# So my wife thinks I'm nuts . . .



## catmandu (Nov 11, 2010)

Because I brought this home today to plow the driveway:









Am I so wrong? 

Well, okay. Full disclosure:

1984 International s1700, reportedly an ex-New York Thruway truck that came to Maryland and worked for a builder for a while. Then bought a year ago by a guy who never used the plow but hauled the dirt from a pond he dug out back to his front yard, along with some stone and such for the driveway. Put less than 1,000 miles on it in the last year, according to Carfax.

So I was cruising Craigslist last weekend, saw an ad, went and looked at it, and decided what the hell. Only about $1000 at risk given the scrap value of all that metal. So now I own a 'Historic Vehicle' of a different color (which allows me to bypass all the inspection crap here in MD). The plan is to use the dump bed around my 5 acre property spreading some fill dirt, plow my 300 ft. of drive this winter, and also plow two acres up at our church, since we were always walking that fine line with what we could afford versus what we should do last winter (and I was the guy in charge of talking to the plow guy, so it was no fun). I have about 8 hours of plowing experience from last year with my Uncle's GMC hd2500 and an 8 ft blade, so I think there is some sticky reading and thread searching in my future.

Anyway, glad to find a good support forum here on the lnterwebs, since that is how I have successfully kept all my other vehicles affordable, and running. The truck made the 60 mile drive home today, which is good, although at times I could only make 35 mph, which is not so good (and the 11 foot blade scared the bejeezus out of more than one person on a couple of backroads!). Luckily, my Uncle has a Hot Rod shop, and used to own a smaller International with the same engine, so we are making a list of things to do to get ready for the winter. As for the plow, it moves properly in all directions, but has a check valve issue, and some sort of alignment issue where it gets jammed full right, which I will probably post on later for guidance. But first, I tried to read the info on the bottom back of the thing, but too much rust and repaint for my old eyes. Can someone ID this plow by sight, so I can Google for some information in my repair efforts?:









Thanks in advance!


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## Pinky Demon (Jan 6, 2010)

Seriously?


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## gusdust (Jan 6, 2008)

That plow might be a Flink, I tink. Maybe a Henderson. Thats quite the driveway ornament. I'm going to show this to my wife the next time some new piece of iron shows up here. But all kidding aside good luck with it and have fun.


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## creativedesigns (Sep 24, 2007)

sandblast, paint & powdercoat!


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## catmandu (Nov 11, 2010)

Oh very serious, Pinky! All in, as the kids say.

And I have a POS blaster and can paint, but the oven we pulled out of the kitchen that we use for powdercoating is just a tad small for this application.


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## Pinky Demon (Jan 6, 2010)

You're ambitious, I'll give you that.


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## ajslands (Sep 3, 2009)

scrap the plow and put a Boss on it  or a wideout


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## Snowzilla (Oct 24, 2009)

Looks impressive. But I wouldn't be comfortable using that on a nice driveway given the weight of that blade.


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## the new boss 92 (Nov 29, 2008)

i think i found some one like me, that would be something i would by to plow my driveway if i had the money!


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## plowatnight (Mar 10, 2010)

Make sure you keep the bed loaded when the snow hits or you wont get much plowing done


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## catmandu (Nov 11, 2010)

My driveway is not so nice right now, main concern will be how deep to plow to mimimize rocks in the grass in the springtime (although with a newfound dump bed, I am starting to find out who has millings I can turn into a hard surface). The church asphalt needs a sealcoat, I figure I'll beat it up some this winter first.

Definitely plan on loading the dump bed. Might even try to scrounge a set of chains just in case this winter is like last (that were the two things I noticed our plow guy did not clue in on too quickly last year).


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## NorthernSvc's (Mar 12, 2006)

i just find it funny that there is a carfax for it... Good luck!


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## WIPensFan (Jan 31, 2009)

I think you're NUTS too!! Good luck.


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## rocklizrd (Nov 5, 2010)

Cat, did you find that in De? Where on the shore are you?


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## mercer_me (Sep 13, 2008)

How big is your driveway?


