Tennessee DOT Mack GU713 Snow Plow Trucks

[Jarhead Enterprises]

Delivering 2 of these 2017 Mack GU713 Snow Plow Trucks to the Tennessee DOT Garage here in Knoxville this week. Trucks are MP8-455M, 8LL transmissions, 20k front, 46k rears on M-Ride suspensions. Pretty exciting - they have seen the light on IHC trucks hopefully!

[Oso2]

Americans floor me every time. There is NO wing plow on that truck! The State spends all that money on a hurkin' big Mack with a 450hp engine, and then fails to spec a wing plow, thus making it half as effective as a regular plow.

BTW, a friend of mine owned a couple of Ontario Ministry of Transportation snow plows. They were tiny trucks compared to this: two single axle Fords - an L-9000 with an L10 Cummins and a L-8000 with a 225hp 3208 Cat. Both had wings.

P.S. Upstate New York has some nice plow trucks. I'm sure other parts of the States do too.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Oso2

[mrsmackpaul]

Mate that looks like the Dame Edna of trucks "Hello Possums" only Aussies will get that

those head lights LOL I can see why they are there but well like Dame Edna LOL

 

Paul

 

 

[james j neiweem]

I may be stupid. Hm May be? But what is the purpose of that mid frame little plow?

[Oso2]

18 hours ago, james j neiweem said:

I may be stupid. Hm May be? But what is the purpose of that mid frame little plow?

It's a scraper. The front plow is designed to ride on top of hard surfaces and not take out things like curbs, speed bumps and the like. The bottom plow is like a grader blade. It will dig in and either remove or scarify any ice surface (i.e. to make the surface rough and provide traction).

 

 

[MACKS]

On 5/19/2016 at 11:55 PM, Oso2 said:

Americans floor me every time. There is NO wing plow on that truck! The State spends all that money on a hurkin' big Mack with a 450hp engine, and then fails to spec a wing plow, thus making it half as effective as a regular plow.

BTW, a friend of mine owned a couple of Ontario Ministry of Transportation snow plows. They were tiny trucks compared to this: two single axle Fords - an L-9000 with an L10 Cummins and a L-8000 with a 225hp 3208 Cat. Both had wings.

P.S. Upstate New York has some nice plow trucks. I'm sure other parts of the States do too.

All depends on what type of roads these trucks will be plowing,wing plows are only good for interstate hwy where there are no cars parked on the side of the roads.

[Jarhead Enterprises]

I am originally from Upstate NY and spent 6 winters in snow plows. Tennessee gets maybe 3-4 storms a year with not a lot of snow - I have been in East Tennessee 6 years and the worst I can remember here in Knoxville is 5-6 inches which was gone in a week. These trucks have been designed to keep main roads clean and probably will do more sanding and salting than actual plowing.

[HeavyGunner]

On May 19, 2016 at 9:55 PM, Oso2 said:

Americans floor me every time. There is NO wing plow on that truck! The State spends all that money on a hurkin' big Mack with a 450hp engine, and then fails to spec a wing plow, thus making it half as effective as a regular plow.

BTW, a friend of mine owned a couple of Ontario Ministry of Transportation snow plows. They were tiny trucks compared to this: two single axle Fords - an L-9000 with an L10 Cummins and a L-8000 with a 225hp 3208 Cat. Both had wings.

P.S. Upstate New York has some nice plow trucks. I'm sure other parts of the States do too.

All our trucks in MT have wings. Lots a miles of road to plow with very few people and resources.  

Edited May 20, 2016 by HeavyGunner

[Oso2]

7 hours ago, MACKS said:

wing plows are only good for interstate hwy where there are no cars parked on the side of the roads.

Hardly. Wing plows can be used in all but the tightest of spots. They aren't good for old, pre-automobile neighbourhoods - that I'll grant you. But just lift the wing! Everywhere else, they work well. Come up to Eastern Canada - pretty much every snowplow has a wing (Although big cities like Toronto tend to use front end-loaders with plows for the tight areas, btw).

 

 

 

 

 

[70mackMB]

City of Manchester, NH runs double wings in the city. Depends which side of the street the cars are parked as to which wing is down. A one way street can be completely plowed in one pass. NH State highway department will plow the interstate in convoy. Lead truck will have double wings and plow to the left. Every truck has a wing including the hired trucks. I even have one to do my own driveway.

 

 

 

 

 

[hatcity]

tow plow reduces the need for wings

[grayhair]

Ah, whenever I hear someone mention wing plows I am reminded of a fellow whose house was on a downhill stretch of a rural country road outside of Buffalo, NY.  The county plow truck drivers would sometimes come all the way down the hill without lifting the wing plow and clip off every mailbox along the way, post and all.  Just lazy and mean.  The mailboxes and their posts, thus sheared off, would flip end-over-end flying through the air.  I've seen it and quite a sight to see.  Well, this fellow got tired of replacing his mailbox.  His solution: Got a piece of railroad track, drilled a hole 8 feet deep, inserted the railroad track, back filled with concrete, and mounted his new mailbox on top.  Picture one big ass truck, V plow on the front, full load of salt in the box, getting up a head of steam downhill, really traveling now, air cloud of snow mist...  That mailbox ripped the wing plow right off the truck.  Payback at its finest.   

Edited May 21, 2016 by grayhair

[29Bowtie]

On ‎5‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 6:12 PM, grayhair said:

Ah, whenever I hear someone mention wing plows I am reminded of a fellow whose house was on a downhill stretch of a rural country road outside of Buffalo, NY.  The county plow truck drivers would sometimes come all the way down the hill without lifting the wing plow and clip off every mailbox along the way, post and all.  Just lazy and mean.  The mailboxes and their posts, thus sheared off, would flip end-over-end flying through the air.  I've seen it and quite a sight to see.  Well, this fellow got tired of replacing his mailbox.  His solution: Got a piece of railroad track, drilled a hole 8 feet deep, inserted the railroad track, back filled with concrete, and mounted his new mailbox on top.  Picture one big ass truck, V plow on the front, full load of salt in the box, getting up a head of steam downhill, really traveling now, air cloud of snow mist...  That mailbox ripped the wing plow right off the truck.  Payback at its finest.   

That reminded me of a friends Dad up here, who got tired of people running over his mailbox, he did a similar thing, 12 feet of steel pipe, with only 4 feet above ground and set in concrete, but with soil covering the concrete. one night a 4x4 with a big bush bumper tried to take it out as a prank. Surprise, truck stopped and barely marked the mailbox post. Ouch.

[j_martell]

All of the plows (big trucks) in the county have wings, a few have mid-mount scrapers.  They use pick ups for small spots and loaders when the p/u won't fit lol. It's also not uncommon to find a grader plowing a back road.....likely a "make work" deal.  There's a lot of two lane country Rd around here they can plow the lane and most of the shoulder in one pass.  We also have a few tow plows.