Snow Plow Stories

denick

Just came in after cleaning everything from this 10" snow storm. Another storm coming tomorrow they say 6" to 8". It made me think of all the things that happened while plowing. Which we don't do anymore. Post your favorite plowing story.

In 1977 (as I remember it) we had a 22" storm and and 18" storm back to back. Less than 24 hours apart. I was driving for a contractor who hired trucks with plows and sanders to the City that year. A very grumpy and abrasive guy. I drove a Mack R400 very heavy truck, single axle with Mack engine and an 18 speed 2 stick transmission that had a very low gear. It could out push anything the city had. Halfway through the second storm a truck comes up to me and says I need to go to one of the city's high schools one of the roads was blocked and they had an emergency. I go over there and there are 2 city trucks and an old grader that couldn't get through a road at the end of the playing fields where the snow had drifted over the height of the trucks. They had a medical emergency on the other side of the road. There were police and ambulance people waiting. Then another emergency call comes in for that road. I listened for 2 minutes to what they were thinking of doing. While they were talking I got in the truck backed down the road about 200 feet put the plow down and took a hard right. Busting through the cement curb jarred my teeth but that truck just squatted down and pushed right through the middle of the practice playing field. Some of the field benches and other stuff were hanging off the plow when I got through the area of the deepest drifts. I made a pass up to the end of the street and back down through the field. The guy I plowed for had shown up and was standing in the road as I pulled over. His comment was "what's wrong with you, what is your problem. Would you mind opening up the road now? They wanted you to open the road s..t head" and he walked away. No one ever said anything else to me. Years later his wife told me that he has never stopped laughing over the look on the peoples faces standing in the road when I took off through the snow. It took me 9 hours to open that 500' of road some of the snow had drifted 14' high.

__________________
Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

tgeb

Good story. I have one or two...

How about the time I was clearing a townhouse parking lot, with my enclosed cab Case 580se, and one of the guys in the pickup trucks had an area they could not get through. He asked if I could bust up this snow drift....of course I said no prob. stuck it 2nd gear and mashed the pedal.....
The sudden and abrupt stop which occurred shortly there after left me with cut up hands and the windshield of the backhoe in a gazillion pieces.
There was a manhole cover in that snow drift that was set about 1/2 inch too high, I hit it dead center at full speed. I never wore the seat belt, and nearly ended up on the hood hanging by the muffler of that thing.

Spent the next few days in the cold, till I could get a new windshield installed.

I save some of the other stories till later.

__________________
Tom

www.gebcon.com

dayexco

here's my snow plowing story...SNOW PLOWING SUX!

__________________
someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

tgeb

Day wins the story of the week prize!












Pay him Nick.

__________________
Tom

www.gebcon.com

denick

What?, Why do I have to pay him?

__________________
Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

dayexco

tom, had a very similar story as yours, car dealership burnt down, they moved across street, built new building. used the floor of the old dealership for a parking lot for used cars. first time i plowed for them. explicitly asked if anything was under the snow, not showing...they said...NOPE!!! yer good to go...2nd pass thru, hit the cylinder for a car hoist that was sticking up about 3" out of the concrete doing about 3-4 mph...i too took out the windshield of the loader, i didn't go all the way out, the steering wheel bruised my belly and held me in the cab, but the windshield was so crystallized, couldn't see thru it. got out and looked, and tore a chunk out of the cutting edge on the loader. dealership bought a new cutting edge, and replaced the windshield. we had a blizzard again here last nite, have been out all day, will be out all nite tonight. and then at 6 tomorrow morning, i get to drive 200 miles into minneapolis to pick my daughter up at the airport...oh, for joy!

__________________
someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

KentWhitten

A few years ago in Biddeford Pool, Maine, I went to go check on the kerosene heater on our job to make sure it had enough to go through the night. Biddeford Pool is on the coast and if you've ever been fortunate to be in a blizzard on the coast of Maine, you realize there's potential for huge drifting in some sections and bare roads in others.

