That’s awesome! Congrats! I definitely do, I guess I’d just want to know what kind of experience and tips you’d be looking for first so I don’t just give ya stuff you may already know. Are you looking for tips specific to the loader, a larger loader, plowing in general, specific plows you’ll be using? Let me know and I’d be happy to help!
I’ve ran them in the summer just never had a snowpusher on. I’ve plowed in a truck just never a loader. More or less asking where should I watch on the box in comparison of a bucket do I want it lever or slightly tilted back. And can you push higher on your pile and not leave a trail behind
Ok gotcha, as far as where to look it will kinda vary depending on what type of pusher you have or how its setup. Unfortunately ive only ran arctics and protechs before so as far as other brands go, it could vary a little bit but overall should be fairly similar for all. The arctics in my opinion are one of the easiest to tell on how level you are because of the amount of spots you can look to see and they even have built in spots on the plow to make sure you're running them efficiently. The first area on them I Use to make sure I'm level is the frame itself if you have the top of that perfectly level then you know you're probably good to go, just need to drop it down so its just touching the ground with a bit of pressure. The second spot to look and make sure you're not tilted too far forward or backwards are your shoes on each side of the plow if they are sticking up in or off the ground you either need to tilt back or forward a bit to make sure those are even. Another way to double check that is, an area that arctic built into the plow. There are two triangle cut outs on the top of each side of the side boards (if you go back and watch any of my videos you should be able to see these and I try and do a good job of keeping them in the right spots in all my videos). The top of Your individual sections should be right in the middle of those cut outs almost floating there. So if you have your frame flat and check those two things on your sides then you'll be running it as designed, efficiently, and not have too much tilt in either direction. If you see any of your sections are bent really far forward then you have it tilted too far down and if youre not scraping very good and the sections are tilted back past that triangle then you probably don't have them tilted down enough. One thing I see really often is guys running them or any plow with too much tilt back towards the loader and it wears those shoes out really bad and really quick. Also, that extra pressure makes it a lot harder for you to push anything effectively. The whole idea behind the arctic specifically is to use the weight of the plow itself to apply enough down pressure to clean scrape everything and then solely use the loader for the horse power and pushing ability so its like two units working in tandem. You putting extra down pressure on the plow or tilting it down more won't actually scrape any better and if in the off chance you do youre being way more inefficient because youre stopping the loader from just moving through more friction and less traction. So again in a setup with and arctic, frame flat and level, sides are tilted so they are within that little triangle, shoes are flat on ground, and you lowered the loader arms down enough where you don't have them pressed down all the way and there's too much down pressure on the plow but also don't have them up all the way where the plows weight itself isn't sitting on the ground at all or enough. You'll be able to tell if the you have the loader arms down or up far enough too by looking at a specific area on the plow called the slip hitch. If you go on arctics website or look at my videos close enough you may be able to see it. It's a black hook shaped area in the middle of the plow behind the frame where the loader attaches to. This piece is what allows the loader to work independently from the plow by allowing up/down movement giving it that float ability and making sure your tires stay on the ground. If you watch close enough in my videos you can see when I go over bumps or lift and set down this piece moving and when I'm plowing it shouldn't have any pressure on it and be floating as it goes over terrain. You can see it pretty well in the video I work with the asv cleaning up. Basically though if you have too much down pressure for one you'll be able to feel the loader struggling to press down any further and there will be no movement or free space in the slip hitch and if you have it raised off the ground too far there also won't be any movement or space in the slip hitch. As far as the protechs go or any other pusher for that matter the same general ideas should be applied and extra down pressure isn't going to help you in anyway. Wheels should always be on the ground skid or loader. You want the traction and to keep the plow flat. you'll be faster and youre really not going to scrape any better and you'll just wear out parts quicker. As far as what to look for in other plows like a protech same general ideas I would look at your shoes and top of the plow even and go from there. Maybe even get it set in a way where you think you're good get out real quick look at it, adjust if need be and once you've got it where you want it kind of remember the look and feel of where you have it and just return the plow to that same place each time after. Once you become familiar you'll just do that without looking at anything. Another thing dealing with feel of the plow is usually when you have too much down pressure on a plow you'll be able to tell you can't push something as fast or far as you normally would so if that's happening, good chance that's what's going on. You also won't be able to turn as easily if you have too much down pressure. As Far as stacking goes youre basically limited to how far your loader can lift up in the air. Good stacking techniques are to not ram into a pile but instead, slow down catch the little bit at the bottom and use your momentum to continue to raise and push forward with the loader. pushing the pile back in increments and when you can't push back anymore raise up a bit and push back more when the snow gives and keep doing that till you max your reach out. As you get higher too make sure you tilt your plow down a bit as you raise so you can push the snow back even more. Kinda like making a little shelf each time for you to deposit it on. Otherwise it'll all just slide down each time and you'll