About to buy a Boss Snow Plow for my truck

[4570Man]

You said it’s your truck in the first post. Even if someone else pays for the gas and wear and tear ( which is a lot) on your truck why would you take such an undertaking with no extra pay? Who pays for the tow bill if you break down or get stuck on the way to the job? Who pays if you’re involved in an accident along the way? Seems to me like you should keep watching Netflix at home where it’s warm.

 

[Old Red]

why would you take such an undertaking with no extra pay?

WOW! Amazing feedback here.......Why??? Because I care about what I do and where I work and those we serve. Sheesh!!

 

[Old Red]

Back to the original question boss plows are good we had 4 at my other job. Only broke the blade return spring. They have down pressure good for scraping hard pack. You might by better off with a small drop in poly sander salt dogg 1.5 yards

I will take a look at that. The dealer is wanting/suggesting to install the Boss 600lb spreader. It has some sort of wheels on it where I can roll it up to the insert on my truck and attach it that way.

 

[LD1]

Vee vs straight vs straight + wings all depends on parking lot layout.

If you have to carry snow, vee or wings on a straight are the way to go.

If everything can be windrowed....why waste money on a vee?

And if lots are on the smallish side again, I'd save coin and get a straight+ wings and save the complexity. Especially with only a few small events per year.

 

[sd455dan]

Vee vs straight vs straight + wings all depends on parking lot layout.

If you have to carry snow, vee or wings on a straight are the way to go.

If everything can be windrowed....why waste money on a vee?

And if lots are on the smallish side again, I'd save coin and get a straight+ wings and save the complexity. Especially with only a few small events per year.

never owned a Boss V but have owned Meyers and Western straight blade angle plows, and a skid steer with plow blade.
The one advantage I heard from a Boss owner was that if you get into a situation where it is deep snow the V blade will give you a real advantage getting that 1st pass done on a long drive without stopping or building up so much snow that it is necessary to do multiple pushes off to the side to get to the end- this would seem to save a lot of time and probably wear and tear.

Since only parking lots have been mentioned... a V plow may not be that much of an advantage,but the flexibility that the V blade provides for the extra coin would be worth it if you ever do need it. jmo and:2cents:

 

[Tomtint]

My .02 on the sander. . Not knowing how big your lots are and how much salt you will need for each one. . You need to take into consideration where you will get your material. It is never a good idea to put salt in a hopper the night before and let it sit overnight. It can freeze solid in cold wet temps and be a nightmare. Also....around here anyway...suppliers are not open 24/7 for salt. Having a place where you can stockpile your own and load yourself is the best for efficiency. And as said earlier.. salting is brutal on your truck.. it will eat steel like you can't believe.. and spreaders are ..somewhat maintenance free for about the first 5x you use them.. then they are money sucking, time sucking, back breaking, grief monsters. .. snow in all forms becomes a painful experience after the novelty wears off. And don't get me wrong, I think you are a better person than I am doing what you do. Adding snow duties to your job just for the heck of it is very generous.

 

[JimP]

How well do spreaders work at spreading salt? Do they have a rheostat that allows you to open up the spread or close it in? For example we have 2 portico's where patients are dropped off. Can you drive through and spread salt when you go through them? Do the guys who spread at banks going through drive thru's spread when they pass through?

I never spread salt, only sand or sand/salt mixture and only on our personal driveways. Salt should be easier as it won't freeze up very easily. Any small areas were done with a shovel. On trucks I only used the MSS. The baffles around the spinner are manually adjustable for spread width. It uses a 12 volt motor so a switch can be used to control motor speed and to some extent spread width. That said, you can't go from a 4 foot spread width to a 14 foot spread width on the fly. The MSS is VERY expensive and overkill unless you need to spread sand.

 

[Tomtint]

I never spread salt, only sand or sand/salt mixture and only on our personal driveways. Salt should be easier as it won't freeze up very easily. Any small areas were done with a shovel. On trucks I only used the MSS. The baffles around the spinner are manually adjustable for spread width. It uses a 12 volt motor so a switch can be used to control motor speed and to some extent spread width. That said, you can't go from a 4 foot spread width to a 14 foot spread width on the fly. The MSS is VERY expensive and overkill unless you need to spread sand.

