Snow plow brands and use

[sprucebunny]

I'm having a plow crisis Have 4 Fishers here and can't make one good one out of them.

I'm looking at buying a different brand like Sno-Way, Arctic, Curtis etc.

What kind of plow do you have , how much do you use it and how has it performed

Thanks

[beenthere]

A Western plow here.

[sprucebunny]

Nice set up, beenthere.

Why did you chose that brand ? How does it work for you ? What other brands have you had ?

[beenthere]

"Why that brand?"  just dumb luck I guess. I used to have an old jeep plow that I guess was Western, and that is the brand the truck equipment co. had that I visited when interested in mounting a plow to my new Deere.

It works fantastic. I can hook it up quickly, and clean the 1/4 mile drive and road out in 2-3 fast passes. Too quick when the weather is in the 20's and no wind, but not quick enough when the weather is below 0° and the wind is 25 mph. That is when I don the snowmobile helmet which dook me 35 years to figure out.   

Have never had a pickup with a plow, and have only had this brand. I think there are others such as Meyers that are similar.

What problems are you having with the four that you have now? 

[isawlogs]

 Aint the wright time to have crisis  

 I have a Western 8 foot pro . It has cable control , have changed a few things on it but they where mostly from finding things that tend to hide under the snow   I do plow between 40 and 55 driveway's and I like this plow . It is quick to move  up and down , side to side .

  But if and when I get me a new one it will be a V-plow 9 '2" wide . I have a buddy of mine that has one and there aint anything that comes near it when openning a road or parking for that matter . You can scoop with it , and it will carry a lot of snow . When in the * V *  you can open a road that has a lot of snow on it ... we have openned roads that had over two feet of snow in them ... With mine I would be able to get about the lenght of the truck before the plow would throw me sideways    Aint good ...  . One shot with the V and then winged back one way and winged back the other .

  Now for what brand ... Thats a million dollar question .My friend has a Boss plow . I would not be afraid of getting one of those , Also have a friend with a Fisher , he likes it very much too . Almost all of the plow makers have the V plow .. guess it would come down to $$$$ and or waranty ... I know there is one out there that has a five year waranty on there plows ... think I could remember the name   It will come back to me and will let you know .  
  They are heavier then a straight blade , but in my opinion for what I do with a plow it would be much better then a straight  blade .

   If you plan on opening the roads to your wood lot , sawing sight , your yard at home .. I would sugest you look into this type of plow ..
    

[SwampDonkey]

Sprucebunny, do you have a winch on the front of your ATV? If so, get a plow for the ATV. It's better to have a chain drive ATV for plowing though, reduces the life of the belt driven ATV's. My brother has used one for 3 winters and sometimes plows some of the neighbors. It can be a little tough on an ATV if it's wet frozen stuff. Don't buy one of them overpriced ATV plows, get the small welding shop type fella to make one, lots cheaper and better. My brother went with one from factory and he took it back after learning what a local shop could make for less $$. He told the dealer to keep his junk. My brother says what's ever on his mind.

[sprucebunny]

We had an ATV plow.... it's great for a small yard but I need to plow a 1/2 mile road that's 55 miles from here. ATV just isn't going to cut it Also I might be working for a small town plowing a couple of roads.

Thanks for that, Marcel. It's the Sno-way that has a 5 year warrenty. I'm Very interested in that brand because it doesn't have a chain for the up and down and would not bounce around or be as noisy over the road.

[SwampDonkey]

I had no idea 

 

[Deadwood]

I hate to tell you guys this, but Western is a Fisher Plow. They are owned by the same company and are built by the very same people. I know this, because when I was a fabricator I built a lot of Fisher and Western Snow Plows.

I fitted up the ears that bolt to the truck frame on the Minute Mount Plow ssyetm. If you check these ears out and see a CC stamped on them, there is a very good chance I fabricated them. The CC by the way stands for Cianbro Corporation, the company I worked for that subbed out to Fisher.

Say what you want about that company though. They are pretty shady in my humble opinion.

[sprucebunny]

Yah, Travis. Western is a full trip plow and on Fisher, only the lower edge trips. I read that thier parent company recently bought Blizzard, too.

The Fishers I have are  more than 10 years old except for one that is 5 but has been beaten hard and ALL the holes that the 1" pins go in are way too big. The best of the A frames is bent and the plow faces are all ripped.

I can make a plow but it won't be very good or even as wide as the truck The Fishers are simple but wear at the holes and then flop around and wear even more.

Five or six winters ago, I plowed for a town up here. It was a kind of fun job . The truck had this really neat plow that could change shape to pitch the snow left or right but that is a commercial unit and out of my price range

[Deadwood]

I love pushing snow. I worked for MDOT, but used a grader or a loader mostly. I was not very good as I only did it one winter. Of course that one winter was the winter of 1998, when we got the Ice Storm of 1998. I hope I will never live to see a storm like that again. (Those guys are crazy to do that for 10 bucks an hour in my book).

Because I had low senority, I pushed a lot of snow at night. It is kind of strange being out their at night, all alone with nothing but white in front of you. Of course with the radios and stuff you were never left stranded, but it was sort of surreal, nothing but white snow and your headlights. Call me strange I guess, but I liked how the snow would blow up over the front of the grader and there would not be another headlight for hours.

As for the quality of Fisher, I will tell you this. It depends on the number of orders they have. When they are busy, ANYTHING goes and no matter how many parts you make, it was not enough; when they have few orders, every weld you make is junk. Either way, a Fisher Plow is built as cheaply as possable and billed to the max.

[Engineer]

I have a Fisher plow that was bought new in 1965, mounted on a '65 Jeep CJ-5 and then a '74 CJ-5 and it's been sitting unused for 15 years in my father's backyard.  Gonna mount it to my tractor like beenthere done.

All the commercial plowing outfits around here are running Myers or Boss plows.  Very few V-plows though - most everyone is using a straight plow with rubber wings.

[theonlybull]

we've got a '71 fisher on our '77 bronco, and couldn't be happier with it.....   it's been one tough plow....   as for the pin holes wearing,  any plow will do that. 

trip edges,  i'd rather have that then a plow that dissapears anyday.   

[wiam]

The last plow my boss bought was a Boss.  It has much faster hydraulics than the diamonds.  The mount system works really well also.  There is a switch on the plow that will raise it into place once the wires are hooked up.

Will

[Corley5]

I plowed a lot with a 7'6" and an 8' Western Pro Plow and loved them.  We had a Meyers at the time and it couldn't even be compared to the Westerns.  If buying new that's what I'd look at first.

[jimbo]

  for personal use  il take the bobcat skid steer   work real good on driveways and parking lots , not as good on long roads tho becouse of its speed
                                                                             
                                                                                           thanks jimbo

[slowzuki]

Meyers and Diamond are one brand now,  I have an old Meyers with the old slow pump, my friend has a new Diamond with the new Meyers type E60 fast hyraulic pump.  The diamond blade is a lot heavier built than mine but mine is on a lot smaller truck so I need lightweight.

Ken

[Danny_S]

Here, you can have this 14' one way when I get it done..

[SwampDonkey]

Ah, the Craig crew comes piping in 

[Danny_S]

Heheh.. That was at the old shop.. snif snif    but she will be all bigger and better. We dont make the smaller plows for trucks. Just for loaders, backhoes and such. Willin to bet we could though, guess the market must be flooded.