Moving snow with real trucks

[mader656]

For those of you with one way plows how much cheaper are they than a 2 way? All out blades are 2 way. Even on the 2 lanes we have use a 2 way  to move snow with the prevailing wind every now and then.

[mader656]

16 hours ago, mader656 said:

Ive heard them called 

Motor patrol

Maintainer 

Blade

Patrol grader

Road grader

Motor grader

 

I looked it up my cat 11 is a auto patrol

[ChrisNY]

57 minutes ago, mader656 said:

For those of you with one way plows how much cheaper are they than a 2 way? All out blades are 2 way. Even on the 2 lanes we have use a 2 way  to move snow with the prevailing wind every now and then.

Not sure on price but performance of a good one day plow versus a blade that can be angled is night and day different. Only blades that can be angled different ways are on state plows that do ramps and some smaller single axle plows in citys. A good one way will move a lot of snow and send it on a good ride out the end of the barrel. 

[ChaseIH]

I run grader for my county and I’ve only used it to plow snow for 3 days when we got 8 inches and three days of wind last year. First day out I found a little ditch and had to call for a tug. Boss laughed and then sent me to a part of the county where the ditches are all huge and said good luck. The cat 143H I had was great cause the diff and front assist would stay locked up till 6th gear. The John Deere 672GP I have now kinda stinks cause the diff and front assist automatically turn off after 4th and the ass end gets moved around. Plus when you put the wing and wing post on you loose the articulation function.

I’ve had a v plow on a truck only once but have run front plows a lot. We just don’t get hardly any snow anymore here in central Michigan and it’s getting old fast working 12 hours days on only 2” of snow

[mader656]

9 minutes ago, ChrisNY said:

Not sure on price but performance of a good one day plow versus a blade that can be angled is night and day different. Only blades that can be angled different ways are on state plows that do ramps and some smaller single axle plows in citys. A good one way will move a lot of snow and send it on a good ride out the end of the barrel. 

Our double bell 2 ways will launch quite a ways. 

Tow plow will clear 2 lanes with left lane left and right lane right. Or a drift across both lanes of traffic.

[ChrisNY]

22 minutes ago, mader656 said:

Our double bell 2 ways will launch quite a ways. 

Tow plow will clear 2 lanes with left lane left and right lane right. Or a drift across both lanes of traffic.

Those double bell plows are not a thing here for some reason. Henderson and Viking here both build them but only time I have ever seen them was on a truck leaving the factory. I know PA uses them. 
NYSDOT uses tow plows on the interstate occasionally. 

[Ihcubguy]

34 minutes ago, ChrisNY said:

Those double bell plows are not a thing here for some reason. Henderson and Viking here both build them but only time I have ever seen them was on a truck leaving the factory. I know PA uses them. 
NYSDOT uses tow plows on the interstate occasionally. 

The AWD Sterling I mentioned that we have at work is an 11ft Gledhill double jet stream plow. Like Mader said they will launch the snow a good ways.

[stronger800]

Our town has a Walters with double wings and a V.  Small box on the back, with a huge slab of concrete on it. 

I believe it still stays in a heated barn, ready to come out in an emergency. 20 years ago they had another one, and i remember  either the seat base or a section of the floor was wood. Original wood. That kind of old

[Gearclash]

2 hours ago, ChrisNY said:

A good one way will move a lot of snow and send it on a good ride out the end of the barrel. 

This is another thing a V plow doesn’t do so well.  V plows move snow more up and less sideways.  They will throw it sideways ok but not a like a one way or wing.  

[ray54]

Cat supplied small gas crawlers to Russel that were used with the same style grader as the McCormick wheel tractor. Cat bought Russel out at some point and used the Motor Patrol name on the early road graders. They built towed graders as well, some are Maintainers and some are graders. I don't know if its all just names or real differences.

[New Englander]

Watch runways being plowed. The idea is to keep them open so rollover plows cast the snow to the right at high speed until they can't then a blower casts it way off; repeat as necessary. Runways are generally 150' wide at major fields so a bit different than highways.

Edge and centerline lights are now mostly LED so don't melt and need a little clean up. At max brightness they will shine through.

[Lazy WP]

Just saw this on Facebook. I know they are green but still impressive https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1QKwa8kdJ3/?mibextid=wwXIfr

[Gearclash]

7 minutes ago, Lazy WP said:

Just saw this on Facebook. I know they are green but still impressive https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1QKwa8kdJ3/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Those look reasonably capable if under powered.  I have seen guys try to bash roads open with a straight silage blade in front of an articulated 4x4 and they really struggle.  

[Lazy WP]

2 minutes ago, Gearclash said:

Those look reasonably capable if under powered.  I have seen guys try to bash roads open with a straight silage blade in front of an articulated 4x4 and they really struggle.  

Back in the day, the neighbors had an articulated 66 series with a Dengleman blade on it. Had it angled to the right so they could stay wound up in high gear and blow the snow off the road. Must have been the winter of 78-79, and we had drifts 10 to 15 feet deep and a mile long. 
Bill wound the 4X4 up and hit the drift hard. Tractor buckled in the middle. He tried it for about an hour before he gave up. 
We took the old Cockshutt 570Super with a Dual 325 loader on, and were able to dig our way through. 
Long slow process but we got the cattle fed, after 4 days. Part of the reason I moved as far south as I did, and if I were to do it again, I wouldn’t have stopped for another 300 miles south. 

[jass1660]

1 hour ago, Lazy WP said:

Back in the day, the neighbors had an articulated 66 series with a Dengleman blade on it. Had it angled to the right so they could stay wound up in high gear and blow the snow off the road. Must have been the winter of 78-79, and we had drifts 10 to 15 feet deep and a mile long. 
Bill wound the 4X4 up and hit the drift hard. Tractor buckled in the middle. He tried it for about an hour before he gave up. 
We took the old Cockshutt 570Super with a Dual 325 loader on, and were able to dig our way through. 
Long slow process but we got the cattle fed, after 4 days. Part of the reason I moved as far south as I did, and if I were to do it again, I wouldn’t have stopped for another 300 miles south. 

You tie a snowblower to the front of your truck and drive far enough south until someone asks you what the heck is that thing? Then you are safe…

[Lazy WP]

1 hour ago, jass1660 said:

You tie a snowblower to the front of your truck and drive far enough south until someone asks you what the heck is that thing? Then you are safe…

If I ever move again, that is my plan. 

[poor farmer/logger]

4 hours ago, Gearclash said:

Those look reasonably capable if under powered.  I have seen guys try to bash roads open with a straight silage blade in front of an articulated 4x4 and they really struggle.  

Pretty sure that’s some good ol Alberta boys getting things done. Could be southern Sask too but thinking Alberta. Used to plow lease roads in the oil field. 

[Mike H]

On 1/30/2025 at 1:48 PM, Lazy WP said:

So do you guys who get the lake effect snows, get winds like we get out here? It doesn’t take much snow to totally shut everything down, when driven by 60mph winds. 
From what I’ve read about the blizzard of ‘49, the winds blew from about every direction, totally drifting everything in. 

up here we get ''lake effect'' snow out of every direction except 

south south west [SSW]