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An old garden tractor plow is fashioned into a snow plow for the CJ.

Here’s the garden tractor snow plow that started the project. It’s an old Sears unit. I had gone to the scrap yard to buy some metal to make up a plow out of 2x6’s and angle iron, but came home with this instead.
 

 
Plow mounted by sliding a the 6” x 2” channel into the front of a garden tractor, then attaching two lower arms. 
 

 
Not pretty, but structurally sound. For $30 I thought the lift and swivel would be nice, and everything else could be adapted.
 

 
Mount is based on a 2” square tube with ears welded on that engage the tow bar shackles on the Jeep. The two tow bar pins will hold the plow on. 
 

This pic shows trying to figure out what depth to put the blade at, allowing for some drop past horizontal.
   

I ended up mounting the snow plow as low as it would go on the 2” tubing - not as much drop as I would have liked but wanted a solid connection. 
 

There’s about 1” of drop, and 11” or so of lift.

With the snow plow mounted in the tow bar shackles, the entire mount still can rotate. I found a used CBR600 rear coil spring/shock that will “place” the plow, but still allow for some give. The upper end of the shock mounts into the bottom of the original grill mount on the frame (unused with our ‘glass front end.) 

 
I added 1’ ears on each side of the snow plow. It’s not wide enough to fully angle the plow, but I don’t think I’ll need to do that. I wanted it just wide enough to cover my tracks. 

“A” frame was donated (thanks Nelson!) and is from a CJ2A. The lift unit is an old Meyers Electrolift, and from looking in my Jeep resources probably “period correct”. I mounted a solenoid on the frame rail, and ran a push button switch and release cable inside the Jeep.  Plow antennas were a Christmas present from my understanding wife… 

   
Thanks to my brother in law for sourcing the lift motor.  Dutch desperation kicked in here.  With everything mounted and the glass front unable to lift with the plow A frame in place, the power cable was too short.  A 3” piece of 1” strap metal serves to extend the mount. 

   
I’m happy with the fact that no new holes were drilled in the Jeep, and the snow plow removes just by disconnecting the lift chain, pulling the 2 towbar pins and the upper shock bolt. 

 
At work on 1/23/2003.  We got 6-8” during the course of the day and the work building the snow plow was instantly worthwhile.  Sure is nice being out in weather like this out of the wind and in a heated Jeep. 

Really pushed alot of snow with the little blade!

Update Fall of 2003:
One of my old Dick Cepek lights gets added for a backup light. Should scare any would-be tailgaters too…

A fresh coat of Safety Yellow paint makes everything look better:

A few more pics from January 04.  See - the Jeep is happy to plow!

1.1 MB Windows Movie of Dutch at work on 1.27.04.  We got a good 8-9” of dense heavy snow, it was pushing the limits of Dutch’s blade:
Dutch Plows

Comments are closed, but you can read the comments other people left.

1. Travis Powers on January 23, 2005

   Hey i really like what ya did with the plow and was wonderng if you have some bigger pictures of how you made the plow wider and how it mounts to the jeep.

2. Mike Boyink on January 23, 2005

   Hey Travis -

   Thanks for the comments.  The pics on this page are really all I have.  The mount is pretty simple - the square tubing has “ears” that plug into my towbar shackles - you can see the red hitch pin that secures them in some of the pics.

   Then the angled shock mount attaches to the Jeep’s grill mount on the underside.

   Making the plow wider was just welding on some angle iron to stick out on each side,  then bending some sheet metal to match the curve of the plow and welding it on to the angle.

3. Travis Powers on January 23, 2005

   Alrite I’m about to do the same thing you did.  I have tractor plow which is right now 42 inches across, how much did you add to each side? What’s your overall lenght on that plow.  Do you have those pictures any bigger that ya could email or no?

4. Michael Boyink (Author) on January 23, 2005

   I added one foot to each side, but would suggest you measure your wheel track to make sure the plow is at least as wide as that.  You don’t want your tires to be wider, as then you’ll be compacting down the snow as you plow. 

   If you plan to angle the plow then add more width.  My work was all straight plowing, save for the couple times when I did a path down our whole street.

   Those pics are all I have.

5. Travis Powers on January 23, 2005

   Alrite cool.  Ya I don’t think I’m gonna ever angle it but I’m gonna add a foot and a half which Is wider the my wheelpath just so I can clear faster.  I don’t have a tow bar so I’m Using angle iron and bolting it to the front underside of the frame where the tow hooks go That i just took off.  It’ll be sturdy and be easy to take the low profile mount of in the summer for offroadin.  How’d you bend the sheet metal?  Just got thin stuff ?  I think to lift the plow I’m either gonna try to find an old plow pump at a junkyard or used or use a atv winch.

