Snowman overhaul

[Alan]

I've been working on a major repair/redesign of my Snowman 75LDA pull plow.

It worked great right up to the point that I forgot it was down and backed "onto" it. The swiveling frame that carries the moldboard lost the argument and ended up pretty badly bent.

I must acknowledge that this is the light duty model, and I'm in no way complaining about their quality. There was nothing bad about this plow right to the point that pilot error came into the picture. Because the back of the truck it rides on is tipped up quite a bit with the front plow raised it was necessary have the adjustments for frame height fully extended. That increased the force on the frame that bent by quite a lot.

This is the swing frame that I replaced. You can see here how it is twisted. The two arms that are vertical should be parallel. The part is upside down in this picture. With the adjustments fully extended the effect of this twist on the blade was very exagerated.

[Alan]

The frame I built has quite a bit more beef in it. The original was made from 2 x 2 x 3/16" tube. My replacement is 2 x 3 x 1/4" tube with 3" channel for diagonals to transfer stress back to the center of the crossbar.

[Alan]

Because of the adjustment snafu I decided to remodel the truck side of the plow while I was at it. I was able to get the entire framework more than 6" lower than the stock frame and added some meat along the way.

Everything on the factory design was that same 2 x 2 x 3/16" tube. While I had never bent this side of the plow I was always concerned about it so I used either 2 x 2 or 2 x 3 tube, both in 1/4" wall thickness.

I also moved the pump assembly to make room for a battery right on the plow. My reasoning was that running power fromt eh front of the truck probably wasn't doing much to keep the voltage up. This way the rear battery will get charged all the time, through the existing wiring, and the battery wil supply the surge to make things happen rapidly.

The pump used to sit crossways the frame, by turning it I was able to make room (barely) for a marine battery box.

[Alan]

Somebody asked about the lights I mounted on the rear plow. Here's a shot of it.

The red lights are LEDs so they can hold up to the vibration of the plow. I'm not sure just how well incandescent lights would hold up here. The amber light is an LED "strobe" that I feed off the spare leg in my trailer plug.

The light bar is angled downwards so that when the plow is raised the lights point straight back. LEDs tend to get dim when you see them from an angle, that was my way of getting around the problem.

You can see the orientation of the pump and battery box nicely from here. The plates with three holes are where the plow bolts up.

[GeoffD]

As always Alan excellent job, looks great.

Geoff

[Alan]

It's all together again. I unpiled some banks this morning before I took it off the truck. Seems to work fine without the downpressure springs so I'll try it like that for one storm.

[Alan]

This is the adjustment I keep talking about. In a perfect world the arms behind the blade should be vertical, as should the pivot pin. With the factory setup I had to use the holes at the very top of the vertical arms and even than that was barely enough, especially with the front plow raised. My new front frame lets me drop everything 6" and run the bottom set of adjustment holes.

[Alan]

With only 1/8" clearance between inner and outer hitch tubes it was a real PITA to get the spud lined up and started. More so considering that the truck side of the hitch angled up towards the rear. The mounting procedure required that you start the very tip of the spud into the hitch and then lift the back of the back of the plow until it slid in. Lots easier now that I have everything on carts and have an electric hoist to do the lifting but still a hassle getting things started together.

I tapered the end of the new spud so that I can start it in without a big problem. Took a while to cut and weld the tube end but should pay for itself in time saved in a very short while.

[Jay ALC]

Very good work Alan, always redesigning! :)

[BWhite]

Nice work , I am considering a light bar too thank you for posting the pics . As far as aligning the plow for installation , it was a hassle at first but with some practice it is pretty easy now

[SIPLOWGUY]

Nice! Here is my Son's Snowman:

[Alan]

I've been trying to prioritize the projects that I want to do this fall. I decided that doing the easiest (and cheapest) ones first would get more things off the list faster than going for the hard, pricey stuff.

I just acquired a Sno-Way downpressure power unit which will be going on the Snowman so I can have hydraulic downpressure. That will replace the not-so-great spring system that it came with.

I'm not sure if I can use the SNo-Way lift cylinder or not. It's quite short and while that can be overcome by moving the cylinder attaching points closer to the lift pivots there is a chance it will not generate force enough to lift without really taxing the power unit.

First order of business will be to get the plow out of the barn. There are five plows in there, on carts, with another one in pieces. All but one of them has to move to give me access to the pull plow, which is cuddled against the back wall.

As part of this refit I'll be incorporating a single Meyer Slik-Stik switch and a relay bank that will let me use one control for both the 7.5' Snowman and the 8' Sno-Way up front. I'm also going to try to install a link to the backup lights so that when the lights come on the plow will lift automatically. This whole rebuild thing started when I backed onto a plow that I forgot to raise.

[CT18fireman]

That would be a neat wiring job. I would be interested to see how the single control works out.

[Alan]

Originally posted by CT18fireman
That would be a neat wiring job. I would be interested to see how the single control works out.

