Rear mounted snow plow installed

[Fonz]

Because the Maverick is unibody it cannot accept a front mounted plow. I now use a front mounted John Deere snowblower. But living up north I have always had a back up plan in case problems arose with the tractor.

I still have a homeowners plow that I used on my last two pick ups so I decided to mount it to the receiver at the rear of the Maverick. It raises and lowers with a winch and an arm is used to swing the blade left or right. Most homeowner Plows are less than 300 pounds, well within the 400 pound tongue weight rating for my all-wheel-drive hybrid. I wouldn’t want to rely on it for all my snow clearing but as a backup, I think it will work just fine for me.

As a bonus, the plow height is low enough so that it doesn’t interfere with the rear camera or backup lights, which will be helpful for night snow clearing.I upgraded the winch with an $80 2500 pound winch from Harbor freight that included a wireless remote.

I have a small toolbox that I use for the various items that came with the winch. I also have a lawn and garden battery in the toolbox that I use to operate the winch.

I didn’t want to fool around with making connections to the Mavericks battery so I will keep the winch battery on slow charge for the season. All I need to do is remove two wires from the winch and I can take my toolbox into the house when I am not using the plow.

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[wax87]

From a Texan "What in hell is that contraption used for?" LOL

 

[TwoTone]

Jesus. The rear hitch isn't designed for the force that thing is going to put on the unibody.
Pickup truck front hitches for things like a plow or winch are tied to the frame.
This is just a bad idea all around.

Also the tongue weight is based around a supported load. You have most of that weight so far from the hitch it's nuts you thought this was ok.

 

[Long Time FFH Guy]

FAFO, I think it might work great as a back dragging plow. Back up to the garage door, drop the blade and pull the snow out. As far as pushing snow in reverse, I stand by my initial statement.

 

[gjallen3]

Because the Maverick is unibody it cannot accept a front mounted plow. I now use a front mounted John Deere snowblower. But living up north I have always had a back up plan in case problems arose with the tractor.

I still have a homeowners plow that I used on my last two pick ups so I decided to mount it to the receiver at the rear of the Maverick. It raises and lowers with a winch and an arm is used to swing the blade left or right. Most homeowner Plows are less than 300 pounds, well within the 400 pound tongue weight rating for my all-wheel-drive hybrid. I wouldn’t want to rely on it for all my snow clearing but as a backup, I think it will work just fine for me.

As a bonus, the plow height is low enough so that it doesn’t interfere with the rear camera or backup lights, which will be helpful for night snow clearing.I upgraded the winch with an $80 2500 pound winch from Harbor freight that included a wireless remote.

I have a small toolbox that I use for the various items that came with the winch. I also have a lawn and garden battery in the toolbox that I use to operate the winch.

I didn’t want to fool around with making connections to the Mavericks battery so I will keep the winch battery on slow charge for the season. All I need to do is remove two wires from the winch and I can take my toolbox into the house when I am not using the plow.

Very interesting. Coming from the Northeast originally, I always had a small plow on my vehicles. My last vehicle was a 2013 Grand Cherokee 4X4. But the plow was attached to a receiver in the front that was attached to the frame (not really a frame because after 2011 Grand Cherokee's are Unibody). It held up great and never any stress cracks or broken welds. It was much closer to the bumper, and the engine giving it weight on the front end. I'd love to hear how this works out for you after the first good snow storm.

 

[TJ2023]

I'll take bad ideas for 1000 Alex.

 

[bgn]

This is a very bad idea.

 

[StevePlusPlus]

Let's see what he can do!
Promise to check in after the winter.

 

[craigt502]

I’ve considered a rear plow too but the ones I’ve looked at were probably close to half that weight.

 

[JohnCondren1933]

Jesus. The rear hitch isn't designed for the force that thing is going to put on the unibody.
Pickup truck front hitches for things like a plow or winch are tied to the frame.
This is just a bad idea all around.

Also the tongue weight is based around a supported load. You have most of that weight so far from the hitch it's nuts you thought this was ok.

I 100% agree with this for the Unibody Maverick as an ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!

I love my Maverick because I know its limitations & its amazing when its limitations are respected.

But attaching a snowplow to a Maverick hitch especially, you clearly do not understand the difference between unibody like Mavericks & body-on-frame like every other truck sold in USA.

You WILL total the Maverick using a snowplow attached to its rear hitch especially, in anything worse than what a snowblower can handle.

Why?

A body on frame truck has everything bolted to a thick heavy steel ladder frame, this is a frame I could wack with a sledge hammer and no matter what I hit it would survive or be fixable with a hammer & welder to weld on some reinforcement plates.

Even so, Ford/Chevy/RAM require you order a truck frame setup for snowplows, with the correct reinforced mounting brackets, to warranty the half ton or bigger, truck for snowplow use.

