Waiting to Plow

[ovrszd]

Great story DJ54!!!!

An older Gentleman that owns a Dozer and pushes dirt for us occassionally can tell some stories like that!!!! Didn't have strong Graders back in the 60s and 70s. So at least once each Winter the townships would hire Dozer operators to push with big V plows, no cabs of course. He'd reverse his engine fan so the heat would blow back toward him.

I won't jinx myself by saying we'll never see those days again. I'll just say since 1989 I've been able to always open our 50 miles of roads with the Grader. In the beginning it was more difficult because of having a lot lighter and less HP machine. I've piled snow so high when V plowing that I couldn't see over it from the Grader seat. Get in some spots where you work 4 or 5 hours to go a 1/2 mile. Be very , very careful going downhill with the plow. If you don't make it thru it's a lot harder to back uphill to get another run. Have had to "row" myself out more than once with the blade while trying to back up.

Closest I ever came to getting stuck was a "Stupid Human Trick". Had been pushing all night and was finishing up on my way home. Went by a large drifted area that I had previously opened. Had a V Plow and a Wing on. Made my pass and then thought I'd turn around and hit that one more time. 3 a.m., no houses insight, no Cell Phone. Backed oof into a flat grassy area. Soon as the rear wheels left the roadway I felt them sink. Ground wasn't frozen. Backed into a field terrace dump area. Sank 2/3 up the rear tires, crossways in the road, moldboard firmly gouged into the road shoulder. With the Wing on the blade is limited as to what I can do. Did some careful thinking before I tried anything. If I spun the rear tires they would instantly sink further. Messed around for about 30 minutes before I got out of that. Did a lot of talking outloud to myself. Calling myself every nasty name I could think of!!!! Didn't pull a stunt like that again!!!!

 

[DJ54]

Just one of many stories I could tell, but won't bore everyone..., LOL.. There was some funny stuff too... Back in '77 before I got on that crew, they were opening up roads drifted shut. Had an open station cable blade D-7. Joe made a big push, and when backing up to get another, noticed a VW come sliding out of the pile of snow he'd just deposited. Thank goodnes there was no one inside...

Here's a pic from the Blizzard of '78. We were in the clean up stages at this time, mainly doing traffic control while wrecker operators extracted vehicles. This semi was literally blown sideways off the road by 70 mph winds

 

[ovrszd]

I was pushing out a drifted dirt road years ago. Drifted 8ft deep all the way across. Road had steep banks on each side. Would hit it with the plow and as I lost speed, turn one direction or the other to push the pile back. Had made several hits and was backing up to get another run and thought I saw an odd shape in the face of the drift. Fortunately it caught my attention enough to get out and take a look. It was the rear end of a pickup, totally buried in the drift. Some kids had abandoned it the day before when the storm was still raging. One more push and I would have totaled that ole truck. Left the road closed. The next day the boy's Dad came with his 4wd tractor and loader and dug it out of the snow drift!!!

The other side of that humor is the car/pickup drivers that will go into a drift with you while you are backing up and taking runs at it. They'll pull right up behind you and sit there looking at ya like you are supposed to get out of the way!!!! For the last 8 years our Grader has had very bright backup lights that come on when you shift into reverse. That gives them an advance warning that I'm backing out. I don't know what people like that are thinking!!!

Today everybody thinks they've gotta get to town TODAY!!!! I've gotten phone calls asking when I'm gonna get their road open while the storm is still raging!!!! Had a young man that rented a country house call 911 and tell the dispatcher that I needed to get his road up NOW!!! I'm 6 miles from his house when the dispatcher calls me on my Cell Phone. I think there must be an emergency so I alter my plan and go as directly to his house as I can. When I get there he runs out and asks me where I've been and how come it took so long. I asked if he an immediate emergency like needing an ambulance or something??? No, he just needed to take his kids to his divorced wife's house for the weekend because he was going out of town!!! He should have been arrested and charged with filing a false emergency call to 911.......

This is what greets me in the bad drifted spots.




Keep plugging away and eventually you find a road!!!

 

[Thomas]

Keeps the story and pics coming ovrszd...I am enjoying them.

 

[ovrszd]

Here's another good picture. Took me 3 hours to get to the end of that road. Had snow piled higher than my head (10ft) when I got done. The wife that lives at the end of that road brought me out a big cup of hot chocolate when I got to their house!!!

 

[Thomas]

Son of gun that's some heavy weight plowing.

Have you any major break downs,if so about whats the waiting time for help?

