# Which Boss Plows Should We Buy For Our GMC TopKick?



## jbell36 (Feb 21, 2008)

we have an '04 GMC TopKick...the only downfall is it is 2WD...what plow would you guys buy for this truck, especially width wise?


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

10 ft v plow.


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## born2farm (Dec 24, 2007)

^^10ft municipal v


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## jbell36 (Feb 21, 2008)

would a 9'2" with wings be similar enough? i ask because it would be nice if our 3/4 ton trucks could use the same plows so they are all interchangeable...maybe it's not a good idea, but just seems like if we had 5 plows that were all exactly the same it would make things much easier


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## dfd9 (Aug 18, 2010)

THis one:

http://www.plowsite.com/showthread.php?t=141877&highlight=dxt


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## born2farm (Dec 24, 2007)

I think you would have a 9'2" tore up if you mounted it on a top kick.


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## Mark13 (Dec 3, 2006)

born2farm;1641645 said:


> I think you would have a 9'2" tore up if you mounted it on a top kick.


x2. I can tear up a 9.2 pretty well on my 2500HD. I'd hate to see what happens to one on a 17,000lb kodiak.


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## Triple L (Nov 1, 2005)

Mark13;1641677 said:


> x2. I can tear up a 9.2 pretty well on my 2500HD. I'd hate to see what happens to one on a 17,000lb kodiak.


I've had my 9.2 VXT behind my 550 fully loaded doing very aggressive plowing and have never had a problem...


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## Grassman09 (Mar 18, 2009)

Blizzard 8611 Fullsize.


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## Mark13 (Dec 3, 2006)

Triple L;1641686 said:


> I've had my 9.2 VXT behind my 550 fully loaded doing very aggressive plowing and have never had a problem...


Mine's 10 yrs old and it's held up well but I've still managed to inflict some damage. It's had a couple frames with another sitting in my shop waiting to go on before winter, a couple shattered cutting edges (old style), and it's fair share of broken welds and a bent drivers wing. It always worked though aside from the original motor dying during a storm last year. Threw my 9' straight blade on and kept plowing and had the v plow back in action for the next storm a couple days later.


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## jbell36 (Feb 21, 2008)

our TopKick is a regular cab, 2 wheel drive, and powered by propane...it doesn't have the duramax, that's for sure..this truck we have planned for our big lots...if it does good enough on the big lots we will prob buy another, but that's besides the point...2 wheel drive scares me but we are able to put a lot of weight back there and put it in an open lot...it's the latest addition to our fleet, therefore it will prob only plow 3 or 4 lots, doubt we would tear it up that much...it would also be a backup for our other rigs...i figured having a bunch of 9'2" plows would make things easy, streamline everything...at the same time, if it's better to go 8'2" with wings on the 3/4 tons and 10' on the 5500's then that's what we will do, just figured this would be the best place to ask

let me ask this, would a 9'2" with wings be too much for our 3/4 tons? i have a super duty with the plow prep package, therefore heavy springs up front, and it's a powerstroke...my business partner has a cummins but will be upgrading soon to probably a 3500 with a cummins...or would a 8'2" with wings be the better fit? i did notice a few properties like a bank or two that we could barely squeeze by with the 8'2"...


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## cet (Oct 2, 2004)

With good tires on the back you will plow fine. We have a 6500 with a 10' Boss straight blade and have never got it stuck and we have it in schools go there are some tight areas.
The more weight you put in the box the more stress there will be on the plow when you're riding curbs or hitting things. Our 10' has a small curve to the plow.
A 9'2" plow with wings is a lot of weight. We have a 20-25 minute drive to our sites from the shop and the wings don't go on the plow until we get to the first site.


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## jbell36 (Feb 21, 2008)

so i'm liking the idea of a 10' municipal plow for the Topkick…now my question is should we go straight or V? it will be our truck for big parking lots…i usually always say V, but i'm considering the straight for this situation…seems like it will be windrowing a lot, also might have an employee driving it, straight is much simpler

i believe the cost for the plows are:

Straight: $5900
DXT: $7900

these aren't exact prices but i'm pretty sure these are correct…the initial price they gave me was installed, but we have a guy who installs them for us, so i had to take that out now i'm confused on what was what…

thoughts?


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## NoFearDeere (Nov 7, 2005)

I have a 10' Boss straight on my '03 4500 Duramax. Plows just fine, only 2wd. Just put weight in the back end.


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## ALC-GregH (Nov 26, 2008)

jbell36;1667662 said:


> so i'm liking the idea of a 10' municipal plow for the Topkick…now my question is should we go straight or V? it will be our truck for big parking lots…i usually always say V, but i'm considering the straight for this situation…seems like it will be windrowing a lot, also might have an employee driving it, straight is much simpler
> 
> i believe the cost for the plows are:
> 
> ...


I'm sure you already know this but a V will be more productive then a straight. A employee can be shown how to operate a V so production is going to be higher regardless. You shouldn't limit your work load because employee's don't know how to operate a plow.

If you're clearing larger lots then you really don't want to be windrowing it all. If you get a big dump, you'll be fighting to get the rows to move. The V can/will move more snow then a straight, all day long.


