twopoint6khz wrote:

I think the OP was more asking about the legality of a home-made plough.

To be honest, as they're going to be used very rarely at very low speeds, probably on quiet roads you'd hope common sense would prevail - but what's the betting it doesn't

Still, I can't see the likes of Jake Wright going through some long-winded type approval process, so I guess the legal side rests with the user of the plough rather than the designer. After all any snow plough is going to do some damage if you're run over by it, whether home-made or not.

I'm guessing then that your vehicle needs to be designated as a snow plough somehow?

I might be wrong and it's just a case of bolt it on and go, but I'd be very surprised!

Thanks for the reply. The plough won't be homemade as such, rather properly engineered by a local company, finished in a high vis yellow and I've made sure to include mounting points for side markers (or amber beacons) e.t.c. You can apparently change your tax class to snow plough (I think it's a special or exempt class) which then means you no longer need to purchase road tax, but the vehicle must be used for the sole purpose of clearing snow. Whether this rule only applies to highways agency vehicles I'm not sure, but it also means you no longer require an MOT. This doesn't suit our 90 as we need to use it the rest of the year too.

Public Liability wise, I've spoken to some contractors and building maintenance workers, and apparently they have to have 5 million or so. I also remember this figure been banded around when in conjunction with ploughing or snow clearance somewhere.

But dimension wise, I can't really find much information as such. Glyn, you are right in saying that some farmers got into trouble, one farmer was fined £250 from memory for damaging a road, but the fact is he was on the road and he was ploughing, so had he not damaged the road I assume this was ok?

As far as I can tell to make it legal it should:

* Not extend beyond the wheelarches of the vehicle
* Be visible, some organge beacons as well as yellow hi-vis worn by driver
* Plough will be powder coated yellow to stand out
* There shouldn't be any sharp edges
* the leading edge should preferably be rubber to avoid damaging road surfaces

T1G UP, I assure you I used Google, in fact the very page you sent me contains an article written by myself  Editor of FunRover - One blog. Read it!
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Romadog wrote:

Fit Replacement headlamps and indicators as plough will block those fitted already.
Would think that plough shouldnt be able to lower without two seperate actions by operator.

diesel_jim wrote:

I've got the plans here for the military snowplough bracket that raises and lowers, to be unit fabricated if/when the need arose for the older core 110. (some of the stuff I acquired whilst I was in)

Want me to try and scan it in?

If you could Jim that would be brilliant. We were thinking of buying a military style bumper to mount the plough to funnily enough.

Thanks for all the help guys!  Editor of FunRover - One blog. Read it!
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Glynparry25 wrote:

How much public liability are you able to get? Last winter farmers volunteered to assist the councils inclearing roads with their tractors, but they were warned that if they did they would be arrested.

I guess at the end of the day, if something goes slightly wrongyou could damage the road surface, which could then cause an accident and that could blow most public liability budgets out of the water.

Glyn

This is true. We were actually given a snow plough by Bucks council last winter then told we were not allowed to use it on the roads because insurance would not cover digging up the road surface if something broke or if we hit a car when snow ploughing. So we have a year old plough that we just have sitting around that we were given, so we are now fighting with the council for them to allow us to use it this year. We dont want a repeat of last year spending days on end pulling cars up and down the roads and out of ditches, where we would end up being liable if we damaged one of their cars in doing so.

What a crazy country we live in.  15 plate 2.2SW XS

Glynparry25 wrote:

Time to change your Mr whippy into yellow snow.

How much public liability are you able to get? Last winter farmers volunteered to assist the councils inclearing roads with their tractors, but they were warned that if they did they would be arrested.

I guess at the end of the day, if something goes slightly wrongyou could damage the road surface, which could then cause an accident and that could blow most public liability budgets out of the water.

Glyn

pom wrote:

yeah lots of the big 4wd john deer tractors round here with ploughs on cleaning the non 'A' roads which is pretty much all of them in the country.

Don;t be too worried about the insurance culture I'm sure the people who rely on the roads for work / school / emergency etc would be appreciative.

Pom

XS Pete wrote:

Thers a guy been selling these on ebay for a while now. I first saw them when we had all that snow last year. £1650 and I seem to remember there were two different versions. Look like a nicely made piece of kit. Maybe worth a look if youre after a few design cues.

Pete