Plowing With A Lifted Truck?

kurt1993 · November 10, 2010

Can you plow with a lifted truck? if so what would be the highest amount of lift you could have before you wouldnt be able to plow anymore?

jro909 · November 11, 2010

its possible, healthy for the truck? probably not..the truck is already being strained enough with the angles and such being warped out of the specs they were designed for. By adding a plow your putting even more strain on the parts...just my 2 cents, free of charge

yukon25008.1 · November 11, 2010

i had an 05 sierra hd ext cab long bed, with the keys adjusted slightly and a 3" body lift, and the western i had up front worked perfectly

KMGZ400 · November 11, 2010

i think you would be safe with a body lift but things would start getting weird with a big susp. lift

700 sportsman · November 11, 2010

I would probably stay away from a suspension lift, for wear and tear issues being even more stressed than a regular plow truck. But I wouldn't be afraid to call the lift manufacturer and talk with them and see what they have to say. But IMO you'd be safe with a body lift, and one that is well done (relocate brackets, gap guards, etc.) would be just as good as an equal size suspension lift in MOST cases.

kurt1993 · November 11, 2010

wow good answer thank you

Kodiak450 · November 12, 2010

Snow plows are limited in travel and you need the down force to push and scrap up the snow. Perhaps if the plow carton was fabbed to sit lower say at stock height, it would work. But then you would run into problems of it being fabbed to sit lower and not have advantage of carton mounted on frame for full strength. I think it would also look kinda weird seeing a lifted truck with a fabbed plow carton sitting lower, also would make the lifted truck useless for clearence issues when off roading.

kurt1993 · November 12, 2010

Snow plows are limited in travel and you need the down force to push and scrap up the snow. Perhaps if the plow carton was fabbed to sit lower say at stock height, it would work. But then you would run into problems of it being fabbed to sit lower and not have advantage of carton mounted on frame for full strength. I think it would also look kinda weird seeing a lifted truck with a fabbed plow carton sitting lower, also would make the lifted truck useless for clearence issues when off roading.

well to be honest it would be the same as having an axle wich all trucks have... thats like saying lifted trucks are useless in general, but now that isnt true. so i dont think somthing fabbed to sit lower would be anything diffrent than having another axle dragging in the mud/snow and most people dont even lift their trucks for off roading, most of them just like the look

Kodiak450 · November 12, 2010

There's two kinds of lifts that I know of that people use on their trucks, a body lift which raises the body from the frame, thus some lines or wires to shorten in length due to the body being lifted. Then there is a full lift which lifts from axels, which raises the frame upwards where carton mount gets mounted. I've never ever seen a lifted truck that has a plow on it, I've seen body lifts on a Dodge truck with a plow though. I would imagine if you modified the ram lift on the pump, used a bigger chain that supports the blade it might perform normally. But you would have to have the ram lift specifically made, cause far as I know they all are available in one size.

When plowing, you need the blade to have full contact with the ground and also have the room for it to travel over obstacles. It's sort of like when attempting to plow down an incline as your rear end is on level ground, and the front is now on incline. Sometimes depending on incline, the blade does not come into full contact with the ground. The blade can also aid in slowing you down in case of a slide. I've plowed some real dangerous steep driveways, one in particular is an account I currently have had for the last 5 years. It is so dangerous that at just before the top where it levels off, you can be on ice and the truck will slide backwards down the driveway. I always depend on the blade as it is down when going backwards and am giving the truck alot of gas in 4wd to stop the backwards momentum in case I start sliding. It's hard to sit here and describe the change of steepness in the grade, but if I'm parked on the steepest part of the hill, getting into my truck feels like it increased by 4'.

If i ever come across a lifted truck with a plow on it, I'll be sure to tell you about it. And hopefully have the time to take a good look at it.

kurt1993 · November 13, 2010

There's two kinds of lifts that I know of that people use on their trucks, a body lift which raises the body from the frame, thus some lines or wires to shorten in length due to the body being lifted. Then there is a full lift which lifts from axels, which raises the frame upwards where carton mount gets mounted. I've never ever seen a lifted truck that has a plow on it, I've seen body lifts on a Dodge truck with a plow though. I would imagine if you modified the ram lift on the pump, used a bigger chain that supports the blade it might perform normally. But you would have to have the ram lift specifically made, cause far as I know they all are available in one size.

When plowing, you need the blade to have full contact with the ground and also have the room for it to travel over obstacles. It's sort of like when attempting to plow down an incline as your rear end is on level ground, and the front is now on incline. Sometimes depending on incline, the blade does not come into full contact with the ground. The blade can also aid in slowing you down in case of a slide. I've plowed some real dangerous steep driveways, one in particular is an account I currently have had for the last 5 years. It is so dangerous that at just before the top where it levels off, you can be on ice and the truck will slide backwards down the driveway. I always depend on the blade as it is down when going backwards and am giving the truck alot of gas in 4wd to stop the backwards momentum in case I start sliding. It's hard to sit here and describe the change of steepness in the grade, but if I'm parked on the steepest part of the hill, getting into my truck feels like it increased by 4'.

If i ever come across a lifted truck with a plow on it, I'll be sure to tell you about it. And hopefully have the time to take a good look at it.

great! thanks, maybe ill look into a simpler body lift just to fit some larger tires... also would a leveling kit for instance new rough country keys or maybe cranked torsion bars fall under the body lift category or would it give me problems like a suspension lift? kno what i mean?

thanks!

-Kurt

kurt1993 · November 15, 2010

so would a leveling kit of up to 3" with a 285 tire be a problem?

Kodiak450 · November 25, 2010

so would a leveling kit of up to 3" with a 285 tire be a problem?

Leveling kit is no a body lift, right? You know you can crank torsion bars to make your truck more level. I've seen 285 tires on my gen truck, and though they look beefy, the truck really didn't look unlevel to me.

butzers09silverado · December 28, 2010

you can always add more chain to get the plow to hit the ground, plus, from an engineering perspective, a plow sitting at a higher initial height will have a more acute angle against the pavement and it should work far superior to any plow mounted at the normal height. the biggest issue I'd think you'd have would be the damage the plow will cause when the blade hangs up on something. The plow is going to have a lot more down force at 70 degrees compared to the same plow on a non lifted truck attached at 90 degrees.

Think about a loader, they love to back drag with the bucket or skid steer bucket at crazy angles as it has superior down force plus the angle advantage a plow can never achieve. If you mount the plow high, you'll get an angle and force advantage and the plow with be far less likely to ride up.

I could be all wrong, but from an engineering point of view it seems logical.

edit: a lot of people i knew in western new york intentionally put plows on lifted trucks for those advantages... when you hit the drift with a lifted truck and that plow, it would just destroy the drift and not ride up on the drift. guys had a lot of trouble with the plows riding up on banks so they'd do some interesting things to get better angles and more down force

Edited December 28, 2010 by butzers09silverado

Kodiak450 · December 28, 2010

I would love to see snow plows with powerful hydraulics so that you could lift the truck up like a loader can.

butzers09silverado · December 28, 2010

I would love to see snow plows with powerful hydraulics so that you could lift the truck up like a loader can.

i put up a topic about a drag plow/pull behind plow and the company people posted showed a video of this truck with the hydraulics actually lifting the back of the truck, it was impressive, some kind of back dragger plow it's right on this page i think....

it does work though.