Rolling Dog Farm Blog

The dogs aren't the only ones needing to see a doctor recently. Last Friday, as our first real winter storm of the season approached, I hooked up the snowplow to the tractor. In the cab, I flicked the control switch a couple of times to move the plow left-to-right, and it dutifully angled left and then … stopped. No rightward movement at all. It didn't budge.

It was just a few degrees above zero, I'd been outside for over an hour already, and I just wanted to get the plow working so I could finish up chores before it got dark. I unhooked the hydraulic hoses, plugged them in again, and no difference. Oddly, I could feel and see the hydraulic fluid making the hoses move, so I knew the hydraulic switch was working … but the blade wasn't moving. 

By the time I gave up trying to troubleshoot on my own, it was 4:30 p.m. With the storm arriving on Saturday, I didn't want to be without a plow for the weekend. I called the wonderful guys at our local tractor outfit in Lancaster, Jon Parks Tractor, to see what they thought I was missing. Gary offered to come right out and look at it. (At 4:30 on a Friday afternoon, in near zero weather — that's the kind of guys they are!) He was soon at the farm, and he poked and prodded and turned this and turned that … and was just as stumped as I was. Nothing made a difference. (Which made me feel better, since I am no mechanic and have embarrassed myself more often than I would like to remember.)

We arranged for them to come back on Monday morning and pick up the tractor.

My back-up Plan B was to use the bucket on the second tractor to clear snow away … it would be clumsy and not pretty, but I could keep the drive mostly open. I went to plug in the engine block heater on that tractor — it was already too cold to start without it — only to find the block heater cord missing! Completely gone. It plugs into the engine block, and somehow it had dropped off over the summer or fall while I was doing other work and I never noticed. In 9 years, that has never happened. (Of course not … not until it was heading to sub-zero temps and a winter storm was arriving.) 

Plan C … didn't occur to me until Saturday, when I realized I could still plow with the original tractor, but only in one direction. It would be awkward, require a lot of backing up, and take longer, but it was doable. So I plugged that tractor in to keep warm, and on Sunday afternoon, after the snow stopped, I climbed aboard and started plowing to the left … always to the left. Once I had my head around it, and was thinking ahead, I managed just fine. 

On Monday the guys came to pick up the tractor, which is what you see in the photo at the top. It snowed a bit more Sunday night but only about an inch or so. The tractor should be back today. The problem? A $20 hydraulic coupler had failed.

Memo to Steve #1: Do NOT wait until the day before the winter's first storm to hook up the snowplow.

Memo to Steve #2: Oh, and remember to inspect engine block heater cords before winter arrives!

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