Snow Plow

edmaude

NAXJA Member #1368
Location
West Milford, NJ
I am looking to get a used plow for my 96 Sport 5 speed but wanted to see if anyone on here has some suggestions. I am looking at Meyer and Snoway and also maybe even one of those personal use Snowbear plows. I'll only be doing a few driveways so really don't think I need a full commercial set up is needed. Any input would be a great help
 
I’ve seen a couple of XJs up here with snowplows. I finally caught up with one owner talked to him for a bit. He was using a commercial unit, but I don’t recall the brand. He said that he had to swap out the front springs with some stiffer ones (Grand Cherokee maybe?). The mount went under the front bumper and bolted into where the two hook mounts go, it looked pretty solid to me. He said it did an OK job: better then the S-10s and Rangers, not as good as the full sized Fords and Dodges with diesels. If it were me, I’d go with one of those personal snowplows. They are relatively light (read no suspension mods), pretty easy to take on and off and not that expensive. They do fine for long driveways, cul-de-sacs and small access roads. Just don’t try to pick up a second job with one. They can’t handle the abuse like the commercial ones.
 
I haven't looked into snow plows for the XJ because I always have some other plow vehicle in my fleet (currently a 3/4 ton Chevy truck with a Fisher plow). What you get may depend a lot on the kind of terrain you're plowing, and what you expect for depth and severity. A light-duty, "personal" plow should do fine on pavement and relatively gentle terrain, but if you are on rough or rutted dirt, hills, etc. with severe weather, you might find it too light.

In addition to the extra weight of plow when it's on, and of its mounts even when it's off, remember that a conventional plow will severely reduce your ground clearance, because the lower mount must be pretty low to the ground. Attempts to make it much higher, or using it on a lifted vehicle, will result in poor plowing performance, because when it hits obstacles it will tend to dig in and jack the front end up instead of pushing the plow. Snowplows are very hard on a vehicle. Expect greatly accelerated front-end wear, and premature spring sag even if you use heavier springs. If you use a system with an electrically driven pump, expect short battery life. Expect drivetrain wear and tear too. Automatic trannies take a beating, especially in reverse, if you do a lot of back-and-forth plowing. I prefer a stick for plowing, but for an XJ, owing to its tall gearing, you might find that you need to plow in low range, even though that makes reverse inconveniently slow, to avoid cooking the clutch.

I don't mean to discourage anyone from getting a plow, but I think that unless you intend to turn your XJ into a "proper" plow vehicle, with all that entails, you should either stick to the lightweight non-commercial plow or consider another vehicle. I've seen some well-kitted XJ's and MJ's with proper plows, and I think that with the right mods and the right tires, it would make a really good plow vehicle. A small truck like a Jeep is often a better overall plower than a bigger, heavier-duty pickup. But if this is going to be your daily driver and/or your trail vehicle, the full plow kit will be a burden.

Also, having done this for a few years, I should mention that while plowing other people's driveways can be rewarding, either for a little extra cash or just to be neighborly, once you establish that dependency, you will be obligated to come through, and some people can be remarkably snotty about both the timing and the execution, even when you're doing it free!
 
Matthew Currie said:
Also, having done this for a few years, I should mention that while plowing other people's driveways can be rewarding, either for a little extra cash or just to be neighborly, once you establish that dependency, you will be obligated to come through, and some people can be remarkably snotty about both the timing and the execution, even when you're doing it free!

Boy, ain't that the truth, got a new Ariens snow blower and did my neighbors driveway the first time I got to use it. New toy syndrome :D.
He was a bit miffed when I did not continue to do it for the next 3 storms, I never even considered charging the first time and he never offered. Sheesh, you can't win either way...
 
Having lived in an area that got 300" a year of snow and having done a little plowing, I worry about using an XJ for a plow vehicle. We had problems with full framed pickups falling apart from the repeated pressures. If you are doing it just for your own needs and being very carefull about hitting curbs and the like, you can get by, but doing a parking lots with speed bumps and things to get hung up on is a ticket to a tweaked unibody. The best thing we ever did was start getting old beater big Ford or Dodge pickups to use. We just left the plow on it year round and that was about all it was used for. The most rugged rig we ever had was a very old Dodge PowerWagon. That thing was a tank. It outlasted three sets of blades.
 
old_man said:
Having lived in an area that got 300" a year of snow and having done a little plowing, I worry about using an XJ for a plow vehicle. We had problems with full framed pickups falling apart from the repeated pressures. If you are doing it just for your own needs and being very carefull about hitting curbs and the like, you can get by, but doing a parking lots with speed bumps and things to get hung up on is a ticket to a tweaked unibody. The best thing we ever did was start getting old beater big Ford or Dodge pickups to use. We just left the plow on it year round and that was about all it was used for. The most rugged rig we ever had was a very old Dodge PowerWagon. That thing was a tank. It outlasted three sets of blades.

Agreed on principle, but must nominate my '69 Scout 800 as the ultimate plow vehicle. No bigger than an XJ, but weighing close to a thousand pounds more, with powr-lok standard on the rear, the only time I ever got mine stuck plowing was in the worst blizzard of 1978 (about 2 and a half feet of snow, state of emergency, etc.) when I was charging up a steep driveway at a huge drift, and the plow lifted instead of digging in (a Fisher design flaw not present in Meyers, which fold down and stop the vehicle by attempting to pole-vault it over the snowbank). The Scout followed the plow and landed with no wheels on solid ground, frame resting on packed snow. It took me about two hours to dig it out. The next place I did, unbeknownst to me, had about a dozen downed trees buried in the snow, and I broke the plow. But not the Scout!

I should mention that the Scout had 4 added leaves in its front springs, and during the winter I usually ballasted it with a rather large concrete shower-stall base in the back. I ran it with bias-ply tires with Town and Country sand retreads. I don't know if they do that any more, but they actually did mix sand in with the rubber. Many big pickups are actually a bit overpowered for plowing, and spend much of their energy spinning wheels. The Scout just dug in and pushed.
 
Sounds like a sweet setup. Studded tires all the way around are about as good as you can do today. I bet that thing rode like a 2x4 rail.
 
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