Looking for a best snow pusher for situation?

[plowin-fire]

Going to add a 8' snow pusher this year to my Bobcat 773 as I gained a few commercial lots. Read lots of good things about the Sectional, they are a bit pricey though... None of my accounts want salt/sand on the lots. Only sidewalks. I like the fact that the sectionals scrape well. I do have a dealer close by that stocks parts if needed. Is the extra expense worth it? Or should I stick with something cheaper like a protech or...? Would prefer a steel trip edge style as I would be scraping some packed snow as well. Any suggestions? I dont have any seasonals as they dont sell well. Everything is per push.

[badabing1512]

IMO sectional all the way

[RLM]

I have both, if you can get an extra 20% above your competion get a sectional, if not get a rubber edge. In my market which is VERY competive the only way we can make the money to pay for our sectional up is in our budget on salt saving. Sectional costs more to buy & run, in my experience.
Here I can't sell it for anything more, we just lost a good contract we had been doing with ours, a few schools. Guy under bid us by $ 10, on a $1100/push. Before the contract was awarded, I wrote a sales letter to school board, included all kinds of sales material, etc. the school district salts it themselves, so they were realizing the savings in salt usage of way more than $ 10, even at state bid pricing. Still lost the contract.

[plowin-fire]

How do the sectionals cost more to run? Edges wear faster? Blocks break?

[snocrete]

Bobcat, Boss, Avalanche"optimus"....just to name a few to look at. All three have built in movement seperate from the machine....but are still a "pusher"..unlike the arctic sectional "snow plow".

From what experience I've had with the arctics, I dont think I would consider 1 unless it was a seasonal account that included salt.

[RLM]

Both, edges wear & are expensive, we have broken 2 blocks, they clean exceptionally well, at only 8' wide the individual sections advantage won't be realized IMO. They are also more delicate than a ridgid pusher, great plow in there place, but the wrong operator can destroy them quickly....Hell the wrong operator can destroy anything though. Someone posted numbers one time (I can't recall exact numbers) but the his figure was the Artic was better than 3x more per hour to run, I'm assuming that figure includes depreciation & wear.

[plowin-fire]

I saw that figure too and didnt understand why they would cost more to operate. I would be the only one running it. I was wondering about the 3 sections in the 8' model as well. What about protech ist?

[RLM]

I have a 12' loader IST, it is a good compromise between the 2, when salting I can tell what has been plowed with what (I obviously know), but there is a noticeable difference, between the 3.

[plowin-fire]

Still going back and forth between rubber and steel edge. Looks like a majority or pushers have a rubber edge.

[SNOMACHINE]

I have protects and added a couple boss pushers and just got a new boss 10 footer for our big skid. All my protechs are rubber with boss all steal. I think each have there place but once you see the boss skid type it's built like a tank and for the money you can't beat it hands down at $2300. I like the sectionals too. Tried one couple years ago but I can buy 3 for the price of 1 sectional. And to many moving parts for employees to be operating.

[iceman1]

I am a dealer and one of the largest users of pushers in the country. I would go with the cheast rubber blade you can find. I sell both Sectional and Scoopdogg. I can get you a new Low profile for $1600 or a reg 8' for $1900. shipping is cheap on the 8' stuff. let me know if interested

[Mike S]

Ive have all kinds of attachments for a skid steer and in the end here is what i came up with. I tried the blades, pushers, snow buckets, and a blower. We only used the rubber edge pushers and not impressed and not happy with the out come of them. They are fine for backhoe and stuff but the blades and snow buckets always did a better job. When I say blades i mean blades with wings 10-12 foot wide with wings. Just the way they clean at the curb sells it for me. The blizzard 8611 for my skid is nice, very expensive but it dosent have to be as fancy as that to do the job. The subs I have with skids mainly have pushers but they are starting to get rid of them and go to blades because of the clean up is way nicer. Oh ya dont buy low pro scoop doggs we bought 4 and are down to one, they all bent with in the first 3 events. I have not tried the arctic's but a friend has one and says it has its pros and cons just like any thing but they dont like that they use it in loading docks and have skids pushing snow out from in between trailers and have the hoe shove the piles off and he said that every time they hit the piles the blade sections pop up and loose the snow all over the place. There are a bunch of guys with different types of blades and pusher with all kinds of likes and dislikes you will just have to figure out what will work best for you. Check out Snow Wolf, Kage, Arctic, Blizzard, Boss, Pro Tech, Scoop dogg, and converting a truck blade to a skid blade. Lot of optoins and prices!