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Graders with V-plows & wings.

RLU_tech

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May 27, 2014
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69
Location
Wisconsin
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Mechanic
Id like to see some pics of your road graders that are equipped with V-plows and wings.
 

kshansen

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Mar 11, 2012
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Central New York, USA
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Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
I'm guessing areas that have more gravel/dirt roads have more graders but here in Central NY where gravel/dirt roads are very rare I have never seen a grader used for plowing snow. Heck can't recall seeing a V-plow in active use. Many Highway departments around here have them sitting out front on display with the town's name on them so they were used in the past!
 

Dozerboy

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Jan 18, 2006
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TX
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Operator
I’ve never seen a v plow in use other then pickups growing up in the Midwest. I’m sure they have them where the road drifts over bad, never see one used.
 

hvy 1ton

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Jul 24, 2006
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Lawrence, KS
Last time i saw a v-plow in use was about 25 years ago. We haven't had enough snow to get 4'+ drifts since then. My township has paved most of the roads and is down to only 1 grader. Now they do most of the plowing with trucks. My dead end road is normally in better shape than the primary roads in Lawrence, but if we every get real snow again, i'll be digging myself out of the drifts.
 

Jonas302

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Jan 4, 2015
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Location
mn
IMG_1736.JPG IMG_1737.JPG IMG_1738.JPG IMG_1739.JPG Winter of 75 my boss and his brother with a pair of 12s pushing the V plow
 

Jonas302

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Jan 4, 2015
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mn
IMG_1731.JPG IMG_1733.JPG IMG_1734.JPG IMG_1745.JPG We had v plows on in late 2014 they had not been in use 19 years previous to that
 

ovrszd

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Apr 1, 2008
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Missouri
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Retired Army
I'm guessing areas that have more gravel/dirt roads have more graders but here in Central NY where gravel/dirt roads are very rare I have never seen a grader used for plowing snow. Heck can't recall seeing a V-plow in active use. Many Highway departments around here have them sitting out front on display with the town's name on them so they were used in the past!

So what do you use for a drift like in my first picture?

Edit: My first two pics didn't load for some reason. This is the one I'm talking about. :)

DSC01971.jpg
 

ovrszd

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Missouri
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Retired Army
Jonas, those pics make me feel cold and tired!!!!

40 years ago that type of road clearing was common. The graders of those times weren't half as productive as today's machines. Very common to see the State Hiway Department using two graders to push a V-plow.

I've spent 3-4 hours clearing a mile of roadway many times. Back up and get a run at it, ram the drift at 10-14 mph, gain about 10ft. Back up and hit it again. In the picture above, by the time I opened that drift I had snow piled above the top of the cab on each side.
 

old-iron-habit

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Nov 22, 2012
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Moose Lake, MN
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Retired Cons't. Supt./Hospitals
Here in Minnesota the snow plows, mostly trucks run 24 hours a day as soon as we get a 1/4" of snow. Less if its on a Sunday.(Double time). It is a rare occasion when the snow accumulates enough to need a grader, much less a V-Plow. Normally snow never gets over 2" deep on the highways because of all the plow trucks. Only about once every ten years in the worst blizzards the trucks get called in for a few hours but are always out again by 5 AM. In fairness if the highway patrol calls them they have to go. First idiot that slides in the ditch seems to auto dial the patrolmans phone to the maintenance folks. A friend of mine that is a supervisor for the highway department has to have a guy out driving all night testing the roads when ever snow is predicted. Our tax dollars at work dumbing down the population even more.
 

kshansen

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Mar 11, 2012
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Central New York, USA
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Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Well the town down the road last I knew still had their old Walters Snow Fighter, that was all wheel drive and does have a Vee plow but don't think we have had enough snow at any one time in over 15 years to need that old girl! Up north at the east end of Lake Ontario it can be another story. Our lawn was nice and green for the last few days with barely a touch of snow. Up the less than 60 miles away they got between 8 to 12 inches last night.

When it does get bad, like when they stop measuring snow in inches and change to feet they will get one of these to tackle the bad spots:

snowblower.jpg

But for the most part the highway departments do a good job around us even if it does mean replacing or repairing a mail box every week or so! Last year was the first time I ran out of repairable ones so called the county highway department, they dropped me off a new on the next day! Ours is a free standing one in an old milk can so 90% of the time just need to dig it out of the snow and stand it back up with a smack or two to be serviceable again.
 

kshansen

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Central New York, USA
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Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Old-iron, Dad used to talk about them using horses to plow up in the Hill City area back when he was a kid. Guess the area farmers would take their horses to the town barn for the highway men to use. When they were done with the horses they would just unhitch them and slap them on the rump and horses would find their way to their homes.

And now we are talking about this new thing of self driving cars? Wonder how many guys managed to get home from the bar just by crawling in the buggy and let the horse find the way!
 

ovrszd

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Missouri
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Here in Minnesota the snow plows, mostly trucks run 24 hours a day as soon as we get a 1/4" of snow. Less if its on a Sunday.(Double time). It is a rare occasion when the snow accumulates enough to need a grader, much less a V-Plow. Normally snow never gets over 2" deep on the highways because of all the plow trucks. Only about once every ten years in the worst blizzards the trucks get called in for a few hours but are always out again by 5 AM. In fairness if the highway patrol calls them they have to go. First idiot that slides in the ditch seems to auto dial the patrolmans phone to the maintenance folks. A friend of mine that is a supervisor for the highway department has to have a guy out driving all night testing the roads when ever snow is predicted. Our tax dollars at work dumbing down the population even more.

And Heaven Forbid if they can't get to town for more than an hour or so!!!!! To be snowed in all day would be horrible!!!! Especially if they lost Internet/Phone service!!!!
 

ovrszd

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Missouri
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Retired Army
Going to be interesting to see how an autonomous 2wd vehicle handles deep snow with ice/packed snow under it. Will it know when to turn around and head home like a few humans do??
Mike
Although progress is being made,,,,, we are decades away from autonomous vehicles dominating the roadways. It appears that for the autonomous vehicle to be 100% effective every vehicle on the road must be autonomous. This gives it the ability to analyze conditions and situations by data it gathers from all others in it's vicinity. This data gathering is critical for it to avoid accidents, stalled vehicles, etc. Don't think we'll see it in my lifetime.
 

ovrszd

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Missouri
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Retired Army
Here's another example of needing a V-plow. I had just cleared this road two days earlier. It's critical to move the snow back far enough to leave a place to pile the next one.

DSC00475.JPG
 

ovrszd

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Apr 1, 2008
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Missouri
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Retired Army
Here's what it looked like the first time I opened it. The previous picture was the third time it drifted shut that Winter.

DSC00384.JPG
 
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