# Question about plowing with a lifted truck.. need suggestions!



## lofsfire3503 (Nov 19, 2008)

I plow with a 1978 chevy k20 with a 8' meyer blade.. a coworker is selling a 1986 F250 with a 9" lift and 35s for a deal that you cant pass up.. my question is that i am having a friend who is a welder make a custom mount for the truck.. but how do lifted trucks handle plowing? or should i just keep what i have? thanks!


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## iamhere (Jan 16, 2009)

More often than not those big "mudder" tires are about useless in snow and ice. I would keep what you have for now and get an unlifted 4x4 f250, chev 2500hd or a Ram 2500. Lifted trucks are great for mud or trails but worthless in snow.


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## lofsfire3503 (Nov 19, 2008)

ok, thats what i was thinking... i have a old chevy and was tired of always wrenching on it.. i appericate your reply!


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## CAT 245ME (Sep 10, 2006)

9" of lift is to much to plow with IMO.

Can you plow with a lifted truck, Yes you can as long as it isn't too high, the max I would go is 4", you will probably need to correct the height of the plows A frame and get it sitting level or close to level.I have an 85 Chev K20 with a 3.5" Superlift HD springs, holds the blade fine with very little sag.

Do a search on lifted trucks on this site, it has been covered a time or two.


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## JeffNY (Dec 19, 2005)

I have a 94 chevy with around 9" of lift and super swampers, its dangerous in the snow. Dont even think about driving out of 4wd, and if you wanna move, you gotta hammer on it. Your not going to stop good either. 
But here's what you CAN do good, take it off road, and drive through 2' of snow with no problem.


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## lofsfire3503 (Nov 19, 2008)

haha sounds good.


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## iamhere (Jan 16, 2009)

Another thing to take into account is the decreased visibility. I've been in some trucks with just six or eight inch lifts and the blind spots were insane. When you are plowing (residential or commercial) visibility is key. These guys can tell you countless stories about plowing a commercial lot and having drivers and people walking not paying attention and walking into your path when you are backing up or pushing forward. With a raised truck your blind spots to the front, front and rear quarters, and to the rear are greater. Even on a residential drive a little kid could be out playing and if they came up behind you while backing up you'd never see them.


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## green frog (Jan 2, 2007)

I cant speek for trucks. But my Jeep Cherokee has 5.5 inches of lift and I just take the mudders off and put on AT's. The cool thing with my Cherokee is I dont need the plow lights because my normal head lights are higher than the plow even when its up all the way. Good luck with decision


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## BushHogBoy (Nov 30, 2000)

JeffNY;890573 said:


> I have a 94 chevy with around 9" of lift and super swampers, its dangerous in the snow. Dont even think about driving out of 4wd, and if you wanna move, you gotta hammer on it. Your not going to stop good either.
> But here's what you CAN do good, take it off road, and drive through 2' of snow with no problem.


Yea but how wide are your tires?
Here's some lifted trucks i had and how they did in snow:
79 Power Wagon 37x12.50 Super Swamper Radials on 7" wide wheels, with plow & salter- did awesome traction wise
77 Power Wagon 33x13.50 Super Swamper TSL's on 12" wide wheels & 450hp 360- horrible until you stood on it then unstoppable (like your 94 Chevy) but no ballast or additional weight and wide wheels spread the tires out into balloons, can't dig that way.
96 Ram Cummins 39.5x13.50 Super Swamper Iroks on 10" wide wheels with plow, spreader and lots of salt- Besides that Swamper IROK tires are AWESOME in snow and ice, and the width was fairly conservative on wheels and tires, the truck probably weighed in at 9,000 lbs working weight between the heavy diesel, long wheelbase, plow, spreader and weight, so it did really awesome pushing, the only time i spun in 4wd was when i used over 20# of boost (50# of boost available on the "loud handle" pedal  )

