# snowman snowplow



## truck1500 (Nov 24, 2002)

i was wondering if any one has tried one of the angling back blades from snowman snowplows.


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## Yzal (Jan 6, 2003)

i've tryed one i'd rather use the standard snowman, but to each is own. try one first you might like it?


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## Alan (Mar 2, 2000)

Do a search! This has come up before and you STILL aren't going to do much with your 2 WD.


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## fordman (Oct 31, 2001)

I agree a back blade isn't going to work to well on a 2WD truck if those 2 wheels are in the snow.


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## SnowGodFather (Aug 1, 2001)

Not a chance.

Snowman plows all have down preassure. I don't see you moving fwd in a 2 wheel drive. They are still ment for 4wd.

I have a Snowman back plow that does not angle. Looks like there will be lots of strain on your hitch if you used an angle one. Even more so commercially.


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## Yzal (Jan 6, 2003)

that will not work at all! it will take a good chunk of the weight off the back wheels get a 4x4 first!


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## Yzal (Jan 6, 2003)

hey snowgodfather have you ever checked your bolts on your reseaver to see if they get tweeked or loosened? it hasn't happened yet but wondering if it will? i drive the only truck in my town with a snowman on and i get some(ahh i wish i had one) looks.


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## SnowGodFather (Aug 1, 2001)

All bolts seem to be tight.
I bought it used off ebay.
I went through it pretty good. Got it home, 2 days later it paid for its self.

We have gotten lots of looks already and some what the heck is that.

So far I seen it has saved lots of time on backdragging docks and hauling snow across a lot. Other than that, it has to come off if that truck were to do drives. Makes it to long. So that truck will stay commercial only. Also mounted it on a Dodage Ram 1500 extra cab short bed. Removed the tail gate so the view is better, but the back plow gets in the way of the back up lights, so now you know what one of my projects is Moday after noon. Adding back up lights to it. Already have a nice bar that goes from stake pocket to stake pocket that used to hold the tailgate spreader that was on that truck. Drill some holes, bolt them down, and make a plug to fit the 7 lead plug and I have back up lights.


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## Yzal (Jan 6, 2003)

yeah the first time i used the plow i left the tail gate on...that was intresting. learned my lesson from there on out. don't really have a problem with the back up lights. i did have a wireing problem with the plow hook up. someone last summer droped the mower trailer hitch on top of the wire and cut through all the insulation, so when i went to use it for the first time this winter i pluged it in and just about took my head off cuz the whole thing went up with out pushing any buttons. fixed that problem now runs good as new! it does get a little long on the truck long box regcab, my partner wants to put on a long box x-cab... i sad you'd be in the street when your at the garage door! oh well.


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## TMC (Oct 15, 2002)

*SNOWMAN 75LDA REVIEW*

I have a 75LDA model that I use on a 2003 regular cab Dakota with a V6, 5 speed, LSD, 5900 gvw, HD service group and tow package. Didn't want to put a front plow on this new vehicle so I looked into the rear plows that were on the market. Snowman seemed the most complete.

I got the plow in a box from my local dealer the day before a snow storm. Assembled and wired it that evening in about 5 hours. Definitely a well built piece of equipment. Went together fairly easily with only a couple of glitches because I used the man's way of assembly (don't read the instructions). Paid about $2400 for it. This was a better price than usual according to my dealer because he had the unit for 1 year and couldn't sell it. He had it with a 6.5' blade and had to bring in the longer blade for me to purchase it.

Used it the next day for the first time on a 6 inch storm on my driveway as well as two neighbors. I've got a 700' uphill curved driveway with two parking areas about 50'x 75' and 30' x 40'.

Plowing the driveway is easy. Moving the snow out of the parking areas is not so easy. This is because you cannot pile the snow. You can only drag it out of the parking area and throw it off to one side or another. This could get especially troublesome if a bad winter came along with lots of snow and not much melting.

