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Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick

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Offline hegemon

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Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« on: December 13, 2010, 12:46:01 PM »
Greetings,
My old plow truck finally gave up, and rather then explain to the wife why I continue to put money into two toys (plow truck + tracker).  I decided to consolidate.  This meant mounting a meyer's 6.5' plow on the tracker.  For reference the plow/subframe was originally on a 89 Chevy Blazer, and I'm just using it for my driveway/neighbor's driveways.

This is basically just the rough in, I'll post more pictures as I fine tune it, and hopefully we'll get some snow, so I can report on how it performs. Let me know what you think, good or bad! Anything I might be missing, or should reinforce etc...

First I extended the front frame to have somewhere to bolt on the plow subframe:


Here's a closer look at the extended front pieces.  I still need to add some bracing, but it's welded around the tube and to the side of the actual frame rail.  There shouldn't be too much front-to-rear pressure against these mounts, it's mainly to hold the weight of the plow up.  Where the plow actually mounts to the frame, there are tubes that run back to the main frame, which should take the majority of the impact.


Here you can see I cut the original plow frame so I could extend the tubes to run all the way back to the main frame(past the crumple zone).  Currently in place is approximately 2.5' of black pipe. It's not the strongest, but I had it on hand so we'll see how it holds up.


This pic shows the tubes running under the carriage, there's just enough clearance between the control arms and the tubes.


Lastly, I added a piece of angle iron to give the back section of the plow frame something to mount to.  This is actually spaced down about 1 inch. 




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Offline wildgoody

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2010, 07:23:53 AM »
I have broken 2 frames where your front mount is welded, just from stress
of off-road pounding.

I would suggest before it breaks to pound a piece of DOM or heavy wall tubing
into the end and plug weld or weld the end into the existing frame tubing, those
stock frame parts are not that thick.

You might only get a foot or slightly more, depending on the fit of the tubing or
your sledge hammer size, if you get really lucky you might be able to get it all the way
through to the other side, in that case I would drill the stock cross member just through
to the inner tube and plug weld it.

Also in addition, weld a brace between the front a-arm mounts, this to reduce the
flexing of that upper round cross member, that should make the frame pretty bullet
proof in the front

Wild
Real Trucks Are Built, Not Bought,
And Chrome Don't Get Ya Home.  

An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.

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Offline z3ro

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2010, 06:54:57 PM »
Somehow I don't see this working out too well, BUT, I have been known to be wrong from time to time.

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Offline hegemon

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2010, 12:54:16 PM »
Thanks for the input Wild.  The extensions are welded to both the cross member and the frame rails, but in general it's a weak point.  My thoughts were front mount doesn't take as much abuse, but I guess just the weight of the plow bouncing on the front while driving could be enough to do some damage.  I'll definitely reinforce the front cross member and between the a-arms.

Quote
Somehow I don't see this working out too well, BUT, I have been known to be wrong from time to time.

Where's the fun in things always working out as planned! If it breaks, in standard zuki fashion, I'll rebuild it better!

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Offline vw505

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2010, 10:02:50 PM »
I just keep seeing in my head the first time you lift the plow blade and the rear tires lifting off the ground. :o

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Offline wildgoody

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #5 on: December 20, 2010, 12:22:31 AM »
LOL,  :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
That would be a sight.

It's a snow plow blade, not a bulldozer blade, it doesn't weigh that much  ;)

Wild
Real Trucks Are Built, Not Bought,
And Chrome Don't Get Ya Home.  

An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.

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Offline hegemon

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #6 on: December 20, 2010, 07:55:01 AM »
That would be interesting, and it is a meyer known for their weight!  I think I'll be OK, I'm certainly not the first person to mount a plow on a tracker.  I plan to toy with the idea of cutting some of the metal out of the plow, and surfacing it with plastic, maybe cutting up some of the those blue 50gal drums and riveting it in place.  Don't know yet, we'll have to see how much the weight really does effect the front-end.

Couple more pics for you...

Per Wild's advice - Dom tubing pounded into the front cross member.  I probably could have gone all the way through if I had enough material, but I only had enough to go 13" deep on each side.  I welded the ends, but still need to plug weld it.


Here's a pic of the plow sub-frame extended, welded, and primed.


I still need to put a brace in between the a-arms, where do you think would be the best placement of the brace, low by the a-arm mounts, or up a little higher?

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Offline wildgoody

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2010, 10:53:43 PM »
That looks/sounds good to me, I was looking for a pic to show
you where the cross bracing should be, and I finally found one,
I know there is a closer view of one, but I couldn't find it but
this one should do just as well, it's just not a closeup



Wild
Real Trucks Are Built, Not Bought,
And Chrome Don't Get Ya Home.  

An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.

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Offline hegemon

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #8 on: December 22, 2010, 06:33:22 AM »
Thanks Wild, no need for a closer pic, the placement is perfectly visible, and it makes sense.  Thanks again!

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Offline hegemon

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2011, 11:39:15 AM »
Well finally got some snow last week, actually first Blizzard since like the 80's.  Over a foot of snow wasn't exactly what I was expecting for a trial run...

But it works, and it works well.  The tracker successfully plowed +20" snow drifts without any issue. To be on the fair side, the snow was fairly light.  Doing any larger passes with the blade angled, it definitely had potential to spin the tracker around, but it wasn't hard to adjust to that factor.

I haven't mounted the control in the cab yet, so I'm not completely done, but here are a couple shots from the latest...

Added some bracing:

Here's the subframe all bolted up:

And a final shot after plowing:

No action shots yet, but it's suppose to snow later this week, so I hope to get some vids.

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Offline Zukipilot

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2011, 12:55:38 PM »
I have broken 2 frames where your front mount is welded, just from stress
of off-road pounding.

Wild

I have broken one there too... definitely beef it up a little...

Zig
Zukipilot
'92 Liberty Overland Sidekick

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Offline hegemon

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2011, 06:45:09 AM »
Here's a quick video of the tracker plowing. I've already made a couple passes, and now I'm just widening the drive. We are suppose to get more snow tonight I'll see if I can get the wife to shoot a video from the outside.

Snow Plowing with Tracker


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Offline z3ro

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2011, 08:24:29 PM »
Looks like a nice driveway.  I'd love to live in a wooded setting like that.  Now that I see the length of the driveway, I can see that a plow is the only way to go.

How's it holding up?

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Offline nprecon

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #13 on: January 11, 2011, 10:11:28 PM »
Very cool!
'02 Chezuki Tracker with a 2 Liter and 5spd.  It works for me!!!

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Offline bentparts

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Re: Mounting Snow Plow on a 96 Trackick
« Reply #14 on: January 12, 2011, 02:59:48 PM »
The usual stuff, and 2nd generation Air to liquid intercooled TURBOCHARGER