truck snow plowing over dirt road with embedded rocks

[2manyrocks]

I don't know a thing about snow plowing since I've never lived in that kind of climate. I'm posting this question for my BIL who lives in Colorado.

He's plowing several miles of dirt road, and the problem is that rocks embedded in the road are causing equipment damage. He recently hit an embedded rock about the size of a football, and it ended breaking the headlight mount on the truck. He has a regular snow plow blade on the front of the truck with a couple of larger skids on each end.

Would it help to add a 2" pipe held on by tabs to the blade or is this not something he should consider?

Any other suggestions?

thanks all

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Embedded rocks are one reason why I dislike using the FEL as a plow. Even in float mode. Ditto using the back blade straight. What seems to work well even with the rocks, is to angle the plow blade. That way it's more likely to slide off, or at worst, spin the tractor to the side until it slides off.

 

[ovrszd]

I run a road grader on country roads here in Missouri. I've got three different places, short in distance, that have limestone rock ledge exposed on steep hills. I crawl along at an idle thru those sections so I don't hook a rock and tear something up.

In your BIL's case he probably doesn't have the luxury of it being in certain spots. I've run backroads all over the mountains in Colorado. When I see those rocks exposed I always think about hitting them with a blade.

I think your pipe idea would help. But it's also going to make the blade less effective removing hard packed snow or ice. A good breakaway system is the only good answer.

 

[2manyrocks]

He seems to be relying on his skids keeping the blade about 2" off the ground, but then as you say, the blade hangs on a rock here or there. Since he's plowing snow with a truck traveling at a higher speed than a tractor, I suppose this really does give him a jolt when the blade hits rock.

Although he first said the road was dirt, he later said they've put some gravel down.

 

[ovrszd]

I hear ya on the speed. I run 15-18mph depending on type of snow. I don't have shoes and have to carry the blade all the time. Not wanting to leave deep snow on the roadbeds, I'm usually running about 2" off the ground also.

What he most risks is breaking the cutting edge on the blade or some of the mount hardware. I'll bet it scares him a bit too!!!

 

[XTROOPER]

I plow with a Kubota RTV 1100 UTV with Blizzard 720 plow. I had the dealer attach a very thick rubber that is what contacts my shale road. It seems to work really well. The hunk of rubber is fairly pricy, but I think it takes a lot of the jolt off of hitting some of the rocks. It probably will not work on the really big rocks.

XTROOPER

 

[RedNeckRacin]

What about converting to a trip edge plow? I'm wondering how high above the surrounding grade that the rock is? Most plows seem to trip very easily before anything gets broken. I think I'm missing something here?