Plowing hurts

[surfer-joe]

I too, have hit many things buried in snow or under a large snowbank. Some, when using a 280 Michigan you don't notice. Others, when using a Case 580, you notice right away. For those of you plowing now, wearing a seat belt is extremely recommended by this old hand. I've pitched up into a windshield many a time and it's no fun to go home black and blue.

In the northern Michigan gas and oil fields, we made it a practice to examine everything we were to plow before snow fell, and we worked in conjunction with the owners contractors and field hands to mark everything with a tall pole painted orange that was in the areas to be cleared. Of course, you always miss something that should have been marked and after a long season, some markers disappear. Then too, you get more work after snowfall and you never get a chance to see and mark things. In that case, we always walked a new contract first in the snow, feeling with our feet for any obstruction. Working in a field that produces poison gas (hydrogen sulfide) certainly grabs your attention I'll tell you.

I had to do an airport once whose original contractors equipment was not up to the job and got busted up so bad he couldn't do the job. It was a 6000 foot runway and the snowbanks had been allowed to close in right on the runway. It took me and the reliable ole 280 a week to clear, pushing the banks all the way back to the treeline. Once I'd done that, we used a Deere blade the rest of the winter to keep it cleaned up. Cost the owner a lot more money than they figured, but it was their mistake to go cheap in the first place.

Plowing snow is a lot of fun with a good sized machine, but it gets old after a long and snowy winter. I'm glad now that I don't have to deal with the white stuff, which has become a four letter word to me and the ole lady.

 

[Colorado Digger]

thank god it is snowing. i pulled up a curb box with a komatsu loader and a bull plow. my head still hurts. merry christmas

 

[Loaderman380]

BeforeI left good old New Jersey I did a lot of plowing in Port Newark/ Port Elizabeth seaports. Both areas have railroad tracks all through them. We would always try to remember where they were but with so many it was hard. We used loaders to do the work Cat 980 and Cat 988's, it didn't matter what size machine you were in if you hit a rail you stopped. So I agree with the previous posters Seat Belts are a must! And by the way I don't miss the white stuff a bit.

 

[Reuben]

i once heard of a car that got stuck in a ditch along a road.The road drifted over and when they went out with a big front end loader they found it....after it had been tumbled a few times.....:falldownlaugh

 

[dayexco]

i once heard of a car that got stuck in a ditch along a road.The road drifted over and when they went out with a big front end loader they found it....after it had been tumbled a few times.....:falldownlaugh

that happened "kind of" in the small town i grew up in south dakota back in the early 70's. after basketball practice, one kid's car wouldn't start, his parents came in and picked him up. his buddies thought it would be fun to cover his car with snow. wind came up that night, and created what appeared to be a drift over it. the city plow guy comes by with his wing down on his grader....it rolled twice, totaled.

 

[bill onthehill]

back in 1969 i was plowing a school driveway in front of a high school. about a 3/8 mile long straight run. third pass away from sidewalk I caught a manhole and launched the old guy sleeping in the passenger side into the windshield. broke the plow rack and later that year lost a set of duals off same truck hauling topsoil. the force of the impact on the manhole apparently stressed the studs. in 1993 was was clearing the harley davidson lot in york,pa and cleaned off a fire hydrant with a 416 cat hoe. what a mess till they found a valve box and shut it off. a "FEW" mailboxes plowing for penndot over the years also. Bill B.

 

[thejdman04]

Ouch

 

[Dozerboy]

I've hit a lot of thing cleaning up slabs on demo site that sent me for a ride, but not much pushing snow. I use pickups with plows mostly though. We did a lot of gas station and we had to find the the tank cover every time before hand. If you where lucky you only took the lid off and packet the hole full of snow and had to come back when it was all frozen since they couldn't fill that tanks. If not a broken valve and lots of snow ETC falling into a 30K gal. fuel tank isn't a cheap bill to fix. That never happened to us though.

 

[Turbo21835]

Dozerboy, been there, done that on the slab portion. I ran a loader with a demo bucket. 980g pushing a 30ft I beam is one hell of a way to clear a path. Only problem is finding that "stump" sticking up. I have a friend who left teeth marks on the wheel of a 950G when he hit something on the slab.

 

[Dirtman2007]

I've cracked a windhseild in a old cat 955 track loader with my forehead before, I was 14 at the time and really did not have much experience on the machine and I hit a stump either in 2nd or 3rd gear, which stopped the machine and the windsheild stopped me. Dang near knocked me out, but I was still young and dumb so I carried on.

Last year I was running the skid steer and hit a stump hidden slightly under the surface of some loose dirt. I was doing my final passes just leveling things up in high speed, the cutting edge found that stump sending me into a windsheild once again. this one was hard enough that it chipped about 1/16" off of one of my front teeth. That one took me about 5 minutes to get my "stuff" back together. The lap bar gave me a nice bruse around my stomach and hurt a couple ribs. I don't think I used that machine for 2 months after that.


Sudden stops hurt:Banghead
Sorry it was not snow related... we don't get enough snow to plow
We usually dont get enough to cover the grass.

 

[EZ TRBO]

When plowing with the skid loader, doing our own driveways, I ALWAYS find the man hole at the end of my grandparents driveway. After hitting it good once each winter then I'm good to go. Other than that the rest of the drives I do are pretty good and I've not had any troubles.

When plowing for the township there are a few bridges that have some edges on them that need to be patched up and if you get a wet snow where it melts some you usually find them with the plow and it likes to lay it down, usually taking you sideways a bit.

With the grader, I've learned to use the artic. on going around corners but never get it right with mail boxes and usually have to stop quick or raise the wing up to just bypass them. Bout the most interesting thing I've had to pull out has been an Amish buggy that got stuck in a snow drift. The hardest thing I've helped pull out(wish we had pics) was a quad axel milk truck, fully loaded, who when backing out of his last farm cut too soon and backed down into the ditch instead of n the road. Had a 6 wheel drive John Deere 772 grader and a 4x4 Oshkosh hooked in line. Just using chains and pulling tight would not work, but the owners of the milk truck had some large straps. We were able to "jerk pull" it and get it rocking, with the movement were able to get it pulled up onto the road. Only issue we had there, and thanks to the sheriff's dept being there wasn't a huge issue, was one guy who was a friend of the farmer thinks he is mister know it all, he kept getting in the way and this is how you need to do this and that. Finally it got so bad that the officer told him he either needed to shut up or he would have him sit in his squad car. With him out of the way were were able to go about our job and get the truck out safely.

Each winter brings new challanges and some of the same ol same ol but we get through it each and everyday.

Trbo