Snow Plows

There are a number of issues involved in deciding what kind of snow plow to buy for your pickup truck. Below are the issues commonly addressed in deciding what kind of snow plow to buy.

1. Duty Cycle: If you are planning on more than just clearing your own driveway, you need to get a plow designed for heavier use.

2. Ease of Use: How easy is the snow plow to mount/demount from your truck? And what kind of electronic control do you want, hardwired or wireless?

3. Truck Friendly: Will the plow require a heavier duty battery than you have in your truck? Will you have to add weight to the rear of your truck to compensate for the weight of the plow? Was the plow designed to reduce strain on your front suspension?

4. Effective snow removal: Does the snow plow maintain sufficient down pressure to deal with packed snow or does it just rely on gravity? Do the blade geometry and material facilitate efficient snow removal?

Some research of the 4 most prominent snow plow manufacturers:

Snowbear appears is the least expensive snow plow that I found, but what you receive is a kit packaged in 2 boxes, so there is some assembly required. Furthermore, depending on your vehicle, you may also have to have some fabrication done at your local welding shop. Snowbear is probably a good choice for those who are easily able to tackle the assembly and mounting work themselves, and keep in mind that this is not a commercial grade snow plow, and there is no hydraulic down pressure available.

Western snow plows hydraulically lock the blade down in operation which they claim is just as effective as down pressure. From an efficiency point of view, they are probably right, since it seems to me that a continuously running hydraulic pump is going to use more power. Western's snow plows do include the easy drive up mounting that is popular with the better equipped, though more expensive snow plows. They also provide all of the other bells and whistles of the more commercial models, such as, wireless controller and full hydraulic control.

Sno-Way snow plows claim to be first in many of the innovations that are now common in good snow plows. This doesn't mean that Sno-Way is necessarily the best, but they do make snow plows with all of the features one might want.

Hiniker appears to be the most queried name in snow plow manufacturers. This doesn't mean that they are the best, but they do make snow plows for the homeowner and also for full commercial use. Price wise, they seem to be on a par with Western and Sno-Way, but that is difficult to finally conclude, since it needs to be determined what necessary items are called accessories and therefore, additional costs.