The only time a lifted truck with big tires will "suck" in snow (depending largely on tires!) is when the wheel/tire is too wide and there's little to no added weight. Stick with a 12.50 or 13.50 tire on no more than a 8-10" wide rim and you will be fine. I have never NOT loved Super Swampers in the snow. The IROK is much much better than a TSL style tread though, man did I love those. A guy i know in the business here one of his trucks is a lifted 96 PowerStroke and he ran the Iroks and got me started with them, he would never shut up about how much he loved pushing with those tires. The only problem was when I had that big diesel, I got a lot of calls to pull out people who got stuck on unplowed country roads cuz they knew i was one of the few people who could get out to them and get 'em out... I drove through a ditch with 8" blizzard on the ground, through a field and back through the ditch to get to the other side of a car to pull it out of a 2' drift once, with the plow on the truck and didn't even spin wesport

Its not for everyone but i love plowin in a lifted truck... everyone should have a backup rig thats lifted for the BIG storms when main roads are unpassable by a stocky...

PS big tires = big stress on drivetrain when pushing.. keep that in mind. I toasted the tranny in the 79 on 37's in one winter plowing in low range. Had it squatting the rear with weight all winter, had 3.55 gears and a gutless 360 2 barrel, had to floor it to overcome all the load.... Had a full billet NV4500 5 speed in the diesel it held up great to towing in high range with those tires and load. Pick your poison and pay to play.


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## F-SERIES BEAST (Dec 12, 2009)

BushHogBoy;893335 said:


> The only time a lifted truck with big tires will "suck" in snow (depending largely on tires!) is when the wheel/tire is too wide and there's little to no added weight. Stick with a 12.50 or 13.50 tire on no more than a 8-10" wide rim and you will be fine. I have never NOT loved Super Swampers in the snow. The IROK is much much better than a TSL style tread though, man did I love those. A guy i know in the business here one of his trucks is a lifted 96 PowerStroke and he ran the Iroks and got me started with them, he would never shut up about how much he loved pushing with those tires. The only problem was when I had that big diesel, I got a lot of calls to pull out people who got stuck on unplowed country roads cuz they knew i was one of the few people who could get out to them and get 'em out... I drove through a ditch with 8" blizzard on the ground, through a field and back through the ditch to get to the other side of a car to pull it out of a 2' drift once, with the plow on the truck and didn't even spin wesport
> 
> Its not for everyone but i love plowin in a lifted truck... everyone should have a backup rig thats lifted for the BIG storms when main roads are unpassable by a stocky...
> 
> PS big tires = big stress on drivetrain when pushing.. keep that in mind. I toasted the tranny in the 79 on 37's in one winter plowing in low range. Had it squatting the rear with weight all winter, had 3.55 gears and a gutless 360 2 barrel, had to floor it to overcome all the load.... Had a full billet NV4500 5 speed in the diesel it held up great to towing in high range with those tires and load. Pick your poison and pay to play.


I'm a little late with my reply but for future searches by people i'll give my 2 cents. I agree with bush hog.
I run a f-250 with a v-10,1 ton susp, 4" of susp. lift, 35"x12.50"x20" open country m/t's that are a E load / 10 ply radial. These tires are amazing in the snow, they go through it all, i have pushed through 2' plus drifts, without a hangup at all. When we get deep snow thats when i really make money, i get friends calling me asking if i can go do some accounts that they couldn't make it into the entrance of the accounts with normal setups. During your average storms my truck doesn't excel over stock trucks, but big storms i can and have left the competition envious. Don't get me wrong, there are draw backs, depending on usage, i probably beat on my ball joints more than your stock truck, I change my transmission fluid more often, once a year i change my carrier bearing, and my vision on the passenger side of the truck has decreased when getting tight to a curb, or doing radius driveways. In closing I love my set up, I've plowed with everything and i would take my setup any day over a stock truck. Here's a cpl pics of mine, it's higher but not that high that it's to high, i say it's just enough.


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## JeffNY (Dec 19, 2005)

I'll be really late with my reply as well, but I ran 14.5" wide tires. That's probably part of the reason mine was the suck in the snow.


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## plowatnight (Mar 10, 2010)

A couple of things, The '86 250 has doesn't have the solid front axle. You don't want to plow w/ that due to the high risk of expensive and untimely failure. Skinny tires rule. I had an '80 Jimmy w/ 4" lift and I liked it because I could take the plow lights off the yoke. The trouble IMO is the danger to the drive train loading the increased pinion angel pushing snow.


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