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By DAVID LEAMING
Staff Writer 12/18/2007

enlarge Staff photo by David Leaming

YANKEE INGENUITY: Keith Inman on Sunday cleans snow from his homemade snow plow that he built and mounted on his Honda Civic. Inman was clearing snow behind his apartment on Summer Street in Waterville. Inman said he used a snowblower housing attached to a tractor frame and bolted to his car. The unit has wheels and can effectively push snow. "The only drawback is I can't hit a snowbank hard or the car airbags could go off," Inman said. It works OK."

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Instead of relaxing in a recliner, when the snow begins to fall, Inman, 58, heads outdoors and fires up his 1998 Honda Civic. Then the work and fun begins. Mounted in the front of the small sedan is a homemade snowplow he uses to clear the large parking lot behind the apartment building where he and his wife, Irene, live on Summer Street. It is a labor of love and Yankee ingenuity.

Inman paid a man $30 for an old scrap snowblower body and attached a pair of $13 wheels he bought at Mardens. He then screwed aluminum to the inside of the contraption so snow would not stick to the 49- inch plow. Using a garden tractor frame, Inman then bolted the rig to the front of his car. Inman said it is easy to remove the plow and reinstall it when it snows. "Two bolts hold it on -- that's it," he said.

The front-wheel-drive car pushes the snow well because the plow wheels take most of the weight, he explained.

"I push the snow to a bank, back up and the snow falls out," he said. It plows along like a grocery cart." Inman then backs up for a new row and continues until the lot is plowed free of snow to about two inches off the ground.

"This last storm I finished plowing with my car before the landlord arrived with his plow truck," Inman said. There is one potential problem with a plow mounted to a car: "I can't hit the snowbank hard because it could set off the car airbags."

Inman said he could let the landlord clean out the lot but the seasonal chore is something he looks forward to.

"I'm handicapped, so I have to have something to do," he said a day after a nor'easter dumped 10 inches of snow.

"I plow often, a little at a time," Inman said.

"He is supposed to take it easy but this gives him something to do," Irene Inman added.

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