Hinge Ripping

[John Allin]

Alot of us have written, on other threads, about the front pivot hinge on the Boss Vee plows ripping at the bottom - thus necessitating grinding out the tear and rewelding the steel to the hinge pin area.....

I'm curious if anyone has had that problem yet with their Fisher or Western Vee plows.

Feedback please....

[Mike Nelson]

John,
Actually ripped the top,center,and bottom was hanging on by a thread.Both Boss's were broken identical.When I called Boss and asked if they had any problems with 10' V's like that. Of course,no never heard of such a thing.
Didn't think they would have. We still like them though.

[Alan]

Originally posted by Mike Nelson
John,
When I called Boss and asked if they had any problems with 10' V's like that. Of course,no never heard of such a thing.


Darn, I guess Sno-Way isn't the only company that (abuses that line.

[Kent Lawns]

LOL, true, true.

I learned long ago that my company was "the ONLY one to have that problem." Thank goodness for networking and associations so I know that most equipment guys are less than honest and many are just plain liars.

[SlimJim Z71]

Alan,

I heard that same line from SnoWay when I called about the solenoid. But... they were really nice and helped me out, so I can't pick on them.

-Tim

[cut-rite]

John, haven't had any trouble with the hinge area on my EZV . Doubt that I will because the trip edge absorbs most of the abuse. I have however, trashed the A frame 1997 models were 3" channel iron now they are 4".
brad

[lawnboy53]

You have to watch the edge wear on the Boss vee's, when they get down they run on center section bottom plate. I had one that ran so low a guy hit a curb and peeled back the hole on the bottom. That let the hinge pin walk around and made for a trip tp my buddies Fabrication shop to revamp it. Boss says to run shoes to save the center section.... yea right.
Keep an eye on the edges the wear fast.
Dino, I'm thinking urethane?

[wyldman]

Was visiting another local landscaping company,which has 41 Boss "v" plows,and close to 20 of them were in pieces.Most were torn at the center hinge,and some were even buckled in half.The Boss rep was on site saying "Hmm,never seen that before".He chalked it up to abuse,and overloading of the trucks while plowing.Most of these trucks are all F450 with 10' slide in salters and 12" extensions,fully loaded with salt.A little heavy for plowing.There was also a descrepancy in the Boss catalog,as when the plows were purchased,that catalog listed the plows as OK on an F450.Seems a later catalog revision now excludes the F450,so the Boss rep is insisting there is no warranty coverage.I was considering a couple of new V-blades on new F450's next year.Hmmm....maybe not

[Kent Lawns]

They require a higher caliber driver. Our new guys and guys "rough" on plows get straight plows. (If they're too rough, they get shovels.)

A lot of it has to do with training, etc. Anybody can beat up and make of plow. I've seen them all.

Still, if you're going to buy a $40,000 truck, have a $25.00/hour driver in it, don't use a straight blade and loose $10,000/winter in productivity just because you might have to do repairs on it.

We have well over 5000 plow trips on Boss plows and not 1 time have we missed a snow event because of the plow. (Not Boss hydraulics) Doing repairs in the gaps of snowfalls and the offseason is built into our budget. Repairs we don't mind: downtime is unacceptable.

[iowastorm]

I agree w/ Mr. Lawns. I think a v plow requires a higher skilled plower, along with more a highter proactive maintenance program on the plow itself. Although we have had no problems with our Boss V's (other than the center shoe), I know we are getting close to replacing the cutting edges. If a guy doesn't take care of his equipment, it'll cost him over time. Just my 2 cents.

[john r]

I was thinking of buying a Boss "V". But after what I have read about the pivot hinge and finding a competant operator, and more maint. it's not looking too good at this time. Sorry you guys had to spend all that time, money, and agrivation to help me make my decision. Our Westerns are workin great!

[Edited by john r on 01-20-2001 at 07:55 PM]

[plowking35]

No problems with my western after 3 yrs. No problems as of yet. I have seen a fleet of 10 fisher v plows all buckled, mostly because of 8" steel edges instead of the 6" that belong on it,and cowboy operators, but no issue with the center area.
Dino

[GeoffDiamond]

Have I have a total of 5 Fisher V-Plows, 3 8.5' and 2 9.5's.
No problems with the 9.5 or the 8.5', 2 of the 8.5's are 97 Models.

