Plowing with 2WD one ton duallys?

[Krafty]

I just finished plowing with a one ton doge dually. I had about 4000 lbs of salt on the back and never once in two in a half days did I put the truck in 4x4.

[gene gls]

Originally Posted by lawn king

You can plow with a 2wd dually if you run real good rubber, lots of weight in the body and plow smart. I have been plowing with my isuzu npr (9 foot blade) for 8 years.

I have been plowing with my Mitsi for 9 years. I am limmited to some areas as compared to 4x4.

[lawn king]

I set up my cabover with a 9' snoway because of the downpressure option. If im in a situation that i forsee traction issues, such as plowing a steepe downgrade and having to back out, i engage the DP on my way down to insure good rear traction to get out.

[Gravel Rat]

You guys snow is drier than what is seen here on the West Coast. The snow here isn't dry and fluffy it can get very wet and heavy. If I say drive my F-450 over some fresh snow where the tires rolled over its compacted ice.

I litterally have to take a steel bar to chip it off the driveway that is one pass of the tires.

I have had 3000lbs of weight directly over the drive tires they spin like there is no weight on the truck. Tires spin turn the snow into ice and I'am stuck.

My truck has a locker so both side spin I have reved my 6.0 PSD to 3500 rpm and went no where. To get any traction here we need to use V bar chains even regular twist link chains can't get enough traction.

If I had chains on all 4 drive tires and the steer tires it would be good. Lots of times you steer and your not going the direction you want to go

The last heavy snow fall the highways dept needed a Cat 14G grader chained up and steel bladed the road to clear the snow. A regular single axle 5 ton plow trucks couldn't do it. The hills are too steep even with 6 ton of salt and chains on the tires there wasn't enough traction.

No snow is good for us that white crap is a pain in the azz nobody want to deal with it.

[supercuts]

Originally Posted by Swampy

So then don't do residentials, there is very limited money in plowing houses. My comment was more gear towards plowing commerical lots. Why would you plow roads? Don't you have DPW's up there in Canada?

there is? i hear this so much. i have friends who keeps telling me to get out of them and take on commercial accounts. we go over figures, i plow for less then half the time, sometimes as little as a 1/4 of what they plow and i gross more. we both use 2 trucks. he sands, i dont. i dont have the sand/salt expense, sander expense, or sander repair expense, nor do i need to reload the thing during a storm. i also dont have to worry about covering the sander.

the only place he beats me is after the snow melts and refreezes he gets to go and sand. im not saying i havent concidered a sander, but what is wrong with driveways? how much do you make a snowstorm doing your commercial accounts?

[MLI]

I have a mix of resi. and commercial. We do better on small commercial lots, and yes we sand. I have a friend that has 110 resi drives, and I have a mix of about 40. We make the same money,but he has like 10 guys going,while I have 3. Sand/salt mix is so cheap compared to what you make. When I sand my lots, im using about 1/2 yard of sand($30), and do 6 small lots with a Fisher Pro Flow 2 tailgater. I probably make 5k more than the friend each yr. because of this. With that $30 of sand I do about $600 worth of work in about 2 hrs. I did the large sander in the back of the truck, and yes its a pain with loading machine each season, then leaving outside all summer to rust. This little sander unit(although I have to load by hand) is just what we needed. Off the truck in minutes, electric motor,easy to clean!

[MikeKle]

I would say as long as you have enough residentials to plow, you should be OK, I would prefer doing houses over commercial places, quicker and get paid right there usually. Plus most people would rather their houses be plowed before any businesses are touched!

[gene gls]

Originally Posted by supercuts

there is? i hear this so much. i have friends who keeps telling me to get out of them and take on commercial accounts. we go over figures, i plow for less then half the time, sometimes as little as a 1/4 of what they plow and i gross more. we both use 2 trucks. he sands, i dont. i dont have the sand/salt expense, sander expense, or sander repair expense, nor do i need to reload the thing during a storm. i also dont have to worry about covering the sander.

the only place he beats me is after the snow melts and refreezes he gets to go and sand. im not saying i havent concidered a sander, but what is wrong with driveways? how much do you make a snowstorm doing your commercial accounts?

Doing residential accounts are fine. They are less demanding, most are push and go, some need shoveling. Anyone doing commerical accounts should have a 0-1" tollarance depending on foot traffic. Also, anyone doing commericals should have thier own sander for better control of slip and fall conditions. As a rule, commerical accounts are more profitable because of foot trafic and the need to maintain safe conditions.There are a lot of business owners that are willing to take the risk of slip and falls verses the cost for safty. I do not take any commerical work that wants a sloppy job for a cheaper price. The end conditions will reflect back on your business by everyone seeing your trucks at the location. Word of mouth is the best advertising so take the time to make sure its good advertising.

[rcslawncare]

If there is weight over the drive wheels, you will have no problem. Just make sure you run the right size plow, as mentioned before!

[Swampy]

Originally Posted by supercuts

there is? i hear this so much. i have friends who keeps telling me to get out of them and take on commercial accounts. we go over figures, i plow for less then half the time, sometimes as little as a 1/4 of what they plow and i gross more. we both use 2 trucks. he sands, i dont. i dont have the sand/salt expense, sander expense, or sander repair expense, nor do i need to reload the thing during a storm. i also dont have to worry about covering the sander.

the only place he beats me is after the snow melts and refreezes he gets to go and sand. im not saying i havent concidered a sander, but what is wrong with driveways? how much do you make a snowstorm doing your commercial accounts?

Like gene gls said. Commericals usually avoid the "slip and fall" in a sue happy world. If you could stack Residentials up next each other I could see a profit but if your running hell over high water between them, that is not going to happen. I think I lucked out this year, I plow a Urgent Care medical building they have to have the lot plowed and salted (not sanded) at a 1/2in, something with there insurance.