[mattgladwin]

I am just finishing up my first year plowing. i have two commercial parking lots and then do driveways out where i live on the side. all of this is just suplimental income for me as i work full time.

i currently own a 1985 Ford F250 4x4 with a meyer 7' blade. the truck has a 460 on propane. as soon as it hit -20 celcius the truck wouldn't start, and other stuff was breaking down because of the age and shape of the vehicle.

my questions is this.....i have a chance to buy a 1993 Chevy ext cab short box Z71 with an 7.6' blade. How well do the 1500 front ends carry a plow? what about the tranny? is it worth getting a 2500 or can i put heavier parts in the front end?

any help here would be much appreciated because all things aside i think they are great trucks.

Matt

 

[bolts indus.]

We have a 91 z71 with a Blizzard 7'6" plow on it. It carrys it like it's not there. Stock with torsion bars turned up 5 turns. Great truck 150,000 miles and still puuuuring. Love driving it.

 

[grasshopper]

I've got 2 Chev 1/2 tons they are both "heavy 1/2" whatever that means. Both have 7 1/2 foot blades on them and handle them fine. If you can, try get the Turbo 350 tranny and not the 4 speed, they are built like tanks, I just rebuilt one this season, it had plowed snow for over 10 seasons with no problems.

 

[Alan]

I wouldn't hesitate to run another 1500. Had one for the first four years we plowed, ran an 8' Sno-Way on it. Upgraded that to a 2500 with the same plow and eventually put the 8' straight blade on an S-10 and a vee on the 2500. Current fleet is a K3500 with a vee and two S-10s, both carrying 8' Sno-Way straight blades.

I would have to disagree about the 350 being a better plowing transmission than a 700R4. The 700 has a lower first gear, which is noticeably better for low speed grunt work. You can also run a lower rear axle ratio and still have a decent final drive ratio for running down the highway.

 

[mattgladwin]

thanks for the 1/2 ton help

i have always noticed a lot of chevy 1500 have blades on them. i believe their upper/lower control arm setup is superior to the Ford's twin I-beam, especially in the F-50. please let me know if i am wrong here. just that i notice when you stress a Ford 150 the front tires cave in.

any continued help from those who have the 90's half tons would be much appreciated.

another thing to note....the Z71 i am buying has something called "load spindles" on the front end. put on when the Arctic plow was installed. anyone know what they do??

 

[chev77]

mattgladwin, my 1500 has absolutly no problem handling my 7'6" Curtis. I have a 97 with 205,000mi and it's still going strong. I did add Timbrens to the front axles, which is something i would definatly suggest on any 1/2 ton pickup. This is my first year plowing so i dont have that much experience, but my 1500 has plenty of power, and the ext. cab short box is very manuverable. You will be very happy with a 1500 in my opinion, as long as you don't go too crazy with it . Good luck!!

 

[chev77]

I forgot to add that i would strongly suggest running a good amount of ballast in the bed, i run 500lbs. and that seems to be good enough. I also have pictures of the truck w/ plow in the Chevy Truck page.

 

[Roger Dodger]

... is it worth getting a 2500 or can i put heavier parts in the front end?

With that logic at work, getting a 2500 offers far more advantages over any 1/2-ton package. If you are going to further upgrade a 1/2-ton to improve it for the rigors of plowing, you'll need to weigh the final costs between that Z-71 and getting a used 2500 with a plow already on it. For personal plowing you should be fine. If you're gonna go commercial and undergo heavy use, get something beefy or at least a 3/4-ton to start with.
Those are my thoughts on the subject.

 

[sefh]

I have a 95 F-150 ext cab long bed w/ Meyer 7'6" and your right the front tires bow in. My plow came off a Chevy 1/2 ton (short wheel base standard cab)and the truck worked great (blown motor) for drive ways.

 

[mattgladwin]

charging questions??

thanks for all the imput here...it helps since i am only finishing my first year of plowing, which i do for extra income on top of my fulltime job.

while i have an audiance i thought i would ask another question.

what do you recommend for batteries and alternators in a truck that will not be plowing fulltime?? does anyone run tandem batteries, or trickle charge at night??

i just put a new battery in my ford...850cca and it has tons of juice even turning over the 460.

 

[snonut12]

If you go on Chevy website and build a Z71 and 2500HD to the same specs as close as possible, the price will be about $1K in difference. Yes it did surprised me.

Just FYI, also the 3500 cost about the same as 2500HD for the same specs. Only advantage of 3500 are larger tires (265), extra leaf spring, and increased GVWR. The only downside is you will have a stiffer ride when empty.

Interesting.

 

[ratlover]

you run an 8' blade on an s10!?!?!?

Also think the 700's suck in stock form, 4l60es arnt much better. Compared to a simmilar dodge trans of the era they are better imo but what ever. Dont care what ratio 1rst is they are weak especially in OD. Besideds rarely am I in first :burnout

Sounds like it may have timbrens on it??? Those aint a bad addition. And run the proper amount of ballast. Do over do it and try to plow huge stuff and you should be ok. A 3/4 or 1 ton would be better suited long term though but a 1/2 ton should live just fine.

 

[John DiMartino]

Whiel the 2500 is better,the 1500 will do. IMO the 700r4 is a btter plowing trans than the 4L80E.OD is weak in the 700r4s. The 4L60Es have a lot more problems than the later 700r4s do.At least you can keep reverse in a 700R4 no problem.My weak 91 GMC1500/700r4 GMC has 108K on it,all original,has plowed since 96,and it has an 8'6" western MVP on it,3 yr now with a set of timbrens,its had 2 idler arms replaced, everything else is original exc the sway bar end links.It used to have a 7.5 pro plow on it for 5 yrs before that.The lower ball joints are getting a touch of play now,but they hav 108K on them,nornal at this point.