putting a snow plow on the blazer

[adamforsythe]

I have been thinking about putting a blizzard plow on my blazer. I know a lot of people don't like it because is may harm the truck. I have told my self and everyone not to buy a truck thats been plowed. But thats only because I don't know what kind of sh!t the truck has been through. If I do it I will be going with the Blizzard speedwing plow http://www.blizzardplows.com/products.speedwing.asp.
The 760sw will fit my truck.
Now i'm not going to be hitting piles of snow with my truck doing 20 mph or anything like that. The one thing that i'm scared of is I know 80's chevys like to crack around the steering box. Well what if i'm turning a little while plowing? Should I do something to beef it up a bit? When I am plowing I will be running stock axles with a new 350 engine new Th350 tranni with a Np205 with BFGoodrich mud terrains.
Thanks
Adam

 

[jdemaris]

I have been thinking about putting a blizzard plow on my blazer.Adam

I've got three Blazers I've used for years for snow-plowing -and they've been used heavy. A 79 350 gasser with a Western plow, an 83 6.2 diesel with a Fisher plow, and a 86 6.2 diesel with a Fisher plow. The 79 has no chains, the 86 has chains on the rear, and the 83 has chains on all four tires. I use the 83 the hardest when stuff gets real deep and or heavy, it has the TH400 trans. also.

I cannot complain about any of them - in regard to anything breaking. Also, in my opinion, a Blazer works much nicer for plowing than a truck or Suburban - since it's short and easy to manuever. Only weak point I've found - is if you have the light-duty front springs. They aren't the best for running around with a plow - and if you bounce too much, the rear leafs tend to crack also.

 

[70GMC]

you could either weld like 1/8th inch plate onto the frame and get longer bolts for your steering box, or get a brace kit that ORD makes, or both. im running 33s and i beat the sh!t out of my truck and i havent done anything to beef up the frame around the steering box and nothing bad has happened yet. so i dunno what plowing could do but im sure its gonna put some extra stress on the steering box area.

 

[454k30]

My 83 k30 was a plow/farm truck for 13 years before I got it. The problems I ran into were that even a K30's front springs were too soft for the plow and it would cause them to compress to the point where the headers would get hit by the front drive shaft. The engine cross member cracked from pushing that thing all over the place. Now you said you dont plan on hitting anything with it but thats the problem. Everything is under the snow so you have no idea what you are going to hit. If the snow is wet and heavy, or has a crust, or you find cinder block which froze itself to the ground, or you forget exactly where the curb is... The list goes on and on. Point is that plowing, if done for long enough, will damage your vehicle. On the other hand though having a plow liberates you from lots of problems the winter brings on. I dont know how we would've done without one for the years I lived in colorado. Our house was at the top of a hill and had a half mile road to it that the county did not plow in the winter. Nothing else in our budget would've allowed us to live like that so I guess a busted cross member isnt that bad.