Our Homemade V-Plow!

This is for my East Coast friends currently having a snow freakout and finding that there is a distinct lack of equipment in their neighborhood for moving all that white stuff. May I introduce you to the V-Plow---snow removal for cheap rednecks (like me!).

Until we can afford a swanky tractor with a heated cab in which Evie can ride with me to plow snow when Nathan is gone, our little open tractor doesn't do me a lot of good. I needed something I could manage and have a 3-year-old child in tow at the same time. Buying a front plow for the truck really isn't an option as we need that vehicle for other daily driving.

So I saw a plan for something like this on a horse-drawn equipment site of all things---it is very similar to what they used for eons to keep roads clear in the snowy parts of the world. And I thought to myself "Hmmm, we could make that and attach it to our truck's hitch." And so we did.

It's totally redneck but if the snow is not windblown into a drift (a whole OTHER issue here in SD), it works AMAZINGLY well. The first time we used it, we moved 14 inches of heavy, wet snow and had a nearly ground level path wherever we went. It was lovely.

All we did to make it was grab a pallet for the center and attached two 2x8 foot boards about 8 feet long each to each side to make the V. Those boards move the snow out towards the sides of your driveway just like a road plow...giving you a smooth 11-foot wide path. The pallet lets you add weight (use something to add at least 50-100lbs to it if you can---feed bags will work!). We just used scap wood found here at the farm and some 3 inch screws!

For the rest of the appartus, just attach 8-10 foot chains (or rope, something relatively strong---a good old longe line works horse people!) evenly to the font---about a foot off center from the V and then attach the other ends to your hitch---making it pull as evenly as possible. And away you go!

The biggest down side is turning around---unless you can do a nice loop (think an arc you could pull a trailer in) you need to unhitch, turn your truck around and then rehitch.

This should work on any snow falling east of here---you guys don't get the driven snow and hard-packed drifts we do. This doesn't do much good against them but does wonders otherwise.

It costs almost nothing and means not waiting 5 days to get plowed out---worth a shot folks!