 

[ovrszd]

The Wing we use is an old wing that was designed to fasten to the end of the moldboard and be braced to a bracket between the tandems. That method limited it's use tremendously. We've modified it to brace against the center of the moldboard. This allows it to be used at extreme heights and reach. You can flatten a farmers fence if not careful. Is also death on mailboxes if you don't know where it is....

 

[ovrszd]

Generally I push snow at night. I do that for two reasons. First I prefer it, everyone is home in bed and I don't have as much traffic to deal with. I don't hafta worry about someone sneaking up behind me cause I can see them coming by their lights. Secondly, most storms here blow thru in the daytime. The wind lays in the evening. I sleep all day, and then stay out all night. I usually pack my camera, never know what you'll see. I really enjoy pushing at night. I have a good machine and can run all night in a T-shirt listening to my favorite tunes. If I get tired it's comfortable to take a 10 minute power nap. Great solitude, good for the Soul. Makes for some good pics when daybreak comes.

 

[DJ54]

Understand about people calling in... In the past, and seems more so now, people moving out from the city expect roads to be cleared when they go to work. Which in most cases with normal snows of a few inches they are pretty decent if the snow came through the night, and crews were out. However, cold temps, dry snow, and 20+mph winds can keep a person busy just keeping the prevailing wind side lane open.

Wouldn't it be sweet to have a snow blower to mount on that bad boy..!! Just put some HD guards out front of some sort, to keep from eating them vehicles buried in drifts, LOL...

 

[LD1]

Not sure how it is in nother areas, but in my area/county/township, I think roads are cleared quicker than the city streets. Maybe not the main routes, but the county and township roads in my area, get cleared fairly quickly.

There is MANY more miles of city side-streets than in my county. Sure they have more drivers, but I am betting drivers per mile of road is less in the big cities. Not to mention they have to go slower due to cars parked on the streets, more traffic, more intersections, etc.

 

[ovrszd]

Not sure how it is in nother areas, but in my area/county/township, I think roads are cleared quicker than the city streets. Maybe not the main routes, but the county and township roads in my area, get cleared fairly quickly.

There is MANY more miles of city side-streets than in my county. Sure they have more drivers, but I am betting drivers per mile of road is less in the big cities. Not to mention they have to go slower due to cars parked on the streets, more traffic, more intersections, etc.

I have to drive on 2 miles of State Hwy in 3 different locations to get from point A to point B. It's very common for me to blade the State Hwy as I go because they haven't been there yet. Over the years I've also dug out and rescued 3 State trucks that were stuck in drifts on those stretches of Hwy.

I want nothing to do with snow pushing in Cities. Too many obstacles and people to deal with!!!

I take care of several private driveways when I'm out. Elderly people or working people that don't have anything to open their drives with. Seems like honorable work until you see pieces of their rock garden sliding off the end of the blade...... A 40ft long grader with a plow, wing and 14ft moldboard gets REAL BIG in a driveway!!

I've only took out one mailbox in all my years. As luck would have it, the widow had just put up a new box that Fall. Hand painted a scenery sketch on it. I knocked it clean off the pole. I stopped to try to repair it and she came out and said don't worry about it, I'll clean it up, I just appreciate what you are doing!!! Good people out here in the country!!! That same lady has met me on the road in front of her house, in the middle of the night, with coffee and homemade donuts!!!

 

[Mike476]

I've only took out one mailbox in all my years. As luck would have it, the widow had just put up a new box that Fall. Hand painted a scenery sketch on it. I knocked it clean off the pole. I stopped to try to repair it and she came out and said don't worry about it, I'll clean it up, I just appreciate what you are doing!!! Good people out here in the country!!! That same lady has met me on the road in front of her house, in the middle of the night, with coffee and homemade donuts!!!

That's for sure!!

 

[LD1]

Not all people are that nice and understanding, even in the country. But it is for sure worse in the city.

Thats why I like the fact that I dont do drives. Only commercial lots.

 

[ovrszd]

Not all people are that nice and understanding, even in the country. But it is for sure worse in the city.Thats why I like the fact that I dont do drives. Only commercial lots.

Yep, I agree with you and Mike. I was sitting in a ***-n-Go parking lot eating lunch few years ago watching a friend of mine clean it with a pickup/plow. People would park right behind him while he was cleaning. Even in a commercial lot you have those people!!!Pushing snow in a public place, whether it's a country road or private drive or commercial lot is very stressful. You must be diligent and alert every second to keep from doing damage to someone's property or tearing up your own equipment. Wears you out!!!!

