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.

[Ed]

Sprucebunny,
We have had Meyer plows since 1975. The first was a pure hydraulic on Dad's 75 Dodge Sno-Fiter. He currently has a 8' on an 89 Dodge & mine is an 8' plastic (atually UHMW polyethene) on my 92 Dodge Diesel.

The biggest problem I've ever had with the Meyer plows are the pins that the plow pivots on when it trips. They need to be removed & greased yearly. If they are siezed up & the plow tries to trip it will create quite a mess.

Since you are mainly needing to open up a road, a V-plow is the only way to go. Hitting drifted or packed snow with a straight blade will throw you off to one side instead of punching thru. On a narrow trail or road this can cause big problems. You will end up in the ditch or the trees.

As far as a brand, the Boss V-plows have been around for a long time & have a good reputation. I don't know about Westerns version. The Meyer version is junk, stay away from it.

I would also highly recommend that you put a winch on the back of the truck. When plowing you will never need to pull yourself forward.

Ed

[moosehunter]

SB,
 I started with a Myers. Hated it. To be fair though it was wore out when I got it.
Next I had a Western, not much trouble with it, it was a good plow.
Then I bought a 8'2" Boss "V" plow. It has spoiled me. My new truck has a 9'2" Boss "V".
The Boss design holds the plow up tight so it does not "rock" or "bounce".
The "V" design takes most of the stress off the truck when plowing deep snow or road plow banks.
mh

[sprucebunny]

Thanks everyone !!!

I talked to someone who sells both Boss and Snoway and he recomended the Boss, also.

Yup I see a /\ in my future

I've also read all I could on a couple of snowplow forums and learned alot.

Ain't the internet great

[isawlogs]

  You wont regret the V plow . One thing I dont leave home with out when I go plowing is my trusted old friends ...  TIRE CHAINS ... They have saved my hide to many times . Get ice chains they have a v welded on the crossers . They take but a few minutes to put on and to take off , but the added traction you will get is well worth the time spend on putting them on .
 
  With that dually , get as wide a plow as you can for it . So that when in a V you dont have to be driving in the snow bank all the time . 

[sprucebunny]

Thanks for the reminder about chains, Marcel  Ya... I'll get a good set.

The Boss V is narrower than the Fisher by 4" but I like it better and they say one should push with the wings away from the stops so it will be wide enough

[Murf]

I put a 9.5' Western MVP on my truck just last week, we only had one little snow to play with it in, errrr, I mean try it out on. 

It is great, I've always liked the Western plows, but didn't like full trip blades, with the V-plow they had to adopt the sister company's (Fisher) trip edge system. The Ultra Mount system is also a real nice thing, the blade & pump go on & off in seconds and require NO effort at all, I can do it with one hand. 

Joan, I went with the 9.5' blade precisely so that I could clear more than the width of the duals with the blade back on the stoppers.

Marcel, do you chain both tires on the duals or just one ?  I do just the outside one and use a wooden block to put them on, it makes it a cinch to do. Mind you, with 1,000 pounds of salt over the drives I rarely have to put them on, mostly just for safety when working on the hills up north.

[beenthere]

Have you seen these 'wings' for pickups with plows (from Sidewing )  http://www.sidewing.net/

They look interesting, and if a long drive or road, should go well with a V-plow.

[Murf]

A guy near my place at the lake tried one, luckily before he bought it.

First time he hit a big drift the truck spun 45° and dropped the rear end in the opposite ditch. 

Mind you it was on a narrow winding icy country road, on pavement it would probably be alright, with enough wieght over the bum of the truck.

I think you would want to do some mod's on your truck also, it would take a lot of grunt to push an extra 4' of plow through the snow.

My trucks have been 'tweaked' and still, pushing 8' of heavy wet snow makes them work, I can't imagine pushing 12' of the stuff at once. 

[beenthere]

murf
Re: wing plow
Snows come in many 'varieties' and probably all of them wouldn't fit dropping front and side plows at the same time. Fluffy snows maybe, depending on depth. Wet snows likely just the V on the first pass, followed by the wing to 'mow' it further back without going off the road.  Depending on the jobs to be done.  Discussions of those who have them on the snowplow forums, appears to be positive (more negative from those who don't have them which figures). I'll bet too they would have to put some weight in the 'bed' and decide how far out the wing would be to accomplish the task.
I ran the wing on our Town Oshkosh truck one winter when the V-plow was on, and we most often couldn't run the V plow at the same time running the wing. But when we could pick up the snow coming off the V plow and keep it moving with the wing, it was much fun. 

Just another expensive 'toy'. 

Under the right conditions, near any plow will 'take' you off the road in a big hurry. beenthere too!

[Murf]

I certainly have seen the 'unknowning' offer opinions...... 

I have also though, seen the 'knowing' stretch things just a little. 

