This is kinda long but yea.

The Bad part:

So yesterday morning I got up nice and early to find 3" of snow on the ground. I headed off to work to plow with my F250. After clearing the main driveway and 1 pass along the back of the building I accidentally dropped a wheel off the pavement. Tried to back up but did nothing but burn rubber with the bald rear tires. Tried to use 4x4 but there wasn't enough room to get the auto hubs to lock in so that was useless.

So I got out and grabbed my F150 and my tow strap. Hooked up and put the F250 in neutral and 2wd. I pulled it out and everything seemed to be fine. Went and parked the F150 on the other side of the lot again so it was out of my way and got back in the F250 to start plowing again. Put it in reverse and nothing happened... Tried to put it in drive and it still wouldn't budge. It was like the truck was stuck in neutral. So I got out and looked underneath. Nothing was leaking and everything looked fine. Got back in and tried to move it again. Still nothing.

At this point I was getting pissed because I was tired of this stupid truck costing me money.

I tried to put it in 4x4 and moving. Went to back up and realized that the rear tires were spinning but the front seemed to be dragging. So I stopped and put it back in 2wd. Now it managed to back up but I knew something was wrong if it was dragging tires. I got back out and walked around the front to find this:




Yep, my front passenger tire was no longer attached to the truck. Dropped the plow off and waited for the flatbed to get there. After getting it loaded up and dropped at the dealership down the street I had to just sit and wait until I got a call. Luckily with the bad weather not many customers were coming into the service department that day so I got it in almost right away. Found out that the bolts holding the hub onto the spindle had come off. Previous owner had a brake job done right before I bought the truck and it seems they didn't do it correctly.

While it was in the air I had them check the drivers side. Same thing... Fortunately it seems that they are going to be able to save the hub from the passengers side since it wasn't damaged. Now I'm just waiting for them to get the parts in.


At this point there was already 3-4" of snow on the ground. At it was getting worse. I had to find a way to get the lot cleared because the office was open.

The Good Part:

I now needed to find a way to clear the lot. All the other plow companies were going full steam with no extra time. Soonest one could get there would be almost 4 PM which would've been too late.

At first I headed back to the Ford Dealership and started looking at buying a 2009 F250 RC/LB with the 5.4 and 4x4/auto trans. Then I would've had to go get a plow mounted. I would've gotten an amazing deal from them but it was just far too costly and I simply couldn't afford to do it.

My next option was something smaller but much cheaper. An ATV. The only dealer I could get on the phone was 10 miles away and didn't open until 10 AM. So I headed out to their store which just happened to be on a back road that was plowed hours ago and had 3-4" of snow on it already.

When I got there they had a 2009 Polaris Sportsman 800 X2 with the winch and everything already on it. They said it would take them a couple hours at most to mount the plow and get it ready to go.

Called the bank and got the financing all set up and headed back with a check. Waited around for 30 minutes to an hour before it was ready and I now had it in my possession.

I had always wanted to get an ATV. I had hoped I would have more than 5 minutes to choose it. Got it loaded up on the trailer I had to buy for it and headed back to work. Got there and found 6-8" of snow. Then I spent the next 4 hours sitting on that ATV. I was amazed at how something like that was able to get this job done.

It was defiantly not the right tool for the job but it worked and was my only option.

It was way more fun to drive than the F250 but it was WAY colder.

Best part was being able to go 30mph+ through the parking lot and drift around to get into position.

So in the end I have a truck that wasn't as broke as it originally seemed and an awesome new toy to have some fun with this summer.

Here's a couple pics of it on the trailer in my driveway:

 

nice ATV and story. Now you just have to thaw the bike out...haha. When me and my friends rode our ATVs in the snow our front wheels froze up and wouldnt spin.

 

bolts fell out of the hub and you had to take it to the stealership? just jack it up and put some bolts in it.

had somthing like that but not nearly as bad happen to me. a cailper bolt on my driver front fell out and i could hear it drag on the rim when i hit the brakes. used the E brake to stop so i didnt tear up my rim. *was only a mile from home* took out the other one and matched it up and fixed it.

nice quad sucks you had to choose right then. can ya go back and trade it in for one you really want? looks like a nice one never ridin a polairs. only a honda 350 honda 650 and a raptor 660

yeah it got pretty nasty out last night was out driving at midnight and all the main roads and highways had 3-4" on them was slidin sideways the whole night!

 

Why may i ask were you plowing in 2wd???. That makes no sence to me. I see people all the time with 4x4's spinning there tires because they are not using 4x4 WHy i ask WHY??? I hate f&^in people sometimes....

 

I didn't know it was just a bolt. At first they said that the hub was trashed too but after a little work they managed to save it and save me some money. I also wasn't too fond of laying in a pile of snow to try and figure what was wrong.

Even if I could trade it back in I don't think I would. This thing hauls when you pour on the throttle. I'm pretty happy with my choice. I had 1 other other choice at the time but that one had a passenger seat and cargo rack on the back. This one has that black dump bed on it and can hold like 400lbs in it.

Sideways? I'm guessing your truck is 2wd only?

Jobs like this are the reason I own a 4x4 truck. If I didn't have 4x4 I never would've gotten that F250 out and never would've made it to the ATV dealer or back.

There's too much turning involved with where I ahve to push the snow. Once the plow goes through 2wd works fine and 4x4 would bind up and break.

 

i can understand that. i never take anything to get worked on any more i do it all my self.

yes my truck is 2wd. so ur saying since i dont have 4x4 i cant get threw 4-5" of snow? i went threw 6 last night and today. as well as 15" last year. 4x4 is just more moving parts to go wrong IE a hub bolt. love my 2wd i dont think i would trade it for a 4x4.

yeah he plows in 2wd because turning with 4x4 engaged sucks and doesnt turn very far. my buddy had a 4x4 bronco with weleded front and rear difs he could turn at about a 10* angle in 4x4 haha

 

I never said that a 2wd truck couldn't do it.

 

thats what you said. granted i would have had a hard time pulling the 250 out i prob would have got it at some point. but i can drive threw the snow with no probs.

 

Talk about an IMPULSIVE buyer

 

Eh, not so much of an impulse buy as it was an oh **** I need to do something now buy.

If I could've found a plow company that would do the lot for the day I would've done that instead. I did not plan to buy an ATV for a long time but at this point I had to find something to work with.

 

Might've been cheaper to get the plates for the F150 and plow with it...

But either way, nice new toy! We used to plow our yard with a Honda Foreman 450 but when we moved the new yard was far too big so my dad bought the K1500 for that.

 

Trust me, if it was simply a matter of the truck not being registered for higher GVRW I would've taken care of it.

The problem is that my trucks FGAWR is 3600lbs and the minimum required by dealers to do the install is 3750lbs. Now it is most likely just matter of a different set of springs. I didn't have time to learn how to do the install myself or I would've just bought it and done that. Also, not many dealers had the proper truckside mount in town. There's tons of blade but no mounts for the truck.

 

That's kinda weird... I guess I didn't expect there to be a rating restriction for plows. I see tons of half-tons and quarter tons with shiny new plows on them all the time. Smaller plows, maybe?

 

Congrats on the Polaris. I have two of them and they are great bikes.

 

Yeah, I know some impulsive people, Spends $2k without thinking about it.

I've never met anyone with a nice 150 and broken down 250 and says to themselves.

"Hmm. My 250 is in the shop. I guess I'll go buy a 2009 F-250 with plow package"

I mean, congrats on the 4 wheeler but Deciding to drop $40k in a day out of the white is pretty impulsive to me.