A plce for snow pictures

[aaytay]

Kraig-
You've got some decent sized snow banks there!

It's official... This sux!

Having said that, this storm will definitely go into the memory bank. Nothing really huge, (I think we got about 8") but just the right combination to make it one HECK of a storm. It started raining yesterday morning and didn't change over to snow until about 2:00pm. At that point it was big fluffy flakes that pack together real easy. After about 4" of that, the wind picked up and the snow got finer and started blowing around. Wind is continuing to howl today. Yesterday at this time it was 34deg, now it's 10deg.

I had the rig out last night to clear the wet snow before the light-drifting snow moved in. It was so slick underneath the snow that you had to be careful you didn't fall when walking around. (I fell once this morning just walking down the driveway to take these pics) By the time I finished the driveway, all of the water had frozen on the side hill back to the tractor shed. Front wheels on the 2072 kept sliding sideways down the hill. After getting it unstuck 5 or 6 times I finally threw in the hat at went to bed. That's the first time in 17 years of living here that this has happened.

Here's what it looked like this morning:

Here's the side-hill...

As I went out this morning to take these pictures, I could hear some commotion down at the road. Turns out the County plow truck got stuck on our street and had to have another plow truck pull him out with a chain.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Art, yes the driveway is starting to feel like a canyon! I cleared that wet stuff last night as well then went out early this morning to clear what fell overnight. Glad I did, it would have been real messy cleaning all of it in one shot. Surprisingly the QA42 never plugged up. Oh that poor plow truck driver, he'll forever be ripped on for getting a plow truck stuck. LOL

 

[jbaker]

Kraig this is for your beast

Sorry Art I could not find a CCC shirt wearing beast for you

What kind of trucks are those?

 

[vthomley]

Geeez, if I'd a known Art's snowblowing machine was still at the end of his driveway I would have came over with my trailer... Question, do you just tilt your whole body to the right to make it look like a hillside, or just your head? LOL I've driven my vehicle on this sidehill, I can understand why you left it there last night.

I pulled out 4 people within 1 mile of my house this morning with my truck. I was lucky no one had to pull me out. An hour and a half later I got onto a main road, I'm really not sure why I left the comforts of home today.

Kraig your 125 is looking awesome!

I'll be testing the 1250 and thrower this evening. I'm quite sure I won't get back into my driveway until I blow the snow.

I sent a few pics of my tree in my front yard to Kraig for posting. In the summer I mow under this tree.

 

[digger]

I'm glad I'm setting up here in the sunshine and cold with NO FREAKIN SNOW!!!!

 

[jgoodine]

Kraig my 125 is jealous, seems like I can find everything except a blower, at least without giving my left arm away, nice pics, got any action shots, do you have any trouble with your clutch slipping if you push it to hard?

 

[jgoodine]

seems I found everything, but blower,found couple over the years but had to buy tractor with them and it never was a model I really wanted, or way to much

 

[aaytay]

Well, I got it out. It actually fired right up and would have just drove out of there, but the snow that had blown in was just too deep. Had to get out the old-fashioned "handheld heart-attack maker" and dig, dig, dig until there was a clear path back to the driveway.

We had drifting!

Don-
I'm not certain, but I think those trucks are Internationals. Here's a close up:

 

[hsimon]

Art- those county trucks are Sterlings and not Binders.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Art, good to hear that you got the 2072 out without having a heart attack.

Nice action shot.

Joel, no the clutch does not slip as it has the heavier throwout spring as was used on the 149. The 12hp is not stock. It was built by David Kirk to his Killer Kohler specs. On paper it's putting out somewhere near 17hp.

You have to snap up the snowthrowers when they show up, I have several spare snowthrowers. Though I'd have to dig them out of the snow they are setting outside behind my shed. Last time I was out there was before this snowstorm and the discharge chutes were barely sticking up out of the snow.

Vince, thanks.

