The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Plough Truck Idea

I'm wondering if anyone has any info or pictures of Advance Design trucks being used as snowploughs? It is my intention to refurb my truck to drive on the road as well as work on the farm, but I don't intend any winter highway driving, for obvious reasons (salt, sand, accidents). However I was thinking, why not install a block heater, load some pit-run in the box and tire chains,install a plough using the existing hydraulics to lift and use it to clear my yard and laneway in the winter.
After some really helpful info received on here, It seems my 48 Loadmaster is a short wheelbase 1 1/2 ton. It ought to push an 8' plough, either a commercial made modern plough or a homemade vintage-looking one. The hydraulics to the hoist cylinder could be fitted with regular Pioneer couplers and just unhooked from the hoist and the plough hose hooked up with a click.

Any thoughts or suggestions/links/criticisms? I'm really new to these "old" trucks. I considered doing this with my last farm dump truck, but I had taken the heated cab off and just made a canopy - so it would have been no warmer than my open station loader which I now use for snow. The thought of shoving snow in a warm cab is irresistible.....

Nothing to add, no pictures to show. I do, however want to say I think it's a great idea. Sounds like you have the where with all to make it happen.

Sounds like a great idea. I remember seeing a 47 or 48 with a plow on the front. Think this is the link. I don't know the fella, I live in the north and saw it in the gallery


http://www.stovebolt.com/gallery/ward_scott_1948_01.htm

I have worked with snow plows for a number of years. A snow plow is one of the best ways to destroy a good truck. It will stress or break the fame or bend things that you never thought could bend or break. A lot of this depends on the operator though.
I would never put a plow on anything that I cared about.
Jim

i agree but right now i could use one

Hmm... different opinions. I sure don't want to trash my truck. On the otherhand, I feel there is a difference between ploughing snow for others as a business and just clearing your own driveway. The commercial snow business exposes you to every submerged object, curbs, stumps, posts,speed bumps,sewer grates etc etc. I used to do snow clearing with my tractor and know the risks of "irresistible force-immovable object".
I was thinking that the frame would need some extra stiffeners, flat plates on the frame rails and extra cross members welded in...something like beefing up a modern pickup for installing a wrecker unit.

I guess I'll have to just wait until I get the truck home and up and running the way I want, then see what it looks like underneath. First job is to build a new dump body and racks....that is the real reason I bought the truck...hauling oats!

Maybe I need to get myself two trucks...Keep my dump for "good" and find another 1.5 or 2 ton and turn it into The Beast - 4wd conversion, vintage wrecker, winch, snow plough, all painted up and undercoated for winter use...
Imagine the yuppie stuck in the snow with his toyota Prius seeing this Beast from the past rolling up to winch him out...;)

Wait till 48bigtrucks checks in. He had/has a plow on a truck like that. He'll be able to tell you anything you need to know.

Well if you decide to go with a 4X4 BEAST, PM me. I have a friend with a 1 ton 513 to 1 Napco conversion with all the major parts. I'm a firm believer in making everything earn its keep. No trailer queens here.

I have a 1940 F@rd COE with a Marmon-Herrington 4x4. I thought it would be fun to put dual wheels all the way around that for a snow plow truck. I wish i had one of those highway snowblowers to put on the back. I love those monsters.

Builder,

If you want to put "duallies" on the front axle you need to have the outer wheels spin on a separate hub, otherwise you will not be able to steer it. If you look at the 1939 GM Futureliner's you'll see that's how they did them.

Would defiantly be different...

Mike B

Builder,
I've seen farmers convert their 3 pt hitch blowers to front mount. You could do the same thing with a truck, either cab and chassis or flatbed/pickup (wouldn't work with a dump). Just mount the blower on the front on a plough harness, then you set a honkin' big motor on the back, with the flywheel facing the rear and hanging over the back edge of the deck, run a long drive shaft from the front bumper to the back - length would depend on length of the truck. Mount it in pillow block bearings similar to a drive shaft just to one side of the truck drive shaft. The back end would have a pulley while the front end would be splined like a tractor pto. Then just hook the blower pto shaft onto the under-truck shaft, an idler pulley with a manual lever to engage it would turn the blower on and off while the engine keeps running.
It sounds a bit complex, but I think it would work...maybe? Anyhow, its not something I'm going to try with an antique truck. I might butcher a rotten old half ton from the 70's/80's for that sort of thing...but I have no time for that.

A few years back I saw a picture of a 1958 or 1959 pickup that had duallies on front and back. I believe the caption said something about it being specially made for some cabling company to string cables through swamp areas in the south. Have any of you seen pictures of it? I think it was painted John Deere Green and yellow and I think it had a 9 foot bed.

That was my truck that Crawfish linked to. It worked OK as a 2wd truck goes, chains would have made the difference. That truck was equipped with a small block and had power steering with 12 volt power etc. The way my driveway is configured, it was a PITA to turn something that big around all the time. It worked well in mild winters, but when the snow got deep, it wouldn't handle it, even with 6 ton of gravel on it. The truck never suffered any damage from plowing so it was strong enough, just needs 4WD, like the truck in the lower part of the link! That truck is more like a tractor!

I need to find a snowblowing invention that I can use right up on the building. It needs to be able to get right at eh bottom of the doors. I have 80 storage doors I need to shovel out every time it snows. That's getting old with all the snow we are having this year so far.

Any ideas?

Builder, I'll just put a word out, then you and others can play "Vaccuum"

Got a 50 cubic yard vacuum bag?

You need a commercial grade leaf blower mounted out front,
Scott

But, but,....... I thought global warming was here and snow was a thing of the past...?!

Maybe a regular walk behind snow blower would snuggle up beside the building?

If you go on youtube and search around you can see a railroad snow "blower" used to clear street crossings and switches in yards, it is a Jet Engine...from an airplane, mounted on a carriage with a cab for the driver and it really blows snow...Leaf Vac on steroids.

Yeah! A jet engine. I can scorch the paint right off my building just before I turn on the after burner.