V plow vs Single blade with rear plow

[AB Lawn Care]

Which set up would be cheaper and which would be faster?Anyone have any ideas?

[plowking35]

V plow would be cheaper, and unless you have a ton of back dragging to do, almost as fast.
In forward mode the v plow will rock all comers.And with dbl acting cylinders or cylinder locks, they will back drag fine.
Dino

[Lazer]

Of course you get BOTH. The increased production will pay for the additional equipment in the first season, future seasons will enjoy increased profits.

[GeoffDiamond]

If your a 1 or 2 man show. V plows are the only way to go. However if you are running multiple trucks, there are some jobs streight blades work well on. Granted over the next couple years i will have more v plows. Last year i had 2 fisher v plows bought in 97 when they first came out. However i didn't buy any till this year when i bough 2 9.5' fisher v plows this year. All of my residential driveways are done with streight blades, the reason is, they work well in this application. There are only a few residentials that i have that the v-plow would save time.

Geoff

[Aspen Snow]

We have one V-plow in our fleet. But I am thinking of purchusing another for our 2wd Cab-over. I would work great in alot of our Commerical Accounts.

[John Allin]

V plow - all the way.

[Ed Altheide]

I agree with Lazer. A front plow with $200 dollar pro wings
and a back plow would be the most efficient. I have asked
snowplowers in the Grand Rapids area that own both straight blades w/pro wings and V plows...they say that the straight blades with pro wings carries the larger load. Has anyone else had this same comparison?

With the back plow you'll be carrying a second load across the lot and scraping cleaner(hydraulic down pressure)as you go ...requiring less de-icing material. You will also eliminate all your time consuming back dragging and turn around time.

Good Luck with your decision!

Ed Altheide
[url]http://www.snowmansnowplow.com[/url]

[Chuck Smith]

Ed,

This doesn't make sense to me.

"With the back plow you'll be carrying a second load across the lot and scraping cleaner(hydraulic down pressure)as you go ...requiring less de-icing material."

Two things come to mind.
1. Doing a lot, the front blade would scrape clean, or almost clean.

2. With the rear plow down, you'd leave a "trail off" trail, or even 2 trails if you kept the rear plow in the straight position.

It sounds like using a rear plow on a lot with a front plow, would make a mess. Having never used the 2 together, I can't say for sure, just a feeling I have. Not only that, but you'd wear out 2 cutting edges at the same time.

I have a feeling that the "load" in front of the rear plow would be lost to trail off on every pass. Now a set of wings on a rear plow, well, that sounds like it would work for doing lots. At least the wings would help stop trail off.

~Chuck

[Ed Altheide]

Chuck,

A front plow is going to carry one load across the lot. When using a front/back plow combination the same truck will carry two loads across the lot.

The best example of scraping cleaner that I have is a Super Wal-Mart we contract with. These lots have traffic on them 24 hours/day and the snow tends to get packed. Our front plows won't pick up the packed snow and ice. We use the back plow with 1280# hydraulic down pressure at the cutting edge and get a much cleaner surface. It's the same concept as the state DOT trucks with the belly scrapers.

We're in the third year contract with Wal-Mart. At the time of acceptance they stated that we were significantly higher than the other bids but retained us because of the quality of service we are able to provide.

Ed

[Chuck Smith]

Ed,

You still didn't say if trail off occurs. It seems to me since it does with a front plow in a straight position, it would with a rear plow in a straight position.
Am I wrong?
Do you have rear plows that can be angled?

~Chuck