# Homemade Comanche plow mount.



## cocco78

I'm in the process of building a plow mount for my Comanche truck and thought I'd post some pics of my build here. If anyone has any pics of mounts on Cherokee's or Comanche's please post them, I could use some inspiration. Anyway, i'm also making a winch bumper that will be separate from the plow mount. The plow hoop will bolt to the winch plate, i'll have to remove the winch in the fall and bolt the hoop in its place.

Fell free to give me some feedback, good or bad. BTW, i'm using a meyer 6'6" plow for personal use only. I'm just copying and pasting from another website I frequent...

Its a start. The whole hoop for the plow will bolt to the winch plate with 6 bolts. So in the fall the winch comes off and the plow mount can be bolted on. In the spring everything will come off with no trace of the plow stuff. And yeah the plow light mounts are a bit high!!


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## cocco78

So here are the side plates for the plow mount, these are separate from the bumper and its mounts, again so it can all be unbolted. I'm out of metal now tho so i'll have to wait til monday to get more.

this pic everything is sitting on the floor upside down.









here is is right side up.









here is one of the brackets that the plow carriage will mount to with some reciever pins, 3/8" thick. i'm going to weld these to a 2x2 square tube across the bottom. Then put in some triangulation to resist lateral forces.


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## cocco78

2x4 rec tube for the crossmember that the plow a-frame will attach to. 1.5" square tube for my triangulation. Do you think that is enough or do I need to add more to it?



















And of the obligatory weld pics...


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## cocco78

Never fails, soon as I get motivated to be out in the cold and I start laying some beads down.... Out of fawking wire for the hobart :x Its to late to bother going to depot to get any.

But I did try and test fit the mount to the Jeep. One big problem, I can't lift it and man handle it into position and hold it and so on. Balancing it on the floor jack was just as bad. All this led me to my next invention!!!










And just put Rod "A" in Slot "B".... Its a snug fit just the way I like it...










Its pretty much you basic geometric dimensioning and tolerance fixed pin scenario... I nailed the virtual condition of the pin, taking in account the perpendicularity and form tolerances, to the diameter of the hole on the floor jack, and so on. Its pretty standard stuff really 

Oh, and I started welding the tabs on the tube for the plow carriage mounts. I'm a little worried about crushing the tube right there so i'm going to add some plates on the top and bottom to spread out the load more on the rec tube...


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## ppandr

Nice and heavy ! Lets hope you can keep her runnin...wesport


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## Plowlikehell

WoW!! Very nice and heavy design  I did the same thing a couple years ago using a YJ mount. Just make sure the A frame lays flat when plowing or you will have problems with trying to move snow. Check the meyers website for the proper height. Here is some pics of mine.


























I used this setup to plow my families homes, but was also borrowed out as a back up truck. Just make sure you support the lower bar as far back on the frame as you can.


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## starc

Looks great, nice fabrication


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## 04sd

Cocco, looks good, nice work. 
PLH, it looks like your plow is sticking out the front pretty far?


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## cocco78

Plowlikehell;686428 said:


> WoW!! Very nice and heavy design  I did the same thing a couple years ago using a YJ mount. Just make sure the A frame lays flat when plowing or you will have problems with trying to move snow. Check the meyers website for the proper height.


This is pretty much where i'm at as far as the A-frame is, its about 1" higher in the rear then where it attaches to the plow blade. Not sure how it'll all work out tho, these older blades seemes like they are leaned back alot more than the newer ones.










Man its getting late in the year to be doing this! Its been snowing like crazy, my driveway is 4wd only lately!


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## cocco78

Got the girlfriend out there working on her bumper, cutting and welding...



















And her first welds, needs a little practice but pretty good for her first time.










Didn't get **** done tonight, too cold and I have to go to bed early tonight. I did finish up a little work of jaemes on the bumper, grinding down her nice welds and whatnot...