Some other comments:
1) At the street end of the driveway just as you start to turn you need to straighten the blade and then re-angle it when you turn is finished. Otherwise, you end up with a narrow entrance. 
2) This plow certainly could not be used on a two wheel drive vehicle with success as it does unload the rear end when it is lowered. Down pressure is accomplished with two heavy springs. These are somewhat adjustable but you need them pulling down pretty hard as the plow itself isn't real heavy. Consequently, you unload the rear wheels. Good snow tire are a must due to this and the fact that you are driving through the snow before you plow it.
3) Hook-up is not nearly as easy as they state on their website. It's one thing to back up to a trailer and drop the hitch on to the ball. It is an entirely different thing to back up and make a 2" tongue with 500 lbs attached to it meet a 2" receiver with 4000 lbs attached to it. They sell a cart (dolly). I welded one up myself. It really is required for easy hook-up. And I do this in my garage with concrete floor. Imagine trying to hook-up outdoors during a snowstorm. It is easy to drop the plow off the vehicle though. 
4) As others have said, you really should take off your tailgate if you are using a pickup. Makes it easier to see where you are backing. A rear light would be good for night plowing too but I haven't done anything about that yet.

Overall, plowing with my '90 K1500 short bed Chevy with Meyer's plow was a bit easier and quicker. But I'm sure this is easier on the truck and I will get used to it. I wouldn't suggest using this as an only plow for commercial users. But it does do the job for the average homeowner with a long driveway. For a small driveway, get a snowblower.


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## TMC (Oct 15, 2002)

After Feb 18 blizzard. Chains pulled me through ANYTHING.


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## Jerre Heyer (Mar 19, 2002)

TMC, Keep those cross links tight. Would hate to see you tear up that pretty sheet metal.

I've got to agree with you on the hook up aspect of the LDA. I like hooking up the straight version better. 
Did you put the stop plates on the slide in tube. This helps alot. Only let's it go in that far and then you slide the pin in.

I also opened up the hole in the tube to allow for the sway of the reciever tube and slide in tube on uneven ground.

The 2wd thing is sketchy at best. Maybe with alot of rear end weight.

I used a 7' straight blade for 3 years at my house for a walkway and turn around and at the shop every storm to pull the snow out for the front blade. The 1500 psi down pressure was very very nice ( could even change tires if the blade was blocked up )

I changed to a 7.5LDA last year and now use that. The only thing I miss is the extra down pressure. I put an extra set of springs on for a while but have taken them off.

I use the LDA in the spring and summer to grade gravel roads and move matl. worked very well.

I purchased a york rake attachment last fall ( take the drop tubes off and drop the blade then install the rake with it's drop tubes ) and in between the snow falls the last two weeks have been using it for grading.

You want to talk about what's that looks well I got alot of them. 
Then the flag downs started happening to grade driveways and roads and to pull the gravel piles out of lawns and yards.
It works great for that. I've been asked to do a campgrounds as soon as the snow melts off again.

Have had one reciever issue in the one's we put on for customers. It was an older class 4 unit with thin wall tubing and a light piece of tube wrapped around the end. He split the corners out of the end. Still held by the pin but was sloppy.

Had one customer pull the hitch free from the truck after a couple of seasons. I guess the fact that the frame rails had rotted out from lots of salt and never cleaning it finally took it's toll.

I think for more driveways I'd opt for the 6.5 with the wings Snowman offers. Gives you an 8' carry blade and it cleans better when angle plowing.

Stepside standard cab with front blade and back blade or bronco/blazer/ram charger with front and back make for a very manuverable driveway clearer. 

Oh yes lights in the back are very nice as the Godfather said.

Jerre


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## Mike 97 SS (Aug 11, 2002)

TMC, thats a sharp looking little truck. I like it. It looks like the RT model, but Im assuming its not? I *think* the RT model only comes in 2WD with the 360 motor? I think the RT model is more "racey" than work. Mike


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## Snoworks (Jan 22, 2002)

Hey gentlemen, forgive me if this is a dumb question, but what is the benifit of having a angling rear plow! Is this plow built solely to be mounted on trucks with no front plow. 

I have five trucks with Daniels pull plows, all have front blades as well. With a rear angled blade it would add a considerable amount of time to my plowing projects.

Chuck B.


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## TMC (Oct 15, 2002)

Mike, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the truck is an SLT model 4x4 with a V6 and a manual tranny. The V6 even with the 5 speed is pretty slow in normal usage but you really don't need V8 power for plowing if you use low range.



Chuck, This plow is primarily aimed at homeowners for their SUVs. There someone on this forum from VT that uses both front plow and rear angling plow on one truck. I only have the a rear plow on this truck. You can read my comments on its usage in the post above the photo. 

The only thing I will add is that when you get a lot of snow like we did this winter, you eventually need a loader (I've got a Kubota with a loader) to push the piles back further. See photo.



Jerre, I did put the stop plates on the mount. At first I hadn't and that made it very hard to mount. After all the use I got out of this plow this past winter, I am getting much better mounting the plow. 