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## pohouse (Jan 26, 2009)

I wouldn't call you crazy, but you have some work to do with it. When I bought my dump, people thought I was crazy too, and I'll admit, it looked rough. But over time it has become a reliable snow pusher. 
As for the plow binding, check the frame for bends and binds. Municipal plows are very, very heavy and require a lot of grease at the pivot points, especially the main A frame pin. Usually, they have taken a lot of abuse. Also, make sure your hoses are routed so that they will not get pinched when you angle the plow. (been there done that) The left return spring bracket/arm appears to be at a different angle than the right one. Possibly bent or different size return spring. If the plow is at center and you angle left (the non binding way) and are able to return to center without binding, most likely your control valve on the truck is fine. First rule out mechanical binding, grease it up then check the angle cylinders, including the mounts. 

As for the make and model, not sure, but in my limited experience with muni plows, the original manufacturer may be able to supply a replacement cutting edge, but your on your own for the other stuff. Its all been discontinued. I would recommend lots of weight and chains. Don't push snow downhill into a pile. When you lift that plow, its 2k pounds of dead weight on the front, reducing weight on the rear axle. 
And finally, be careful with that thing.
Have fun.


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## doubleedge (Aug 6, 2008)

Maybe you could put some caster wheels on it to prevent it from causing damage to the asphalt or scraping up gravel.


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## catmandu (Nov 11, 2010)

rocklizrd;1114813 said:


> Cat, did you find that in De? Where on the shore are you?


Nope, it was already titled in MD as a private 'historic vehicle' which is why I took the plunge. No problems for me getting a title transfer at the Easton MVA, unlike the last owner who did the initial title (whole lot of head scratchin' and puzzlement over whether a dump truck could in fact be historic, but he got them to do it).



mercer_me;1114874 said:


> How big is your driveway?


Right at 12 ft. from raised edge to raised edge (sits up away from the lawn for drainage). Flat, and straight until the bend towards the garage / parking area.

Thanks for the insight, PoHouse, I figure there will be some time spent manufacturing items in the metal shop, and definitely some quality Mig welding time in my future. And that is 'fun' to a degree in my world.


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## darryl g (Jan 30, 2010)

You're gonna plow a gravel driveway with that? If so, I'd backdrag it. The truck looks to be in pretty good shape.


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## mercer_me (Sep 13, 2008)

catmandu;1116054 said:


> Right at 12 ft. from raised edge to raised edge (sits up away from the lawn for drainage). Flat, and straight until the bend towards the garage / parking area.


How long is it? If it's not very long that truck is going to be over kill.


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## KMBertog (Sep 9, 2010)

I'm sure you'll have fun, but turning that baby around will be a pain. 

good luck! :salute:


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## Mdirrigation (Dec 12, 2003)

Set of chains , some caster wheels will save the drive , especially if the ground isnt frozen , put about 6 tons in it , it will be just about useless empty . I have a low profile international, with weight in it its a beast , empty it has a hard time in 2 inches of snow . Turn up the injector pump you can get about 40 more horses out of it , it makes a big difference .


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## catmandu (Nov 11, 2010)

Wheels for the gravel drive, not a bad idea to play with, thanks.

It's a gasser, so no injector pump turning. But we did rebuild the distributor this week (shaft had some wear, so my Uncle machined a sleeve to make it right), and it feels like I gained some horses (can actually get to 55 mph!). Carb kit on the way, will get rid of the governor as part of that, so hopefully more power available soon.

Mercer, my flat 300 foot driveway is really secondary. It's the two acres of pavement at the church that the plow is really for.


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## rocklizrd (Nov 5, 2010)

Yeah I like the MVA in Easton. Small and quick. Now I have the large and slow over on the western shore hahaha.


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## 91AK250 (Nov 28, 2007)

its awsome i love it! you can never have a plow too big, much like you can never have enough money lol


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## rocklizrd (Nov 5, 2010)

91AK, where in Anchorage are you?


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## 91AK250 (Nov 28, 2007)

south side, why?


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## rocklizrd (Nov 5, 2010)

Ok. I used to live off of Muldoon and 36th. Came back to the lower 48 because my ex wanted her and my son closer to their family.


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## Mdirrigation (Dec 12, 2003)

By the way , the truck probably has air brakes , even with the historic tags you will need at least a non commercial CDL , a regular CDL if you realy want to be save . Or dont get caught


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## rocklizrd (Nov 5, 2010)

Mdirrigation, good catch. I didn't even think of that since I have a class A CDL.


