Anyone plow snow with their truck?

So you understand why I want a plow for my truck in the first place. One reason is because of that amount of snow plus working 12 hour shifts during those times when snowing prevalent makes coming home after midnight and then needing to snow blow a driveway with more then 12 inches of snow before I can even go to bed gets old very fast. I am not doing any commercial plowing and will only do any outside of my own driveway for my immediate family and a couple of friends.

 

And to answer all of your responses I did end up getting a plow for my truck. I found a Snow Dogg MD75 for 500 bucks, came with the controller and a couple of other extras. Needed to purchase truck wiring and the mount for my truck. I am not going to be plowing full time with my truck and multiple driveways with my truck as well. I do plan on keeping my truck for as long as possible as well. I have learned that everyone's experience is different when plowing with their trucks. I had thought about using a service to plow my driveway, but one of the issues is relying on someone else to do it when I need it done. My neighbor has someone do his and they never showed up to do it when we got that BIG Storm we had after Thanksgiving. The neighbors cleaned out the man's driveway for him since he was trapped at home. I checked on the weight of the plow I purchased and it is 400 lbs. I don't know if that includes the mount.

 

Those are all 1978 trucks, which would mean that they would all be the 4wd “lowboys”. Awesome pic though and thanks for posting it up!

 

No doubt rowing through a NP235 manual transmission would suck for plowing! Those ford plow trucks (with the “sno-fighter” package) in the pic probably came with the comparatively uncommon NP203 full time transfer case and an automatic C6 transmission.

 

Awesome! Sounds like a great price if the plow is in good condition. I've never used a snow dogg plow. But they're common enough that while you might not find parts at 6 different places, but you'll be able to find them online.

 

FWIW - the NP435 is a decent plow transmission that might have been the popular choice in the 70's. Especially with vehicles that may need low range at times like the engines of that era. The granny gear option skips the steps of going in and out of low range frequently. That's a problem in an I6 truck of the era if the snow is too deep or if you need to go really slow along a building side to make a cleanup pass. 1st gear isn't low enough. Downside of the NP435 is the shift pattern. Going 1 > R > 1 > R isn't as easy in the 435 shift pattern vs the Toyota J30 that's super easy forward to back. It needs to be durable above all else. And the NP425 is pretty solid in that respect. I wouldn't necessarily choose it as my first choice. But I'd take it over a C6 or TH350 or any other automatic of that era including a TH400 30 years ago. Today though - I wouldn't have any MT models because 90% of people you'll hire won't even know how to drive em.

I think the AB60F is exceptional. I wouldn't worry much about it.

 

The operator plays a large role in the amount of destruction caused by the plowing, and I haven't given that any thought in previous replies.

If you are the owner of the truck who actually gives a hoot, take your time without slamming between F/R and somehow, someway avoid the temptation of going 60mph into snowbanks, you very well might go about this for a few decades!

 

This urge is intense. Also it's not a bulldozer.

 

I have the same plow for my Tundra, bought it used for $1800 with all wiring. Found a used truck side mount on eBay for half price of new. It’s just big enough to clear snow the width of the truck when the blade is angled. And it’s tough enough to push any amount of snow your truck can.

I only used it to do the lot at my previous company, parents and a few other neighbors driveways. One year we got a bunch of snow and I had some randoms call me to plow, basically paid for itself over 2 snow seasons.

I didn’t even bother wiring the lights since I don’t plow commercially. And the tundra headlights are high enough that you can drive with the plow raised up. Grab a set of hydraulic hoses and a gallon of plow oil to keep in the parts shelf.

 

I could see how behind the plow causes a vacuum of sorts and just lets the salt spray and brine get in every nook possible and just sit there.

 

Plowing snow is hard on an automatic transmission.

 

Yeah after the responses and I can understand it too. Still pretty crazy when you think about it.

 

Yeah, but if you think about it, it's kinda like the bed of the truck where you have that vortex that just blows around and round. I'm sure if you just washed out the engine bay like once a week it would have helped. 20/20 right.

 

You want one of these - much easier on the suspension

SNOWSPORT 180 Utility Plow | Reversible Van, Truck & SUV Snow Plows

 

That’s a great choice and a helluva deal !! Worth a mount and a light kit for sure. It’s a great plow but I will give you some pointers . Spray everything down with fluid film , hose connections , welds , grease nipples , cylinders etc. Couple times a winter I Pressure wash the plow with motor cover off . Prevents corrosion over time and keeps hose connections from rotting off . Backdraggin with a light plow works but not ideal . You can add some weight if you’re not travelling ( personal driveway deal ). Another thing is plowing in Drive . I plow by semi auto so I keep revs up so charging system can try to keep up . Plow at low rpm and your battery/alt are suffering . Best advise I can give you is to stay off highways if it’s attached . If you’re forced to ,, clean that engine bay like it’s your teeth if you want to save the truck

 

Thanks, we do have a local place that deals with them all the time and I have found some parts that I have needed online. Nothing major needed, just sprucing it up a little bit.

 

Very interesting. I already have the plow I was looking to buy. It is a nice feature if someone doesn't want all that is involved with a regular plow.

 

I have sprayed a lot of stuff right now with PB Blaster on the plow for bolts and stuff that needed replaced. I will be spraying it with Fluid film as well. That is a great idea. I have used that stuff on my other vehicles. I have already sprayed the new plow mount and bolts that are used to mount it so hopefully that helps.

 

Would be pretty cool if there was a way to make the foreign market idle up function work on a Tundra. I've only seen it in person in a Prado diesel, but I think they also have it in some gasoline land cruiser models. Not sure if it helps at all for holding lower gears, but it works well for winching and similar stuff to keep the engine rpms up around 1200 at idle.

 

Check out the second half of the idle up. The Toyota Dyna has the above switch, but adds a dial so the RPM can be adjusted.

 

Even better!!

- I wonder how hard (or impossible) that would be to put in something like a Tundra. I think it would be easy enough to hack a pedal commander type device show the ECU a minimum depressed throttle to get to a high idle, but it would probably mess with other things - like shifting into and out of gear smoothly. A lot like the old cable pull hand throttles. The OEM software on the models with factory high idle probably does a lot more to make sure the rest of the functionality remains normal.

 

Very difficult, not to mention Toyota’s past throttle problems making such a device a rather risky item.

I love the hand throttle on my BJ73.

 

I like how it’s done on our diesels . Turn on cruise ,, hit set button until you hit desired idle speed and you’re done . Touch the brake , hit cancel , whatever but you can’t get into drive without cancelling it . Would help in winter with a plow causing such a load .