Here's your photos.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Somewhere under this snow and weighted down Re-dozier Dogwood is a Cub Cadet 105 roller chassis, a QA42, a QA42A and an Agri-Fab sleeve hitch box scraper blade.

Found the 105. Look close at the opening in the shrub branches. I believe the mound in the snow is where the QA42A is located.

Found the QA42A, well a portion of the discharge chute anyway. The chute extension is not on the discharge chute, I removed it to haul it home and never reinstalled it. It's safely stowed away in my shed. I seem to recall that the QA42 is somewhere deeper back and to the left of the 105. The 105 is immediately behind the QA42A. I think the box scraper is immediately in front of the QA42A. I was afraid to walk in too close for fear of tripping on it.

 

[dfrisk]

HUGE - I learned something today! Sterling trucks are so rare around here, that I didn't realize they stopped building trucks back in 2009/2010. The Ford dealership I bought my '96 F250 PSD from also sold med. & HD Ford trucks, and took the Sterling line after they came out. Shows how often I need parts from my dealership that I didn't notice the Sterling sign being gone for 4-5 YEARS!

Another great plan of Daimler's that they screwed up. Buying Ford medium & heavy truck back in '97 and having them re-branded Sterling, and going belly-up in 13 yrs.

We had a discussion of old trucks over on RPM a couple weeks ago. FORD used to rival IH even back when IH was the truck KING in the 1950's & '60's. One of the largest inter-modal cartage companies in Chicago, WILLETT, used a fleet of several hundred L9000 Ford tractors back in the 1980's. They took the abuse of Chicago city streets as well as any other brand, even KW, Pete, & MACK. You'd see more of that company's Ford's than you'd see UPS's trucks at every inter-modal rail yard.

Such a shame that such a great heritage of durable trucks has died.

Down here in south-central WI, all the old WI DOT Freightliner's are now new International's. Maybe Paul R. can add some info from his former co-workers about how they are holding up.

I try to keep up with what's going on with truck & tractor MFG's, but that Sterling stopping production slipped right by me!

 

[dfrisk]

KRAIG - You won't have any problem finding all those CC goodies, be about a MONTH, if it warms up.

We had two days this week in the 40's here in south-central WI. I bet the snow piles are 25-maybe 30% smaller. The one weather-man said the predicted high last Tuesday of 37 degrees was the warmest day since Jan. 13th which was the last day we got above freezing. We actually hit 43 degrees that day, and 44 on Wednesday.

But next week we're back in the Polar Vortex, single digit highs, three days of single-digit below Zero lows.

Remember, JIMMY the Ground Hog says "Only three more weeks of WINTER left".

Anyone ever tasted ground hog meat?

 

[dtanner]

Denny

Highway dept here are switching over to IH trucks for snow removal. seems they are having a few issues with the auto trans and are not that well liked by some of the older operators . Hard to get them not to spin when pushing with the big blade down . they will go down a few gears and spin out. so I hear from my neighbor .

 

[dfrisk]

DON - Seems like they need more weight in the box! Or different tires on the drive axles. I won't recommend chains, they tear up the roads too bad and wear out fast. Yes, an A/T will down-shift, but I'm surprised they can't re-program the trans to stay locked in a gear. The '74 vintage ready-mix truck I drove had a 5-spd Allison trans. I think it was set-up that if you pulled it down into 1st, it was always in 1st, next position was 2nd & 3rd, next position was 2nd thru 4th, In those two postions you started out in 2nd and shifted up automatically once or twice, last postion was 1st thru 5th, start in 1st and all four shifts to 5th automatic. Be interesting to know if your plow trucks are spinning out in 1st or 2nd gear.

Maybe the new MAXX-FORCE engines IH uses are just too powerful compared to their old trucks! If they have the MAXX-Force DT, the latest version of the DT-466E, their smallest rating is 215 HP, biggest is 300 HP. The MAXX-Force 9 is the old DT-570, smallest rating is 300 HP, biggest is 330. And 300 HP used to run 75,000# semi's down the road 65 MPH with authority.