I started working on getting that old rusty meyers hoop to bolt down on the winch plate. I was trying to get the damn thing centered on there and couldn't :?: So I started measuring the hoop itself and its ******* crooked and the center tabs where the pump and lift arm mount are offset nearly 2".... So its officially scrap now. After all the work i've done so far there is no way i'm going to use a rusty, crooked, off-center, pile of booger welds :!: I'm going to fab up my own hoop, not sure yet on the way it'll turn out tho...

Well here is the bumper anyway.


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## Plowlikehell

Here is the blurb I got from the meyers site

On the E-Z Mount or Custom Mount the clevis height with a TM series plow will be 9-1/2" and with an ST or a C series plow it will be 10-1/2". The clevis height is measured from the ground to the center of the pin that connects the plow to the vehicle. On the MDII the measurement will be 11-1/4". This measurement is from the ground to the center of rear hole on clevis where the rear blue pin slides through. Note: These measurements are taken when the plow is on the ground or off the vehicle.

I added v8 Springs after I was done with my install. That raised me 2 inches and plowing became difficult. Everytime I dropped the plow and started pushing snow it would lift the frontend. Then when you tried to pile snow, it would just dig in. I had to raise the plow and then it would pile the snow.


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## 04sd

cocco78;686984 said:


> these older blades seem like they are leaned back alot more than the newer ones.
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> The blade shouldn't be angled back that hard. Check the pivot pins for wear and the area where the moldboard makes contact with the sector. You can probably weld in a 1/4" spacer to keep the moldboard from leaning back so far. Years of tripping and then flying back have probably worn or bent something there. From my experience with older Meyer plows you should probably plan on adding a third spring also or maybe putting two new springs on.
> 
> BTW, I think she needs a shorter workbench


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## cocco78

Thanks for the tip 04SD I will look at that. I didn't think much of the angle of blade as I seen a few other older ones like this. I'll look at that and see what I can do there. The mold board looks ok, I can see 2 outward dents on the face right about where it mounts to the pivot pins. I see some plows have a shock as well as springs, think that would be a good idea? 2 new springs and shock in the middle?

More and more I keep thinking a used plow on my GMC might have been less hassle, but plows just seem to wreck these newer ifs trucks especially GM's and I need mine to last a few more years!


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## 04sd

I never put a shock on any of mine but my brother did on his ST 7.5. Keeps it from slamming back. He's plowing his 1/4 mile stone/gravel driveway though so I'm sure he's tripping it a little more often than me


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## cocco78

So from the looks of some pictures I've found, when looking at the moldboard from the side lets say its "C" shaped. the top of the "C" should be a little forward of the bottom? I looked at my A frame and moldboard and I see where I should be able to just add a little metal and re-do the stop, for lack of better term. Right now my trip spring eye bolts are tightened all the way and both springs are loose, so I guess the blade is leaning way to far back. Luckily for me nothing looks broke.

Oh and we just got a foot of fluffy white powder today!


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## cocco78

well I started piecing together a new hoop out of some 2x2x1/4" angle iron I had. Other than that I laid some more weld on things I had tacked together, and shot some more paint on stuff.










Here is the old hoop, it doesn't look that bad in the pics but it looks like poo in real life...


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## festerw

Google Meyer plow repair and click on the first link there is plenty of good info there on refurbing the plows.


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## 04sd

cocco78;689539 said:


> the top of the "C" should be a little forward of the bottom?


I'm not sure of the official Meyer design spec, but in general I'd say the "C" should be straight up and down or maybe leaning slightly forward. This is with the A-frame level. Leaning forward a little makes the cutting edge less aggressive, might be useful if you plow gravel, and also makes the back drag a little more aggressive.


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## cocco78

Ok, I looked at my plow and the piviot pins all move freely and the main bolt that holds the A frame to the the other part of the plow looks good. But where the pivot pins are there are pieces of metal welded on that look a little bent and mushroomed. Looks like if I just add some metal there and adjust the springs I should be good to go! Everything else looks great, but I'm going to fix the welds a little bit where the angle rams mount.... I'll have some good pics up this weekend!


