Written by: Terry Wendorff, President of Sno-Way®, Intl.
Sno-Way® has this badge on all of our literature, STRONGER, SMARTER, BETTER THROUGH INNOVATION. I would like to explain to you what this means to us and how we live it every day.
Our products work SMARTER because of the way they are designed. One example is our direct lift linkage; we use a Lift Bar Bell Crank System. This system provides some advantages that a chain lift system does not offer; I will cover a few examples of the benefits. An advantage this system provides is for a smoother transport ride, because the plow is not bouncing up and down as you travel on the road, this helps protect your suspension on your truck. This system provides higher stacking capability and a positive stop for the plow that will transfer the stack loads across the total structure of the plow, rather than into the truck frame. We have a mechanical lift advantage with the Lift Bar Bell Crank System so we draw less power from the trucks electrical system when you are lifting the plow. This translate into the trucks electrical system lasting longer because it is not being over taxed, this will allow the operator to stay out longer in the field moving more snow.
I will give you another example of an area of the plow that we have a SMARTER design that basically goes unnoticed. In our a-frame and swing frame weldments, we are using structural tubing to increase strength, decrease weight and increase flexible strength. By using the structural tubing we develop a much stronger cross sectional strength, than using angle iron and welding plate to the angle to make it into a tube. By using structural tubing we gain flexible strength that allows this area to flex when they are in load conditions. This stops the parts from taking a set and then causing the parts to crack and then break apart and fail. This SMARTER design keeps you working on your job, and reduces your overall maintenance cost over the life of the product.
To look at another example of SMARTER let’s look at our 29VHD Plow. This plow is a full trip plow with double acting cylinders and an easy mounting system. What sets this Vee plow apart from all the other Vee plows in the market is the Max Adjusts System.
This system allows you to adjust and level the plow to match the truck that you are plowing with. The system makes sure you have the best chance of scrapping the surface clean with a Vee plow. If you need to transfer another manufactures Vee plow from one truck to another truck you need to make a major adjustment to re level the plow. You will need to take it to the shop to disassemble and move the a- frame to another mounting hole, this can take two to three hours just to get it back to level for a different truck. Then consider as the truck suspension changes or the wear strips wear uneven you normally have no adjustment. With the Sno-Way® MAXADJUST™ SYSTEM you just take a single wrench and turn it and watch the head rotate until you have it level with the surface. Talk about time savings, the fact that you are plowing with a blade that is level and cleaning down to the surface, reduces your plowing time and makes you more money.
Our latest development is really revolutionary; and it is our family of “R” Series plows. We designed a family of plows that has a wing on each side of the blade. The wings are attached to a hinge which rotates around the end of the blade. The advantage of this hinge system is that you have full control from zero degrees to 90 degrees, so you can make this plow into a full box plow or have one wing open and one wing close for windrowing. Being able to make this plow into a box plow you can put the snow where you want it. This is especially helpful when you are plowing a parking lot and vehicles are already parked there, you won’t be moving snow behind and underneath the vehicles because you control the wings and therefore where the snow is moved.
The hinge system also keeps the wear strips flat on the ground, unlike the plows, that have wings that slides out of the blade ends, they cannot keep the wear strip flat on the ground which means less surface cleaning. Another concern is with the slide out wings can only be rotated about 30 degrees and if you should bend one of the slides out wings, good luck getting them to function and repairing them. With the “R” Series plows you can flat out move more snow. So if you are currently using a Vee plow and using it mainly in the scoop position, so you can carry snow, then it’s time to change plows and put a “R” Series plow on your truck. When you combine the” R” Series plow with Down Pressure® you will cut your plowing time in about half. I cannot think of a better way to increase your productivity so you can take on more accounts and make more money.
So I hope you can see that with the examples I provided, we not only live the word SMARTER we provide you with SMARTER plowing solutions.
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