If their plow trucks are smaller, they may be DuraStar's. They have two engine options, the latest version of the VT-365, old 6.4L PSD, now the MAXX-Force 7, 220 HP, 560#/ft of T @ 1400, but a 300/660 version also availible. Or the Cummins ISB6.7 (just to make you happy!) 200 HP, 520#/ft T @ 1600. Hmmmm Looks like the older smaller IH V8 makes more HP, AND torque at lower RPM's than the CUMMINS in-line 6... But just so you know, the IH V8 makes 350#/ft of T @ 800 RPM, the Cummins, 400#/ft @ I think 800 RPM. So the Cummins does try harder once you get down WAY below your torque peak, which a good truck driver would NEVER do. Also a 300/660 version of the ISB6.7 avail. too.

We got "Snow-Bound" here about 15-16 yrs ago. Really didn't snow much, but like this year, County didn't put up snow fence, the snow had gotten warm, the surface melted, then froze slick, and four new inches of snow off the 80 acres across the road blew into the road in 3-4, even 5 ft deep drifts. I was trying to keep the road open with my #1 snow mover, but it wasn't big enough for the task, then the first lady who got stuck wanted to have me try to pull her car out of the ditch, so I tried again to get through all the snow. Then here comes the County's Freightliner plow truck finally, plows a 5+ ft tall smow bank right up behind my #1 SM'r. I was kinda P-O'd, he takes his truck and carefully pushes little bits of the pile away and finally I think I can push through and wave him off, I get out of his way safely into my driveway. I think the trucks around here use 12 ft wide blades, and the wings add another 4-5 feet. He kept the wing up, but PUSHED right through that 3-4 feet of drifted and packed in snow without slipping. I remember my little St. Bernard was having a GREAT day that day, she was walking on TOP of the snow drifts, not sinking in at all.... all 150 pounds of her! That's tough snow!

And the day I called the County to dig out my mailbox 2-3 weeks ago, one of the new IH trucks showed up within 45 minutes of calling. He was peeling off 1-2 feet of 5+ ft tall snow from the bank on the side of the road and pushing it all the way down the road with no problem trying to get back to the mailbox. The snow he was peeling off was taller than that side of his blade. No spinning out there either.

Back about 40 yrs ago one spring break from college I was working for the township road commissioner. We had a real wet 4-5 inches of snow that week. He still had the 12 ft angle plow on the one truck, '67 C65 Chevy, Had a little 366 V8, 5+2 and slow rearend gears, good for pushing snow. We were never supposed to wind the tach past 3500, but I saw the Boss winging it to 4000 a couple times. The 366 only made something like 160-170 HP in med. duty trucks. With 6-7 ton of rock in the box before we left town, there was No Spinning Out going on there!

All that said... being "Windy", tell him to try more weight first, if he still spins out, burn the drive tires off and mount up some decent drive tires.

 

[vthomley]

Kraig, thanks for posting those Pics of my tree in my front yard - or pics of the snow blowing at me. I'll get a good pic of this tree later today or tomorrow morning. I used the neighbors skid-steer and moved a bunch of snow on Saturday. Its a huge skid-steer with an 8' snow bucket.

Here's my backyard, just to the right of the Plum Tree is my picnic table. Just above the tree is a Bluebird house, the Bluebirds will be here in a month. Between that tree and the Bluebird house is a dry creek bottom, this spring there will be a 50+ foot wide river running.

 

[proessler]

Denny, # 1 Minimum 3-4 yards material in box plowing & winging. # 2 Chains on rear axle tires & 1 front on wing side if ice under snow. # 3 chains on front axle too, if all Ice... #4 slow down... Heavy wet snow sends you & truck off road if plowing too fast, especially with empty box.
All Dane county patrol trucks since '93 -'06 spec Allison World trans w/ 6 speed Double OD ... push button, D for Drive or lock in any gear with a up or down button. Freightliners had Cat power, DT466E 250HP+ in Binders. Last info I heard about newer units, they are NOT trouble Free...
P>S> with Double OD 70 MPH +

 

[dfrisk]

PAUL - I knew you'd know the scoop on Dane Cty's plow trucks!