As for the strength of the receiver, I have the factory receiver. It seems very strong. I think it is mounted with 8 bolts. I still need to make up some rear lighting.


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## TMC (Oct 15, 2002)

Forgot photo


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## TMC (Oct 15, 2002)

One more gratuitous Dodge photo


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## Mike 97 SS (Aug 11, 2002)

TMC, sorry about missing that, I dont know how I missed where you typed that, but I see it now. Nice truck anyway.  Mike :waving:


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## Jerre Heyer (Mar 19, 2002)

Snoworks,

The benifit from having both front and rear angling plows that I have seen is to be able to back up flat to a door or dock, pull out and then angle to the side you are angling the front blade to. This will carry out and then dump the snow to the side. Takes about 1 1/2 truck lengths from the time you angle it to clear it off. 
I also noticed a big difference between the Daniels and the Snowman LIFT HEIGHT on the Snowman is alot higher than the Daniels. This is great for loading docks, snow drifts in front of doors and raising it off of piles pulled out to push with the front blade.
Also the rear blade can be used for summer clean up and road work as I posted above and the angling blade does a better job than the straight one.

One of the Angle blade customers specified 6.5 with wings for 8' total and runs an 810 on the front. He ran Daniels with Fisher front blades for years. End of season feedback was that his boss is looking at Snowman back blades for the new trucks he's setting up and 810's and V plow's depending on the route he's putting them on.

Jerre


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## Alan (Mar 2, 2000)

*Tail lights on a rear plow*

We've got a 75LDA. We use the angle function quite a lot. One place/time when it works great is late season falls where the ground is thawed. A front plow is just about impossible to keep from digging in but the rear plow will lift as the pull force increases. It's pretty easy to "pull" several inches of snow off soft gravel and roll it off to the side. Then the only "pushing" you have to do is a little by the street.

Incidentally, we're the ones running both front and rear plows on one truck. The back plow goes well with the Sno-Way on he front of our S-10.

One thing that bothered me was that when the rear plow was raised to blocked the truck taillights. I added a light bar to ours, giving me tail and stop lights as well as a self contained LED strobe. I had an extra lead in my trailer plug so I used that to get power to the strobe as well as the regular trailer connections to feed the auxiliary lights.


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## Jerre Heyer (Mar 19, 2002)

Alan, Nice update with the lights. You should send some picts to Ed at Snowman.

Jerre


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## Alan (Mar 2, 2000)

Jerre,

That plow was a demo that Ed sold me at the Denver SIMA symposium. I had been looking and finally he aked me when I was going to give up and buy one. He makes a sales tour up this way occasionally and stopped by last summer when he was in the area. If he hits here again this year I want to show him the setup. Last time the plow was buried in the back of the barn, I'll keep it out where I can get at it this year.


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## dillyolboy (Dec 24, 2002)

Hey TMC do yourself a favor and put a urethane or rubber (my favorite) edge on that blade. About 1.5" U seems to work best so you can get the edge to flex with the down pressure. Maybe Dino can add some wisdom here. I prefer rubber cause it doesn't require as much downpressure to make the edge flex and it can clean rough surfaces better than urethane. Anything is better than the noisy, bone jarring, rust stain creating steel  
I believe the lift systems on both the Daniels and Snowman are fatally flawed. The way my plow lifts is much better as the plow lifts straight up and it also lifts very high. (On my uncles truck you can see the bottom of the tail lights underneath the plow. Is that high enough??) It has four arms connecting to the plow and a hydralic cylinder going from the bottom on the plow to the top on the back of the truck so if the cylinder moves 1 inch and the plow moves a couple. (I'll post pics if anyone wants to see it)
O and about not needing the V8 power. Remember the V8 actually gets better mileage in town. Probably cause you don't need to stand on the pedal all the time. I love the 5.2 in a Dakota. That V6 has got to be one of the poorest motors of all time as far as efficiency and power are concerned.
David


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## TMC (Oct 15, 2002)

dillyolboy, please post your pictures of the system you use. Also, is this something you created for yourself or is this a commercially available product?

As for gas mileage, the truck is rated 15/20 city/highway. I get 15 everywhere. Maybe the engine is part of the problem but the truck itself probably has lousy areodynamics. Otherwise, highway mileage should be better.


