Any war stories of getting caught with your pants down? On a similar note, how long does it take you guys to be at the first job, if we get an unpredicted storm, and you are not totally ready? We got 2-3" yesterday morning, not predicted. I got up @4, and had to get to the shop, mount plow, load salt, and get to the first lot. I had the blade down in the first lot just before 5. I was happy with the time, but would have liked to be there a few hours eairler.
Happened to us this past November 15th. Everybody predicted 'dusting'. Spreaders ready to go. Went to bed at 10 PM. Set alarm for 2 AM. Woke up at 1 AM - 3" on the ground. Oops..... Mad dash for the phone. Hanging blades, calling subs, setting up sidewalk crews. Ended up with 5". Didn't finish up plowing until after lunch. It happens to the best of us.... but only once a season (max).
It happened here a couple years ago, as usual the first storm of the season and it came early. Got back to the the shop at the end of the day to find out we were expecting 6-8" buy the next morning. The loader was in for service and the leaf boxes were still on. We removed all the fall stuff sent everyone home to eat and grab the winter clothing, then came back to get the snow stuff ready. Called a friend who owns a towing company to come up with his wrecker and load our sanders(since the loader was laid up). Got home around 11. Was snowing then, up and out at 2am, had about 6" as I remember. We got it done but being that rushed is no fun. matt
Only got caught once, about three years ago. We got something like 8" on Nov 13. Plows were still in the barn, spreader was not on the truck yet. Hadn't even checked the plows out yet. The 8' was closest to the door and the truck it was intended for had wiring problems. I showed up with my S-10 and hooke dup to move the 8' so Ic ould get at the 6'8" and discovered my S handled the 8 fine so I went plowing. Within an hour we had the other truck up and running and put the big blade back on it and I put the small one on the S and we were fine. That episode is what turned me on to the 8' plows on S-10s. The last two years we've been ready well in advance and watching the weather carefuly and haven;t gotten caught, other than snow that starts late so we can't get moving until almost time for everyone to be heading for work. I absolutely HATE having to fight morning traffic during a storm.
4 years ago in November I ordered 20,000 square feet of sod for a late lawn job. The day after I ordered it the sod guy called back and said "Are you sure you want this? It is supposed to snow. If we cut it- you buy it even if you can't lay it." I gambled, watching the weather nervously. The night before the sod was due I lined up a big enough crew to lay it all in one day and watched the 11 o'clock weather. They said snow starting tomorrow around 7 p.m. Next morning I go to the job and start rolling out two tractor trailor loads of sod. By the time they have it all pulled off the truck there's 2" on the ground. The truck drivers were panicking just dumping off pallets wherever they could. We gave up laying sod about 9:30am then went and set up all the trucks to plow. The plowing went o.k. but when it was all done we had to go back and shovel this guy's whole yard then try to lay frozen sod on it. The whole neighborhood was laughing at us every time they drove by. It took about 4 days to lay that sod out, but we did it. It came in great too. I still get teased for that one.
Geoff, that's the same storm that bit us. The 14th was the first day of deer season, no problem with tracking snow that year!
Caught off guard This is my first year out and although I was anxious to get out there for my first plow I went to bed (a few nights ago) with no snow predicted (here in Pgh.). I woke up at about 8 a.m. with about 3" on the ground. After deciding whether to go and look for my local weather man and strangle him or call my customer, I decided to call my customers (I'll catch up w/the weather man later). I called my five commercial accounts and told them I'm on my way. They all laughed and said it's o.k. Called my brother, loaded about 20 bags of salt, put on my plow and salter, threw a couple of shovels and was at the first job at 9 a.m. What a way to start the year! The next morning went much smoother.
RB You should know better than to listen to DeNardo and his latest weather predicting machine, STORM WINDOW 2000. Get up early yourself and check to see what the weather is doing.
We were out presalting some accounts Friday in the am, and we stopped for coffee. Some old guy starts in with why do you have a plow and sander on, we are only getting a dusting. I said better to be prepared, athen to be scrambling. We got 2" and plowed all our accounts yesterday. But most people still dont respect what we do. Dino
