# Do i buy a used plow maybe a Fisher or Meyer or a new Snowbear



## Plow Newb (Nov 12, 2008)

Newbie question as I am new to the plowing gig.. Any help would be appreciated greatly. Looking to do about 50 driveways...

For $2000 max, What would you guys rather use to go on a 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 Long Bed 4x4,

1). A brand new Snowbear which I've seen many automatic responses on them being crap, but alot of owners say they are impressed with them.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/pr...romSearch=true

2). or A used fisher or Meyer.. Something like the one in the link below...

http://london.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehic...QAdIdZ82353738


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## sechracer (Nov 4, 2007)

Plow Newb;632519 said:


> Newbie question as I am new to the plowing gig.. Any help would be appreciated greatly. Looking to do about 50 driveways...
> 
> For $2000 max, What would you guys rather use to go on a 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 Long Bed 4x4,
> 
> ...


Go with the used fisher or meyers, snow bear may be a good personal plow but it might not hold up good for 50 driveways if used alot.. I personally do not know since I have never owned one, but they arent really designed for commercial use.


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## mercer_me (Sep 13, 2008)

Get a used Fisher they will last forever. You shouldn't have any probablems with a Fisher.


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## hero419 (Feb 29, 2008)

I had a reply deleted, must have been because I listed prices.

I had bought a new Snowbear a couple of weeks ago substantially less then what you had mentioned. It looks as though it will do a good job on my own driveway, but I would not go into business with it. It has a label that says "not for commercial use".


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## red07gsxr (Dec 22, 2007)

mercer_me;633444 said:


> Get a used Fisher they will last forever. You shouldn't have any probablems with a Fisher.


x2 on the fisher:waving:


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## Plow Newb (Nov 12, 2008)

So far, we've changed our thoughts completely, (partly thanks to you guys here, thanks a lot), and are looking at a new Snoway for the downpressure.. just decided, forget all the worries and hassles of an old plow and get a new one. now we can worry about the truck.. lol.. 

you think the Snoway is the best plow for the money for doing mostly driveways therefore mostly back-dragging? the down pressure feature looks pretty good.. any other suggestions for same price range or less?


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## bribrius (May 5, 2007)

Plow Newb;634179 said:


> So far, we've changed our thoughts completely, (partly thanks to you guys here, thanks a lot), and are looking at a new Snoway for the downpressure.. just decided, forget all the worries and hassles of an old plow and get a new one. now we can worry about the truck.. lol..
> 
> you think the Snoway is the best plow for the money for doing mostly driveways therefore mostly back-dragging? the down pressure feature looks pretty good.. any other suggestions for same price range or less?


What kind of truck is this going on?

and do you already have these fifty driveways lined up?


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## Plow Newb (Nov 12, 2008)

It was in my first post... >>>> "...What would you guys rather use to go on a 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 Long Bed 4x4..."

It's the truck we have to work with... and we only have half the fifty so far but have 15 appointments this Sunday... i have two buddies who did it the past three years and they said they were doing 70 -80 driveways so we thought 50 or 60 was scaling it back a little bit.. lol. but they're all fairly close together and so far its a nice big loop.

why, what are you thinking?...


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## sechracer (Nov 4, 2007)

If you can afford it, go with the snow way, the time the DP will save you back dragging you could possibly pick up another drive or 2.

JMO


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## Plow Newb (Nov 12, 2008)

thanks for all the input everyone. thanks sechracer. your the man bud.. 

we're going to see if we can grab the Snoway purely for the down-pressure feature since we got mostly driveways... costs $7700 from two diff. places in Toronto.

pretty pricey. but we've decided to go with something new... 

Arctic is $6200 and thats about the cheapest I could find up here.. (keep in mind conversion rate to Canadian dollar and supposedly we get worse deals up here.. lol) The Snowdogg was about $4k but they dont make a mount for my truck so i dont want to mess with it and void everything. so if i have to pay $5800 - $6200, we might as well pay the extra $1500 and get the best for this year and if we have to, for the resale value, etc.. jeez. could go through a snowbear a month for that.. ;P

I hope the '98 Ram 1500 won't be an issue.. lol... We're super green but what can you do? You guys think it's good? V8 4x4 150 clicks.. should do it, no? haha

Anyways, we've already had two offers for our contracts for almost half what we signed them on for.. But for the extra cash and assets, seems way more beneficial to just slug it out, buy a plow and double or triple up on trucks and plows next year. We signed up approx. 25 people in about two weeks and have almost 20 appointments for this weekend with over a 95% closing percentage so we expect the majority of them. Seems nobody has capitalized on this up here the way we're doing it and there are so many houses to target in such a small area. We have been doing some serious advertising and its all free.. Kijiji, craigslist, hitting community mailboxes, etc... it works like crazy. If we had started in September we could have put a second truck with new plow on the road, out-source it all for half-price and be making even nicer coin. Paid advertising like newspapers and flyers are a waste of money imo.. We tried it, cost $50 for the week and we got 3 people from it. What a rip-off.


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## sechracer (Nov 4, 2007)

Plow Newb;636194 said:


> thanks for all the input everyone. thanks sechracer. your the man bud..
> 
> we're going to see if we can grab the Snoway purely for the down-pressure feature since we got mostly driveways... costs $7700 from two diff. places in Toronto.
> 
> ...


Truck will work, just remember its a half ton so stick with a 7'6" max 8' and you should be fine.


