I really want to drive a snow plow...

[Pallycow]

One day maybe I'll get to. lol

 

[Pallycow]

I seem to have a fascination for these things...guess I may have to make a flickr set dedicated to them this year. lol. They were not going fast the flinging the snow today like they normally do though. :-(

 

[Rick58]

I've been plowing snow for the past 31 winter, and it was fun for about the first hour of those 31 winters :er:

 

[pixmedic5 5]

 

[Pallycow]

I've been plowing snow for the past 31 winter, and it was fun for about the first hour of those 31 winters :er:

lol, well yeah, I don't want to drive one often, just once to enjoy it. lol

 

[thetrue]

A Zamboni would be more fun, I think

 

[Rick58]

I've been plowing snow for the past 31 winter, and it was fun for about the first hour of those 31 winters :er:

lol, well yeah, I don't want to drive one often, just once to enjoy it. lol

It's funny. I took my son to work with me during one snow. He was probably around 10 or so. After an hour he said "Can we go home now and watch TV". :lmao:

 

[shefjr]

Living about 20 minutes south of Buffalo NY, we get quite a bit of snow. A friend of mine (Roy) plows for the town that I live in. He once told my wife, who asked to go plowing with him when it's really bad out sometime, there's not much to see on the bad nights. He said "I like ridin' wit' jesus!" I laughed my ass off when he said that. I guess you probably had to be there to appreciate the full humor of Roy.

 

[Farmclicker]

Rick58, please correct me if I am wrong, because it has been awhile since I have been in a plow truck, but I think it is extremely fatiguing.

Driving a car on bare hot top is tiring enough, but trying to keep a truck on slippery roads centered in the lane, with main plow and the wings down (we use wings in Maine) while watching out for cars, and putting the right amount of salt down, while staring out through windshield that has an unending amount of falling and mesmerizing snow, fatigues me quickly.

I will say though that it is cool to watch the sparks fly off the cutting edge, and punching a road through freshly fallen snow...with no other tracks around...is a pleasure. And I think it is amazing that today the technology has evolved to the point where even after a major blizzard like we just had (and are currently having as I type this), that roads will be down to bare, dry pavement in 12 hours following a storm. That was just unheard of in Maine a decade ago, so we have come a long ways.

BTW: The snowplow rodeo is fun to watch. It is where Dept of Transportation workers put tennis balls on traffic cones and try to hit the ball off without knocking over the cone. It is speed, agility and coordination in snowplow form.

 

[Rick58]

Rick58, please correct me if I am wrong, because it has been awhile since I have been in a plow truck, but I think it is extremely fatiguing.

Driving a car on bare hot top is tiring enough, but trying to keep a truck on slippery roads centered in the lane, with main plow and the wings down (we use wings in Maine) while watching out for cars, and putting the right amount of salt down, while staring out through windshield that has an unending amount of falling and mesmerizing snow, fatigues me quickly.

I will say though that it is cool to watch the sparks fly off the cutting edge, and punching a road through freshly fallen snow...with no other tracks around...is a pleasure. And I think it is amazing that today the technology has evolved to the point where even after a major blizzard like we just had (and are currently having as I type this), that roads will be down to bare, dry pavement in 12 hours following a storm. That was just unheard of in Maine a decade ago, so we have come a long ways.

BTW: The snowplow rodeo is fun to watch. It is where Dept of Transportation workers put tennis balls on traffic cones and try to hit the ball off without knocking over the cone. It is speed, agility and coordination in snowplow form.

Thanks and yes, very fatiquing. Working at the Parking Authority it may even be worse then the reasons you've given. We do public parking lots and garages. While backing, which is 50% of the time, you have to constantly being watching for the knuckle heads driving behind you or the ones we love best, the guy that parks directly behind you without you even knowing he's back there, and doing this in dump truck with no rear vision other then mirrors. Then while pushing, your weaving around Lexus and BMW's. I never leave there without stiff neck and shoulders from tension and constantly twisting of the neck. I put in my shift last night, so another snow down and 7 more years until retirement.

 

[Farmclicker]

This is rural Maine so you just have to keep it between the ditches, which can be a challenge on some nights. The other issue we have is that we go from forest to field, and so on the hills you get drifted and blowing snow. It has been blowing hard the last two days so the plow trucks cannot stop. You might only have to plow a 1/2 mile of road, but you must get out there every 2 hours or the road completely drifts across. So you drive for 5 miles, drop your plow for a 1-2 mile then go to the next drifted in spot. There is a road near me that is like this, and on heavy snow years, the snow is pushed up above the telephone wires by loaders and graders trying to keep it out of the road.

But very little backing up. I would not want to do what you do that is for sure, so I deeply respect you for that.

As for BMW's, I had one of those once, for 6 years. That was my ex-wife; Big Maine Woman

 

[thetrue]

Rick, the next snow we get I'm coming to plow with you. We'll record the experience and send Pally a DVD of the first person view! Haha

 

[digital flower]

Driving a plow is not as much fun as it looks like. The LONG nights, crappy diet and blowing snow can make it a nightmare.

 

[Rick58]

Rick, the next snow we get I'm coming to plow with you. We'll record the experience and send Pally a DVD of the first person view! Haha

record 15 minutes, loop it, then watch it for 8 hours. There's a plow session

 

[ratssass]

...a tennis ball off a cone is challenging??...lets see them take tennisball off a mailbox!!.....nevermind,i know the results. j/k...you plow drivers are the guys/gals that keep it all going,and are to be commended.