# Homemade plow mount pics ??



## dheavychevy38

Just like the title says I'm looking for options to mount a plow to my tj.. I already have the plow so that's why I'm not buying one. So let's see what you got.


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## TJS

Not sure I even understand your question. You have "a plow", what plow ? and don't want to buy a truckside mount. So you are saying just because you have the plow you don't need to buy a mount. Maybe I am mis understanding your question. Are you planning on making a truck side mount. What tools and skills do you have. By the time you make one you could have purchased one, however unless there was a mount never produced for your vehicle.


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## MLG

I've made a couple, here's what I can say from an advice perspective:

1) At the end of the day, if you can find a mount to fit your vehicle and plow, it'll be cheaper in the end when you factor in your time.
2) That said, it's a lot of fun making a mount, and you have a lot of options and creativity if you have the right tools and skills.
3) One truck-side mount I made which I mounted to an older Toyota 4x4 used an older Western conventional mount system, I created a push-bar or grill guard type of system mounted to the frame. The nice thing is, the plow pump could be removed and a winch installed during summer. That system looked very attractive and worked really well. It was also fairly lightweight. I intentially moved the plow A-frame mounts as far back as I could to reduce the weight strain of the plow on the front suspension.

4) On the Jeep Cherokee I use now, someone else fabricated that plow mount. They started with a Meyer conventional 'hoop' which is the specially bent heavy-duty metal that surrounds and holds the pump system and welded it onto a piece of channel iron the bolted on each side of the 'frame'. Having something pre-made to start with is a great way to save some engineering time to work out the geometry and helps give it a 'finished' look. What they did underneath for mounting the plow blade A-frame is an excellent example of ugly-but-works craftsmanship and git-er-dun attitude. What they did was take a bunch of 3" W x 6" L (7/16" thick) steel pieces ....and clamp them (overlaped) from the channel iron downward to a heavy angle iron piece where the A-frame mounts. Once they had everything where they wanted it, they welded all the pieces together. The top part looks like this:

It's plowed a lot of snow over the years and hasn't cracked or broke.

3) If I had a conventional mount system and were going to make a new plow mount now, what I would shoot for is try to adapt something like the older Meyer plow set-up where they had a heavy metal 'hoop' which held the pump, and the tubes mounted into 'receivers' which were mounted to the vehicle. Basically it is a conventional mount system with a removable pump-side assembly when you don't need the plow. I think this would be easy to make. It also depends on if you drive the vehicle year round and how/where you drive it. Here are pictures of the Meyer system in general:
http://www.2040-parts.com/_content/items/images/7/236007/001.jpg
http://smithbrothersservices.com/meyer-plows/meyer-ez-classic.JPG
I also like my grill-guard plow mount assembly too because it looks great. But if you already have something, I would try to adapt what you have first as a way of cutting down your re-engineering time. Also consider the weight of your plow blade, the type of plowing you plan to do and so on. For example, I always felt the 7 1/2' Meyer plow I had was too heavy for my cherokee. It took too much weight off the back wheels and I could tell was tough on the front end. This past summer I bought a much lighter 6 1/2" SUV-type plow which I think will work a lot better, and I have adapted that to work. Even that took a lot longer than I wanted ...and I never got around to sand blasting and repainting it this fall like I hoped to.

4) You will always be ahead if you can find something to buy for your plow mount. It takes at least 3x more time that you think it will by making your own system. But it can be a fun project too.

Toyota Plow Mount:


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## dheavychevy38

I have plenty of tools and material and the skills.. In fact im mounting a old central hydralics system on it because its a fun little project. I guess what i want to see is where most people put the actual mount brakets so instead of wasteing time to find out what doesnt work i could modify others designs.


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## dheavychevy38

Yes the truck side base or bottom bracket where the actual plow hooks on to. Don't mean to come off as rude but if i wanted an opinion on what to buy i would have asked that. Isnt half the fun this stuff doing diy projects and feeling more accomplished at the end of the day ??


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## MLG

What I've always done is start by finding the centerline of the vehicle and marking it off with tape. Then, position the pump/lift assembly up in front of the grille in the orientation and proximity where you want it. Some people might want it out an inch or two for servicing the front of the vehicle, but I personally like to keep my pumps fairly close to the grille, like an inch away, because the further away from the vehicle you go, the more it multiplies the weight of the plow blade. 

From there, you can easily orient the blade. On Western, Meyer and similar plow systems with the pump in front, the tip of the arm where the chain hangs will help determine where the blade goes. I generally try to have the chain close to vertical when the ram is 1/2 way up. But you can be somewhat flexible a couple inches either way. Hang a plumb off the tip of the lifting arm. Slide your plow blade and A-frame under the vehicle and try to get the arms mostly horizontal and the chain is vertical like you want it. Pay attention to the front of your blade. Most plows seem to have about a 70 degree attack angle but you can be more aggressive and go with less, like 65 or so... which I usually do. If the moldboard is too close to 90 degrees, then you're not going to get the 'rolling' effect that you want with a plow ....snow will just pile up in front and that's no good. The final thing to check is to ensure that there will be sufficient clearance between the plow and corner of the bumper at full angle. There you want to leave at least 8-10" anticipating some flex when pushing. 

