Why Choose A SnowDogg Stainless Steel Snowplow?
Shopping for snow plows for your commercial or residential plowing needs can be tricky. Many features of modern snowplows are built to look attractive, but offer little value when plowing through a big Winter storm at 3am. Hanna Trailer Supply is here to help point out the primary features that make high performance SnowDogg Stainless Steel plows the envy of the snowplow manufacturing industry. Browse this year's inventory of SnowDogg by Buyers Plows and SaltDogg by Buyers Salters and conquer Winter's worst conditions often experienced in the Midwest and Great Lakes.
The number one factor that influences snowplow performance is the snow plow moldboard skin material. So, what's the difference?
Painted Steel Moldboards used to be the only option for most snowplows back in the early days. They were an inexpensive solution as far as the initial cost is concerned, but the long term costs later became apparent. These types of plows became famous for "browning", when their original color may have been red, yellow, orange or another brightly colored plow.
This was due to plowing operations performed in a wet, salty and dirty environment. Special primers and premium paints are no match for these common Winter elements. When paint becomes worn or chipped, the material underneath will eventually rust away and become unrepairable. Your only option is complete replacement when this happens.
Polyethylene Moldboards were developed as a solution to the issues experienced with painted steel moldboards. Polyethylene plastic had been used for years as a moldboard material for municipal plows and therefore seemed to be a natural replacement for painted carbon steel. The biggest asset for using polyethylene in plow moldboards is that it never rusts. However, polyethylene has several major flaws when used in real world plowing situations. It is not very strong or rigid, requiring a thicker skin and heavier frame in order to provide the same functionality as thinner steel or stainless steel moldboard skins. In addition, polyethylene cannot be repaired when broken or cracked, leaving complete replacement as your only option if damaged. Regular sunlight exposure can also fade the polyethylene color, which can become a serious issue for many plow owners.
304 Stainless Steel moldboards have been rigorously tested and performance evaluated in salty and wet environments. This has proven to be the ideal material for plow moldboards. The hard, strong, slippery surface of 304 stainless steel will not rust and maintains its surface finish. The surface of the moldboard skin can be restored to brand new condition with a simple, good cleaning, and it can easily be repaired by welding if damaged.
What is 304 Stainless Steel?
There are several different grades of stainless steel. 304 (also known as 18/8) is a non-magnetic stainless steel alloy with 18% Chromium and 8% Nickel. This gives it a very high level of corrosion resistance. There are less expensive grades on the market with lower nickel content that provide some corrosion resistance, but significantly worse performance in real world salt water environments. Some, but not all of these inferior grades are magnetic. 304 stainless steel maintains its surface finish and color, and it is never magnetic. Buyers uses only 304 stainless steel in all of its stainless salt spreaders and snowplows.
Why isn't everybody using 304 Stainless Steel?
304 stainless steel is very expensive, usually about 3 times more costly than carbon steel (and up to 50% more expensive than inferior grades of stainless steel). When Buyers released the SnowDogg line in 2006, there was only one other major truck plow on the market with a stainless skin that was priced quite expensively. Since 2006, with the introduction of the SnowDogg plow, most manufacturers have begun advertising stainless or polyethylene snowplows as a premium product, but at a premium price. Their carbon steel plows remain as their entry level offering at a much more affordable price, though at a price still generally higher than that of the SnowDogg plows.
How can Buyers sell a stainless plow for less?
Buyers Products began over a decade ago, marketing SaltDogg stainless steel v-box salt spreaders at a lower cost than existing carbon steel spreaders. Just 6 years ago, Buyers Products brought to market the SnowDogg snowplows with the 304 stainless steel moldboards at less cost than existing carbon steel moldboards. This has been done because Buyers Products buys more 304 stainless steel than all other snow removal product manufacturers combined. Buyers Products runs a factory that runs non-stop all year round manufacturing snowplows, salt spreaders, toolboxes, towing products, reservoirs, lightboxes, kingpins and several other products. This was done to split the cost of overhead between thousands of 304 stainless steel manufactured products, not just SnowDogg snowplows. Buyers Products is a privately held company founded in 1946, which holds no debt. This means that there is not any debt interest built into the price or their plows. The price of the plow is based on straight cost of manufacture and delivery. Buyers products remains vertically integrated and buys the 304 stainless material directly, cuts it, forms it, welds it, paints it, assembles it, tests it and ships it all from the same facility.
Besides the 304 Stainless Steel moldboard skin, what other characteristics set SnowDogg plows apart from the competition?
EPDM rubber edge guards between the 304 stainless skin and the powdercoated moldboard frame provides extra strength and a snug fit, which eliminates looseness and noisy rattling that you might find on a less quality "floating skin" plow.
The #4 brush finish on the front face provides a shiny and attractive, yet durable finish. 304 stainless steel is a hard impact, low friction material and doesn't gouge or scratch easily. It allows the snow to simply roll off the ultra smooth 304 stainless steel surface, preventing the possibility of snow or slush from grabbing into any surface defects.
Finally, the eye catching finish of the 304 stainless steel moldboard matches well with the color of any truck and provides increased visibility for others in bad weather or while plowing. The 304 stainless steel finish will never fade or wash out.
The 304 stainless steel skin material is just one factor when selecting a plow. SnowDogg by Buyers plows are designed from the ground up as a tough, simple, cost effective solution to the plowing needs of America's plow operators, contractors and homeowners. Call (414) 762-7950 or stop by Hanna Trailer Supply at 7575 S. Howell Avenue in Oak Creek, WI and see for yourself why SnowDogg plows are just right for your plowing needs for the upcoming Winter snow season.