lose more room faster. If you slam into it you'll lose all your power and lose more time raising and sitting there waiting. Also if you do that up here in MN when the piles freeze you'll break the plow real quick. So if the pile sits all year and you don't haul out after each event be real careful approaching it and adding to it. In some cases just don't even bother going into the very bottom bit and just start stacking on it for each future storm to lessen the chance of you catching something and something breaking. If you watch a lot of the stuff I do at the college plowing you'll see that later in the year I start to do this. If you have a pile that's kinda in the middle of a parking lot the goal is to get it piled as high as possible and once you have a pile established then do as I said above to make sure you utilize the space you have for piling. If you've got a huge area to push back into start you pile as far back as you can and then just keep doing like I said above and filling the space out over time. The only time you'll have snow spilling over is if your box is completely full or if one side of your box is full like if you've been going down a curb line. Otherwise it might happen if your plow isn't on the ground correctly or like in the snow wolfs we had there's a gap between the wings where some spilled out. So if you're making full passes to a pile more than likely your always going to have some spilling out each time unless its a short distance or you didn't get a large snowfall. When you're going along curb lines especially by sidewalks make sure to keep an eye on how much is filling up in your box and when you start to see a bit of a trail starting or some spilling over pull away from the curb and push it out further into the drive lane and then start on the curb again and keep repeating this. Especially do this if the storms done and you're doing final cleanups because theres nothing worse than being a sidewalk guy and having to go back and push that spillage back over each time. So it saves both parties headache and time in the end. So all in all you'll almost always have a trail using a box style plow so just gotta be smart about where you have it sometimes. When I'm doing final clears and I can tell my pusher is getting full sometimes ill intentionally stop plowing the line I was going in if I am close enough to the pile so I don't have to clean up wind rows so much. I would also recommend when windrows happen to clean them up right after you finish the push you are on so you don't have to backtrack in the future so much and it doesn't look so messy. If youre plowing during a storm and lets say just doing open ups until businesses are closed then I would worry about it as much just get the main bulk of the drive lanes. @@jakesmith4835
hopefully that helps and let me know if something isn't Clear or you have other questions. Sorry for the long reply but I tried to be as detailed as possible. Ill also try and make a video this year talking about more of that stuff so if others have questions or I couldnt answer something like you were hoping maybe a visual would be better!@@jakesmith4835
what plowing combination are you using?
Doosan 250DL wheel loader with a 16 ft arctic sectional!
do you have any tips its gonna be my first year plowing in a doosan 200
That’s awesome! Congrats! I definitely do, I guess I’d just want to know what kind of experience and tips you’d be looking for first so I don’t just give ya stuff you may already know. Are you looking for tips specific to the loader, a larger loader, plowing in general, specific plows you’ll be using? Let me know and I’d be happy to help!
I’ve ran them in the summer just never had a snowpusher on. I’ve plowed in a truck just never a loader. More or less asking where should I watch on the box in comparison of a bucket do I want it lever or slightly tilted back. And can you push higher on your pile and not leave a trail behind
Ok gotcha, as far as where to look it will kinda vary depending on what type of pusher you have or how its setup. Unfortunately ive only ran arctics and protechs before so as far as other brands go, it could vary a little bit but overall should be fairly similar for all. The arctics in my opinion are one of the easiest to tell on how level you are because of the amount of spots you can look to see and they even have built in spots on the plow to make sure you're running them efficiently. The first area on them I Use to make sure I'm level is the frame itself if you have the top of that perfectly level then you know you're probably good to go, just need to drop it down so its just touching the ground with a bit of pressure. The second spot to look and make sure you're not tilted too far forward or backwards are your shoes on each side of the plow if they are sticking up in or off the ground you either need to tilt back or forward a bit to make sure those are even. Another way to double check that is, an area that arctic built into the plow. There are two triangle cut outs on the top of each side of the side boards (if you go back and watch any of my videos you should be able to see these and I try and do a good job of keeping them in the right spots in all my videos). The top of Your individual sections should be right in the middle of those cut outs almost floating there. So if you have your frame flat and check those two things on your sides then you'll be running it as designed, efficiently, and not have too much tilt in either direction. If you see any of your sections are bent really far forward then you have it tilted too far down and if youre not scraping very good and the sections are tilted back past that triangle then you probably don't have them tilted down enough. One thing I see really often is guys running them or any plow with too much tilt back towards the loader and it wears those shoes out really bad and really quick. Also, that extra pressure makes it a lot harder for you to push anything effectively. The whole idea behind the arctic specifically is to use the weight of the plow itself to apply enough down pressure to clean scrape everything and then solely use the loader for the horse power and pushing ability so its like two units working in tandem. You putting extra down pressure on the plow or tilting it down more won't actually scrape any better and if in the off chance you do youre being way more inefficient because youre stopping the loader from just moving through more friction and less traction. So again in a setup with and arctic, frame flat and