snow plow question (western)

Yea I know it's spring and the snow is all but pretty much done for most of us.
But dealers are placing pre-season orders now .

Work wants to possibly buy a plow for my 86 f250 - For me to keep.
I'm not crazy about it but a 7k+ plow for plowing our lot seems like a decent deal?

Anyone running a western on a older truck and have the western LED's installed?
1 dealer quoted it as an option another is telling me western doesn't offer them for anything older than 2008.
Looking on their site, the halogens don't seem like they would connect either but that is what will be installed- So I'm a bit confused if LEDs can be done or not.
Meaning if they have an adapter for the halogens than why not for LEDS
I have contacted western but no response besides them attempting to call with no callback #
By chance if someone is running this setup, do you know the part number for the harness adapter
that is if there is such a thing?

My truck is configured as a Heavy 3/4 . and the plow I'm looking at is about 700ish pounds. (7.5' plow)
Does anyone think I'll need to beef up the front end for this setup?
I don't plan on carrying the plow more than necessary or plow anything besides our lot and probably my drives.

 

Not positive, but i think cranking up the torsion bars may be necessary on independent suspension for a 700# plow.

 

amateur cutter any mechanical input

 

no torsion bars, leaf spring setup and I can't remember now but I want to think the gfwr is 3300 lbs

 

7 1/2 foot plows are half ton rated. 3/4 ton it’s way overkill. I’ve always had 9 foot on mine then went to a XLS extendable 8 to 10 foot. Lot heavier than a regular straight blade and still carried fine on a 3/4 ton.

 

Are you only considering a western? I run a fisher on my truck for residential plowing and after hitting a guardrail with it this year at an angle of about 75 degrees and at roughly 10-15 mph with just a sheared hydro hose to show, I would put nothing but a fisher on my truck. I still shake my head at how much force it absorbed. Truck is just under 7000 pounds, 850 ish pound plow and at least 1200 pounds of logs in the bed as a counter balance. If I didn’t have the plow on, I can’t imagine less than 8-10k in damage. Yep I’m now a fisher fan boy

 

no not against a fisher. Just thought they cost more and I didn't see a dealer pop up in my local search for one.
Meyers,western,boss and salt dogg I think were the main ones that are somewhat local.

 

Western blizzard and snow way and fisher are all made by Douglas dynamics in the fisher factory in rockland Maine. They are almost all identical until it comes to powdercoat and they automatically transfer different spray booths and ovens.

 

Stay away from meyers and salt dogg take your chances with boss. They can get expensive when they break and they break often.

 

I just spent some time on each of their websites and can’t find any 8’ plows that have the same specs. From what I can see, the fishers have more weight and/or more ribs.

 

I’ve been in the factory a few times. The blades are made to the same specs by the same people from the same parts. There’s lots of different models to compare is where it can differ.

 

What's your GVWR? (Edit: never mind...I see you already addressed that)
Should be no problem either way, just more cushion with a 8600# truck (IMO)
And we run Western at work...no issues with them.
No help on the LED question...but I don't see why a good installer couldn't make it work...its just 12v for Pete's sake...you can do a lot with some strategically wired relays!
Oh, and a 7.5' plow is too small for a fullsize truck...when you are fully angled it will not even be as wide as your tires

 

Yes I can understand this but I can’t find ANY two plows under those two names with the same specs

 

Boss is almost always built better, but you pay for it. Still running my 9’-2” V from 1995

 

I thought the same thing about the wiring. I don't want to mess with it myself, one of the gotchas on this deal is I don't do the work on it.
They can pay the dealer for anything needed for the plow section. My pay grade isn't as high as the folks who do, and I have to maintain my own truck as it is.
I know the 7.5 is small but I'll get paid by the hour and I hope its just less wear on my truck. But you made me look at it in a different way.
It might be lighter on the front end but if I have to do more passes to clear the snow, is it less wear and tear or more?

 

I dunno how big this lot is...but a 7.5' would just be super frustrating to deal with...especially in a heavy snowfall!
And the Western plow mount system is so easy to put on/off, no reason to just drive around with the plow on all winter, so minimal extra wear/tear...from carrying it around anyways...

 

We previously had a 7.5' (IIRC) on a Dakota...going from that to the 9' (I think its a 9?) on the Superduty seemed like going from a blade on a lawn tractor to a real plow truck! Of course part of my issue was that Dakota was not a truck...it was a Dodge torture device for anyone over about 5'10" tall!

 

In the pines, where are you located?

 

north east ohio, about an hr from akron/cleveland lil bit more to pittsburgh

 

You guys get the tail end of any of the lake effect snows there? We do occasionally, but being about 10 minutes south of the southern edge of even the secondary snow belt, means we miss much of the big snow events...