the company I first plowed for took a 9'2" boss vplow out in the first storm of the year in 1999, sheared all three shoes off, bought new ones, next storm, same result, now they run 3 boss v plows, none with shoes. I run my hiniker v plow with the shoes all the way up on any hard surface including frozen gravel drives, and only use shoes for loose gravel on my drive. I either don't take gravel drives, or give them to a sub to do. I have about 1 inch of cutting edge wear in 50-60 hours of billable plow time, not including work for family, and personal friends. I consider this exceptional for the work I do. But I am just a 3 year operator, I have a small fraction of the experience represented by this board.
P.S. I am required to not use shoes on my industrials, they require black pavement on loading dock, and request a minimum of salt application due to tracking into wharehouses by fork trucks.
oh yea, i have twice the vibration, and jerking, jolting, pounding when using shoes as with out. P.s. if your plow trips forward in deep snow you either need a taller plow, or you need to plow faster to roll the snow better. Remember, they are snowplows, not pushers, they are made to roll snow, and trip when they hit an obstruction.
But I could be wrong, after all whats in a name like "snowplow"
[Edited by Plowboy on 01-25-2001 at 10:22 PM]