Quote Originally Posted by foxtrot View Post
The shittiest plow story I think I've ever heard is when they catch on a bridge expansion joint. I'm aware of that outright stopping a plow COLD. I'm sure some experience makes that mostly preventable. But yeah, people suck too, of course.
Blew 3 plows off of trucks in 19 years.
And these were 3 1/2 ton bobtail trucks with 14' plows not "Fred's Landscaping Service" pickups.
1- EB I-76 at Clear Creek expansion joint. Rolling along at 10 mph or so, started lifting the plow to clear the joint and the last 4 inches of the plow dropped in the joint.
2- WB US36 at I25 interchange, nearly the exact same thing but aside from busting the plow loose it also diamonded the frame, broke the transmission casing. Basically totalled the truck.
3- NB Wadsworth at 52cnd Ave, cutting left turn lanes and caught the left edge of the plow on about 6 inches of curb bull nose. Plow ended up in the right lane, I recall seeing it glide across the lanes on the ice.
Funny thing, you hit that stuff at 20mph+ and the plow just rides or bounces over it.
Go slow and that is when you tear stuff up.
In all 3 instances the bosses never said a word, I was always good on the equipment and they were classified under "Shit happens when your doing your job".
We had some clowns that would trash 4 plows a year though.
They never progressed far in their career.
We had one guy who was out in a brand new tandem truck, probably 3/4 of a million $ truck. It was the second time the truck had been on the road for snow removal, he caught a manhole cover that was sitting high and it put the truck straight into the curb. Broke the head frame to the plow, broke the frame of the truck and diamonded it and the transmission case, slammed the bed into the back of the cab.
Destroyed the truck on its second shift.

Good times.