[Vince Panaroni]

Geoff,

This is what I got so far today about the Diamond situation.

Diamond is owned by Meyers who is owned by Swenson Spreaders, and the Louis Beckman Company in Cleveland owns the entire group. Main production of plows are done at Meyers and Swenson makes the boxes. There is possibly some overlap somewhere here.

I could not get any hard information concerning if the companies are publicly held or private. My guess is private.

I know that Gledhill owns American Road Machinery and that Douglas Dynamics owns Fisher and Western and Armco I believe is the owner of the entire group. It may go higher but I don't know. Public or private, i don't know but I'll keep digging.

 

[GeoffD]

Thanks for the info.

I did find out that Diamond Plows are no longer built in Maine , so i guess i am wrong on that account. It is strange that they put a distrbution center in Maine, it's kinda weird to truck things south. Anyways the story i heard from my dad was this ( it could be total BS). That one or more Fisher engineers decided they could build a stronger plow than fisher. So they left Fisher Engineering ( know as fisher snowplows), and started their own company, Diamond Snowplows ( the rumor is that the company was in Maine). Anyways they met their goal of building a tougher plow, and then some ( anyone who ever saw a Diamond would agree). They also produced a V-Plow one of the first for the pick-up market, i believe. The company continued building their plows, but had money problems, thats when meyer came into the picture. Thats the end of my dad's story, maybe it's real maybe its BS.

Anyways i saw a few Daimond V-Plows in my day, these things are tanks. I think in some ways even more advanced then todays v-plows. The outside edges were about 8-10" higher than the center of the v. So they looked like a highway plow, but could also work just like today's v-plows. Why did they stop making them, again this what i have heard. When the released the Pull A Way stystem in 95, the V-Plow was cut. They only had to change the mounts to make it work on the new system. It was cut because, it weighed too much for todays trucks ( almost too heavy for a 1 ton), and the sales were not high enough. Like i have said before all Diamond plows are heavy but tough, only the V-Plow was even tougher and weighed more than a 9' blade. I think some of Diamond's engineering methods might have been if 1" of steel isn't strong enough, use 2", this is more of a joke ( but if you ever look at a Diamond, you might believe it).

Geoff

 

[Vince Panaroni]

Geoff,

I do believe that your dad was right about the evolution of the diamond plow company. I also understand, no fact at this time that the guy from Pathfinder plows in Rhode Island was also involved.

There is no doubt about the toughness of the equipment. I ham planning a meeting with diamond over the next several weeks. Would you like to visit them with me. You could get some of you questions answered?

vince

 

[GeoffD]

I am not sure what my plans will be in the next few weeks right now. Only i am going to be having coffee with my Town DPW forman on friday. I plan to tell him about your edges, because we bounce snow removel equipment of each other all the time. What was the web address of your site again? Does it have a phone number? In case he wants to contact you.

I have read enough information about them on this forum, that if i hadn't bought steel ones this year i would be useing them. I have your spinners on 3 of my v-boxes, i got them from central parts. Just didn't know they were yours.

Geoff

 

[Vince Panaroni]

Geoff,

The best way to get me is [email protected] It is my home mail and if anyone would like to see our "Under Construction" web page it is www.mptek.com

We are trying to get as much information into that site as possible.

Geoff, if your guys are interested in edges and spinners and anything else discussed over this forum, please let us know. For the time being, you can run everything through Dino, and you can be sure that he will birddog it for you.

I did speak with Tammy today about the upcoming SIMA meeting in Portland Maine, and I asked her about inviting non members for a day, and she thought it a good idea. I also told her it wasn't my idea either, it was Dino's. jack and I will be with her in Traverse City, Michigan for the American Public Works Show which is huge.

If anybody who isn't a SIMA member out there and can make it up to Portland in June let us know on this site and we'll see how many are interested.

vince