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## catmandu (Nov 11, 2010)

Nope, hydraulic brakes (reman'd master cylinder waiting at NAPA for me as we speak).

Not being smart about big trucks, and knowing how picky they get on the 50/301/bay bridge corridor, I stopped at the inspection station before buying and made sure, at least with the officer on duty that day, that I was, in fact, ok to cruise past the weigh stations, etc. with my big old private historic truck and my class C license.

He said "Good to go, cover your load."


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## GSORK (Dec 6, 2003)

Are you still married? LOL


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## thelettuceman (Nov 23, 2010)

Catmando: Having a good laugh with this thread


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## geer hed (Nov 22, 2010)

Cat I agree with your wife.......YOUR NUTS. But it's a good kind of nuts. I hope your driveway is wide enough for an 11 foot blade. If not just stand on the throtle and it will be soon. Chains are a good idea, it's a shame that it doesn't have an air system, the onspot chains are a pretty good setup. Congrats and good luck with it.


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## STIHL GUY (Sep 22, 2009)

thats quite a plow truck for a driveway lol...good luck with it and have fun


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## RTGUTH (Aug 21, 2010)

cat, love it! gotta keep us all in the loop! Wanna hear how its going on the build/plow/marriage/ Thanks! And be safe....


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## mrwheels83 (Dec 5, 2010)

*Great*

That beast reminded me of my time in Montana Missiles


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## 06dmax (Dec 6, 2010)

thats quite the plow truck you got for the money and to plow your driveway. It will be a breeze to plow those 2 acres now with that plow


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## catmandu (Nov 11, 2010)

*Missed it by THAT much, luckily!*

While down on the shore they got a foot, the east coast blizzard for us was more of a flurrypocolypse. Probably 3-4 inches of snowfall, but wicked winds flattened everything, and blew it all off my raised driveway. Had a good sized drift up by the garage next to my f250, so I figured what the hell, lets see how much gravel I move around when I back-drag, worked out pretty well. Figure there might be a drift or two at the church, and for sure some icy smooth spots, so decide to run up to the concrete plant and get a bucket of sand in the back to hand spread so people feel better about the ice (looked far and wide for bulk road salt to put in the back, no luck without driving up to Baltimore). Just as I pull off the scales, I noticed the engine sounded different, almost better. Interesting, but better check it out. Open the drivers door and find the engine sound was being masked by the sound of hydraulic fluid being pumped at a huge rate onto the ground from a blown 1" line. Yippee! So today, now that the wind chill is out of single digits, I'll go pull the line and have NAPA fashion my a new one (Temps rising to the 50's towards the end of the week, maybe I'll swap the master brake as well).

And yes, my wife did give me a bit of grief about this setback.


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## Cmbrsum (Oct 2, 2008)

I showed my wife this thread. I'm not in trouble for the extra plow I bought right before Christmas. Thanks Catmandu.


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## cutbetterthanyo (Feb 3, 2010)

That was for sale in Hurlock or East New Market wasn't it? I was thinking of buying it, but not cuz the plow. I want a big dump, but the money was tight. Where are you from? I'm in Cambridge, but do some work in Talbot.


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## cutbetterthanyo (Feb 3, 2010)

rocklizrd;1120187 said:


> Yeah I like the MVA in Easton. Small and quick. Now I have the large and slow over on the western shore hahaha.


There is NOTHING fast about easton's the last two times i have been there it has been between 2.5 -3 hrs. ,and not even a place to sit. Please don't tell me the other ones are worse. MVA SUCKS


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## catmandu (Nov 11, 2010)

CBTY: yep, that's the truck, I'm up by Kent Narrows. 

If money was tight, you likely made the right choice: driving it back home after replacing the blown Hyd hose, BOTH belts came off the pulleys and it started overheating! Joy!

Luckily, the alternator just shifted a bit, and I pulled into a parking lot right away as the temp started rising, so nothing other than waiting a couple hours for things to cool down, resetting everything, add a little water, and putting two new belts on the ever growing list of things to replace!

Did I mention the heater fan does not work?


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## MikeBL (Dec 30, 2010)

I agree with your wife because by the look of the pics you got no snow.


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## Dr Who (Dec 16, 2010)

If you got a good deal on it...
You say you are going to use the dump bed for hauling around the house...
You going push your dirve and the Church...

