Off to the Maine Snow Plow Rodeo

[Katahdin]

Hey guys, the missus and I are bringing the M109 to the Skowhegan, ME area and it will be on the Fair Grounds on Thursday June 6th. This is the site of this year's Maine Highway Congress, a 1,000 person public works event that includes workshops, vendors, and equipment demos. It's also where the annual summer Snow Plow Rodeo is held so public works employees can compete and show off their snow plowing skills and in and around obstacles, etc. For me this will be about a 200 mile road trip and include an overnight stay at a local campground.

The whole thing was the wife's idea so I had to go along with it. She and the Deuce will be representing the Maine Waste Water Control Association at this event. She figures the deuce will attract a lot of public works guys to her table and be a good networking tool. I say it really doesn't have anything to do with wastewater control, except for maybe being turd brown.

Anywho, I'm looking forward to the trip! Let me know if I'll be seeing any of you there!

 

[Katahdin]

Made it up to "Skow Town" this afternoon without any road problems, first the good news:

-The wife is loving the camping experience so far, this could have soooo gone the other way for me!

-The M109 was a big hit with the campers in the RV park, and its a really nice RV park. There was also a local newspaper reporter here who plans to be at the fairground and may do a writeup on my wife and the truck. My wife just started her own consultant business so its good free publicity!

Now the bad news... I sent an engine oil sample to the Napa lab over two weeks ago, First Class mail, and it took 10 days to get there. I was hoping to have the results in time to make an educated decision to change the oil, but I did not get the oil sample results (by email) until after we arrived in Skow Town. I rolled the dice, decided not change the oil, and looks like I may have chosen poorly:

DIAGNOSIS
Bearing/bushing wear indicated. Elevated Iron level
indicates possible crankshaft, camshaft, gear train,
cylinder wear, or corrosion. Dirt level (alumina + silica)
slightly elevated. Water content acceptable. Fuel
dilution satisfactory. Viscosity within specified operating
range.
Action: Change oil and filter(s) if not already done.
Check filter and air induction system. Check for lower
than typical oil pressure. Inspection for source of wear
may be warranted at this time. Resample after
corrective action to further monitor.

So I maybe changing the oil in the WalMart parking lot before we leave for home and hoping for the best.

That aside, we are having a great time so far and tomorrow should be fun too.....but not for the other rv campers we'll be wakeing up at 0600 as drive through the rv park on our way to the fairgrounds....

Anywho, here are some pics from the first day!

 

[Katahdin]

Home!

I'm pleased to report we made it home tonight without any mechanical problems!

Here's a few pics from the Skowhegan Fairgrounds. Ironically, Maine Waste Water "table" got really busy and I had to help out and completely missed the "rodeo" in the process!

That's OK tho. The M109 was definitely a big hit over in the exhibitor section. I had a lot of fun talking to people about it and in a lot of cases, other people's experiences driving deuces when they were in the service.

I'm also amused to report "Mrs. Katahdin" is now a member of the exclusive "I fell asleep in a running deuce club." She nodded off a few times in the cab on the ride home, LOL!

 

[Katahdin]

There was also some other cool equipment to see, these public works/municipal guys sure seem to enjoy playing with neat stuff:

 

[Katahdin]

There was also some fine Yankee Farmall Ingenuity on display. This thing looks like it was some sort of tracked log skidder/buzz contraption:

 

[Katahdin]

By the way, I did end up changing the oil in the local wal mart parking lot before the 100 mile ride home.

After thinking about it, a little iron in the oil probably makes sense for an engine that was built by the lowest bidder 40 years ago and sat most of its life in a motor pool. We're just knocking the rust off I guess. The things I was worried about- moisture, fuel dilution, and signs of antifreeze were all negative.

I am proud to say I had the old oil drained before Mrs. Katahdin could come back from the store with two ice cream bars and the last gallon of Rotella. Also, hardly a drop was spilled on the pavement and we took all the old oil and rags home with us!

 

[BBoomerBootCamp]

Nice looking time,
thanks for posting,
any old Oshkosh or Walters plow trucks get in the way of your camera?

 

[Carlo]

WOW A snow plow fair! I wish we had them here. I plow snow in the winter and love to see the new things in the market even though I cant afford them! Thanks for the pics.

 

[Durango_USMC]

Thanks for the pics. Looks like a great time

 

[Katahdin]

There wasn't any old snow plow stuff at this fair, but they did have lots of new stuff for sale that would make a deuce seem small. A great place to see old snow plow tech is the Cole Land Transportation Museum in Bangor Maine, supposedly its the biggest public display of antique snow removal equipment in the USA. Here's video about some of the stuff they have and a few interviews with the old timers that ran the equipment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCgf56POaz0

 

[Carlo]

Thanks for the Link and pics!