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Who Plows Snow And What Do You Plow With?


JeepcoMJ
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Just curious.

 

Up until this past year, we've plowed our personal drives with an MJ.

 

Over the years, we've had an old Western cable op on both the diesel and (while he was in high school) it was on my brother's 88 MJ. A few years back, Steve lucked out and found a factory Meyer plow for his MJ.

 

Last year, we did some upgrades to it...dumped the steel plow in favor of a poly that I got for nothing after selling the steel, upgraded the lights to higher wattage, upgraded the pump to an E57 (my oh my the speed increase was great!).

 

Since last season, a few mishaps have happened that rendered the truck in serious need of front uniframe repair (not from plowing...collision) and wrecked the plow frame.

 

As always with our beloved MJ's, that opened a whole can of worms:

"well, if I have to paint a front clip, I should replace the doors since they're rusty and paint them to. and fix the rockers while I'm at it. and the floors. and the cracked windshield. and the bed." and so on and so forth.

 

Since that's a time consuming endeavor, that will cost money we can't really justify dumping into it right now, that project is shelved until this spring. At that point, since it's a full resto, and we will be stroking the motor, the plow won't go back on.

 

I'll be repairing the plow mounts to good as new, resto'ing the blade and pump (again), and selling the plow off, or perhaps keeping it for a utilitarian MJ I have my heart set on.

 

Since that's the case, and we're always looking for craigslist deals, I looked and searched. I found an absolutely ridiculous deal on a 2011 Meyer Drive Pro 6'8" plow side only (no mounts, wiring, control) for $500. It's 2 years old and a $4000 setup without the mounts new....and it looks new.

 

The Drive pro 68 is an awesome setup. Nite saber halogen lighting, just over the track width of the vehicle (even at full angle), it's quick, and it mounts and dismounts in under a minute with a single pull engagement system and 20 pin quick connecter the size of a 7 pin trailer connector.

 

After getting that, it got me thinking. How about a plow on one of my KJ's? So After some research, time spent waiting on deals, I managed to pick up new in box KJ mounts for the DP 68, new in box body side wiring, new in box light controllers, and a new in box pistol grip controller for around $700 all told.

 

 

Now, I know what alot of you are going to be thinking and saying.... "You can't plow with a uniframe, that's bad for it!". To you I say poppycock. That's a load of crap. If anything, the KJ uniframe is stronger than an MJ's, and both are at least as strong as a YJ/TJ frame, if not stronger, when in good (non-rusted) condition.

 

The concept that you cannot plow with a uniframe is incorrect, and ill-informed. We have done it for years, as have many others, including residential professionals as the benefits of the short wheel base combined with the throwaway use of an XJ are astronomical and time-saving over say, a fullsize truck.

 

The use of any plow is hard on any vehicle, so the simple thing is to not push beyond the limits of the vehicle you are using. Maybe you need to take half cuts. Maybe you even need to backdrag then push in shorter increments rather than trying to straight push a 1.5 mile long drive. But it can be done (Our MJ pushed 4' snowdrifts 40 feet long 2 years ago with no problem, if you took your time and did it right).

 

Anywho,

This will be an interesting year for me. I've just mounted up the drive pro to the KJ, got her working, drained everything, evac'd the angling rams, new fluid, combined a Meyer E60 and the DP's Meyer E58H to make a Meyer E61H. This gives me the fastest combination available, with the best angling block and sealed isolated ground coils.

The KJ can take the 405lbs of the plow on the front, especially since I installed diesel KJ springs. It's a bit front heavy at the moment; To improve traction, I will have to add ballast in the form of receiver mount weights or even a salt spreader for our gravel drive.

 

The other positive is that since I do rebuild snow plow pumps for a living in the winter, I will now have a very nice business front vehicle. Obviously I don't run a plow service, but it helps to be properly equipped, even if I only plow my drive and a few friend's drives.

 

I'll post up pics once I've got the new decal for the front of the blade.

 

So, what do you guys plow with for your purposes?

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very nice guys!

 

Rev, I know that the winter wolf is almost identical to the snow bear. I know it works for the application, but being me, I like the interior cab control and lift. How does it work for you?

 

Here's pics of my setup!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

can't do much better for $500

 

This is what I'm putting it on

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It works good for me. Truck and plow had been USED hard before I got it. Plow doesn't stay angled but for my plowing needs, the straight blade works fine. The ATV winch has enough power (superwinch 1500) to lift the blade when it's loaded with snow. There is a controller inside the cab that works flawlessly.

 

I do need to do some work on the plow mount. It's been broke and welded in the past. I tweaked it last winter hot rodding a bit...

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  • 4 months later...

I push a 7.5' Meyers with all barn made truck mount. Plows heavy so I stuffed air bags in the coils to solve that issue. Running 31's on factory grand Cherokee wheels. No lift on truck. Idk how to post pictures. I push commercial and residential

Use imagine hosting like photobucket or imgur

 

Pat, have you got that plow on that Libby yet?