I could barely see, it wasn't too bad for snow, then I noticed I was heading towards a rather large snowdrift in the middle of the road. Maybe 8' high. I dropped the plow and gunned it not thinking about the fact that maybe the depth of the drift was long enough, I just might get buried in it. I had whiteout for a few feet to say the least. Snow really came over the top of the blade. Luckily, I made it through.

Imagine a plow truck coming along while I'm buried in there. He would have gunned it also and I would have been creamed

__________________
If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place ~Lao Tzu

Custom Cabinetry - Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough, Kennebunkport, Yarmouth, Falmouth, Cumberland, Ogunquit, Maine

Salmon Falls Cabinetry

dayexco

to hijack the thread, bought the wife her christmas present yesterday....an 07 with 18,000 miles on it. picture doesn't do it justice, can't tell it from a new one.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

MACEXCAVATING

WOW. nice car. Like to buy wife cts, dts, or sls, sts

__________________
"The land of familiarity belongs to the dead."
"We're playing in the dirt BROTHER!"

www.macexcavating.com

MALCO.New.York

Pssssst...........DTS!

__________________
Something to One may be Nothing to another!

Ultimate Wisdom---------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW-cnizLDEE

tgeb

Well.......you started this.

Ok here is another, same townhouse development, blizzard type conditions (for here) we had 20 inches then within 2 days another 10 inches.

No place to pile the snow, we have been at it for literally days without sleep. close to being finished at like 3 am we clear this court and there is 1 parking space open and I fill it with snow as high as the backhoe will stack it without rolling it on the cars nearby.

This guy pulls up in a car and jumps out..."Hey that's my parking spot!! You can't do that!!"

My (no sleep for days) response..."I just did!"

We chatted with the guy and cleared out a space for him to park his car that night but convinced him that unless he could show me another place to put the darned snow it would stay where it was.

__________________
Tom

www.gebcon.com

dayexco

this "might" be a story tomorrow...on CNN of foxnews...we do the target store snow removal here. they are under a maintenance contract with a company called US maintenance out of pennsylvania...they must have birds there that sit and watch weather.com constantly...we've gotten i KNOW 8 calls from them wondering on the status of the parking lot...i've told them repeatedly, the lot is done, to please call the local mgr and verify it...if he calls me one more time, i'm flying to penn and probably commit a homocide.

__________________
someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

denick

Same storm in 77'. We could not keep up so we were told just to make a pass through the roads and keep them open. No pushing them back. Well people started shoveling their driveways out to the middle of the road. As we made more passes we would push what they shoveled back across their driveways. the second day some people starting putting things at the end of their shoveling so we wouldn't push it back. When the boss says push them back you push them back.

Well people start throwing things, like snow shovels at you. The third day this is getting old. We start taking the time to back up and cut out the driveway openings especially where you see older people and the ones who stopped us and offered food and drink or even gave a wave as we went buy.

The pains in the ... Well 3 am in the morning you take that big pile of snow they shoveled out into the street and is nice and crusted over and push it right up their driveway right up to the back of their cars...!!

__________________
Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

MACEXCAVATING

snow sux, plowing sux, COLD SUX.... I have been known to uh....well grab the ole sander lever when I have a tailgater I have blasted a dog or two with the snow from the plow as well.

__________________
"The land of familiarity belongs to the dead."
"We're playing in the dirt BROTHER!"

www.macexcavating.com

dougchips

You can join www.ireport.com yourself and report it. Since they are owned/part of CNN they will run it on CNN if they find it worthy. How many times has someone murdered someone and been the one to report it on CNN? Hopefully I didn't give you any ideas.

__________________
To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

MALCO.New.York

I grew up in a relatively small town in Suburbia New York and therefore sorta knew the plow-guy when I was young. So, of course we would "Bomb" him with Snowballs when he would drive by. That is how we got to know him.