I dont think Ford or Toyota warranty any variant of their 1/4 ton body-on-frame Ranger & Tacoma for snowplow work, possibly a very small plow with some sort of automatic disconnect -- I have definitely read the Ranger small print on towing & Ford has very explicit language disclaiming warranty work for snowplow that don't fit a VERY specific set of Ford parameters.

But no, forget playing fast & loose with a small body on frame, let's go all out with a friggin unibody vehicle like Maverick.

A unibody vehicle like Maverick has no sturdy rigid frame you can smash over & over with a sledgehammer & not total

it is entirely made up of sheets of steel with shapes stamped into them to give them rigidity for their weight -- when they bend or dent from forces coming from directions they were not engineered for, they are totalled you cannot unbend or pull out the dent & everything works-- the entire piece of dented stamped steel must be cut off & a new replacement stamped piece spot welded on.

But it gets even worse for Maverick.

The moderate crashes on this forum that have totalled the most Mavericks by far, are moderate rear impacts that only smashed the bumper but the rear lid was fine.

Maverick beds are part of the unibody with pretty aggressive crumple zones,
your Maverick with front mounted snowplow might survive impacting 1 icepatch under the snow,
but a rear-mounted snowplow Im putting $$ down on you totalling yr Maverick after hitting the 1st chunk of ice.

And watch your insurance deny the claim!! They routinely deny claims for F-150 trucks used as a snowplow without required factory mods.

Unless the Maverick is disposable to you, trade it in for ANY body on frame truck or buy an old halfton gutted beater truck to snowplow with.

Hauling? yes,
towing? yes,
even towing 50% over rated capacity with hybrid regenerative braking and gradual acceleration & lower speeds staying off highways? Yes

Snow-plowing? Hell no!
Every time you snow plow is Russian Roulette you total the Maverick.

 

[JohnCondren1933]

Very interesting. Coming from the Northeast originally, I always had a small plow on my vehicles. My last vehicle was a 2013 Grand Cherokee 4X4. But the plow was attached to a receiver in the front that was attached to the frame (not really a frame because after 2011 Grand Cherokee's are Unibody). It held up great and never any stress cracks or broken welds. It was much closer to the bumper, and the engine giving it weight on the front end. I'd love to hear how this works out for you after the first good snow storm.

Older Grand Cherokees are known for unibody built like tanks with an internal ladder frame to match the trails & moderate rock climbing of the body on frame Cherokee, but with a better ride.

The old Grand Cherokee had a heavy reinforced unibody & truck like mpg to go with it.

Now both the Cherokee & GC are tincan light unibody to meet the all important EPA CAFE standards for fuel efficiency.

And as much as I love the Maverick, I would be an idiot to try rock-crawling with it on anything you would take those older Grand Cherokee on.

I would not even be mounting a snowplow to a modern Explorer or almost any other crossover, maybe towing some sort of motorized snow-sweeper with a hydraulic shock-absorber hitch?

But pushing a plow with a Maverick? Hell no

The hitch reinforcement plates can take some pull shock, they will NOT take much push shock loads without crumple zones going & your truck is totalled because alignment will never be right without a rebuild stripping out the cab and sheetmetal exterior

 

[surfstar]

 

[ScottyC]

Could've just gotten a Ranger....but, your money....your rules. Let us know the hybrid fuel economy while plowing in reverse....

 

[icegradner]

Because the Maverick is unibody it cannot accept a front mounted plow. I now use a front mounted John Deere snowblower. But living up north I have always had a back up plan in case problems arose with the tractor.

I still have a homeowners plow that I used on my last two pick ups so I decided to mount it to the receiver at the rear of the Maverick. It raises and lowers with a winch and an arm is used to swing the blade left or right. Most homeowner Plows are less than 300 pounds, well within the 400 pound tongue weight rating for my all-wheel-drive hybrid. I wouldn’t want to rely on it for all my snow clearing but as a backup, I think it will work just fine for me.

As a bonus, the plow height is low enough so that it doesn’t interfere with the rear camera or backup lights, which will be helpful for night snow clearing.I upgraded the winch with an $80 2500 pound winch from Harbor freight that included a wireless remote.

I have a small toolbox that I use for the various items that came with the winch. I also have a lawn and garden battery in the toolbox that I use to operate the winch.

I didn’t want to fool around with making connections to the Mavericks battery so I will keep the winch battery on slow charge for the season. All I need to do is remove two wires from the winch and I can take my toolbox into the house when I am not using the plow.

Do not do this. The hybrid only uses the electric motor in reverse. It is not design for this.

 

[Cancunbadlands]

Plowing in reverse? I'm curious

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