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Btw...

 

Well I am new to salting entirely. We have a driveway that takes around 1,000 lbs to do each time, but have spread by hand until now. It isn't a regular thing that we need to salt...the drive is gravel, and has a great runoff so it clears itself well. It's when we get freezing rain that we run into issues..

 

 

Picked up the sp325 from the local dealer.. Was actually going for the 210 that just plugs into factory 7 pin trailer plug, but two weeks of waiting and freezing rain dictated that I get something, and now.

 

 

So, came home with the 325, hooked it up, and immediately decided that the factory is wrong on what types of can't cannot be used.

 

Ran 12 bags (50lbs each) of rock salt, that worked good. That was as many as I could get...everyone is out of stock.

Ran 4 bags of calcium flakes through it (90lbs each....actually leftovers from when we used to need calcium to keep the plaster from cracking in the public pool that I run in the summer). Worked great.

 

Then ran 3 bags of ice melt, and 7 bags of rapid melt through it.

 

Everything I ran through it, it fee perfectly with zero issues. I am going to run in and fill it at the local co-op with bulk and prove everyone wrong there, too. I bet it works great.

 

 

The only thing I can say is that it is honestly too small for my needs...but we will use it maybe 3 times a year. This is only for my driveway, which is also my business parking lot and drive.

 

Was new in box but didn't come with cover...that will be here tuesday

 

 

Just a happy customer. Thought I would share

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I am impressed. A half mile driveway implies your home is in the middle of your property, which would be a mile across. Since a square mile (1 mile X 1 mile) is 640 acres, I sure would hate to have to mow your yard! Maybe you have cattle for that? :)

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13 acres with 1500 foot drive from road to house, 2000 square feet road frontage and 6 off shoots that need salting, the main drive takes two passes to plow, end of shop takes 7, cow yard takes 9, behind barn takes 5 for the main, 3 between silos, and two for each of the 3 off shoots from there, then a two pass 40' chunk off the main so we can get hay and straw to the goats without trudging through waist deep drifts. Averaging it all, it is a half mile of driving to plow and likely 1/4 mile to salt as the salt spreads further than the blade can reach. So perhaps the length of drive is an exaggeration, but that is the amount of driving it takes to do with straight passes and no excessive reverse.

 

The problem with the drive is that it is long, hilly, and also ends up being a runoff, so it gets very icy, and can stack 2" depth on ice in most places.

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One of my high school classmates does plowing for hire. I don't think he does large, commercial lots but I saw him just last week and asked him if he's still doing it. He is. He has about fifty residential customers. He used to use an old full-size Bronco, but around 2002 or 2003 he replaced [what was left of] the Broco with a 2001 Cherokee. He said he still has the Cherokee and it has been better for his needs than the Bronco because it's more maneuverable.

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  • 1 month later...

If anyone is still paying attention to this thread, please check this out...

 

I've been restoring my 90 lwb for the past two years in hopes for a daily driver that does double duty as my offroad/plow rig in the northeast.

 

So far I have replaced the floors(completely!, driver's to passenger's rocker, inside; including the tranny hump[re-constructed the non - existent uniframe rails at the same time; doubled up ALL the uniframe thickness & mounts!] swapped out the disconnect 3.07 front for a 4.89 non-disco Dana with a true-trac & upgraded EVERY steering component; replaced the rear 35 with a 9" Detroit 4.89w/disc, Upgraded to a dual booster, and swapped to an external slave ax15)...my money-pit also received a 5.5" SOA lift w/33's, 97 doors, pwr/htd mirrors heated pwr/htd leather seats, upgraded EVERYTHING inside....etc, etc, etc....

 

During the "early days" of this project, I scored a "parts" '90 LWB MJ Metric Ton with a plow... took what I needed & then sold off to another Jeep-nut;)

 

What I really have a ? about, is the Fisher plow... I would really like to convert it to a different setup, something other than the cable controls it currently has... any & all help would be appreciated beyond belief!

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I have about a qtr mile paved driveway with a big hill in middle.  10 or so years ago I found a 90 MJ metric ton with a 7.5 fisher plow.  truck was very rusty when I got it, but got about 7 seasons out of it before removing the plow and putting it on a 98 Cherokee that was not rusty but had been rolled (lightly) and has just shy of 300k but the 4.0 runs like a champ.  Tire chains make this rig unstoppable.  Sold the metric truck to a jeep guy that parts them out for almost what I paid for it.  Love these trucks, but the Cherokee will last decades of limited yard use and the Comanche was in danger of breaking in half or tearing itself to pieces.  never understand why the inner bed seemed to be galvanized but the floors, frame and bedsides were not??  I guess if they were they would last forever and they couldn't sell us new trucks  

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  • 2 weeks later...

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