One of these snow times, there was already a fairly large plow ridge on the side of the road we hid behind it. Apparently he saw us go there and he knew that we were going to "Stealth Bomb" him. So you know what the Bistard does. He lifts his blade as if he were done plowin'. We, being youngsters, said "Cool! MAJOR Bombing!!!" and proceeded to stand on the ridge, in plain sight to prepare for the ONSLAUGHT. AS he approaches we take aim, get set, and just as he upon us, he drops the blade and creams us with a wall of Flying Snow. Knocked us on our arses off the back of the ridge!!!! Some of the best Snow Fun I ever did have!

Ya have to remember, this was the early 1970's and that is how Life was conducted back in them-thar days. The "Tort Lawyers" and "Personal Injury Lawyers" did not even exist!


Wish I actually had a "Real Plow Story" to tell!!

__________________
Something to One may be Nothing to another!

Ultimate Wisdom---------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW-cnizLDEE

LNG24

I started shoveling snow when I was old enough to shovel. I eventually bough a tractor and then my first plow truck. I was 18 and clearing a parking lot I pushed a little too far off the bank. Buried the front wheels and could not get back up. Had to sit there two hours waiting to get pulled out.

Years later I was ending day one of a two day storm. Plowing a driveway, I got stuck at the top when I went off the blacktop. Only waited an hour there to get pulled out. Same night about three hours later I got hung up on a railroad tie edge on a driveway. I could not get the 1 tire back up and over it. I knew there was no way I was going to pay another 125 to get pulled out. By the time I was done, that RR Tie was a mess. After that day I got chains. Never got stuck again.

Funniest had to be when I was putting in a Sewer Line at a remote job site. We were on top of the mountain and conditions always sucked. Flurries down at the bottom would be a blizzard at top. Well one day we are mixing cement and the guys needed water. Since the water lines were shut down for the winter and the lake where we had been pulling the water from was frozen over, I drove the backhoe into the lake at a boat launch site. Filled the bucket with water and headed back to the guys. I had to do that a couple of times. The next day we arrive on site to find security at the boat launch. They are very concerned! I get out and ask what is wrong, expecting to catch hell for running into the lake. They were concerned that someone had driven their car into the lake overnight. They were waiting for a dive team to head out and search the bottom of the lake. I had to tell them that it was I who disturbed the ice and not a car or truck. They seemed relieved.

Williams Ex Co

I worked on the west coast for a county road crew.... Lots of mountainous terrain and switchback roads. We ran OshKoshs ' with dual wings and front plow.... Driver ran the front plow and DS wing. Passenger ran PS wing.... Driver would plow and passenger would bench. One day instead of doing it the normal way Brian decided to run in the opposing lane around one of the switchbacks, no traffic so it sounded like a good idea. He pushed out a little too far and the DS of 'sKosh dropped like a stone. We started a real slow roll towards the road below us in the switch.... Started to hear steel breaking and that was the V-Box full of sand tearing off the frame rails. We didnt roll completely over on top of the cab but it rolled far enough that it jammed the DS wing up against the cab and the PS wing slammed so hard against my side that it broke out the window. Glad I had my seatbelt on or I would have ended up in Brians lap..... We were stuck in the cab for a while but I finally got enough glass cleaned away to climb out my door window. It took 2 graders and another 'sKosh to get things righted.... Geez, 15-20 years ago that was fun. Now it just makes me cringe!
'

Safety4me

I could probably tell a few stories as I've operated plows for 25 years or so. MALCO your story reminds me of what happened to me one day when I was a kid (many, many moons ago) A few of us kids was building tunnels and caves in the snowbanks next to the road. We seen the plow coming up the road so we decided that it would be cool to get into our cave have the plow knock it in and bury us. Stupid I know..Anyway, along comes the plow winging back the snow and unfortunately he never seen us.
I remember the roar of the plow and the tip of the wing narrowly missing me as it cut through the bank. We all came out unscathed but shaken. We never did a stupid trick like that again.

MALCO.New.York

Oh!!!!! The stupidity of youth!!! We are VERY LUCKY to be alive!!!!

__________________
Something to One may be Nothing to another!

Ultimate Wisdom---------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW-cnizLDEE