I have used both sand / salt mix 50/50 and straight salt. My experience is this, sand mix...makes a mess and it gets tracked inside the places where you are spreading it. It also requires MORE material and more frequent applications. Not to mention the spring clean up of the sand residue in the lot. Straight salt works faster, Uses less material, and lasts longer once down. In many cases where a thaw re-freeze would occur with sand/salt, thus require adding another application. .. straight salt would have dried the asphalt so no ice could develop.

 

[Old Red]

My .02 on the sander. . Not knowing how big your lots are and how much salt you will need for each one. . You need to take into consideration where you will get your material. It is never a good idea to put salt in a hopper the night before and let it sit overnight. It can freeze solid in cold wet temps and be a nightmare. Also....around here anyway...suppliers are not open 24/7 for salt. Having a place where you can stockpile your own and load yourself is the best for efficiency. And as said earlier.. salting is brutal on your truck.. it will eat steel like you can't believe.. and spreaders are ..somewhat maintenance free for about the first 5x you use them.. then they are money sucking, time sucking, back breaking, grief monsters. .. snow in all forms becomes a painful experience after the novelty wears off. And don't get me wrong, I think you are a better person than I am doing what you do. Adding snow duties to your job just for the heck of it is very generous.

Good info....if a salt spreader (any of them) are really that bad, then I might need to look into this option a little further before pulling the trigger. I've used fertilizer spreaders quite a bit and they are corrosive as well, however never salt. Have no experience. A relatively inexpensive earthway commercial push spreader might be the ticket for now then. I don't want to spend 2 grand on a salt spreader for it to be money, time, and back sucking the life out of me...that is for sure.

Not adding this for the heck of it.... I see your from Boston...no way in heck would I take on something like this if it was very often. If it was something that happened often I would venture to say the number of reasonable professional contractors available to choose from to do a good job would be more readily avaialbe. In addition, my guess is you and your people up there are just used to it...jsut another thing...sort of like steamy weather down here. If someone spits on the road and it freezes in Kentucky all grocery stores run out of milk and bread and the whole dang town shuts down and commerce comes to a halt. We were shut down for both events anyway...it's not like I was in the office doing anything.....think this is why maybe it is hard to understand where I am coming from just because it is so much different down here and the use and abuse isn't anywhere near what it is up there. We are likely to have 2 or 3 events where a plow is needed....but it is needed when it happens.

Thanks for tips....I might forgo the spreader for now. Hard to believe they can command 2 grand for a spreader and they cause that much issue..but I'll take your word for it....no one has them here.

 

[Tomtint]

Good info....if a salt spreader (any of them) are really that bad, then I might need to look into this option a little further before pulling the trigger. I've used fertilizer spreaders quite a bit and they are corrosive as well, however never salt. Have no experience. A relatively inexpensive earthway commercial push spreader might be the ticket for now then. I don't want to spend 2 grand on a salt spreader for it to be money, time, and back sucking the life out of me...that is for sure.

Not adding this for the heck of it.... I see your from Boston...no way in heck would I take on something like this if it was very often. If it was something that happened often I would venture to say the number of reasonable professional contractors available to choose from to do a good job would be more readily avaialbe. In addition, my guess is you and your people up there are just used to it...jsut another thing...sort of like steamy weather down here. If someone spits on the road and it freezes in Kentucky all grocery stores run out of milk and bread and the whole dang town shuts down and commerce comes to a halt. We were shut down for both events anyway...it's not like I was in the office doing anything.....think this is why maybe it is hard to understand where I am coming from just because it is so much different down here and the use and abuse isn't anywhere near what it is up there. We are likely to have 2 or 3 events where a plow is needed....but it is needed when it happens.

Thanks for tips....I might forgo the spreader for now. Hard to believe they can command 2 grand for a spreader and they cause that much issue..but I'll take your word for it....no one has them here.

My spreader was in the 6k area... and it manages to somehow or another eat another 1k a year in maintence