Snow Plow - Made From an Old Hot Water Tank

I built a Snow Plow from an old hot water tank. Why did I build a snow plow? Let me tell you a quick little story.

I grew up in Australia. Sun, surf and stinking freaking hot. I said screw that and moved to Norway, an icy wonderland. In Norway though it snows and with all that snow, comes a lot of work. Work that I wasn't used to. Which kept me away from what I love doing. Making things in my garage. So I decided to make a snow removal tool for the back of my car so that I could lickety-split clear my driveway of all that white stuff and then get back into the garage and building cool stuff.

Ok let's talk supplies.

If you are going to build this thing like I did then you're probably gonna have to embrace your inner Hobo. I love a good dumpster dive. It’s free! It never ceases to amaze me what you find in dumpsters and what people throw away. I found the hot water tank, I found a whole heap of scrap metal and nearly everything you need. So head down to your local industrial estate and embrace your inner hobo. 

Here is what I used

Materials

• 200L hot water tank
• 40mm angle iron
• 20mm box pipe
• 40mm box pipe
• Worn tire
• M12 bolts
• M10 bolts
• Metal polish
• Metal paint

Main tools

• Mig welder
• Angle grinder
• Drill
• Spanner set

The first thing you are going to do is cut this hot water tank in half lengthwise. To do this you’ll need to cut off the thin metal outer layer and insulation surrounding the tank. You can do this with an angle grinder and knife.

Before I had even started I had made a mistake here. I didn't realize that this tank was actually two tanks in one and that was a problem because If I only used the inner tank it wasn't going to be wide enough for my car.

Like any problem though if you just cut up in the little bits you find a solution. That's exactly what I did. I cut it up into two mirrored parts. My plan was to join them together. My celebration though was short-lived. As there was so much flex in the thin metal of the tank. I needed something to stiffen it up. I tried my selection of garage p**n but to my surprise that didn't work.

I was going to have to add some metal to stiffen the thin tank material. So I ended up using 40mm angle iron on each edge of the Scoop. Now, I could have welded this on, but didn't have the right gas or wire. To be completely honest I was also scared of the internet. The welding police are so harsh. So, I bolted it together instead. Which worked out great as you will see in the next step. 

When I tested it by hand the police were called for a noise complaint. It seemed I was missing something. Most plows seem to have a rubber strip on the bottom. At least the ones that you use at home. Rubber was expensive though But I knew just the place to get free rubber… The wife however was not pleased when I took the wheels off her car.

Plan B. I headed off to my local tire shop and ask them if I could take one of the used tires they were throwing out. 

Cutting the sidewalls out was easy enough with a Stanley knife. The tread on the other hand... It has a wire braid in it. I didn't have the right tool to cut rubber and metal at the same time. So had to use the angle grinder. It was a little Smokey.

Like I said in the previous step though. Using bolts was a good idea as I was able to bolt the rubber in between the angle iron and the Scoop itself which worked out great. 

The mounting frame is the main structure which holds the plow in place and attaches to the tow bar of the car.

It is essentially just a rectangle made with 40mm box pipe. Two arms then attach to the car. Through two mounting pipes with locking pins that were welded onto the tow bar of the car..

The sliders allowed the plow to travel up and down and contoured to the ground. This system took a while to work out and in fact it's still not perfect. I started off with some round pipe with a 1mm tolerance. Anytime the plow hit uneven ground the tolerance of the sliders caused it to jam. I couldn't be bothered re-engineering this. So, I decided to cut the back of the pipes open and split them approximately 10 to 12 mm allowing for a much bigger tolerance. It seems to be working fine, but time will tell.

The lifting mechanism was designed to lift the plow off the ground if needed. It is just a trailer wheel which I modified to raise and lower the plow. The pin of the lifting mechanism slides in a elongated hole allowing the Plow to move freely when in operation but when required can be lifted up off the ground by turning the handle.

The trip mechanism was designed in case I decided that I was going to back the dam thing into something hard such as a curb.

The springs that I stole from my kids trampoline would stretch and the plow would pivot before bending or breaking. This did not work. The trampoline springs were not strong enough. Instead I ended up going for a shear pin system. A M4 bolt and nut set up. In theory the M4 bolt will snap when I crash into something and the plow will be saved. I tested this only with a hammer and I hope to god that it does actually work.

I covered almost everything that could possibly rust in Hammerite. To my surprise I only used about half a tin.

To get that shine we all like the stainless steel was polished with Autosol

With all that hard work. You are now ready to impress your neighbors with your shiny plow. That you spent way too much time building and probably is less effective than a cheap second hand snow blower :)

I hope I inspired you to get out there and try building an idea, no matter how silly you think it is.

Go ignite your creativity and make your ideas reality.

Thanks for checking out my project.