# belly blade plows VS front plows?



## jason1083 (Feb 2, 2008)

I am with a neighborhood association that pays for snow plowing on our streets Our contractor (a collection of seasonally off construction guys). We are exploring options for a new contract for next year. one of the proposals we have received the guy proposes using larger dump trucks with belly blade plows.

I am trying to understand the advantages/disadvantages of belly blades vs front mount plows. I assume each has some positives and negatives. Can someone explain this to me or point me to a resource that can help me.


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## stroker79 (Dec 2, 2006)

we have a bunch of trucks with belly blades and the nice thing about them is they scrape the ground really hard leaving a pretty clean surface. you can only use a belly blade on the street though, im assuming they will have a skid steer for the driveways and tight spots.


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## JD Dave (Mar 20, 2007)

A belly blade is designed to be on a salt truck. It scrapes first and allows salt to be put on clean pavement. They are completely useless as far as I'm concerned. You can't windrow wery well with them and if you have any dead end streets, how do you push the snow up? In our area, i havn't seen a new belly blade in over 10 years,


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## jason1083 (Feb 2, 2008)

we just pay for streets driveways are the homeowners problem (these are actual city streets, just the city doesn't plow until the 6" mark, then their contractors make one run down the middle when they get around to it, so we pay our own contractor)

no real dead end streets, couple semi tight spots. Thinking maybe see if the one could do one large truck with a belly blade and a smaller truck with a regular plow for the tight spots. 

can you get as close to the curb with a belly blade as with a front mount plow?

Am I correct in assuming if you have to cut in around vehicles and tight spots then a front mounted plow is easier?


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## JD Dave (Mar 20, 2007)

How many miles of streets are we talking?


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## jason1083 (Feb 2, 2008)

about 9 miles of residential street.

the blue line shows our boundaries


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## stroker79 (Dec 2, 2006)

i think a belly blade would work no problem. they can run around cars pretty well also. It will be just as clean as a front mount plow but but not quite as tight in the corners.


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## mcwlandscaping (Sep 8, 2005)

He doesn't have a front blade to go along with the belly blade? Or another truck that has a front blade?


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## Midwest BuildIt Inc (Nov 14, 2004)

I would say one big truck with both, front and underbody, or just ditch the underbody plow. The problem with the underbody plow is they are only so tall. Maybe 12", lets say you get 8" of snow overnight and the city runs through reel quick with there big front plows and leaves windrows about 16" tall and then your guy with the belly blade comes back to clean up. Now he has to drive on top of the snow the city left and try to push back 16" windrows to the curbs. If the smaller truck was at least a 1 ton with a big commercial blade. It would be pushing all the snow and the other truck would just be scraping the road a little cleaner behind it. I could see that big truck with just an underbody scraper becoming useless real fast.

Around here they use both, The village trucks have the plow on front for the main plowing and the underbody scrapers to scrape the road clean on the same trucks, and rarely do i see the out plowing with just the scrapers..


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## REAPER (Nov 23, 2004)

So far 3 threads on same subject?

Oh well.

Growing up in Kalamazoo the only thing I ever saw were belly blades. In fact until I was a teen I never knew there were any other type of plow for roads. 

Not that I paid that much attention but I do remember the first time I saw another city truck with a front blade. (Grand Rapids 1971)

They seem to work OK. The ones in Kalamazoo the blade is adjustable out. I believe they could go out about 2 feet beyond the side of the truck.

I thought they were great in cul-d-sacs as they could adjust the blade to the curb and drive pushing all to the curb. It also worked well around cars.

The only thing I notice on them that seemed to make them have to re-plow certain areas were when the snow depth was such that what ever they were pushing most of it just went over the top of the blade because they are only about 18 inches tall. 

Kalamazoo still uses this type of plow on their streets although they have never been known to have the cleanest streets around. It works for them.


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