Living off grid often correlates with poorly accessible locations - because that’s where the infrastructure is not.

On certain latitudes, especially near bodies of water, especially in remote locations - do not ask who the snow comes for - it always comes for you (and with a grudge). So, what ya gonna do?

Over here, a tractor being incomplete (it is great folly to go into winter with an incomplete tractor), snow is handled by an electric microcar. Since the microcar is made of thin sheet metal and plastic, it cannot carry a plow… but the rear axle being solid steel, it can pull one.

The plow is one year old, and was previously pulled by a gasoline car. It is made of construction steel: 8 mm L-profiles shaped like a letter A with double horizontal bars. The point of connection on top ensures it doesn’t lift too much while plowing. It’s currently fixed with an unprofessional and temporary C-clamp (there will be an U-bolt soon). It is pulled with a chain.

If snow is heavy, the L-profiles lift the plow on top of snow, and you have to plow the same road many times. Sometimes it veers off sideways. Generally, you have to catch the snow early with this system - if you’re late, you’re stuck. :)

Not many advantages, but dirt cheap. Don’t go plowing public roads with such devices - it is nearly invisible to fellow drivers, and cops would get a seizure.

  • activistPnk@slrpnk.net
    2·
    11 months ago

    I wonder if it would help to drag a mattress. In an area with gravel roads, over time the strips of the road where the tires roll gets pressed down and the gravel builds up in the middle and sides. So someone periodically pulls an old mattress with the fabric removed and springs exposed along the road to even out the surface… effectively raking the road. I wonder if that same thing might help loosen and make the snow easier to plow.

    • perestroika@slrpnk.netOPM
      1·
      11 months ago

      Interesting idea. :) What kind of a mattress do they use for leveling roads?

      The current plow has many problems:

      • it is imprecise, unless the pulling chain is short
      • regardless of the chain length, it “wags its tail” when encountering resistance (this can be a plus if the car isn’t powereful, though)
      • it is shallow and weighs less than conventional road plows (can be a plus because I need to carry it without pulling muscles or joints)
      • it has the simplest geometry, a triangle

      Generally, a snow plow does level the road also - but only a little because the ground is frozen and everything is slippery. When I look at my plow after working, the steel of the downward edge shines - it has worked hard against the ground.

      • activistPnk@slrpnk.net
        2·
        11 months ago

        What kind of a mattress do they use for leveling roads?

        I should have said box springs since some mattresses don’t have springs. I’ve not seen it myself just heard about it.

        I wonder if using 2 chains instead of one would help restrict the movement. You could perhaps also put the chains through a pipe to prevent slack, but then I guess it’d be tricky because you would need a plate on the axle so it doesn’t batter the axle.

        • perestroika@slrpnk.netOPM
          2·
          11 months ago

          Thanks, I’ll try to find a description of it. :)

          About using 2 chains: yep, I’ve thought about it. Attachment points would be at the outer ends of the first (smalller) bar of the A-shaped plow. Haven’t tried it yet, but will.