Official Snowplow Repair Thread! Post Up Your Repairs And Pics!

[Bls repair]

Around here they buy a used piece of crap plow put it on a $40,000 truck and want you to rebuild it + give them $100 to boot.

[xryan]

As someone who uses and repairs his own snow-clearing gear, any ideas on how your customer pulled the bushing out of the A-frame? In my experience, normal plowing activity pushes the blade into the A-frame.

I wouldn't even call it a bushing, more like a piece of tubing inside a thin walled rectangular tube with no cap on the end. You are putting INCREDIBLE stresses on that one point. I've seen those plows snap off even when driven by the person who owns the truck. Back drag away from a garage door, bump over an apron edge and the front of the tube snaps right off. The first time the plow gets wet that front of the A frame starts rotting away. Then use it with actual snow and salt. Give it a week over the warranty date and it breaks. Done those COUNTLESS times. Typical BOSS junk. Look at the size comparison to the Fisher which I can also tell was HAMMERED repeatedly for years before that broke, and I guarantee it never saw a drop of oil or grease since it was new. I'll just say that employees running equipment have a hard time busting Fisher stuff, owners respecting their own equipment still have catastrophic BOSS failures. Western and Blizzard are pretty good as well (Douglass Dynamics owns Fisher, Western and Blizzard, Meyer are maybe on par with BOSS, Snow-way I've only owned one and only know two others, all three are 15 years old and still going strong, just typical worn out edges and a few hydraulic lines. Actually I made a set of big wings 2-3 years ago for an old 7.5' Snoway HT to make it 9' for my church's (HUGE) parking lots and it's still going strong.

I got to search my pics, I'm sure I have some nice shots of destroyed plows I repaired. Sometimes you just shake you head and don't ask questions, just hand them the bill. The price goes up when it's cold outside, but they never learn. 90% wait till there's already 6" on the ground!

I'm in Rochester, NY and our equipment gets a lot of logged hours and miles every snow season (October-May)

[7A749]

I was gonna answer, but I think Ryan did a perfect job so I'll just agree with what he said lol.

Yea, they're cheaply built. I'm no plow expert but I've seen enough of them now to know there's a big difference between a plow like Fisher and Boss.

[TJS]

You guys want to see a near bullet proof plow, look at an old Diamond (before they sold out to Meyer). I have been using this circa 1979 Daimond plow since 1994. It has out lasted 3 trucks. Albeit I did repin it last year and was never touched prior to that. I did convert the lower A-frame to fit a Fisher MM1 set up.

[zapster]

On with the repair...
New tube and all ground and cleaned frame..



Tube installed..


Welded some spots inside..
Not done from factory..


Notice I welded the tube in as one piece...


Don't forget to wrap the welds..!




One more time....


...zap!

[zapster]

Now after cooling completely we take a cut off wheel and remove the middle.
That way there is no pin alignment interference...
Have done them before with 2 pcs of tubing and all the alignment in the world with the pin still results in bending and twisting along the way and the pin don't fit and when that happens its time to break out the reamers.
I don't do that anymore.

Middle removed and before massaged with flap wheel..




Dont forget the hole for the cotter pin...



And there we have it.
Much stronger than factory..
Like it should be.

I get all the fun jobs...


...zap!

[mike837go]

@xryan, thanks for the explanation. I didn't realize it was a design feature.

@zap, that is pure genius! 1 tube guarantees alignment. Then get rid of where the blade connects. Love it!

I did the reskinning/ rebuilding thing last year:

Old skin off:


Reassembled blade:


Installed and ready to go:

[Billyc]

How do you guys roll the material for the face? And what is the material of choice?

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[mike837go]

How do you guys roll the material for the face? And what is the material of choice?
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I cheated, I found a metal supply shop about 30 minutes away (took most of a day to find them) and threw the plow in the bed of the truck.

The crew there confirmed my measurements, recommended a particular thickness, cut the sheet to size and rolled it. Just under $250 for the material + cutting and shaping + sales tax.

[zapster]

@xryan, thanks for the explanation. I didn't realize it was a design feature.

@zap, that is pure genius! 1 tube guarantees alignment. Then get rid of where the blade connects. Love it!

Genius?..No..
I wouldn't go that far...

Sick of arguing with it after doing it with 2 separate bushings?
Most definitely.

Just a little common sense is all.


...zap!

[mike837go]

Genius?..No..
I wouldn't go that far...

Sick of arguing with it after doing it with 2 separate bushings?
Most definitely.
Just a little common sense is all.
...zap!

Remember, Dear Zap, "common sense" is a rather rare commodity these days.

[zapster]

Remember, Dear Zap, "common sense" is a rather rare commodity these days.

Man you ain't kidding..
That's a understatement.


...zap!

[86turbodsl]

Love this! Great work guys. I have a BOSS V-plow repair i'll be posting here as i get it done. There's more of those around here i think because it's a michigan company. I bought it dirt cheap for my own use. Maybe I'll beef it up while i'm at it.

