snowplow – selfmade

I use a home made snow plow and it works great. It is a Vee type plow made of scrap lumber from various projects. I use it with three head of horses and mules. I tried it once with out a forecart but as soon as you have removed all the snow they really want to slide up on you, the forecart makes it easier and safer. It is about 12′ wide and about 14′ long. It is built on two main beams of 3 x 10″ that were cut on the front with a compound angle for the lower 2 x 12″. the main beams help it track straight when you are pushing snow with only one side of the plow. I set a heavy cross piece between the beams and that is what my chain is attached to. It is attached in two places and comes through two holes in the plow this allows me to attach the fore cart dead center or slightly off to one side. That also helps with pushing snow with half the plow. I can easily make our 1000′ drive way 20′ wide with a couple of passes. You can see a couple of pictures of the plow in action here.

The fellow who wrote the v-plow article for Small Farmers Journal was my friend and horse-logging partner, Boots Wardinski. He’s now amassed a collection of the plows — different sizes for different tasks. I’m going to try and post a photo of Boots at work with one of his plows during a snowstorm last month.

The seat is key, but make sure you’ve got a quiet horse/team before you venture to sit on it. It can be quite the ride if the horses act up. Also be careful on the downhills when it’s icy. It can — and will — sneak up on the back of the horse(s) if you’re not using a pole or shafts.

I’m in the process of making my own for road clearing. But for sleigh and recreation trails I’ve been packing the snow by dragging an old hood from a truck with weights (sometimes kids, sometimes logs) behind my forecart. It’s working great.

[IMG]http://s723.photobucket.com/albums/ww235/michaelcolby/[/IMG]

Hi Geoff, My snow plow has a couple of things going for it. It is a little heavy but this helps when the snow wants to push the plow rather than the other way around. We get a lot of wind here and our biggest challenge is deep snow drifts that are quite solid. The other advantage that I have is that it was built for three head. In light snow 8″ deep it is easy to pull, but if I get into a snow drift or something it can use all three. Because of it’s height and bulk the plow has no trouble with the first pass. Sometimes that is when the horses are working the hardest. I think the hard thing to make most plows do is widen the road. Unless they are substantial enough the snow just pushs the plow into it’s original path. The two central beams are long enough and solid enough to give the plow some traction when I am using one side of the plow to widen the road. Our driveway is built up over most of its length. If I can push the snow far enough off the sides the wind will not immediately fill it back in. I will try to take some more detailed pictures tomorrow. We lived out in Wa. for years. I love calling my friends and hearing about all the snow! Good Luck, Donn

@CharlyBonifaz 4484 wrote:

@Donn Hewes

anybody using oxen for this work?
elke

Charly,

My first attempt at a snow plow is not nearly as fancy as Don’s. It’s just a 2 x 10 stood on edge (blade). I butted a long 2×4 (tongue) perpendicular to this with the top face of both boards aligned flush. Sheet rock screws fasten both to a small plywood gusset. I certainly won’t win any sculpture or architectural awards with it but it actually works better than expected.

My 7 month old Devons can pull it around the driveway pretty well (unshod). This is a very light plow so it does not clean right down to bare ground. I haven’t incorporated any angle adjustment yet either.

Don’s photographs inspire me to build another.

-Matt

Hi Geoff, The plow is heavy, When I go to put it on blocks for the summer it takes two people to lift it one corner at a time. Maybe 300# or 400# wild guess. I move the hook around a little. I almost all ways start out straight away dead center. Sometimes being able to shift the hook slightly to the left helps the plow push to one side with out spinning out. Sometimes I change the way it is hooked behind the forecart to move the plow from behind the team. If you move it very far from center on the forecart you start to get a lot of side draft on the tongue. Now it looks like freezing rain. Donn