One thing I find interesting about this thing is where the front plow mounts to. It attaches to the Jeep frame, but not up front like snow plows. It's an "official" Jeep approved accessory, so to me that says something. What I'm getting at, is look where the blade attaches. Mid chassis. If you look under the drivers door, you can see the brackets. Now I know it would really be a pain to hook up a snow plow there, but......
A few years back I bought a CJ 5 with a Western 6.5' plow. After plowing only a few times with it, I couldn't sell it fast enough. I was very disappointed. Why? Well a friend had a CJ with a Meyer plow, and it plowed like a dream. I figured the Western would do just as good. The more I plowed with it, I soon found out all plows are NOT created equal.
This is one time I have to ask "WHAT THE HECK WAS WESTERN THINKING?!?!"
If any of you ever had a CJ with a Western plow, you know where this is headed. It seems Meyer designed their plow undercarriage to mount to the Jeep frame. Common install, just like pick ups.
Western had a not so brilliant idea of mounting the plow undercarriage to the Jeep's FRONT SPRINGS! As soon as any resistance built up in front of the blade, all control of steering was lost. I would drop the plow and do a 360 in the opposite direction the plow was angled!
If the plow was angled full right, the rear of the Jeep came around to the left. This happened even when there was only 3" to plow!
I looked like a complete idiot plowing with it. I hit a fence, a chimney, and a house all at one residential account in less than 5 minutes. THAT was the last time I plowed with it. I didn't do any serious damage, but did have to fix the fence. I knew about the lack of steering control, so I took it easy plowing. The hits were light ones, but the plow did a number on a chain link fence.
I thought some moron made their own brackets to fit on the Jeep, and the undercarriage was bent when I bought it. Not bent bad though (now I know WHY it was bent). My brother was picking up parts for his plow one day, and he called to see if I wanted him to buy Western brackets for me while he was there, to mount the plow frame "right". I said yes, since they were less than $100. When he got home I was floored! They were the exact same leaf spring mount brackets I had!!! I replaced them, but didn't replace the cracked leaves in the spring packs that I found while doing it.
It seems the articulation of the axle, and the strength of the plow worked against each other, and twisted the plow mounting undercarriage. It also cracked leaves in both spring packs.
Ok, putting away the storybook now,
~Chuck