 

[Steve_Miller]

Generally I push snow at night. I do that for two reasons. First I prefer it, everyone is home in bed and I don't have as much traffic to deal with. I don't hafta worry about someone sneaking up behind me cause I can see them coming by their lights. Secondly, most storms here blow thru in the daytime. The wind lays in the evening. I sleep all day, and then stay out all night. I usually pack my camera, never know what you'll see. I really enjoy pushing at night. I have a good machine and can run all night in a T-shirt listening to my favorite tunes. If I get tired it's comfortable to take a 10 minute power nap. Great solitude, good for the Soul. Makes for some good pics when daybreak comes.

Love the stories and the pictures, thanks

Steve

 

[ovrszd]

We got ice today. Saturday night/Sunday morning we're supposed to get anywhere from 1" to 8". I'll wait until tomorrow morning to put the chains of the grader, dependent on what number the weather man settles on. If I plow, I'll take some pics. Being the first big snow of the Winter the "Yahoos" will be out playing in it!!!

 

[Thomas]

Looking forward read and pics ovrszd..stay safe out there.

 

[grsthegreat]

we have 3" of new snow on the ground...finally. And supposed to get 2-4" more overnight. I most likely wont do anything with it, as its supposed to warm up in a few days. I hope it hangs around thru XMAS....cause i really didnt want a dry Christmas this year.

 

[RoyJackson]

Well according to the weatherman, we were supposed to get less than 1 inch of snow today. At 6PM we are at about 6-8" and still snowing lightly. It is warming up so it will be raining by dawn. Temps might be real close to freezing. I'm going to wait until morning to plow even though I'm itching for some seat time! I figure to let the snow act as a sponge to sop up the freezing rain overnight.

Frank

I never plow if freezing rain is in the forecast...not until it's all done.
Freezing rain leaves a nice crust on top of the snow...easily removed by plowing. Plowing first and then a freezing rain results in very treacherous conditions for both walking and driving.
I must admit, I do share your enthusiasm for plowing snow...

 

[archeryantny]

The straw that broke the camels back was the winter of '92-'93. Down in SE Ohio, near the river they got a 36" of snow. They sent us down to open mostly County and Township roads. We took the F-A 14-C dozer, fairly new Case 850E dozer, and the Galion AWD maintainer w/V-plow & chains. Each of the 7 counties in our district sent at least 3 plow mounted trucks, some 4. A couple tandems loaded to the gills with salt, mounted with V-plows & chains. Dumps were used to haul snow off streets to a city park to store it.

I-70 east of Zanesville looked like a war zone. Semi's setting on the westbound side, with gelled fuel they got down south. Cars & pick-ups littered the roadway, berms, & median strip. Heading south on I-77 looked to be the same. I'll never forget going through Woodsfield, Ohio that day. People were lined up on the streets waving to us. It looked like they were having a parade in town that day.

It was a 2-1/2+ hour drive just to get there, so we spent 5+ hours of windshield time getting there and back. We had to be there around 6:30 in the morning, so left home at 3:30 a.m., then worked until dark. Back to the garage where they let us park inside where it is heated. Fueled and greased for the next day, looking things over, in case something had gotten broken, which they didn't thank goodness. It was so cold, paint was literally flaking off the Fiat down to bare metal, from running on pavement. I'd end up getting home about 10:30, and in bed by 11:00. Back up at 3:00 to go do it again.

Me, being the FNG on our crew got the 850E with just a ROPS and a heat houser. The other 2 had cabs. Second morning there, the temps dropped to -34ｺ, according to the Township Trustee I was working for. Talk abut making some steel sing... He sent me 9 miles across a fire road in the Wayne National Forest. They had a contract with ODNR to keep that road open, no matter what. He was in a 4-wd pick-up, but refused to follow me. Told me he'd meet me on the other end. I had no 2-way radio, and long before I got a cell phone, which would have been worthless anyway in them thar' hills. He told me the only thing I really needed to be concerned about was a one lane bridge, about 1-1/2 miles away from where we were. It's just wide enough to get a truck across. I told him if I wasn't at the other end in 4 hours, he'd best send someone looking.

Went across that bridge. The blade on the 850 is 8.5' wide. Snow rolled of both sides, and down into a small creek. Felt good getting to the other side..!!

The only sign of life I saw was wild turkey's roosting up in the trees. Finally made it to the other end, and no Trustee, and no sign of a house, or vehicle anywhere. I think that is the coldest I've ever been, and sure could have used a cup of coffee..!! I know I lit into him pretty good verbally, when he finally showed up about 20 minutes later. He said he got "tired" of waiting, and went for a little drive...

So yeah, things like that seem to stick with you. Glad I experienced it, but NEVER want to do it again...

So enjoy plowing snow, I do remember a time when it was kinda' fun to do that. I just don't seem to get all that entheused about it anymore...

nice story, thanks for sharing!