Plow Truck in !

[balthazar]

Nothing very exciting, and I admit I muttered 'mechanical a$$hole' after I found a few bugs, but how much can you expect from a 20-yr old truck that's been beaten & abused?

1990 Chevy, 350, 4-spd auto, 4WD, RC/SB, black, red velour interior (reeks of smoke), power windows & locks, tilt, aftermarket radio w/ 8-disc CD changer. Clock says 108K.... I dunno....

Wipers are pretty choppy (not just the blades), switching to high beams shuts the headlights OFF, plow lights don't seem to work, it's wearing wide street tires, no tailpipes- so it RUMBLES.... it is what it is, and as long as it has traction & heat, it'll make me money. And I got my special request: a flashing yellow roof light. Whoopie.

Took a pic, but a black truck in the 11:30PM blackness of my backyard just doesn't show anything up. Will try again tomm.- should show up well against snow. Meanwhile, it's off to sleep until a 4AM weather check. I have a whole 'development' to plow, I'll try and count the houses to give an idea of the size, plus a few driveways here & there.

Here's to white roads & green quarters !

[Justin Bimmer]

Hear Heer! To WHITE ROADS!

[ocnblu]

First thing ya gotta do is hit Wawa for hot coffee and a snack. I can see it now, in my mind's eye, that Wawa parking lot, encircled with 3/4 ton Chevy, Dodge and Ford pickups equipped with plows, happy drivers inside at the urn filling their cups with the stuff that will fuel their day and night, if this snow monster materializes the way they say.

Edited December 19, 2009 by ocnblu

[Camino LS6]

Trial by fire for the ROPOS.

Not what I was hoping for...

[balthazar]

>>"First thing ya gotta do is hit Wawa for hot coffee and a snack."<<

Gotta have a WaWa! No coffee here; not a coffee drinker. Tasty WaWa black (ice) tea spiked with a Mach W and a Kashi 'Go Lean' bar keeps me rolling for a few hours.

10:15 report - snow has basically STOPPED here at a 'dangerous' accumulation of .75". Plow truck sits, dusted & cold. Here she be (note the cowl hood for X-tra Performance). Daylight also revelas she wears a GMC grille (tho it's registered as a Chevy) :

[ocnblu]

Ah yes, half-tons rock as well with a plow.

[Camino LS6]

I'm jealous.

[ShadowDog]

Ah yes, half-tons rock as well with a plow.

That truck'll get it done nicely. Enjoy the season!

We had a '95 1-Ton flat-deck last year that was excellent to get around in. This year it was replaced with a '05 quad-cab flat deck. With a full hopper of sand in the bin, the guys say it feels like an ice breaker in the snow. You take your foot off the gas and the thing just keeps pushing. It was decided that plowing would start without the sand to make things easier on the axle and transmission.

Around here, people live off the highway and deeper in the bush. They choose to commute some 50+ kms to work each day, so they have plows attached to things like 4-Runners, Land Cruisers, Range Rovers, etc.; and drive them the whole way each day. What a good way to destroy a piddly vehicle. Get a cheap, full-frame pickup and blast a path down the "driveway", switch vehicles at the bottom and go to work! That would be my answer.

Edited December 19, 2009 by ShadowDog

[caddycruiser]

I want a truck as my #2...

Hey...there's a return of an old idea...

[A Horse With No Name]

Sometimes automotive lust is like the sexual kind that never seems to end...

I love your truck! NICE SWB/Reg cab proportions...and I've always liked trucks of that era. If I wasn't so worried about the price of fuel and the crapola in the middle east I'd be buying one as a third vehicle. Hell, I still might.

Your Ford was a damn fine looking truck, but this IMHO is much better looking.

Chris

[balthazar]

Truck belongs to my buddy; I don't want to put a plow on my Silverado (153" wheelbase = plow truck fail). Esp my assignment- all circular loops off a main branch.

Duh- it's a GMC Sierra; I read something else in the glovebox that made me think it was a Chevy. This era is not of my interest, so whether a GMC grille snaps into a Chevy mouth, I wouldn't know.

Heat is marginal, I drove it earlier for 30 minutes and got it maybe to 60 inside. Workable, but not the best.

Just got the call to go push, so I'm off. Still only showing about an inch here, tho it's started up again for the last hour (real fine), but the property manager there claims he has about 3" on his sidewalk and we have a 2" trigger.

[mustang84]

Badass GMC, balthazar. I like the regular cab / shortbox combo...you don't see too many trucks of that configuration these days.

[balthazar]

Back from 20 wonderous hours in the winter wonderland.

Truck had a few issues: heat was tolerable, but could not clear the windshield & side glass from ice/fog.

Then, after making but 2 passes down the main drag, I lost the hydraulics. Blade laid on the road like a dead frog.

I waited for over 2 hours for someone else to show (after repeated SOSs) -their truck had broken down on the way- so we could chain up the blade and I could get down to the repair shop about 30 minutes away.

Radiator was quite low, topped it off. By the dash gauge it was only running 140-150 deg. Inspection suggested there was also no thermostat, so even tho I had a bit more heat & could keep the windshield clear, now the truck was running at about 120-deg. They decided not to swap one in. Yip. Guess it's up to me before the next snow.

In reading Camino's ROPOS thread- I have 2 of the same other issues: no plow lights and only 1 sharply-bent corner guide. Guess I'l install some new ones (plus the 'stat).

Left my house @ 3:45PM, got back in @ 3;15AM. Slept about 4 hours, then plowed another 8.25 hr. total. I put 166 miles on the clock, most of them at about 10 MPH. The short wheelbase was very helpful, tho this particular job might be even better suited logistically to a CJ5 with a plow.

Fun in a way, breaks up the monotony, now let's not have anymore snow until mid-Jan, thanx.

[Camino LS6]

With you on the date for the next snow, Balthazar!

This one was quite a dose.