Plowing With Chevy 3500 HD 2WD

[luckylawnboy]

I am looking a buying a new, used, truck. I think I will go with a Chevy 3500 HD with a dump on the back. These are the trucks that have the solid front axel's. The trucks only come in 2WD, so how would it do for plowing snow. I have herd people say that when they plow that they hardly even use 4WD in bigger Dully's, but I was just wanting some opinions. I am from Indiana and we rarely get more than 8 inch at a time.

 

[John Allin]

If you're going to plow with it, put some weight in the rear.

 

[SlimJim Z71]

...a LOT of weight.

 

[GeoffD]

A v-box spreader, and on-spot chains will do the trick.

Geoff

 

[cat320]

If your gonna do highway plowing it will be fine a freind of mine plows the state roads here and he had a 1ton 4x4 but had the 4x4 shaft diconected and he never had a problem .If your doing small lots or hills then it would not be very cost efective for plowing for you.

 

[RB]

Plowing w/3500 HD

I've talked to a person who plows a parking lot (approx. 300,000 sq. ft) with a 3500 HD dump. The lot is on a slight hill and he has nothing in the back. He says it works fine.

 

[John Allin]

RB -

How much snow in that lot ?

 

[John DiMartino]

I doubt you'd have a problem,put 3 or 4 tons in the rear most part of the box,and do not push to far in parking lots that have drop offs-or you'll need a tow to get out.Those 3500HD's have nice 19.5's and 15K GVWR,so they are great for carrying v-boxes.

 

[Michael F]

We have an F350 4x4 dump, we rarely use the 4wd, except for short pushes(25 ft or less) with alot of snow(backdraged from drives in association)in parking lots truck is fine up to about 6-8 inches depending on weight. I know the truck weighs around 8,000 lbs without plow, has diesel which add extra weight, but was a single rear wheel , I bought it with the duells & dump on it, didn't realize it was converted, but I figure the dump body weighs around 2000lbs.
Had weight in it first season, aside from slowing down truck(with weight), I can't see a difference

 

[Aspen Snow]

Our oldest truck in our fleet is a 1978 Ford F-350 2wd with a 10' flatbed, 3 yd sander, 9' Fisher plow. It just does commerical accounts, no residental. Its great!

 

[Lazer]

It's been hinted at before:

If you're plowing for short runs (lot's of shifting back/forth) then 2WD really is a comprimise.

If you're plowing for hundreds of feet at a time, it's all momentum and with enough weight, they perform comprably with a 4WD.

The biggest comprimise: You can't get the really good snow/ice tires in a 19" size: For example: our F550 (4x4, 7.3) simply CAN NOT keep up with our old style Dodge W150's. Doesn't have the tires for it.

[Edited by Lazer on 11-27-2000 at 02:24 AM]

 

[GeoffD]

As truck's get bigger the problem gets worse. Thats why most oil, utility, and fire trucks have on-spot chains.

I mean I could plow with my F 650s even though they are 2wd, but with on spots the difference is like nite and day.

Geoff

 

[PINEISLAND1]

Lazer-

Speaking of tires, you mentioned how you thought the Blizzak was one of the best tires available, but not made in 16". This week in the classifieds here there were two different ads for used 16" Blizzaks.

Did I misunderstand what you said?

 

[SlimJim Z71]

I know for a fact that there are 16" Blizzaks. I'm not too sure about truck sizes, but there are 16's. I've put many sets on Mercedes over the past few years.

-Tim

 

[thelawnguy]

He mentioned the F550 which has 19.5 tires (his post says that) Goodyear makes an aggressive snow in that size, you can find it in its commercial catalog I forget the name G1-something...pin with studs if you really feel its necessary.

 

[Lazer]

Blizzak 16" tires are only available in the MZ-02 model. (and even those are low-profile (60) models.)

The one for plowing is the WS-15, which largest size is P235/75-15. (Old style 1/2 ton trucks only.)

The best plow tire for 16" would be the Hakkipaliitta.

For clarity: the Blizzak WS-15 is a weak, low-mileage, low-load tire. The ONLY thing they are superior at is traction.

I am sure we could buy better snow tires than what we have on the 550, but I haven't shopped them, know it isn't going to be a cheap proposition, especially if we get seasonal rims. (Most trucks have summer/winter sets now)

[Edited by Lazer on 11-27-2000 at 04:11 AM]