i am looking for info on the snoway v plow. ALAN looking for your input, i know you have snoways are they straight or v's. reliable? drawbacks? also fuel prices in wisconsin have really risin. anyone else felt this. if you have been plowing a lot for the past few years and the fuel prices have increased how much should you compensate with a price increase? without being way out of line. a smart business man should never just *eat it* dan
Dan, Friend of mine bought 2 new V plows last season. One was a Fisher, the other was SnoWay Lobo because the Fisher undercarriage was BO'd for his Ford. Like most, we had a MILD winter last year. He broke the Lobo 2nd storm, 6-8" wet snow. Nothing the welder couldn't fix, but it was a new plow. He has had no problems with the Fisher. To be fair, he is HARD on equipment..... He sold the Lobo and bought another Fisher Vplow. IMO the Lobo may not be best choice for commercial use. Dave
DaveO, thanks for your input.did he break the plow or the plow frame that mounts to the truck? any one else got news? dan
This will be our first winter with our Lobo. We've had one 8' Predator since 94 and the second since 96. The only weak point I've found on them has been welding problems. Sno-Way has some of the absolute worst quality control on their welding that I have ever seen. I was a certified welder in past lifetime, so it's no big deal for me to inspect and repair as needed. I've talked to their tech rep and he's about as worthless as tits on a boar! He adamantly denied that they have ANY problems with their robotic welding processes. The problems would be easy to fix if they would only listen. I think that, overall, Snow-Way is as good as any brand, they all tend to have one weak spot in diesign or manufacture. What keeps me going back is that our dealer is absolutely wonderful about support. And it's a lot easier to stick to one brand and be able to mix and match plows and trucks. We can hook either straight blade to any of the trucks this way. After this winter I will be able to give an honest evaluation of the Lobo but for now I'm just hoping it can make the team. One thing I really miss on the Lobo is Lexan skins. We've got out phone number on the back of our straight plows and around here people comment, "Oh yeah,, you're the guys with them plastic plows!" I miss having that little attention getter.
Alan, I saw that advertising on your plow at the BBQ. Glad to hear you get a good response to it. I thought it looked like a cool idea.
We've got two Snoways. Both are 7.5' straights. One is Lexan, and the other is Steel. The Lexan is going into it's fourth year, the Steel it's second. Snoway replaced the Lexan skin after we punched a hole in it somehow our second year with it. At our dealer this summer I noticed two other Snoways with cracked Lexan skins. We didn't notice any appreciable difference in snow sticking to the blades, whether with Lexan or Steel. We felt Steel to be stronger and chose it over Lexan for our second Snoway. We are considering upgrading the Lexan to a Lobo for this winter, depending on our property list. What we really like about our Snoways is their high lift for stacking, the quick response of the blade when angling it or raising it, it's light weight, and the hydraulic downpressure for scraping. What we don't like is the difficulty in mounting the plow when it's 2am and -20 outside.
Anybody have a ballpark figure for the price of a Lobo? I've been waiting for three days for dealer to call back with a quote. I called back yesterday and he said he was still busy putting quotes together. I originally asked for a quote on the 8'3" Lobo, but yesterday asked about the 9'1" and he said it was a $100 difference. Western dealer is out of MVP's. I can get the Fisher V for around 4k. Haven't talked to the Boss dealer yet.
Dan, I believe the damage was on the plow's frame, not the truck's. Also the nice rubber/plastic piece on the middle of the Vee ripped off 2nd storm during stacking. These problems were fixable. It is a nice looking setup. He also dislikes the controller(s). It has 2 control switches, instead of the one Fisher uses. Like the other's have said, dealer support is a very important aspect to consider. Every plow breaks eventually.... Dave
Thanx Chuck!!! Almost time to put the bike away for the winter. Track closes end of October. Then it's time to break out the winter toys. Fired up the Ford yesterday, still going to plow with it. The new Dodge will have to wait for next year to plow...UNLESS we get a PILE of SNOW this year!! Dave