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## dillyolboy (Dec 24, 2002)

*No, I have no creative bones in my body*

I can't take any credit for this setup. I believe it is superior to the way that the other back plows lift but there isn't any patent on it or anything. I believe most people around here have the back blade mounted similarly (greenquest and Mark Oomkes are two plowsite members that I know have similar setups) Anyways I hope the picture is self explanitory but you can see that the cylinder pulls the plow up and for every inch the cylinder comes in the plow goes up a couple. The plow also maintains a vertical position the whole time which I find to be a major advantage over the snowman plow. You can back right up to a door and drop the blade within inches of the door. I don't know if you thought about switching the cutting edge or not but I would HIGHLY recommend it. 
My comments about the 3.9 were a little harsh. I drove a 5.2 dakota for about two months and I loved every minute of it so I have a soft spot in my heart for it.


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## Big Todd (Dec 8, 2001)

Dillyboy, too bad this part of the thread didn't come up a month and a half ago, and I could have invited you to come out and look at my Snowman. 

I know everyone thinks that their own setup is the best, but until you see (and use) the Snowman in action, you need to be careful in critisizing it. My brother and I each bought new Snowman 8 footers last November and we have both been VERY pleased with their operation. I don't know how you can say that the lift system is "fataly flawed". It has two lift cylinders and they give over 1600lbs down preasure. Also, a urethane edge would be nice, but since they have a tripping feature, with four trip springs, you don't have to wory about hooking something ant ripping it off the truck. The cutting edge is nearly four feet off the ground when fully lifted, I know that is higher than the one on your truck. 

Further, they do lift and lower in an arc-like motion, but there is no reason that you can't get as close to and object (garage door, etc.) as one that goes straight up and down as you don't normally carry the thing fully raised. I would typically have the thing just high enough to clear the snow as I'm backing into a drive and back right up to a garage door and lower. The degree of the arc is small at that point and there is no reason you can't clear to within mere inches of an object.

I guess it all boils down to what you are used to using and making your equipment work for you, but I love my Snowman.


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## BWhite (Sep 30, 2002)

*snoman*

I see no fatal flaws in my 7 ft snowman . I had a real busy winter and I KNOW it did a better job and saved me many many hours on my all residential route . Customers noted the better job . I have no problem backing close to a garage door. I am glad I made the investment 
ALAN that is a neat light setup do you have a sketch and Materials list ? thanks Bill


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## dillyolboy (Dec 24, 2002)

*OK "fatally flawed" is a bit strong*

However I'll take you up on that offer to check it out when in action maybe next year. Steel edges will still make rust stains on concrete and they still don't flex like urethane or rubber but I'm glad it works for you.


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## BWhite (Sep 30, 2002)

I will give you the advantage on concrete . I dont have any customers with concrete drives


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## Haden61 (Oct 16, 2001)

*snowman*

FYI, Snowman offers poly edges for all their models. We run poly where we have to but run steel to clean where we want to really clean. We run a couple 19' x 52" plow on a Case 4x4 tractors, one we run a 13.5' back plow with a steel edge on it, cleans the lots better than the one without.


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## Rob (May 15, 2001)

*Down Pressure*

Hi guys,
I was thinking about adding one of these to my truck that does residential drives. I have not seen one in person. so I have a question about the down pressure. It is provided by the hydraulics, correct ? Also, can the down pressure be turned off, say for use on gravel ? (I guess this is similar to the snoway plows, correct?)
Thanks. (Sorry, if these are dumb questions!)


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## Jerre Heyer (Mar 19, 2002)

Rob, On the snowman straight blades the only down is with down pressure. It is a positive up or down with no float. The LDA angle units have a float down with spring assist for down pressure. Works similar to a standard plow in that you can leave it in float or you can hit up to hold it in position.

The pressure is adjustable but that also limits the up pressure. 

It would be nice to have float on the straight blades but it hasn't been an option yet. ( ED ??)

Hope this helps.

p.s. York rake attachment for the LDA works great. Just got done doing a beach area where the ice dunes were. Sure beats the tractor for cleanup. Coffee holder and tunes are right up there with the heat on a cold and windy day.

Jerre


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## Big Todd (Dec 8, 2001)

Hey dillyboy (or any other plowers in W. Mich. for that matter),

Stop into the NAPA of 4 mile and Alpine any time. I love to talk shop even on days that are sunny and in the upper 60's!! 

There are four guys that work here that plow snow, and two of us are named Todd, but I'm the only one that posts on this site. 

Stop in near closing time and one of us may even buy a round at "Paunchy's" next door...


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