I just acquired a used one way plow (sometimes called a high side) for my grader. I will take any advice about them. Background is I have been in my grader 2 years full time, with 3 total years off and on before that (5 total). I have plowed 2 winters now with a V plow and wing. But the V plow is overkill when you get just a dusting-3", and I seem to get a lot of what I call "speed bump drifts" that hit the tires first and send a fixed blade up as well (if the V plow is off). (My boss wanted me to just plow with the profiler on, and "would tell me when I need to put the V plow on". After an 11" blizzard with 6 foot drifts with no word from him, I stopped listening to him). And the operator I took over from never said anything about plowing snow. So I've been soaking up information wherever I can to be a better grader operator. I've got it down, but nowhere near someone doing it for 20+ years! I got a used one way plow now. I thought I would be floating it on the skids on my gravel roads, but the edge is resting on the ground as well, which would scrape all my rock/gravel off. The operator who had it said he hardly ever used it and didn't like it. So am I bringing it slightly off the ground just like my blade? Does it just need an adjustment? And since it's used, there's no salesman to talk to about it. I have a feeling training is bad all over the country about operating equipment... I've been looking here, YouTube, manufacturers websites, etc. I hope there is plenty of experience to help out, and I will take it. Thanks!
Most one way plows I used had an adjustment, to roll the plow back or forward. how about a couple pictures?
Yes its nice to have the skids or wheels on your one way especially if your roads don't freeze up good and get a base on them otherwise you will have to hold it up You can possibly add some skids if it doesn't have any If it has skids and still has the cutting edge on the ground sometimes you need to make spacers to get the skids down to the road some pics would be great They can dig in fast in soft conditions and get folded up and run over in a flash
This is about the only photo of any help I have until Monday. This was parked on float, fully on the ground. The cutting edge of the plow was on the ground here as well and where I left it in its current spot. So I can either adjust the edge off the ground and float on these skids and I'm good to go. But if not I'll have to manually raise the entire plow slightly off the ground and plow that way (with the bouncing and scraping rock/gravel occasionally). I dont see how I can raise it any higher. The skids are mounted as low as they seem to go. I can do someting with the chains, and that bar running to the top of the plow. Also I had a question about coming up to things like bridges. Is this going to catch on the metal/concrete so I have to raise it up? Or should I be able to go at speed and not worry like my V plow? I am going to test it out anyway in a couple of weeks. Thanks oarwhat and Jonas!
Nothing like the kiss of concrete to shake loose years of dust in the cab. When working as they should, the springs should make the cutting edge trip. I know guys thet plow with the mold board on float, and that's fine, but in my experience a solid mb will jump you over stuff A mb on float will jump the machine but the mb stays hooked in and breaks something, or breaks you
Can you adjust the back of the set up down to bring the front more level? Hard to see everything that's going on there but you may have to play with that a bit, if that's not working you may have to revamp those front shoes to gain more travel or add material under the shoe to raise it up, which would give you some more wear also. I don't know how it works down there, I'm envisioning open fields and blowing and so I don't know what kind of base you establish or run with. Up hear we try to let the first 2-3" pack and create a base, if we have to go out and plow before a base is established its either with shoes properly adjusted to keep the cutting edge out of the gravel, or just with the moldboard of the grader lifted up to stay out of the gravel. Once there's an ice/snow base established then we just run the cutting edge on that and keep the shoes up and out of the way. Its a trial and error and experience thing. I've also seen guys add adjustable stub axles and tires in place of shoes, that might be something more suited to an area that stays wind blown and has a lot of gravel that doesn't lend itself to developing a base.
That long bar in the middle back pull pin and roll top of blade back probably use come along to keep control of it the cutting edge will come up quite a ways as it goes back see where you are at then One thing we run into is our old plows were built for 6 inch cutting edges we run 8 inch so need to add shoe spacers on some until it wears down Depending on what's available to you those shoes could be pretty easy to lower add on the bottom with like old cutting edges or replace/extend those flat bars with the adjustment holes Be aware the skids shoes can wear pretty fast if you have frozen bare gravel at least in our abrasive rock they do and need rebuilding occasionally . I would pick up some if you think there are going to be any catches going over a bridge at least until you are sure what its going to be like makes on heck of a mess when they catch You will sure like how it tosses the snow compared to just your moldboard
Good post Jonas. I agree with you
It sits nice and level to. I had one on and it sat too steep. I kissed a manhole that stuck up. There were pins and washers everywhere.
Might want to consider some changes IMO. Eliminate the shoes under the balderson hitch. Ours have a chain that is adjustable to provide the stop for your front hitch going to low. Those shoes will just have too much drag on the gravel for what they accomplish, They will also kick up too much rock which will inevitably take out a windshield. Also don't be shocked when the bracket with the holes for the front shoes gets bent. As you probably have experienced with the v-plow, you have to "lean" into a snow drift to keep the front end where you want it. Even more so with a one-way.