WORKING Custom '85 Chevy K5 Blazer RC Snow Plow #Short
208In this YouTube #Shorts Episode, I show you a more fun way to remove snow with my #Vaterra RC K5 Blazer Ascender with my custom built snow plow blade.
I hate winter, I always have. Once Christmas is over, it can never snow again and I'll be good with it. But, living here in the midwest, polar vortexes are a thing I guess. As such, we get snow here in Central Illinois. Now, I am a wimp when it comes to the cold, so if I can stay inside and clear snow, that would be awesome. 6 years ago, I started a custom snow plow project when I was the Surface Content Specialist for Horizon Hobby, and I have decided to share what I did to build this.
I actually plowed snow when I was in my teens. I had a 4WD Chevy pickup with a Sno-Way blade on it. The interesting thing about that is Sno-Way, unlike a lot of other manufacturers, used a Lexan face instead of steel. This meant that the plow was lighter, and put less wear and tear on the truck. But, plows use the weight of the blade to bite in and remove snow and ice. To address this, Sno-Way provides a hydraulic switch that, when activated, provides 200lbs of down pressure right on the blade. Know this, I wanted to replicate it in RC Form.
I started with a pair of Spektrum RC S6040 servos. One servo handled the pivoting while another would lift the plow. I had seen others use a chain and let gravity drop the plow, but again, I wanted to emulate what Sno-Way did. Instead of a chain I actually used a turnbuckle link to connect the servo horn to the plow. This meant that the blade would be driven into the ground, just like my Sno-Way plow was if I wanted to! Sweet!
For the transmitter I went again with Spektrum and my DX6R Pro. The Android OS makes it super easy to setup, and the 6-channel operation made it ideal for this. I assigned the pivoting to the rotary dial on one channel, and the raising and lowering function to a 3-position switch next to the dial. This makes it super easy to raise, lower, and pivot the blade all on the fly.
For the truck, I went with a 1/10-scale Vaterra RC Ascender. The Ascender is what is called a rock crawler and is designed with a lot of ground clearance and torque to get over obstacles. It is also water proof, which is a definite must in the snow. This truck uses a solid front and rear axle design, so I would have constant 4WD at the ready. I also went this route due to the body, the '86 Blazer which is one of my favorites in the industry. Now you can get different bodies for this truck, and you can custom paint them and add lights as well. One of these days I need to put the light kit in...
This is a totally fun custom project, completely impractical but I don't care. I hope you all enjoyed a look at another one of my hobbies I have loved for decades.
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