the gears up that drive. Also, in the church parking lot when you are doing endless back and forths it would be nice to just click it a couple times and not have to mess with the clutch and balky Ford shifter--first and reverse are pretty far apart--plus you have the remote in your hand and between steering and shifting it gets wound around everything. Rather have an auto.

The B2 is almost 50/50 balanced so it doesn't need weight in the back at all. I like the short wheelbase too--same as a Jeep but a lot more weight. The 4.0 has lots of the guts you need and even with a stick its very easy to get it moving without stalling it.

All that said, I'm putting a snow blade on my skid loader and retiring the B2 from plow duties next year. I'm not going to do the church anymore--the only asphault I do really-- and I'll use the Bobcat for whatever else I do. The B2 is kind of hard on gravel driveways--I would prefer something with a little more precicion and that is narrower than the drive so I can do one side at a time. Gravel drives always have a crown and the blade pushes all the gravel off. Plus I have a lot beter vision with the Bobcat and can be a lot more careful.

 

[wahlstrom1]

I just use our Massey 265, with a modified 10'ish 3 point mount blade.

-andrew

Here's a pic from when I broke a month ago.....

This is what it looked like new, except with a loader, the oversize blade, and a ROPS setup.

 

[exbass94]

This one isn't mine, it's just some pics I found online, but mine is EXACTLY like that one. Same model and everything.

It's a Toro 724 snowblower with Tecumseh 7 hp engine. I don't have a very big driveway, and it gets the job done very nicely. I've only used it about 3-4 times in the past 3 years. It never snows around here anymore.

 

[hihoslvr]

thanks gents

ha,ha, thanks for all the info. Exactly what I was lookin for, a 4.0 4x with an auto sounds like the hot ticket. Of course, a 3/4 ton sounds better...

 

[Will]

That tractor looks familiar. Remidns me of this one.

Yeah, a 3/4 is better if you live where there is a lot of snow. Around here we only get it a half dozen times a year that you would need to plow. But an AMAZING number of people have huge trucks with big plows and salt spreaders and they love to put on their stuff in Novemeber at the slightest flurry and go driving around everywhere like that until April on the hunt for something to plow. Not my style.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

We have a 1946 John Deere B with a aftermarket 3-point hitch and a 6' Dearborn blade. The thing is a tank in snow, and is about as reliable as hammer. We have a set of chains for it too, but the thing is naturally very heavy to the rear so it gets around pretty good without them.

Kind of funny it was the second tractor my dad ever bought back in the late 70's and I don't think we even have a decent picture of it. He gave it to me when I was little (probably about 2nd grade), but since I have nowhere to keep it he still has it. He loves thing thing so much I don't know if I could take it from him anyway.

 

[hihoslvr]

lotto?

yeah, I guess I need to start playin the lotto, or finish college. I was checkin out some Kubota's awhile back, Bobcat's are cool too, I like the roll cage, but do you think they could pull a Ranger out of snow or mud?

 

[Will]

You mean a skid loader in the mud?

Bad idea. Too heavy. They are like forklifts--with a short wheelbase you need a lot of weight to lift heavy things. Hard to get stuck because you can use the bucket to push yourself back--but they sink into wet grass. Forget mud. I will say that when I had construction tires on my Bobcat it was worthless in mud--sit and spin and bucket yourself out. I put implement traction tires on it now and I haven't needed the bucket to get free yet. But it could never pull something.

I helped a guy farm soybeans with an old set of tractors before. The best one for the wet field was equipped with dual rears. He pulled my Ranger out a lot of times because I used to cut a lot of wood from his fence rows and was always getting stuck.

If you were wondering--the worst tree in the world is a Honey Locust wrapped in Poison Ivy.

 

[hihoslvr]

hey that's good info, I'll try to remember that in the future... I did see a cool bobcat/skid steer/loader mowing along the highway today, it had tracks!

 

[chittybangbang]

Heres my sno commander.2008 suncast poly snow shovel

 

[mudnsnow]

Mine is a LCD shovel. I guess nobody have one like this

LCD Shovel link