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## cocco78

Well the bumper isn't done yet but its getting there, the rest of it I wanted to finish it up while it was on the truck.. So basically this whole thing is 3 pieces, undercarrige, bumper, and hoop. We mounted it all up and all the bolt holes almost lined up! We got a ton of rain today and it wiped out alot of snow but forcast if for 6" of snow tonight. Tomorrow I mount the pump and start on the wiring. Oh and I have to make 2 braces on that hoop yet that goes forward just to sturdy that up, its mostly made of 1/4" 2x2 except for the bottom pieces that it gets bolted down by, thats all 3/8" 2x2


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## cocco78

Yeah hopefully I won't damage the frame if I hit anything. I'm going to lean the plow blade forward just a bit to make it a little less agressive going forward and to back blade a little better. So far it all looks good but I really need to add something on the hoop to support that upper angle iron and to keep it from twisting or leaning forward. It doesn't move with me jumping on the plow with the plow raised but I could see it happening. I don't have anything hooked up yet just testing to see it take the weight! Plus I had to move the plow from the back yard up to the front of the garage to work on the blade a bit. Those front coils are pretty damn stiff and take the weight pretty good, going to need a few pounds of ballast tho!


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## cocco78

got a little done today, to cold out for me to actually try to install it...


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## cocco78

Well I actually got my plow to work tonight for the first time! I made the whole wiring harness myself and hooked it all up and then nothing!! I double checked everything and was getting frustrated. The damn solenoid wasn't working. So I check the ground, it had power, connections all good... It was a brand new SAM replacement solenoid from NAPA. So I pulled an old rusty Jeep solenoid I had sitting in a box of parts, slapped in it, and away she went! UP, Down, Left, Right, all the right directions with the proper movment of the toggles! Yeah!!

But my problems... with the plow down the front of the Jeep comes up enough to make my A frame a little to high in the rear. But it seems to push ok, it hasn't snowed here in the last week so I didn't really have much to play with just some crusty icy stuff. It didn't seem to dig in much, and it tripped fairly easily... My springs are still a little loose though, got the adj bolts soaking in some stuff to free them up. I still need to fix my trip stops so the blade leans a little bit more forward, but overall i'm very happy.


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## 04sd

If the A frame isn't level the biggest problem will be when the plow is angled. With the frame high in the back and the plow angled the leading edge will wear real quick and the trailing side may not even be on the ground.


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## 89MJComanche

I'm interested in getting you to cut me a set of stock pieces to build a bracket like yours.

I'll pay well!!!


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## cocco78

I go to school full time and work full time, this leaves no time to do much else. I've actually had a few people talk to me about building stuff for them. But besides the time I work in a cramped non-heated garage so I don't do alot of work for people. I had kinda planned on cutting out some of the bumper brackets with all the holes in it for people that want a diy bumper, give them a good starting point for them to get creative with their own bumper.


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## cocco78

Well so much for not doing any commercial work! My company plow trucks (2000 Chevy 2500) transfer case cracked on me Friday. The case was corroded real bad and cracked between 2 bolts. So last night and today we got about a foot of fluffy snow.... So the Manche earned its keep tonight. This old Meyer angles more than the Boss i'm used to using, it ran down the 250' of parking lot nice and slow rolling the snow off to the side, almost no windrows! It's pretty slow compared to the boss for raising the blade so its a bit harder to stack. Oh I lowered the air pressure a bit in all the tires for a bit more bite and the A frame sits almost level, with the plow angled the blade sat just right. The parking lot is about 100' wide by 250' long with loading docks to back drag, and buildings on each side. It did a good job, nice and snow in 4LO, hitting the piles real easy. I'll get pics up on Monday but here is how its set up.


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## cocco78

Well here is a panoramic view of my work parking lot, took this will my cell phone and pasted them together. It was 8-10" of powder, you could see the snow rolling up off the blade. It was great, the little Jeep just putted around and cleaned up everything nice and it didn't take any longer than the 7'6" boss did. You can see my work truck in the pic, burgandy truck with red topper plowed in sitting there with an exploded t-case!!


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## 04sd

Looks good. You still need to weld up the stops when you get a chance, will probably plow even better.