level, sides are tilted so they are within that little triangle, shoes are flat on ground, and you lowered the loader arms down enough where you don't have them pressed down all the way and there's too much down pressure on the plow but also don't have them up all the way where the plows weight itself isn't sitting on the ground at all or enough. You'll be able to tell if the you have the loader arms down or up far enough too by looking at a specific area on the plow called the slip hitch. If you go on arctics website or look at my videos close enough you may be able to see it. It's a black hook shaped area in the middle of the plow behind the frame where the loader attaches to. This piece is what allows the loader to work independently from the plow by allowing up/down movement giving it that float ability and making sure your tires stay on the ground. If you watch close enough in my videos you can see when I go over bumps or lift and set down this piece moving and when I'm plowing it shouldn't have any pressure on it and be floating as it goes over terrain. You can see it pretty well in the video I work with the asv cleaning up. Basically though if you have too much down pressure for one you'll be able to feel the loader struggling to press down any further and there will be no movement or free space in the slip hitch and if you have it raised off the ground too far there also won't be any movement or space in the slip hitch. As far as the protechs go or any other pusher for that matter the same general ideas should be applied and extra down pressure isn't going to help you in anyway. Wheels should always be on the ground skid or loader. You want the traction and to keep the plow flat. you'll be faster and youre really not going to scrape any better and you'll just wear out parts quicker. As far as what to look for in other plows like a protech same general ideas I would look at your shoes and top of the plow even and go from there. Maybe even get it set in a way where you think you're good get out real quick look at it, adjust if need be and once you've got it where you want it kind of remember the look and feel of where you have it and just return the plow to that same place each time after. Once you become familiar you'll just do that without looking at anything. Another thing dealing with feel of the plow is usually when you have too much down pressure on a plow you'll be able to tell you can't push something as fast or far as you normally would so if that's happening, good chance that's what's going on. You also won't be able to turn as easily if you have too much down pressure.
As Far as stacking goes youre basically limited to how far your loader can lift up in the air. Good stacking techniques are to not ram into a pile but instead, slow down catch the little bit at the bottom and use your momentum to continue to raise and push forward with the loader. pushing the pile back in increments and when you can't push back anymore raise up a bit and push back more when the snow gives and keep doing that till you max your reach out. As you get higher too make sure you tilt your plow down a bit as you raise so you can push the snow back even more. Kinda like making a little shelf each time for you to deposit it on. Otherwise it'll all just slide down each time and you'll lose more room faster. If you slam into it you'll lose all your power and lose more time raising and sitting there waiting. Also if you do that up here in MN when the piles freeze you'll break the plow real quick. So if the pile sits all year and you don't haul out after each event be real careful approaching it and adding to it. In some cases just don't even bother going into the very bottom bit and just start stacking on it for each future storm to lessen the chance of you catching something and something breaking. If you watch a lot of the stuff I do at the college plowing you'll see that later in the year I start to do this. If you have a pile that's kinda in the middle of a parking lot the goal is to get it piled as high as possible and once you have a pile established then do as I said above to make sure you utilize the space you have for piling. If you've got a huge area to push back into start you pile as far back as you can and then just keep doing like I said above and filling the space out over time.
The only time you'll have snow spilling over is if your box is completely full or if one side of your box is full like if you've been going down a curb line. Otherwise it might happen if your plow isn't on the ground correctly or like in the snow wolfs we had there's a gap between the wings where some spilled out. So if you're making full passes to a pile more than likely your always going to have some spilling out each time unless its a short distance or you didn't get a large snowfall. When you're going along curb lines especially by sidewalks make sure to keep an eye on how much is filling up in your box and when you start to see a bit of a trail starting or some spilling over pull away from the curb and push it out further into the drive lane and then start on the curb again and keep repeating this. Especially do this if the storms done and you're doing final cleanups because theres nothing worse than being a sidewalk guy and having to go back and push that spillage back over each time. So it saves both parties headache and time in the end. So all in all you'll almost always have a trail using a box style plow so just gotta be smart about where you have it sometimes. When I'm doing final clears and I can tell my pusher is getting full sometimes ill intentionally stop plowing the line I was going in if I am close enough to the pile so I don't have to clean up wind rows so much. I would also recommend when windrows happen to clean them up right after you finish the push you are on so you don't have to backtrack in the future so much and it doesn't look so messy. If youre plowing during a storm and lets say just doing open ups until businesses are closed then I would worry about it as much just get the main bulk of the drive lanes. @@jakesmith4835
hopefully that helps and let me know if something isn't Clear or you have other questions. Sorry for the long reply but I tried to be as detailed as possible. Ill also try and make a video this year talking about more of that stuff so if others have questions or I couldnt answer something like you were hoping maybe a visual would be better!@@jakesmith4835
@@ChrisTanton7 thank you for the info it does help and honestly makes sense thank you very much