Winter Cycling - Snow plow on a bicycle

I have a funny idea for a snow packing trike. It's kind of like a conventional trike but has a row of several wheels along the back which you sit on to pack the snow. Maybe two of the wheels are driven for traction. Maybe even the front could be made of two old snow boards placed close together to prepack the snow. They would have to steer kind of like a front end of a snowmoble with some kind of shallow keel to keep a straight line.

In fact what about a superlight pedal powered snowmobile to pack down the snow or ride at slow speed. Here is an idea, but what about with ski's on the front instead of wheels.

Or a full track recumbent with wider tracks.

Been doing a little more design work on this 4 wheel pedal plow. A screen shot. I don't have much time for it. But if I can work it in as one of my projects I will have some plans in a few months.

I have made the front end kind of beefy to support the plow mechanism. I think it will be an a-arm pivot made from 1 x 2 tubular and fastened with pivoting joints to the bottom of a rectangular steel frame to support the plastic plow. Then it will have a turnbuckle on the top to adjust the level so you can set the exact level of the blade. So you can set the height of the blade to any reasonable height you want. So if you set it to 1/8 of an inch above the surface of the trail it won't scrap the trail surface very often but will get nearly all of the snow and slush. This will reduce drag and keep the blade from wearing out. A quick release pin on the go-kart frame side of the turnbuckle will be easily removable and can be inserted into another joint which will allow the manual lifting up of the blade for transport.

Hezz, interesting suggestion about tamping down the snow. Would be easy enough to try: could rent a lawn roller and see how that goes.

Seize, you're right about pushing aside the fresh snow. That was the original plan. But after pulling the plow on the weekend I realized that even in optimal pulling conditions the plow is a massive anchor. I have many obstacles en route. But I might give it another go in fresh powder on a weekend.

I'll give this some more thought.

This is a lawn dethatcher, (for those who do not know), available from Sears. It's a lightweight pull behind. The tines are spring loaded. You can add as much weight as you need to the tray. This might be the ticket to bust up crusty snow.

http://s.sears.com/is/image/Sears/07124793000?qlt=90,0&resMode=sharp&op_usm=0.9,0.5,0,0

I figured i'd mention a bike with good pulling power and can pull with ease, I build this bike from scratch, it looks odd and was very heavy but it had no problems pulling things and carriing things, you may even be able to attach a side blow on each side at back and one right behind it, This big guys name was ApocoCycle. lol

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v309/demonic_inu/100_0159.jpg

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I have been working on a newer version of the human powered snow plow. Here is an image of the model so far. I still have a lot of design work to do on it but for the most part it is fleshed out well enough to build a prototype.

I will attach an excel speadsheet that gives an approximate cost run down to build a prototype. This cost will vary for others depending on how much surplus or used stuff they can find. Hopefully by the fall I will have the design finished enough for a set of plans. However, I should be able to post plans for the frame in a short time.

The steering wheel is only for show and needs to be designed for leg clearance. I think a short stubby flat mountain bike bar will be best. At this point I am looking at 18/46 gearing, using BMX chainrings and chain.