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## KLC99 (Feb 3, 2003)

Triple L;1641686 said:


> I've had my 9.2 VXT behind my 550 fully loaded doing very aggressive plowing and have never had a problem...


Well it's pretty well protected behind the truck lol


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## allagashpm (Sep 29, 2012)

I'm not sure how the 9'2 would hold up compared to the municipal 10, I would think if you were careful and mindful of it you would be ok. If you wanted it to be interchangeable then get a set of wings, and you're looking at an 11 foot plow. make sure you have some weight back there though. I have heard they come off and on very easily. If it were me I would spend the money and get the 10 dxt. The topkick is purpose built and you should really have a heavy duty blade on it.


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## K&L Salting (Dec 2, 2005)

*topkick*

I have three of the same trucks that you have, propane powered, very cheap to buy, and the fuel is cheap $1.30 per gallon I run 10 foot boss v plows. Two of the trucks are low profile, one is my service truck the other one is used only to spread salt. The service truck does spin out even when weighted down to 22,000 lbs . When it gets very slick we run tire chains on the lowpro, this happens about once every 3-4 years. The other plow truck is equiped with a salt bed and running 22.5 tires does a much better job pushing snow even when the truck is empty.


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## johnhenry1933 (Feb 11, 2013)

What size Topkick? And what size tires? And will you be pushing no slopes?

I run an 11' Flink on mine. It handles well when 1/2 loaded (it's an 8500 RWD 40,000 GVWR). But I also have brand new 22.5 steer and drives.


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## aslc (Jan 9, 2010)

What are you getting for mpg with the propane trucks?


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## BillyRgn (Jan 28, 2004)

X-2 for what size truck, I ran a freightliner 2wd, can't remember what model number it was, but it was a business class and I think was the smallest truck that came with 22.5's, it had a all season body on it, kind that dumped normal and also tips toward the driver side and has a spinner right behind the cab. It had a 10ft boss plow on it. I know this might make the boss guys mad but it seemed like a toy on the truck, personally I would look for an 11 footer from a municipal company like tenco or viking, I know the owner of the truck is going to if they buy another truck. The truck did well just had to be mindful when it was bad out and make sure you had a load on it, also had on spot chains which seems like a decent thing to look into but I'm un sure of price. It also depend on what kind of speed your going to be plowing as well. I would did finally invest in a good set of rear chains that cover both tires for that monster storm that comes around every now and again, cheap way to keep a truck on the road in a real bad one


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## Diesel Dan (Sep 8, 2012)

Mark13;1641694 said:


> Mine's 10 yrs old and it's held up well but I've still managed to inflict some damage. It's had a couple frames with another sitting in my shop waiting to go on before winter, a couple shattered cutting edges (old style), and it's fair share of broken welds and a bent drivers wing. It always worked though aside from the original motor dying during a storm last year. Threw my 9' straight blade on and kept plowing and had the v plow back in action for the next storm a couple days later.


A frames the bend point? My boss is a little unlevel. How much $$?


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## jbell36 (Feb 21, 2008)

our TopKick is a 5500…i'm not sure on the tire size, we have had it at our local trailer shop mostly all winter getting a custom bed made for it and have only had it since last fall…i'm not sure on the MPG's yet with the 8.1 propane, hopefully K&L will have an answer…i have heard around 7-8…we will not be using it on hills, just flat larger parking lots…this last storm was only a 1" storm so i was able to windrow the entire lot, straight bladed our V plow at least 90% of the time…on larger storms i like to get the bulk out of the way then go over a second time for a clean up pass, essentially windowing everything that is left to the outside, where a straight blade would shine..obviously a v can be a straight blade, but if this truck was mainly doing large lots i think a straight would work just fine, especially with wings…easier controller too, everything is just simplified, not that the v controller is difficult…i like plowing with our straight blade from time to time, i'm always the one with a V blade running around doing the smaller lots making up as much time as i can to keep everyone happy, taking the fun out of it ha…i would love to just sit in a big truck on an open lot with a straight blade, mindless work


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## aslc (Jan 9, 2010)

The reason i ask about mileage is because we have a c5500 lpg schwans truck.
We average about 4.5 mpg in the summer and 3-3.5 mpg in the winter. we use the truck just to spread with but it dose have a western 9.5v on the front.
Propane here was 2.50 a gallon. not sure what it is now because heating propane is at 5.25.
We have to pay road use tax so propane is not cheap now.


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## jbell36 (Feb 21, 2008)

aslc;1744101 said:


> The reason i ask about mileage is because we have a c5500 lpg schwans truck.
> We average about 4.5 mpg in the summer and 3-3.5 mpg in the winter. we use the truck just to spread with but it dose have a western 9.5v on the front.
> Propane here was 2.50 a gallon. not sure what it is now because heating propane is at 5.25.
> We have to pay road use tax so propane is not cheap now.


yeah that's a more recent concern for us…when we got the truck, propane was @ 1.29…now it's over 5, which i can understand for the current situation, but apparently it will never get down that cheap again…definitely one of my worries

i hope we get better mileage out of ours, but i have a bad feeling that we won't…3.5 is absolutely terrible


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