Plow duty is hard on trucks! Last company I worked for, my Boss was proud of the fact he'd leased an FL-70 straight truck, had some little 4-cyl Detroit 4-stroke diesel, 2/3rds of a Series 60. Vibrated so bad the driver had to open the driver's door window and steady the mirror to back into our dock. Leaked oil like a 2-stroke Detroit. Only decent load over 6000# he ever put in the truck broke ALL the leaves in the left rear spring pack and dropped the box down on top of the drive tires, stranded the truck on a busy Milw. street.

When it's 4 yr lease was up, my new boss gave me the paperwork on the spec's for the new truck. Same spec FL-70, plus for $100/month more a 4300 IH w/DT466E. I didn't take the time to calculate the actual top speed with the quoted rear gear ratio, but suggested the new Boss get something lower numerical by about TWO. I know why Penske spec'd such high numerical ratios, make life easy on the Allison trans. But 52 MPH trucks are frustrating to drive. Anyhow, the FL-70 was turned in with 150,000 miles, looked like it had a Million, many lengthy trips back for service, and as mentioned, leaks, etc. The 4300 had over 175,000 miles after four years, looked like new, ran like new, no leaks, no break-downs, better MPG than the Freight-Shaker. Had air-ride rear suspension, rode WORLDS better, air-ride seat. Cab interior was so nice, CD player, A/C, etc. the driver would take his breaks IN the truck at work. But that truck would now be ten years old too. So it seems like IH truck's problem is just in the last few years. Sad, they once were almost as durable as a MACK. I've heard other truck tech's say the new road tractors have electrical gremlins, and of course, IH's decision to use EGR instead of a particulate trap & DEF to control exh. emmissions was a mistake. I see they offer Cummins power again.

 

[wheinsohn]

Denny, we have 2 IH's in our rental fleet in the area. A 4300 and I believe the other is a 4600. They both have Max-force engine. Both have been in the shop about as much as on the road. One got a new long block last month at 70,000 because the lifter had seized in the block on 2 cylinders and the other has had most external parts on the engine replaced and is now for a possible block also since one cylinder is scored. It has 80,000 on it. Our service truck is a 4300 with the DT466 and it is running strong at 160,000. Ryder has gone so far as almost not even quoting IH to our customers due to the engine problems.

 

[dfrisk]

WES - That's really bad news about the newer IH trucks. 10-15 yrs ago IH owned the medium duty truck market. Mostly because the DT-466 was so reliable, the smaller engines, T444E, VT-365, not so much compared to the 466, but that still made them a decent engine back then. Looks like maybe IH Truck's partnership with MANN hasn't played out so well.

There was a time ten+ yrs ago I considered replacing my F250 PSD with a lo-profile 4200/4300. Then a lawn care service ordered a pair of lo-pro. 4200's from my local IH truck dealer over by Paul R's. I crawled all over those trucks one Saturday. I liked what I saw until I ran my tape measure from the top of the cab down to the ground, they were about an inch too tall to fit into my shop! Not sure my choice of bed would have mowered them enough!

Thing that always impressed me about the 4300 we had at work was how tight it turned. A straight truck w/24 ft long box shouldn't turn as tight as that thing did! It was a 25,999# GWR truck to avoid the driver having to have a CDL, but he had one anyhow. I'd have gone for something a little heavier-duty, say 30,000#-32,000# GWR. MUCH shorter wheel base set up for trailer towing, goose-neck and pintle hitch on the back, plus a hoist on the bed. I'd have hated to give up my 4WD of my F250 back then, but the new TerraStar & DuraStar both have a 4X4 avaialble. And the DuraStar has the Cummins ISB 6.7 & DT-466 as engine options. But now days, most of my hauling jobs could be done with a Ranger (if they still built them) or an S10/S15(if they still built them too).