6. Michael Boyink (Author) on January 23, 2005

   Are you thinking of hard-bolting the plow on? You’ll want to make sure the plow has some “give” in it - that’s what the shock does on mine.  Otherwise every little bump or pavement edge will transmit shocks back to the frame - sure to break something eventually.

   Not sure what gauge the sheet metal is used is, I just used a tree to form the metal around.

   I thought about the winch approach - bought one even - but it needed more amperage than the Jeep’s alternator put out.

7. Travis Powers on January 23, 2005

   Ya i was gonna use pins ta hold it on to the mount bolted to the frame.  Ya i seen taht shock but couldn’t really see where ya had it or anything plus I figured most plow syou buy dont have a shock or anything just a trip system and trip springs. so it shoudl be fine. 

8. Michael Boyink (Author) on January 23, 2005

   This setup just didn’t have any “trip” to it…so the shock serves that purpose. 

   The original plow had a verticle plate on the rear…the 2” square tubing with the ears is welded along the top edge.  The shock mount angles up from the bottom of that plate and hooks into the Jeep frame below the grille.  I used low-grade bolts in the shock eyes, in hopes that if the stresses were too great those bolts would break/bend first.

   If your plow has some kind of trip to it then skip the shock.

9. Travis Powers on January 23, 2005

   Ya this plow has a twin spring trip system.  Ya i just finsihed using angle iron to widen the plow it’s about 6.5 feet wide.. a little wider…  Now i just have to get some sheetmetal and brace it up a little more.  A girl I know said her dad may have an oil barrel i can have so i could use that since it prolyl already has a good shape and would require less bending.  So your metalyou used is thin enough that you could bend it yourself?

10. Michael Boyink (Author) on January 23, 2005

    Yep— just some scrap stuff that I picked up where I got the plow.  Didn’t take much bending…maybe 2” of radius…

11. Travis Powers on January 25, 2005

    Alrite I just got half an oil barel from a girl’s dad who owns a auto repair shop, so one of these day’s I’ll cut it in half and weld it on the angle iron wings.

12. Travis Powers on January 29, 2005

    I added sheetmetal and reinforced the plow pretty good heres a ongoing post on a welding forum i go on.  You’ll hafta register for pics but it takes like two seconds
    http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/showthread.php?p=112072&posted=1#post112072

13. Michael Boyink (Author) on January 29, 2005

    Saw them w/o registering…looks like that will work!

    Now we just need more snow..;)

14. Travis Powers on January 30, 2005

    Ya same here but I’m sure it’ll come soon enough.  Tommoror I’m cutting off the brace ends(Ran outta grinder cuttign disks and didn’t wanna run to the store) and then workin on making a mount for my blazer.  I wanna make one that so the plow pump or whatever i use will come off with the plow.

15. joe on February 24, 2005

    hey i thout that was pretty creative n smart. ive rigged quit a few plows in my life time but the whole tracter blade turnin into a truck plow is excallent. i just wanted to tell u i enjoyed it..as mater of a fact im waitin to get called by the county to plow as of right now. thats how i found your site lookin for sum things for my plow but ill talk to you soon ......

16. Matt Honner on November 05, 2005

    I’ve got an Electrolift on the front of my ‘72 Wagoneer. I need a seal kit for it and cannot seam to find one. The Meyers guys have told me it is no longer offered.  Might you know of a place I can find one???

17. Michael Boyink (Author) on November 05, 2005

    Matt I needed one as well, and couldn’t find one either.  My brother in law (who deals with alot of hydraulics in his business of brick and block & cement manufacturing) said to bring in the old one to a place that supplies hydraulic components and they’d be able to match it up.

    I did manage to purchase a NOS rebuild kit for mine that I haven’t used, but plan to sell it and the lift off together as I don’t plan to use this plow anymore.

18. Matt Honner on November 16, 2005

    I may be interested in them both. Where are you located? I am in Colorado.

19. Michael Boyink (Author) on November 16, 2005

    MI here.

20. Matt Honner on November 16, 2005

    Is that just an up down manual angle pump? It looks almost identical to mine.  The Meyers guy said mine was an E46/T6.  And how much might you be asking.  I’ve got a CJ8 that i may put the other one on.
    Where about in MI? My wife is from Canada, and her parents come down to visit over Christmas every year.  They drive over from Winsor to Detroit.

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