Rarely do you hear of somebody saying "Sure I paid a bundle for this thing but it's a pile of junk.".

If I have to make a second pass anyways, why would I spend a whole bunch of money to do it. I suppose there are circumstances where you just can't get a conventional plow over far enough, I just can't envision needing one.

As I said before, it would likely be fine on pavement, I used to do a lot of plowing with a 2wd Ford Super Duty, back in the early 90's. A couple of yards of sand in the box and away you go.

As for taking me off the road, there are enough people & things out there trying to do that for me, I don't need to help any myself. 

[sprucebunny]

An Oshkosh, beenthere, ..... my dream truck      Talk about serious snowfighting ......

The town truck I ran, an F350, had central hydraulics and a front/mid mount wing ... it might have been a Frink, like the fancy, flexible front plow. Having them mounted closer to the front works way better. It was great for the school parking lot but not great where icy or solid surprises were lurking in the snowbank. The trip mechanism over-reacted at times and the whole thing would get unhinged...

I went and looked at the Boss today and ordered it. A poly V. I'm relieved that the decision is over.... and there will be no chains on the plow ....now to get some work for it.

They are made in Iron Mountain, Michigan

Here is a link for the flexible plows , if anyone is interested.

http://www.wausau-everest.com/model.php?id=52

[isawlogs]

Murf.

  I dont have a dually . I have a 3/4 ton Dodge with the cummins it has favtory helper springs on it , I have a spreader in the box , 1.9 yards of sand with salt will hold her down  .  If I where to chain up a dually it would be the same way .. put a block under the inside tire and put chains on the outside . Some of the laneways I have to open i need all four chains on the truck ....    Two for traction and two to be able to turn ...    Cottages that have been coverted to year round dwellings where not constructed to have a winter laneway unless you had a snowmobile ... Some people think otherwise 
 
  Joan , 

 that is a nice plow .. its on the wish list . It will be my next one .

[Murf]

Marcel, I know what you mean about traction issues, we have several places we do that are a real challenge also.

The worst is about a 4 mile long single track lane that dead ends at the bottom of a BIG hill. It is a cottage road that grew in 100' chunks one lot at a time over the years as one onwer extended it to his place and then the next door neighbour did the same and so on. I don't think there is more than a stone's throw of straight level road from one end to the other. Like your case, half of these places are now year round residences.

Those places we do with a plow blade on the loader of a tractor in place of the bucket, and a blower on the back end, and chains on all 4 wheels.

We got rid of most of our salters, we have several spray tanks instead, man is that nice compared to rock salt.

[sprucebunny]

How long have you been using the liquids, Murf

Do you have any comment on the reports of increased corrosion of metal or the wiring failures reported on big trucks and blamed on calcium cloride

[Murf]

Joan, this will be our fourth season, the trucks have had up to three full winters (as we transitioned to liquid from salt) with no noticeable problems. I think the early problems were more related to the use of liquid NaCl, or liquid sodium chloride which was used to pre-wet rock salt to increase it's effectiveness. It is very nasty stuff.

It's certainly easier on the trucks than salt ever was. It is also a lot nicer if you don't use a full load, since unused salt clumps pretty fast, liquid just keeps right on sloshing around.  It's also easier to clean up after, a fast spray down to rinse off any residue left on the trucks, that is if the drive back to the yard hasn't already done so.

We have also noticed a big difference in certain sites that used to be prone to icing up, we pre-wet the site just before the storm, that way any ice that forms is NOT bonded to the ground, there's a layer of water below it. The plows can then clean it up when they slush out the place.

The nicest part though is being able to vary what you lay down, not just the quantity, in some places we don't use CaCl, we also use Magnesium Chloride, Potasium Acetate or a blend of Calcium Magnesium Acetate (CMA) which is very plant / environmentally friendly depending on the site.

It's also handy in that we have our main truck set up with two tanks, one is for concentrate the other for pre-mix. With CMA for instance, it is used as a 25% CMA, 75% water solution. By loading the concentrate tank full of pure (undiluted) CMA, and then filling the pre-mix tank 25% full of undiluted CMA we can get a lot of product on board, 5 times what we could as pre-diluted, ready to use liquid. Then we just top up the pre-mix tank once we arrive on site, to keep the travel weights down, once we get to the site our weights are moot.

There is a big cost savings having the truck run to the depot once for liquid instead of 5 times for salt to do the same job. 

[pappy]

   TIRE CHAINS ...

That what ya use in BIG snow (and ice) country !!!!!!

[jayfed]

Another snowplow made in the UP of Michigan up in the Copper Country is the Blizzard Snowplow ( www.blizzardplow.com ) which features among their line-up, one plow that has extendable sides.  It could be part gimmick, but, it is an interesting concept.  All of the county graders have a Boss 'V' plow on them, including the one that uses my front yard for a turnaround. (Saves me plowing bunches especially when he pushes my late winter piles back further.)