Geoff

[Kent Lawns]

john r,

"sorry you guys had to spend all that time, money and aggrivation" to decide not to buy a V-Plow?

hmmmm....

....seems I remember my father telling me of when he first had hydraulic angle on his plow and everyone telling him what a waste of time, money and all the aggrivation & hoses, etc. It was much simpler to get out and pull the pin, move the plow and replace the pin.

[Mark Oomkes]

Something else to watch on the Boss V's is the senter pin on the back side that the plow pivots on. We just rebuilt these with 1 1/4" pins instead of the standard 1" because the holes were becoming oval shaped so we kept bending the pin and breaking the washers off the ends.

Has anyone put a U edge on a brand new Boss? If so have you been seeing any of these problems?

I'm thinking very serious of Fisher on the next truck.

[Mike Nelson]

Mark,
What is a u edge?

[John Allin]

Poly-urethane

[nsmilligan]

My EZ-V was put into service Nov 97, and was one of the frist ones sold here. Broke the A frame the frist storm, and had a problem with the deflector plate catching on the head gear. Called my dealer and Fisher send a rep up, all was replaced with updated parts. Super service.
Last year I broke the pivot pin, and had the bottom pivot crack. Welded and reinforced it, replaced the pin. This year broke the top two hinges on the right wing, welded and reinforced them. This plow has a lot of hours on it, and it hasn't been babied. The frist failure was the only one that took it out of service, and then only for a couple of hours till we welded it. All the other things were picked up in post storm inspections. The only other problem was a couple of o-rings cracked in the relief valves, so the wing wouldn't lock, 20 cent part.

Bill

[Mike Nelson]

Thank You John.
Mark,
We have put rubber on new ones and no problems.Don't have to worry about manholes.You don't get the same scrape as metal,but you can burn it off with Magic or whatever you use.No more chest into steering wheel and teeth jolting either.
Just went to poly last week.Stay tuned

[Camman]

I have a 7.5 fisher that the spring stop plates for the cutting blade trip are bending upwards. I know this is not related directly to the boss problem, but was wondering if anyone else was having this problem. And if so what did you do to rectify the problem?
At first I thought we were too rough on the plow, but our westerns never seem to have any troubles.

Pete @ Camman Landscape, Inc.

[Matt]

We have 2 v's and dad has one, none of the hinges have shown any wear and the rest of the frame work is doing fine. Have had a couple of fittings come lose and a few hoses get pinched, but we have rerouted them and zip tied them out of the way.
What are you guys hitting with these plows to be causing the damage that we are hearing.

[Mark Oomkes]

Asphalt.

I shouldn't complain that much, they are fairly good plows, just get tired of the same thing breaking all the time. Must be one of hose built-in weak points that John was talking about.

[Edited by Mark Oomkes on 01-22-2001 at 09:54 AM]

[Deere John]

Our oldest Boss has yet to show any of the problems that we routinely fixed with the straight blades - those being A-frame related cracks and bends. Neither the older one nor the new-this-year Boss has had any cracking. The typical pinched hoses were a problem on both units, but nothing else. (The stickers don't stick worth a .....)

I too don't mind (I expect) maintenance during off-time, but downtime is not acceptable. If my hinges crack, it is no big whoop to fix it - we inspect them often and expect to catch problems early.

I was at my Boss dealer the other day shooting the breeze - he had one customer (a logger like myself) plow his bush roads with his RT II setup. He paid no attention to the wear on the cutting edge, and wondered why, when he powered out the wings, that the whole plow mouldboard lifted outwards and up. It turns out that, over 36 km of gravel bush road, plowed many times, that he had not only worn the edge, the bottom of the mouldboard and the bottom hinge off, but also the lower 3/8" plate on the bottom of the push frame. He apparently welded everything back together with new steel, but me thinks there will be geometry problems. It pays to look at the things every once in a while.

I still don't think I've read of other brands having hinge failures.