[So] it's that time of the year again. The time of year when we're done raking leaves, done shopping for useless crap and preparing for the shitty season.
Time to actually deal with the shitty season and shovel water. But preparations aren't done yet, first some fixing is in order!
My old plow needed some tender loving care. The plow face has holes but still does the job I need it to do. I bent the drivers side lower edge on broken concrete 3 years ago pushing into a driveway. Stopped the truck dead and the rear of the truck slid 3 feet to the right. Last season I tried to straighten it against a rock and broke one of the 2 pivot pins. These are monstrous pins that the entire blade will tip forward on in case you catch something in the road. 3 large springs behind the blade hold it upright. It worked bent and full of holes, but I can't have the plow falling off!
Here is the plow with springs removed and tipped forward.
You can really see the bend here. The mold board (scraping edge) is broken at the bend, you can see the crack and sharp point.
Broken pivot is on the drivers side.
Upon closer inspection it must have been rusted solid to the sleeves and broke when I hit concrete. It didn't tip as expected before, but it did afterwards. There was enough of a stub holding it together until I got frisky with a rock.
Yep, she's rusted solid. Someone in the past torched holes in the back sides of the A frame to get a punch in there and drive out old pins. They didn't even move. Time to break out the torch.
I got the A frame side sleeve cherry red and wailed on it with a 20 pound sledge and heavy impact chisel. Nothing. Hit it with the torch again. Nothing. Warmed the frame around the sleeve for 10 minutes and got that cherry red and it finally moved. This bitch didn't want to give up the rod!
These pins are 7/8 of an inch thick and 9 inches long. This one is broken in half of course.
A bit of hot forging going on here.
Once all that nonsense was done I heated the lower frame and straightened it too. You can see the discolored metal where I worked on it. A punch bar is substituting for a pivot rod.
The puller is there because the passenger side pin and mount was bent. It was more agreeable with heat.
I found a heavy bolt 3/4 of an inch thick and 6 inches long. Ground the head off and tapped it in. Reused the cotter pin.
Once the blade was mounted and happy, it was time to adress the scraping edge. It had broken at the bend and had a jagged edge after straighting the frame. Hit the bolts with heat and an impact to remove.
Flipped it over and around to put the cracked end on the passenger side. Ground off the sharp point at the crack.
Maybe one of these years I'll get a new mold board and recover the front, but it should do fine this year. Having a straight blade is a huge improvement! No more piles of snow on the drivers side when wind rowing!
TLDR: Fuck you snow
Time to actually deal with the shitty season and shovel water. But preparations aren't done yet, first some fixing is in order!
My old plow needed some tender loving care. The plow face has holes but still does the job I need it to do. I bent the drivers side lower edge on broken concrete 3 years ago pushing into a driveway. Stopped the truck dead and the rear of the truck slid 3 feet to the right. Last season I tried to straighten it against a rock and broke one of the 2 pivot pins. These are monstrous pins that the entire blade will tip forward on in case you catch something in the road. 3 large springs behind the blade hold it upright. It worked bent and full of holes, but I can't have the plow falling off!
Here is the plow with springs removed and tipped forward.
You can really see the bend here. The mold board (scraping edge) is broken at the bend, you can see the crack and sharp point.
Broken pivot is on the drivers side.
Upon closer inspection it must have been rusted solid to the sleeves and broke when I hit concrete. It didn't tip as expected before, but it did afterwards. There was enough of a stub holding it together until I got frisky with a rock.
Yep, she's rusted solid. Someone in the past torched holes in the back sides of the A frame to get a punch in there and drive out old pins. They didn't even move. Time to break out the torch.
I got the A frame side sleeve cherry red and wailed on it with a 20 pound sledge and heavy impact chisel. Nothing. Hit it with the torch again. Nothing. Warmed the frame around the sleeve for 10 minutes and got that cherry red and it finally moved. This bitch didn't want to give up the rod!
These pins are 7/8 of an inch thick and 9 inches long. This one is broken in half of course.
A bit of hot forging going on here.
Once all that nonsense was done I heated the lower frame and straightened it too. You can see the discolored metal where I worked on it. A punch bar is substituting for a pivot rod.
The puller is there because the passenger side pin and mount was bent. It was more agreeable with heat.
I found a heavy bolt 3/4 of an inch thick and 6 inches long. Ground the head off and tapped it in. Reused the cotter pin.
Once the blade was mounted and happy, it was time to adress the scraping edge. It had broken at the bend and had a jagged edge after straighting the frame. Hit the bolts with heat and an impact to remove.
Flipped it over and around to put the cracked end on the passenger side. Ground off the sharp point at the crack.
Maybe one of these years I'll get a new mold board and recover the front, but it should do fine this year. Having a straight blade is a huge improvement! No more piles of snow on the drivers side when wind rowing!
TLDR: Fuck you snow
