plow for my Jeep TJ...

[jayson44]

ok, so I'm trying to plan ahead for winter. this was our first year up in the mountains (we live between Black Hawk & Rollinsville) and I never bought a plow or anything last year because we weren't sure we were staying. I need to find either a plow for my TJ, or an ATV w/a plow.

I think I'd rather go the plow route, so I don't have to try to maintain an ATV. while it sounds fun to have one for the summer, I don't want to have another money pit on my hands if I don't get a good one.

so what do I need to do a plow on my TJ? does anyone here have one for their Jeep? I have a winch, so I think I could get away w/not having hydraulics and what-not for raising and lowering. I guess I just need to know if I can grab any old plow off Craigslist, or if I need something specific.

J.

[jayson44]

also, this will be strictly for our driveway, which goes down-hill, and is probably 120 feet long. no large loads, no parking lots, no commercial at all. just so I don't have to scoop it by hand this winter. :)

J.

[Jackie]

I'm in the exact same boat, Jay! I was contemplating putting a plow blade on the front of my '08 Wrangler Rubicon, but I'm afraid of tearing it up. I think we might go the ATV route. In our case it would be for our driveway only as well, but the Jeep is a DD by at least one of us every day and I don't want to haul around a plow blade everywhere we go.

[jayson44]

exactly, Jackie. it would be something where I got up early, mounted the plow, plowed the driveway, & disconnected it before going to work.

just wondering if it's worth the hassle or not.

J.

[Jackie]

I wouldn't be able to do the mount/dis-mount routine. Easier to drive an ATV in and out of the garage and then go to work!

[jayson44]

that's the other thing...we don't have a garage.

I'm also considering a snow blower, but that seems like it would be a huge pain, since our driveway is kinda steep in 2 places...

J.

[Jim]

Hire it out?

[xaza]

maintaining an atv is not that expensive. They tend to last unless you really ride em hard and a lot. Much better than tearing up a DD :2c:

[Squshiee1]

Depending on the cash you are planning on spending, an atv is a great option. I have seen a nice atv, with a plow, hand warmers, winch, and new tires; for about 3000. I spent 600 bucks on my atv and 150 for the plow/mount and a winch. I rebuilt the motor for 100$ and now i have a fun little machine to go camping with, and i take it out more than I thought. And as for the maintenance, my dad bought a new 97 polaris trailboss for snow plowing with his company. Since 97 it has had a pair of front brakes, a belt, tires, and a few strips of metal for the plow, and it was driven REALLY hard.

[glacierpaul]

Sorry I missed your thread, I am just a little knowledgeable about plowing;) I have 3 plow Jeeps. Depending on your set up for the Jeep, it only takes a minute to drop the blade and disconnect it only. I can take my YJ plow set up off the vehicle entirely and wheel it if I wanted, but is my primary plow vehicle. I also have an atv that I can plow with too. I would always rather use my Jeep, out of the elements, and certainly better for heavy deep snow, which you will get. When I have to use my atv, I keep on it thru the storm(plowing every hour or so). With the Jeep I could care less how deep, unless it is a blizzard storm. If I saw your drive I could give you a better recommendation, but honestly Jason, you have the Jeep, no atv. Find a good plow set up, and slap it on the Jeep. If you would like to come see mine let me know. I have 4 plows total, but cannot part with any. Layton Truck in Aurora is a plow place, off hand, lots of parts, they do installs or help you with yours. Feel free to ask me any other questions if you need.

[jayson44]

awesome, Paul, thanks for the advice. I'd love to come check out some of your setups just to get an idea. I've found a few trucks/suvs with plows attached on Craigslist in the 1200-1500 range, so I may just go that route. but it depends on funds and what I could possibly get a plow for the Jeep for. I like the idea of using the Jeep because we already have it, I'm just not sure I can get a setup that can be removed/attached quickly for that price range or less.

I'll try to get some pics of my driveway here so you guys have a better idea. it's not that long, and we really only struggle (well, the wife's subaru struggles) when going back up in the deep snow because of the inclines. getting out is never an issue. but i know that plowing it helps the subi. we're also buying studded snow tires for her car so that will help as well.

J.

[jayson44]

here's some pics of our driveway...probably less than 200ft long? a few rocks and stuff jutting out, and sort of washed out towards the bottom. think a plow can work for this? or is it overkill?


from the top
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm251/jandkcarlson4/31B3713B-DC60-4999-BE32-E57A38214747_zpsbtop2rbm.jpg (http://s298.photobucket.com/user/jandkcarlson4/media/31B3713B-DC60-4999-BE32-E57A38214747_zpsbtop2rbm.jpg.html)


from the bottom, looking up
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm251/jandkcarlson4/8C203BB4-038B-4077-83C6-C07412572EDC_zps9lbalgp7.jpg (http://s298.photobucket.com/user/jandkcarlson4/media/8C203BB4-038B-4077-83C6-C07412572EDC_zps9lbalgp7.jpg.html)

J.

