Missouri Rolls Out Mother Of All Snow Removal Equipment

When I worked for the city, I prepared Bidding Documents and went out to bid for one of most unique snowblowers around to replace a 1970 Sno-Go truck. This sucker was HUGE, measuring 12 feet across, 9.5 feet high, has 3 primary augers, it's own gas engine, and a fully articulated hydraulically powered discharge chute. Built in Minnesota I believe. It could remove over 12,000 tons of wet snow per hour, and hooked onto the front of a massive CAT front-end loader with a quick-disconnect coupler. Originally these things are built for clearing airport runways, taxiways & aprons.

I forget the manufacturer's name as it's been 17 years since I worked for the city. Maybe Sno-Cat??? Jesshhhh, I'm operating on 'fuzzy-brain" this AM. LOL Now, I only wish that I had taken some pics of the monster in action cutting through 15 foot high snow drifts! Ohhhh myyyyy, you do not want to stand in front of it cause if it grabs you they'll never find your parts.

No, replaceable bolt-on steel wear blades are almost universally used. Nylon blades would abrade away very quickly and be cost prohibited.

When I was a City Engineer for a small Upstate NY city, one of my responsibilities was overseeing the Dept. of Public Works that was responsible for clearing over 200 lane miles. We typically received in excess of 65-inches of snow in any given Winter, thanks to our close proximity to Lake Ontario and it's "lake effects", one of the Great Lakes. A good majority of our plow trucks were equipped with what is known around these parts with "Patrol Plows", a fully articulated 2-piece plow. The wear blades would normally be unbolted, removed, and flipped over roughly every 8-hour snow plowing shift. These wear blades usually featured a top and bottom wearing surface. The mechanics would grind down these surfaces once both were pretty much beaten up from hitting irregular pavement surface, manhole and catch basin frames, and what not. It's more economical that way.....

Were the heck was this monster during the 1.5" snow that crippled StL last week? Every major interstate was closed at one time or another during the morning rush hour (which turned into the "morning unable to rush 4 hour commute to/from hell")? A means to save money? States are broke - cities are broke - who the heck is going to pay for this thing? Why don't we take a page from Top Gear and turn every combine in the state into a snow removal behemouth? Just imagine the jobs created with that one.

Crippled by only 1.5-inches of the White Chit? LMAO

Well, come up here to northern NY and see what real snow is! Most experienced upstate NY drivers these parts can negotiate through 8-to-10 inches (falling at 3-4 inches per hour mind ya) of the stuff with no problem without tire chains, humongous SUV's/AWD vehicles, etc. before the plow hits the road.....this area is primarily rural and has winding country roads, hill and dale like. Well, at least the Whitetail Deer population loves it!

We need no stinking plows......

BTW, I am literally dying here to try out my brand new Ariens 30-inch 2-stage 305cc blower....just to see how the heat handles work and how far it'll fling the wet stuff! hehehehehe Unfortunately, it hasn't snowed here since the freaky October 30th snow storm, except for the overnight "dusting" we received last night.

surprising when regions aren't used to the white stuff period, they become crippled with just a dusting of the white stuff.

schools close, federal offices go home early, people go to hardware stores to see what snow shovels look like, only to find out their supply of 3 that they had for years are all sold out.

A few years back, I was traveling and even their tires were bald.......talk about staying off the road.

We lived in the Wisconsin penisula, we had 36" in a day....made USA TODAY.... of course it was all lake effect, big fluffy snow flakes. hardest was driving and gaging where the road was. You see some people in the ditch, but not like it is now on the interstates.