7A,

Can you tell me more about this carbon arc torch? I'm not really a big fan of OXY/ACETY cutting. I suppose this does a better job? I've never seen one used before. My uncle had an engine drive Lincoln he used to turn up to kill and just stab the electrode through to cut. I'm guessing this is more refined.

[AKmud]

Not really a repair, more of a modification. I had to change the mounts on this 18' plow to fit a newer model loader. The owner had mounts laser cut from 2" plate.

First, I cut off the old mounts -





The new mounts weren't cut for the arc of the blade. This was a little nerve wracking torching 2" plate by hand.





Then I cut the channels to inset the new wider mounts -

[AKmud]

Fit looks good -



I tacked on a brace to keep things square -




Then it was on to three passes full perimeter. A lot of time with a weed burner preheating the 2" mounts alternating between the two. Total time was about 10 hours working alone. This last pic is the finished product, I left the brace on overnight to cool. It fit like a glove.

[7A749]

Love this! Great work guys. I have a BOSS V-plow repair i'll be posting here as i get it done. There's more of those around here i think because it's a michigan company. I bought it dirt cheap for my own use. Maybe I'll beef it up while i'm at it.

7A,

Can you tell me more about this carbon arc torch? I'm not really a big fan of OXY/ACETY cutting. I suppose this does a better job? I've never seen one used before. My uncle had an engine drive Lincoln he used to turn up to kill and just stab the electrode through to cut. I'm guessing this is more refined.

Basically that's what a carbon arc electrode does, (burn the material away with high amperage current) only it uses a mostly pure carbon electrode (it has a very thin copper coating on the outside) as the vehicle to carry the current to the workpiece. In this instance, I used both a torch and CAC. The carbon arc can gouge out bad welds, or broken ones with very good precision, and is much more practical for some of the stuff I did on the plow. I have said it many times here, but you can make some pretty darn nice cuts with a torch once you learn how to properly set it up and how to use one. I think a lot of angst that comes with using oxyfuel is primarily due to lack of proper training. Once I learned how to correctly use one, I would never, ever be without it.

The drawback of carbon arc is you need a relatively big, powerful welding power source and an air compressor to run one. I use my engine drive, which is 300 amps. Shop air from my two stage compressor. That's kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as CAC goes. I use 3/16" electrodes, which are quite small as far as carbons go. It does a fair job but my little machine isn't made for doing CAC on a regular basis, so you have to take it easy when doing it. The torch has a button which when pressed, is actually a valve that allows air to travel thru small holes in the holder's head. The air blows the material away as it melts from the high amperage current traveling thru the carbon electrode, which is contacted to the workpiece as if you were stick welding.

Carbon arc is a very useful tool if you have the machinery to run it. Most homeowners and hobby guys won't have it, nor a solid need for it that cannot be met with other methods. It's one of those things that comes in very handy when you really need it. Your A/BP will run smaller electrodes (3/16-1/4") ok on a 100 amp breaker and if you have a decent air compressor (over 12 CFM to get by enough to get the job done). I used to run mine on a little wheelbarrow style engine driven compressor when I had my big shop since I never brought a bigger compressor over there. It did the job but barely. You can find the torch setups on eBay for under $75 if you look around. $150 will buy them all day long, sometimes even NOS, which is how I bought mine.

Hope that explains it a little

[86turbodsl]

Hmm. Very interesting. I may have to pick one up and play with it. I have a 10hp 2 stage compressor. But it also sounds like i need more practice on my oxy fuel torch. Never had much luck with it. Could be my technique.

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[TJS]

http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...t=diamond+plow

Here is my Diamond Plow repin from last year. Not going to repost it here. Just the link above.
Ok. One pic.

[el bob]

Then it was on to three passes full perimeter. A lot of time with a weed burner preheating the 2" mounts alternating between the two. Total time was about 10 hours working alone. This last pic is the finished product, I left the brace on overnight to cool. It fit like a glove.

That is a monster plow! Nice work and thanks for posting.

[AKmud]

Hmm. Very interesting. I may have to pick one up and play with it. I have a 10hp 2 stage compressor. But it also sounds like i need more practice on my oxy fuel torch. Never had much luck with it. Could be my technique.

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A better option for the smaller operations is plasma gouging. ChuckE put out a good video comparing the two -



As for Oxy/acet operation, check out Irishfixit's videos (wayne's fixit shop) on Youtube. He put out some great information and was a torch master.

[mike837go]

Just to keep in the mood of things:

[Hobbytime]

Just to keep in the mood of things:

lol..that looks like the dam squirrel that ate all my chestnut tree seedlings...

[Hobbytime]

[whtbaron]

First big snow of the season... about 15". Good news is that I pushed it around all day and didn't break anything...yet.

[86turbodsl]

i can plainly see from that video that i am not setting up my torch correctly. Thanks!

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