RC Snow Plow

Well, the Pizzmeister had some big plans evolving around his monster truck ever since Santa brought it to him for Christmas.  To the boy it is just logical that if you have a truck, and there is snow on the ground, then you obviously need a plow on your truck.

This is what we came up with for our prototype.  A little plow we took off of a John Deere tractor we had laying around, but we had a few problems with it.

Firstly, we realized that it was too small straight off.  The snow would fly over the plow and build up under the truck body, eventually lifting it off the ground.

That's no good!

The second problem was that the wiring, once encased in snow, became cold enough to fray and break.

Again, no good.

So, it was back to the drawing board for us.  

While we were repairing the broken wires, I asked the Pizzmeister if he was sure he wanted a plow.  His answer was an emphatic yes.

"Oh, what the hell," I thought.  "We already have the thing ripped apart, so we may as well see what we can come up with."

Well, soon enough, the boy and I came to a conclusion.

We'd cut a large tin coffee can into quarters after removing the lip and bottom of the can.  Then we'd simply stick two quarters together to reach the length we wanted, which was about 10 inches,   and then cover the edges so they wouldn't be sharp.  

Easy Peasy.

Then all there was left to do was affix it to the frame of the truck somehow.  

Turns out that wasn't too hard either.  

We just needed some springs, a couple of wood screws, a dozen Popsicle sticks, and electrical tape.  

Yeah, I know.  It's not pretty but it works, and the Pizzmeister thinks it is wicked awesome.  That's all that matters. 

Anyway, the first thing to do was cut the popsicle sticks into the shape we needed and then glue them all together.  They were going to be the mount and spacer for the plow.

Then we drilled through the truck's bumper and made corresponding holes in the popsicle stick mount.

Next was simply screw the wood screws into the bumper, put the springs over the screws, and the screw the spring covered screws into the holes in the popsicle sticks.

Easy peasy.

The mount is complete and has a bit of flexibility because of the springs.  

Next, we just covered the popsicle stick mount with electrical tape to fight of water logging, and then we hot glued the plow into place.

Done.

The boy is happy.  I am happy, and the best part of the entire project was we didn't have to go out and buy anything.

Oh yeah, and it works pretty well too.  We just don't have any videos of it in use yet, but soon there will be videos up and running.