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## cocco78

Update: Been a while since i've been on here. Well, the comanche survived last winter, the plow did good. But the summer was not kind to it, we wheeled it to hard apparently and the axles gave up on us!

On a positive note, the plow mount makes a great spot for jackstands. The old Manche is getting a Dana 60's front and rear... Hopefully I'll get it done before it snows!

Well, found some pretty good frame rot just on the pass side right in front of the spring hanger. I went to put the jackstand there and as I let the jack down the frame started crushing. So I chipped away at all the loos stuff and came out with this. It looks the same on the back side of the frame. The drivers side is fine though and I don't see much more rot anywhere. But its discouraging to see the complete lack of frame material. Lots of plating going on here.










But anyway, got the rear axle temp mocked in place to see how its going to sit. This thing is going to be low and wide.


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## cocco78

cut the bad metal out with the plasma, then made a patch panel out of 3/16" will make another small piece to tie the spring hanger to the patch panel since I wandered off my cut line and didn't get a straight cut :roll: I'm going to stitch weld the plate to the "frame", with Hobart set on 2 it leaves a nice weld and doesn't burn through. I plan to plate the bottom with 1/4" plate and ramp up the spring hanger to beef it up, its already bent from wheeling. The rest of the frame will get plated with 3/16" 3"x3" angle iron stitch and rosset welded.


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## cocco78

started building a new crossmember today but otherwise no real progress, just a fun pic...

38x15.50R16.5 Swamper radials on recentered H1 rims, 3.5" bs'ing









37x13.50r17 Toyo MT's on 17x8 H2 rims with 5.5" backspacing


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## cocco78




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## Dreggos

Nice job Cocco....I recently fabricated and installed a plow on my '98 Grand Cherokee...with air bag spring kit on the front end it handles it fine... you can see the fabrication album on my profile page if you care to...


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## ram_tough2001

that comanche is badass! you did an insanely good job on all the fab work. cant wait to see the turn out for this winter!


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## cocco78

Entire build thread here: http://upjeeping.informe.com/forum/build-threads-f11/project-manche-t2100-75.html


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## fire4755

*nice man*

How much did it cost for parts and the plow and what all did it take. I have a comanche and want to plow but cant find a plow or mount. Also does she plow good or would you sugguest not to


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## cocco78

The Comanche plows very good, it has also been the most fun plow truck I've owned. Meyer did make mounts for the Comanche and also the Cherokee and they are the same mount. As far as the cost goes, it depends how handy you are and what materials you have. I had about $500 into the whole thing when it was said and done. The only thing I can say though is plow slow, take it easy, don't get to aggressive to save the uni-body


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## magik235

Outstanding


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## cocco78

I had a nice long weekend of wrenching on the Manche... The front end is all together but the shocks are about 2" to short, the longest ones I had in my pile-o-shocks. Next on the list is to finish the crossmember skid plate, and tie all that in to the rock sliders. Then, figure out rear shock length axle mount. Then tons of little stuff, like figuring out why it won't start now, i'm thinking its just a bad solenoid, it starts right up with a screwdriver to the starter


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## cjshloman

Awesome....been missing this.....wondering what happened. sweet rig. I love it


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## cocco78

Yep, typical work in progress. I doubt I'll be doing much plowing with it anymore though, we'll see. I need to find a 7'6" blade or maybe make some wings for the blade I have. I might actually cut my 6'6" blade down to 6' and mount it up on my samurai.


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## JeepCoMJ

cocco78;1646413 said:


> Yep, typical work in progress. I doubt I'll be doing much plowing with it anymore though, we'll see. I need to find a 7'6" blade or maybe make some wings for the blade I have. I might actually cut my 6'6" blade down to 6' and mount it up on my samurai.


Cocco, if you ever make it down to Burlington, WI, I have a blade for you. face/a-frame and trip action all good. needs new markers and cutting edge.

I do not like having blades sit around....


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## djr623

This project is great! What is the latest? I am planning my next project to be a mild Comanche build(f+r d44, 33"s and some sort of v plow)


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