[redneck23ms]

a plow will work on that but you will need skids on it to keep from pushing all of your gravel off into the ditch. even with skids you will still lose some gravel. as for the rocks it would be best to get some smooth ground over them before winter so you aren't constantly hitting them with the blade.

[jayson44]

would a rubber blade edge help with the rocks?

J.

[glacierpaul]

You would ruin the rubber pretty quickly compared to a steel blade. Those are for asphalt, so you don't tear it up. The other key thing to think about is snow storage, push it back as far as possible luckily your drive is sloped so plow downhill to the left side. Then push your windrows back to those trees. Chains are nice too. You may want to put some orange fiberglass poles on those driveway markers too. Overkill is a good thing Jason when dealing with snow removal, let the machine do the work, and faster than anything else. An atv would work great for that driveway too. They do have cab enclosures for atvs now, but I still like my YJ. The skids are good for the blade like Alex mentioned. You should try to fix that erosion, you will def. hit those rocks even with skids. If they are not too high(not hitting the blade on skids), it could wait until next season. You will find you plow up the drive anyway, so every year or so I put down recycled asphalt on my drive. You can certainly just dig some dirt around the house to do a quick fill in. After the snow is gone(spring or summer) I reclaim all the stuff I have pushed down and reapply to the driveway. You may want to install a High output alternator(Mean Green is the one I am getting), I have to, but I plow way more than you will. I also have a Yellow Top battery.

[jayson44]

ok. I'm learning a lot. :thumbsup:

the HOA does plow our road, so I don't think I'll have any issues plowing straight down the drive and into the road. or across it into the ditch on the other side. as for the rocks, we tried to fill in the dirt a little this past spring, but all the rain has pretty much washed it away, haha. we don't own the house (yet), so I don't want to go putting a bunch of my time and money into the drive when I'm still renting. we're looking to buy it in the spring, so maybe I'll need to wait one more year to get a plow and just stick it out shoveling again. it's really not that bad...plus, we got studded snows for my wife's subi, so that will make a huge difference as well.

Paul, did you think we got a normal amount of snow this last winter? we had a few days of 20+ inches at our place, and running the Jeep up and down the drive a few times to create ruts in the snow worked just fine to get my wife out of the drive. it was getting back up that was the issue. but shoveling the center out always fixed that issue, along with the new tires.

J.

[glacierpaul]

Jason, I always plan for more snow than the previous season, at least mentally :) The snow amounts are always up to debate, but honestly, no the snow was not normal for Colorado high country. The miners have records of 20' snow storms in days time, which was pretty regular. In 2003 we had a 3 day bizzard, I had 9-12 feet before the wind made it worse. You may not get the horrific winds like I get, you can plow and by the time your done the wind has blown in where you plowed. They called that blizzard the 100 year storm, kind of like the flooding last year. Just be ready for it. Even if you plow and scrape the rocks it takes quite a while to wear down the blade, you just do not want to continually plow over rocks that kick the blade up off of the ground. I would check with the HOA if it is ok for you to plow across the road, some places do not allow that, only their equipment is allowed on the roadways. I always plow all my windrows off to, so you can't really tell I go across the road either. Keeps neighbors happy too.

[jayson44]

cool, thanks Paul. yeah, our neighbor has a paved drive and plows his snow straight down into the road with his ATV. the grader that plows the road doesn't seem to have an issue with it...but yeah, I'll check on it.

as for the snow, we have a ton of tree cover, so I'm not sure how much the wind will affect the snow. it didn't seem to much this winter, but again, I don't know. I grew up in South Dakota, so I'm used to blowing snow and 8' drifts. but we didn't get the amount of snow as here...just got blown around a lot. frankly, I think it would be fun to get more than 3' of snow in one sitting, but that's just the little kid in me. :)

for reference, we live up towards the Gilpin Rec Center on 119, about 4 miles north of Black Hawk. we are the first house off the highway in our complex (Missouri Lakes II) and the HOA keeps the road plowed during snow pretty well. so it's not like we're out in the boonies & are at risk of not being able to leave the house for days on end if I don't get a plow for the driveway. just trying to make life a little easier if I can.

last quesion: working for Cabela's, I have access to some ATV plow stuff at good prices. we do sell a hitch-mounted reverse plow blade (pull behind) that basically I could put in my hitch receiver and pull behind the Jeep. it's a small blade, but I think I could make it work for the $250 cost. is that something worth trying? or is that a dumb idea?

J.

[glacierpaul]

Not dumb, just might not work like pushing it. I would probably try it myself if I were in your position, still beats doing any hand shoveling! You could put some weight on top of that pull-behind, and it may help it work better. I bought my atv Swisher plow set from Cabela's. Love it, when I do use it, I call it my ultimate back up :).

[glacierpaul]

If your neighbor plows across the road, then you should be just fine.

[glacierpaul]

And yeah, anytime we get 3' or more of snow, I am grinning ear to ear, and not because of the plowing :).

[glacierpaul]

here are some teasers :) My rear bumper is 6" off the ground in the second pic.

[Jackie]

Jayson - We found a 36" blade underneath the deck of the house we recently bought. See my post in the classified section for pics.