Who plows with their Explorer??

[rapdes]

I've owned a 94 Sport for a few months now. This winter has been brutal with the amount of snow and I need to have someone plow my driveway. I was wondering if I could put a light weight plow on my Explorer without any major problems. I would only use it to plow my driveway. I know the owners manual says not to snow plow with the vehicle. But I have seen some Explorers with plows. Just looking for other peoples experiences. Also where is the best and most cost effective place to find a light weight (plexiglass) plow for this vehicle.?

thanks everybody!

 

[Critical_Level2]

I believe there is a member on here that has one from home depot on their mountaineer. I know home depot has them for like $1,000.

 

[old mechanic]

The Snow Sport is the one that i think would serve your needs! Check their site out. They have a video showing the plow being used. Click on video on the left. If you don't have Windows Media player they have it for free on the right hand side of their home page. When windows media comes up click on a format then click on the right to play. When the movie starts to play, right click on the movie and click "play in full screen. After it has played to go back to regular screen just click the exc key on your key board. Or look under the FAQ section to see how easy it is to put on the plow. It only pushs though. Does not drag back. Doesn't look like it will get hung up too much either.
I know you can get a front receiver on your EX. You have to have a front 2" receiver to hook the Snow Sport on to OR use it on a REAR 2" receiver and plow backing up!
www.mysnowsport.com
Maybe thats the ones that Home Depot sell. There is also a heavy duty one that someone had mentioned here but I think it required beefing up the suspension! Snow Sport is a light weight easy one man hookup! This sounds like something that you may like. I would do a search for "Snow Sport" to find the cheapest place to buy one! Or click on their "find a dealer"!
www.expressdistributing.com has a front receiver for a 94EX for $109.00 It says it fits ALL 94 EX's.
Go to their web site, click on truck & suv accessories, towing on the top, then front mounted receivers on the left. Then you have to click on FORD at the top to get to the Explorer page. Remember, it has to be a 2" receiver!

 

[SiLenZe]

65017
EXPLORER
- All Models, 2 & 4WD 91-94 9000 300 $109.95

65002 (2)
EXPLORER
- All Models Except Limited 95-98 9000 300 $109.95

65026
EXPLORER - All Models 99-00 9000 300 $109.95

here is the info from the above web site

 

[doradexplorer]

I just plowed with mine for the first time yesterday!
I modified an old plow i had and mounted the undercarriage to my front reciever, and then rigged a small winch to raise and lower it. worked great for my long driveway. ***I only intend to do my driveway, not rentals/contracts/ etc****
I know the trannys can't stand real abuse
(mine is a 94 EB w/ 150K)
But my total cost is about $100, so i can't go all that wrong, and I bought the ex for $900, so ...
If you want to do real plowing, buy and old f-150 or k-1500 with a plow already on it. these can be found over teh summer for about 1500.
I can't justify another truck for just doingh my driveway, and if i was to start contracting, my wife would kill me!

Scott

 

[Ak LTD Xplorer]

f-150's are not a good idea when plowing f-250's and up are much better!

 

[Lee S.]

Hey Doradexplorer

Looks like we're neighbors. It hasn't been a real fun winter around here especially with that last snow fall.

Any pictures of the retrofit of your plow and winch? I am real curious about your set up. I too need something just to plow my driveway. If its possible to adapt something like you did I'd consider picking up a used plow and a winch.

Thanks,

Lee

 

[Mbrooks420]

I believe there is a member on here that has one from home depot on their mountaineer. I know home depot has them for like $1,000.

That's probably me that you are talking about.

It is a Snowbear Proshovel. I liked this one more than the Snowsport. It seemed like a beefier setup, but doesn't wiegh a ton. The Snowsport doesn't angle, and doesn't have a power lift. This means you can only stack the snow a little taller than the blade. The one I have angles (but it is not a power angle, I will be working on that when the weather breaks.) The website says you must plow every 3 to 6 inches, but the plow has had no problem pushing a foot plus of heavy packing snow. It is rock solid, and I have used it harder than most would. It would have no problems clearing even a long driveway, with a real large parking area. Putting it on was fairly easy and took about 3 hours to assemble and have on the truck. Here is the
Snowbear website.

 

[Ford_Racing_Guy]

you don't wanna put a plow on any half-ton truck anymore,


they don't have straight axles like they should

 

[Ford_Racing_Guy]

actually i wouldn't even wanna use a Chevy 2500 or above, because chevy no longer uses straight axles period

 

[Mbrooks420]

These plows are only intended for home use, and are light wieght. They plow just fine, and don't overstress the vehicle. If I haven't broke/bent anything yet, I don't see it happening.

 

[doradexplorer]

I'll probably post pics whe i have everything tweaked, with today's rain, it might be a little bit!

 

[doradexplorer]

All right, so i finally finished tweaking (mostly) and took some pics
pics are here:
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/megandscott2000

i used the lower frame from my old plow truck, attached to the existing front hitch to attach th eplow, and used a front spare tire mount that installs into the hitch to mount the winch, which raises and lowers the plow. the lights are just bolted to tabs on the grill guard
my total cost is less than $200, including my original purchase of the plow.
it works pretty good, the plow is a little sloppy, so i need to tighten it, and eventually i want to rig a power angle, but that isn't too pressing.
Scott

 

[Lee S.]

doradexplorer:

Can't get your link to work.

Bet you're happy you got that plow. You believe it's still snowing on LI? I've had it with snow blowing my driveway this winter (did it again this morning). Getting to old for this.

Anyhow love to see the pics. If you can't get the link up can you please email them to me at scon@optonline.net

Thanks.

Lee