500 HP Snowblower - Meet Mr. Plow

Mr. Plow started his life as a runway blower for the Harrisburg International Airport. This airport snow blower was originally rated at 3,000 tons-per-hour (TPH). It features a Caterpillar 3208 V-8 diesel drive engine and a Caterpillar inline-6 Model 3406B auxiliary engine. The blower head is 106" wide and is hydraulically driven.
Mr. Plow was originally built in 1982 and refurbished for PennDOT in 1987. It has performed well over the years. The mileage is very low due to it only being used at the airport.
Currently, Mr. Plow provides winter snow removal on a private road located in Marquette County, in Michigan's beautiful Upper Peninsula.

[@bdawg8907]

Wicked machine!

[@andrewalexander9492]

Interesting that the blower is hydraulically powered. Most of the large dedicated snowblowers I've see have the blower driven by a shaft. Presumably because of the power losses with hydraulic power. Yeah hydraulic power is more flexible, but on a dedicated snowblower, you really don't have to move the blower head around that much. Anyway, cool machine. I wish I had a large snowblower like that, and a road to plow with it.

[@irontrails906]

In airport land this machine also had a big broom. They said it was damaged and that truck was only used with the blower. I'm guessing hydraulics make it much easier to switch between implements...

[@andrewalexander9492]

@@irontrails906 OK, that makes sense I guess.