Figger what you would had spent paying for all the work you did youself, if its more then what you ave for the truck, well your good to go (excluding repairs of course)

If you use it for a couple years it will pay for itself by far.


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## Andy's Beast (Oct 14, 2009)

If you bought another truck just like the one you have, it might be overkill.

You have a sweet truck regardless if it is turning into a money pit.

Are you figuring out miles per gallon or are you down to feet per gallon?


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## catmandu (Nov 11, 2010)

Gallons per feet is about right! But it is a sweet truck, very high cool factor on the guy-o-meter amongst my friends.

Luckily, not too much of a money pit, more of a 'time-pit' since I have done all the repairs myself (although the unwanted hyd fluid flush was pricey). Luckily (knock on wood), most things turn out like yesterday, where intermittent headlights and a broken heater fan turn into 20 minutes with a multimeter and the price of a few new crimp fittings to get back up and running.

Oh, and I think I'll put off the carb rebuild: Throttle pedal was bent such that it maxed out at 50%. Re-did that, and now not too hard to get my current 24k lb. truck with an 11 foot air dam mounted on the front up to 55 mph Although I over tightened one of the cable clamps, I think, as I suddenly found myself with 'cruise-control', which made for a particularly loud downshift the first time.


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## turboplow3 (Nov 23, 2010)

sweet truck. if you want to avoid rocks in the drive just plow the edge snow to the middle of the drive. takes a few extra passes but doesnt look like a problem for you. you can straight push the middle first then angle the blade to take the edge snow to the middle. do this both sides. then another straight push. this will create a bit more snow to push than normal.

or rent a garden brush in the summer.

does the plow have two hydro arms for side to side motion? if so i had a bad seal on one of mine and it would get stuck at full side as it didnt have the pressure with a bad seal to give it that full push. would work fine if it was almost fully in side position. but if its a binding issue get out the tourch and hammer!
should be a handy truck on a 5acre property


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## joshg (Nov 12, 2009)

Love it. We need more pics.


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## catmandu (Nov 11, 2010)

Update, as requested:

We had our first 5 inch snow yesterday. As luck would have it, I was on the west coast, and had to do a 'planes, trains, and automobiles' to get home thanks to the weather. I never got my wife checked out on the plow side of life (although she has driven the truck!), so when I got home in the late afternoon, the driveway was already packed, which is not a big deal.

Changed clothes and jumped in the plow, headed up to the church. After a little head scratching on how to handle the entrance, which is on a slightly blind turn on a major road, things went fairly well. As I learned here, backdragging is your friend, indeed. And I got pretty good at pivoting and lifting as I approached the edges where I wanted the snow to end up. Big damn trucks are definitely not good for delicate work, though, and I am cursing the five planting beds in the middle of the parking lot!

Parents successfully delivered children to the day school at the church today, so I guess that is success! 

Although, as I went to clean up some of the rough edges this afternoon, the transmission decided to crap out. At first, it started popping out of reverse on me, then all of a sudden got stuck in first. Luckily, had a Suburban and tow strap available, so pulled it backwards to a place I could drive it forward to a back corner. Gonna do a little Google sleuthing on the transmission problem and try to fix it in place some time in the next couple days.


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## thelettuceman (Nov 23, 2010)

Did the back dragging cause Reverse gear to go up?


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## catmandu (Nov 11, 2010)

Reverse was acting up in most situations, not just during back dragging.


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## thelettuceman (Nov 23, 2010)

Did your wife want to put the marriage in reverse gear after you brought home your new love? LOL


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## pohouse (Jan 26, 2009)

Is the suburban and strap available for the rest of the season?


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## catmandu (Nov 11, 2010)

Oh yeah, pohouse, just what I need: a Push-Me-Pull-You plow!

Pulled the shifter off today, it had definitely jumped out of place. No obvious witness marks or bright spots to tell me why, though, which sucks because it's hard to fix something that you can't find. So I re-aligned everything to neutral and will re-install it later.

The reverse fork had a weird wear to it, but not sure what it was trying to tell me, will have to wait and look more closely at the gear when I put it back together.

I'll start calling the transmission 'baby' when I shift, maybe I'll get lucky and finish the season without any more problems!


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