So far I have made the Meyer switch work in place of the regular Sno-Way rocker switch box. I've got the relay bank partly wired and that should be no real problem. I'm using one "change over" relay, SPDT type and running leads from the Meyer switch to the power terminal, then taking identical feeds off both output terminals.

With no power to the relay coils the front plow will operate. When the relays are energized the rear plow will respond to the same control inputs ie: moving the joystick right will move either plow to cast snow right, etc.

I'll have to fabricate some sort of armrest extension to hold the joystick as well as two toggle switches, one for DP on/of and one to switch the relays front/rear.

I'll use the same Weatherpack connectors that Sno-Way uses so that in an emergency I can pull the relay bank out of the circuit and plug in two of the stock switch boxes.

I could have used a multiple pole DT relay but it would have been expensive and I would have had to stock one "just in case". As it is I'm using Bosch mini relays rated for 10 amps and at $3 each I can afford to have a couple spares.

I'll put a diode between the trigger lead and ground to bleed off the reverse polarity current generated by all six relays dumping their magnetic fields simultaneously. There might not be enough reverse current to do any damage, but I do know that a single large solenoid can create enough current to make a serious POP in the stereo speakers when the field in that collapses.

[Alan]

Earlier in this thread I posted about the light bar on the pull plow.

Originally posted by Alan
Somebody asked about the lights I mounted on the rear plow. Here's a shot of it.

The red lights are LEDs so they can hold up to the vibration of the plow. I'm not sure just how well incandescent lights would hold up here. The amber light is an LED "strobe" that I feed off the spare leg in my trailer plug.

Please note the italicized line in the quote! I nearly lost this truck to fire because of that wiring. Since I run both brakes and backup lights on my trailers there was only one "spare" leg in the plug, the one that is normally used to charge a battery on a camper OR A DUMP TRAILER

I forgot that and hooked up to a dump trailer. Dug out a plastic tarp and started to cover the load. "Hmmm, smells like hot plastic, must be from this tarp being wadded up in a black box on the trailer tongue".

WRONG!!!! Looked at the truck and there's smoke coming out of the dash. Being the cool sort under pressure I reached in shut off the ignition, popped the hood latch and grabbed my cell phone. Whipped out the Leatherman and undid both battery grounds (I use both terminals, truck off the side and accessories off the top). No flames visible, smoke should start to die down but it didn't, called 911.

While I was talking to the dispatcher I looked back at the truck and the strobes were flashing, this is NOT good! So, I'm thinking maybe something got stuck into the battery case and is grounding it out, you know, long screw in a fender or something. I go after the positive terminals now, cell phone cradled on my shoulder, still talking to the dispatcher. I get both hots off and the strobes are still flashing. I'm seeing visions of The Exorcist by then, damn truck is posessed!

Another light flashes on, but this time it's the one in my feeble mind,,,,,,,,,there's a live battery on the dump trailer and it's hooked to my truck! Step lively to the rear and yank the plug out, smoke starts fading away, no flames anywhere yet, maybe there's hope.

The dump trailer battery was feeding back through the strobe lead and going to ground through the pilot lights for the accessory circuits. It had melted the wires down to bare copper and fused a switch that had in internal pilot but since the accessory harness was isolated from the truck wiring the damage was confined to the accessory wiring. I stripped out all the damaged wires and all is well. I'll be rewiring all the auxiliary circuits and this time I'll run a dedicated lead seperate from the trailer plug.

[CT18fireman]

I have used the slick switch for a lot of applications both plow and none plow related. I used one to be able to controls spot lights in different directions. It is one of the few useful things you can get from Meyer.

Still to be able to control both plows off one unit would be great. I would think the same principle could translate to control a wing instead of a pull plow.

[Lawngodfather]

DAYUM Alan........

Another "project"....


I learned the hard way last year wiring up a buddies salt spreader off his acc wires to power the solenoid for engine start. For some reason the 2 batts did not intertwine and kept poping a fuse so we upped the fues and the wire we ran melted.....

Easy fix thoug, through a wire out the sliding back window to replace the melted one in the loom, changed 2 wires in the box and whalla still works... Good thing it was in my wire loom and not the trucks.

[CT18fireman]

I am super attentive to wiring. Probably goes back to High School when I worked part time installing high end stereo systems. They have serious amps running through the wires. I learned to make good connections, solder and heatshrink, proper fusing and to run wires neatly.

Doing all this makes troubleshooting, modifying and using the product much easier.

When I do a plow install or any other accessory I like to do more then what the manufacturer calls for. I run seperat power and grouns and make sure to keep harnesses neatly run and available for testing while still being out of the way. I have seen some scary installations done by shops looking to turn out a lot of plows.

Looks like you follow the same practice Alan.

[Lawngodfather]

I used Westerns wiring schimatic for the right modle number. Aperantly it did not work right.


Oh the car stereo days......

Over $2000 worth of wire in 1 car, that stuff was not cheap