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Scott
Dodge Dakota
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1/30/2008
14:19:52

Subject: RE: Snow Plow
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I have a 2000 dak and am looking for a plow. My weight rating sticker on the door post says 3166 for both front and rear axles with 215-75r15 tires. The truck came from the factory with 31-10.5-15 tires. So is this limit for the tires only? I would think all the suspension items would be the same otherwise, and have the 3600lb rating.



Matt
Dodge Dakota
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2/21/2008
08:46:36

RE: Snow Plow
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I have been plowing for a few year commercialy and the guy I have been working for has a fleet of dakotas. They are awesome little plow vehicles. One has a 7' western light duty, two have sno-way 7'6" poly plows, two have the 7'4" westerns and the last two have 7'6" medium wieght westerns. I get stuck driving the only Cherokee with a 6'6" plow and have driven my own 3/4 ton silverado with an 8' boss plow for the last 5 years so I have seen all ends of the spectrum. The dakota is by far the best setuup. Small enough to do drivways with ease but powerful and durable enough to handle a good size plow in a decent storm. I am from wisconsin and this year was definately a proving ground for a plow vehicle. I bought a dakota of my own this year and am planning on putting either a 7' or 7'6" medium weight western on it. The weight is really not that big of an issue and most plows now adays are so easy to take on and off that you are only putting the extra stress on the vehicle when you are using it to plow.



Kowalski
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2/21/2008
17:38:31

RE: Snow Plow
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Mine's an '00 too; with a 7'6" Fisher regular duty. 8 years plowing with no problems, I did crank the torsion bars up almost 2", that helps. The light duty will carry better over the road if you do much driving with the plow. But mine says 3600 for the front with 235-75R15; and also came with 31x10.5x15. I'm not sure we have enough info here to know why yours has the lower rating. Do you have a smaller motor, maybe with weaker torsion bars ?

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Scott
Dodge Dakota
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2/21/2008
18:51:57

RE: Snow Plow
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Yes my '00 is a V6, don't know if the torsion bars are different or not. I tend to doubt they would use differnt springs, but I don't know the weight difference between the 6 and 8 cyl. Maybe with the V6 they could get away with the 215 tires and the V8 weight would require the 235's.
I'm not to worried about the load, just trying to find a good deal on a used plow setup now. Maybe in spring there will be people trying to unload their used stuff.



Scott
Dodge Dakota
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10/27/2008
18:33:05

RE: Snow Plow
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Hey Kowalski, I finally got my plow setup on my truck. Its a Fisher Minute Mount LD 7 1/2 blade. Everything works great but I have a question. The undercarriage mount seems to be angled down slightly, so when the plow is mounted, the headgear is leaning fwd slightly. Not much of an issue, except that I dont think I'm getting the most ground clearance that I could. This may be normal, designed for Dakotas. Could you send me some pics of your mount? A side shot showing the mount angle in relation to the truck, with and without the plow mounted. If you get the pics, I'll give you my email. Thanks!



Kowalski
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10/28/2008
17:37:45

RE: Snow Plow
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Sorry, won't be mounting the plow til snow flies; and my camera is on the fritz anyway. The mount on the truck does seem to angle down slightly, I doubt that's just for Dakotas though. If the plow seems really low, take a look at where the plow pivots in the frame (to lift, not angle). My RD set up has three holes there - mine is set at the lowest hole (highest position for the plow). If yours is set differently, that could make the plow carry really low. Otherwise, the angle there isn't really going to make much difference - compared to where the plow carries at the pivot point.

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Scott
Dodge Dakota
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10/28/2008
18:35:57

RE: Snow Plow
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Thanks for your response. I do have two holes to chose from at the a-frame attach point. I have it in the top hole, I tried the lower hole and got less ground clearance, only 6in at the blade. With the top hole I get 9in, and if I add 400lb of ballast behind the rear axle I increase that to 10.5in. So I guess that is that. We'll see how it does when the snow flies. Question stemmed from seeing mounts on other trucks that seemed to be at quite a different angle. By the way, how many turns of the torsion bar bolts (threads) did you tighten. I've seen kits that will raise(re-index the bars) the front end 1-3in. for $70. Maybe?



Kowalski
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10/29/2008
18:09:06

RE: Snow Plow
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Maybe if you had a Chevy; generally no need to index with a mopar. Number of turns isn't important, and can even vary from side to side depending on the strength of the torsion bars. Most of us can gain close to 2", just crank the bolts and measure so both sides come up equally.
If using ballast in the rear, make sure it is well secured - don't want it coming forward in an impact.

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JWorden
Dodge Dakota
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7/21/2015
12:25:07

RE: Snow Plow
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This is an old thread, but has some good info. I have a '98, CC 4x4 with a Fisher HT series plow and the truck is great to plow with. I had a '90 Ram yard plow truck, but it ran poorly, smoked, leaked, was cold and the Dak had to tow it every time it got stuck. Why not make the Dak the plow truck, huh? My only problem has been shearing front shock bolts. Usually it's the left side, but the last time was the right. Anyone else have this issue? With these short shocks, there is so little travel before they bottom out. I don't think there is enough room for some sort of dual set up. Currently it has Ranchos, which I figured (maybe wrongly?) would be the heaviest duty shock out there. I see where some of you cranked up your torsion bars some, and like that idea and will give that a try. Maybe that's all I will need, and some new front shocks too?




Scott
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7/22/2015
08:19:53

RE: Snow Plow
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I installed timbren helper springs in the front to help with the load of the plow. They install in place of the oem rubber frame bumpers. They do raise the ride height a bit and stiffen the ride some, but handle the plow a lot better than without. Check out the Timbren website.



JWorden
Dodge Dakota
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8/07/2015
22:29:27

RE: Snow Plow
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Thanks. I was checking them out too and I think they will do the trick just fine. Well that and crank the torsion bars up just a bit.



Todd Shea
Dodge Dakota
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3/27/2017
12:44:02

RE: Snow Plow
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I have a 1994 dodge Dakota with a Meyers e47 classic. With
the push plates fit from the 94 on the 05?



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