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## Plow Newb (Nov 12, 2008)

Only had 1 no-go out of the 19 meetings we had on Sunday. 15 signed up on the spot and 3 more wanted to re-schedule for this week. So we're looking good. So we're up to 41 now in about 2.5 weeks. Just got to keep the free advertising going. I hope $300-$400 isn't too cheap for these tiny driveways we're dealing with but I've seen flyers from $99, $199, etc.... So who knows. But we have signed up some for over $600 so our average is good. I figure each driveway will take under 5 min though forsure... Hope I'm not way of base.. But I called 3 or 4 different plow companys and they say they designate 70-80 houses per vehicle and my parter did that many for the past three years so hopefully its all good. We're shooting for around 60. Whatever if its a f-up, it'll be a big one.... lol.. should be alright though.

We're considering a bunch of different plows still. So even though were leaving it a bit late we will make a decision and have one on for next week.

I called about ten different places in the city and the best prices I can get are as follows: (Canadian $)


Boss 7.6ft $5200
Arctic 7.5ft Standard Duty Poly $5602 / $5886
Blizzard 7.5ft $6125
Western 7.5ft Midweight Steel $6202 / $6775 / $6825 / $5800
SnoPro 7.5ft $6250
Fisher 7.5ft Steel $6664 / $5900 / $6300
Snoway 7.6ft $7750



So..... Which one?.... lol


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## sechracer (Nov 4, 2007)

Plow Newb;640119 said:


> Only had 1 no-go out of the 19 meetings we had on Sunday. 15 signed up on the spot and 3 more wanted to re-schedule for this week. So we're looking good. So we're up to 41 now in about 2.5 weeks. Just got to keep the free advertising going. I hope $300-$400 isn't too cheap for these tiny driveways we're dealing with but I've seen flyers from $99, $199, etc.... So who knows. But we have signed up some for over $600 so our average is good. I figure each driveway will take under 5 min though forsure... Hope I'm not way of base.. But I called 3 or 4 different plow companys and they say they designate 70-80 houses per vehicle and my parter did that many for the past three years so hopefully its all good. We're shooting for around 60. Whatever if its a f-up, it'll be a big one.... lol.. should be alright though.
> 
> We're considering a bunch of different plows still. So even though were leaving it a bit late we will make a decision and have one on for next week.
> 
> ...


All of the above are good plows, but like I said before, the DP on a snoway will save you lots of time backdragging. I know with my western, I have to sometimes backdrag a few times in order to get infront of the doors good and clean. The DP will make it so you only have to do it once.
I love my western plow, but if I were to buy a brand new one, it would definitly be a snoway provided I could afford it.
One more thing to take into mind, how many of your drives are gravel? some cut a piece of sttel pipe and weld tabs on it so they can slide it over the cutting edge and bungee it on to help keep from scraping up so much gravel.
JMO
Good luck
Tom


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## Snowaway (Sep 10, 2008)

[
One more thing to take into mind, how many of your drives are gravel? some cut a piece of sttel pipe and weld tabs on it so they can slide it over the cutting edge and bungee it on to help keep from scraping up so much gravel.
JMO
Good luck
Tom[/QUOTE]

What size pipe do you use?


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## sechracer (Nov 4, 2007)

What size pipe do you use?[/QUOTE]

I personally dont, but I have seen some that are anywhere from 2 inch to what I am guessing is 6 inch.... I just tend to bump mine up until the gound is good and frozen.


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## PLOWMAN45 (Jul 2, 2003)

you have top 3 or 4 good plows Curtis Fisher Western Meyers


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## CAT 245ME (Sep 10, 2006)

I would go with the Boss, very dependable plows and are simple in design as well as very fast, I would go with the 7'6 trip edge or the 7'6 V with smart lock cylinders.

I have always been a Fisher guy but after trying a Boss last year I went and purchased a 8'2" poly V and I cant wait to play with it.


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## Tedd (Nov 4, 2006)

Buy the best you can afford and keep in mind how close and reliable dealers are so that you can get service when needed. I am trying to get 10 post so I can pm.


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## caryra30 (Apr 2, 2008)

I have been using Snowbear plows for about 10 years and have not had any problems. I have 4 townhome complexes 3 business parking lots, the largest being about 2 acres plus about 20 other driveways I do. I did make one modification being that I mounted real plow lights to make it legal to go down the road at night. I will say though that my next plow will be a Hiniker due to them being a local Minnesota company and parts are easy to get. Starting out it may be worth it since you may not like the business.


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## chcav1218 (Jul 31, 2008)

Get the fisher. Having the ability to angle the plow from inside the truck will be way way way better than getting out and changing it by hand every few passes. Plus the extra weight will scrape the ground better.


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## Nascar24 (Feb 11, 2006)

Hi

If your interested I have a couple of used plows, but you'll need to arrainge shipping

Used MDII ( Minute Mount Type ) 7.5' Diamond trip Edge E60 pump saber lights with 98 Dodge mounts all the wiring, controls, and modules $2500 This is a nice clean straight plow, like new.

Refirbished MDII ( Minute Mount Type ) 7.5' Meyer ST blade with Dodge Mounts, Remanufactured E47H pump, saber lights, all the wiring, controls and modules $2600 This plow , and lift frame torn down sand blasted and totally refinished , all new decals, looks like new !

I have sold three plows up in Canada over the past year, takes some leg work on your part for the shipping but do-able with Yellow Freight and Pay Pal!

Jay


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## snow tender (Nov 30, 2008)

Service? how far do u have to travel to service or get parts My pick would be boss


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