Stock-Drawn Equipment for Trail Work

Introduction

This project started as an investigation to find replacement parts for the stock-drawn hillside plows of yesteryear. Manufacturers no longer provide replacement parts for machines or implements that have been out of production for 50 years or more. The only sources for parts in the past were "bone yards" of implement dealers or salvage yards, or old-timers who knew the location of some old plows. The Amish, who still use horses as draft animals, have manufactured replacement parts for some old horse plows. In addition, they have built a couple of their own models similar to the 10-in (250-mm) Oliver hillside plow, using a similar cast plowshare.

Besides looking for replacement parts, the Missoula Technology and Development Center (MTDC) fabricated a couple of stock-drawn trail implements. The Center duplicated a grader initially developed and used on the Fremont National Forest's Lakeview Ranger District. The Center also fabricated a copy of a combination plow and grader implement developed in the early 1970's, MTDC drawing no. MEDC-529.

The purpose of this project was to:

• Locate manufacturers, sources, and suppliers of stock-drawn implements that could be used for trail tread maintenance and construction.
• Estimate production rate of the implement, (for instance, feet or miles of trails that can be covered in an 8-hr day).
• Assess skills required of equipment operators and how easy or hard the implement is to use.

This information would be obtained for the following implements:

• Vulcan hillside plow or similar plow
• Beatty grader
• Fremont trail grader
• MTDC combination plow and grader
• Trail Ace and Trail Scoop.