So, once you have all that laid out, wherever the back of the A-arms are located is pretty much where you mount the bottom angle-iron piece where the A-arms connect to. That piece can be 3/8" angle iron (2"). Don't mount it too tall and angle your plow arms too steep because then you start getting downward pressure on the plow as you plow, and what'll happen is that downward pressure will cause a 'wedge' effect when you hit things like icy or frozen snow and will cause the blade to 'catch' and trip forward more than normal, and that's annoying because you have to stop plowing and backup and the shock of the blade whipping back can't be good for anything. The fabricator who made my Jeep's plow mount mounted the blade arms too high, and while the clearance was good, the premature blade tripping was a problem. I added another spring which helped but didn't solve the problem. I eventually cut the bottom mount off the vehicle and lowered them so the A-frame arms were closer to horizontal, and that resolved things. 

Once you have the locations set you can start welding things up. When you get all this done, the last thing to do is fab up supports which connect the lower A-frame mounting piece to an area further back on the frame to distribute the forces. Some plows have arms which go under the axle and connect to the frame under the cab. That was old-school 70's stuff. I've just made pieces which connect to the vehicle frame to the area about directly above the front axle. You have to see what's convenient with your vehicle. 

It'll be interesting how others describe their fabricating strategy. There's probably better ways of doing things, but I hope this helps.


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## adksnowo

dheavychevy38;2055694 said:


> I have plenty of tools and material and the skills.. In fact im mounting a old central hydralics system on it because its a fun little project. I guess what i want to see is where most people put the actual mount brakets so instead of wasteing time to find out what doesnt work i could modify others designs.


Your going to install central hydraulics in a TJ? And fabbing truck side mounts? Are you planning on plowing this year, b/c this is a pretty monumental undertaking.

Almost everyone uses commercially available hardware so I don't think you are going to get too much information from anyone on homemade mounting (or amateur engineered hydraulics). I guess the best option is to look at commercially available mounts, especially considering the safety factor on a late model vehicle.

The plow manufactures spend have automotive engineers & attorneys (as well as product liability insurance) and spend major $$$ on R&D for each vehicle mount they manufacturer.

Are you prepared to run control cables etc. through the firewall for a central hydraulic system, is there even room under the hood for this?

You really need a holistic plan for everything including additional vehicle modifications to accommodate your plow system before delving into this. It isn't the 70's any more and you're not working on a square-body GM.

I'm not trying to discourage you. I have built several trailers, truck bodies/bumpers/hoists and restored several vehicles. In the case of crap made of steel/aluminum I cannot even purchase the steel or aluminum for projects for less than what cheap trailers/bodies cost. In the case of vehicles I would be money & time ahead just purchasing somebody's completed project.

Good luck though. I understand where you are coming from; the satisfaction derived from the design/engineer/build/skills standpoint. Post some pics or it never happened!


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## dheavychevy38

Most of the compontents came with a plow i purcahsed and have already bench tested to verify it works.. The cables through the firwall do not scare me. I have taken a old a/c compressor i had apart and machined down the shaft. This gives me a clutch to use so the pump isnt spinning all the time only when i want.


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## TJS

dheavychevy38;2059617 said:


> Most of the compontents came with a plow i purcahsed and have already bench tested to verify it works.. The cables through the firwall do not scare me. I have taken a old a/c compressor i had apart and machined down the shaft. This gives me a clutch to use so the pump isnt spinning all the time only when i want.


Care to share a pic of that and what a/c compressor you used. Are you incorporating into your serpentine set up. I have an underhood muncie pump v belt clutch pump and want to make it serpintine. It is an older one and the newer serp clutch pump pulley will not fit my application and I also thought about an a/c compressor clutch and pulley. I also have an old fisher electronic valve block that uses the solenoid valves still used today in the insta-act pumps. I will be doing this for next year though.


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## dheavychevy38

Yes it will be a serpentine setup. The ac pump and clutch I used was a 03 Chevy 6.0 only cause I had it sitten there other wise I would have bought the one for my vehicle cause then u just use the two front holes to bolt it down and you know your alignment is good.. As soon as I figure out how to post a pic off my phone I would be glad to..


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## TJS

dheavychevy38;2060978 said:


> Yes it will be a serpentine setup. The ac pump and clutch I used was a 03 Chevy 6.0 only cause I had it sitten there other wise I would have bought the one for my vehicle cause then u just use the two front holes to bolt it down and you know your alignment is good.. As soon as I figure out how to post a pic off my phone I would be glad to..


What hydraulic pump are you using to adapt the a/c clutch set up too. My muncie pump has a tapered shaft with a keyway. Surplus center dot com is supposed to have weld in adapters to accept tapered shafts with keyway broached already. Surplus center states they are coming soon.


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## dheavychevy38

The pump is the original that came with the setup from the 50's I had it rebuilt.. The shaft is just a straight shaft with a flat spot so I had the ac shaft machines the same and made a couple out of heavy wall tube. Drilled and tapped some set screws for it.


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## quietwyatt

I made the monumental mistake of buying a curtis sno pro 3000. I cant find a mount so I will be fabbing one as well. DONT BUY CURTIS. THEY HAVE A MOUNT BUT REFUSE TO SELL IT TO ME BECAUSE IM NOT A DEALER. Dealer wont drop ship it. I live near St louis and no dealer within 500 miles. Sno Pro 3000 is totally worthless.


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## Hubjeep

As MLG suggested, look for a mount for your vehicle first. If you want to fab one, I suggest buying a used mount for whatever plow you have on Craigslist or something (inexpensive) and modifying it to fit your Jeep. Making your own lets you mount it at whatever height you choose.

Here is the TJ mount I modded to fit my XJ (there is no Suburbanite mount available for the XJ).

www.plowsite.com/showthread.php?t=87357


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## MLG

Hubjeep, that looks like a nice setup! Nice and light too. Good work.


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