Owner's review of DK2 & SnowBear "Heavy-Duty" plows
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- Update: Reached out to DKII (which now also manufactures SnowBear) with this video 2 months ago, and heard nothing back - not even an email to say I abused their "heavy duty" plows and they didn't support them.
This video is my review of two universal-mount (front trailer hitch receiver mounted) snow plows: an 84x22 in. plow from DK2 and am 82x19 in. plow from SnowBear. I purchased both plows with my own money and plowed for 4 years with the SnowBear and 1 year with the DK2 before making this review.
TL;DW: Both plows are made for LIGHT DUTY applications (despite both being marketed as "heavy-duty"), and each failed completely in a more moderate duty application, being pushed by a light truck/mini truck (Jeep Comanche). Both plows would probably work OK if you plow 200ft. of driveway a few times a year, store them indoors, and never exceed 3 MPH. If you're plowing a dirt road and you need to keep the banks pushed back through the whole season, you'll need a grown-up plow, probably mounted on a grown-up truck, to get the job done.
You are using these plows way harder then what they are designed to be used. You get what you pay for, when i used to plow i had a full size pickup truck with a meyer hd power angle plow and it cost alot more then these it was also built way heavier I never had a problem. Buy the right equipment for the job these plows are made for personal use one driveway.
Well I’m glad that I bought the dk2 for my small dirt driveway 😂. For reference how far off the ground is the bottom of your front mount receiver? I ask because I have to fabricate my own.
Sorry it took me forever to get back to you - I just measured about 16" (on rough ground, so +/- a little). That's from the bottom of the 2" receiver channel.
@@tmarbut Thank you I’ll be using that to beer math mine. I appreciate the help
@@OttoTheImmortal I didn't do a good job in the video describing how to test the height, but just make sure to test it out a bit. It's easy(-ish) to just mount the plow directly, lower it, block up the mount so it doesn't sag, shim the plow articulation so that it's exactly centered in the rotational left/right play, and then lower it until the blade is level while canted fully right or left. Then you know how much drop you need to be level at the road surface.
I had a snowbear plow two years ago. When I first got the plow and put it together, it simply did not go together right the two plow pieces did not line up as they should have and the three point connection of the plow to the frame did not line up properly...I could only get two lynch pins in their proper position, not the three. After using the plow a few the blade became bent and soon was unusable. I called the company (in Canada) numerous times, sent them pictures and complained about the assembly problems. They said it was my fault (!!!) and basically did nothing. I ask to talk to a supervisor and the two agents I talked to insisted they were the top of the food chain. Since I lived in Washington State, I really had no recourse with a Canadian company. The blade got so bad I had to take it off and put the old snowbear blade I had laying around on for the second year last year just to get me through the winter. I then took both of them to the dump and bought a Meyers Home Plow last fall. It works great and no problems. Save your money and don't buy a snowbear. Buy a Meyers, or Hiniker you won't be sorry. BTW I plow about 100 yards of gravel driveway (some curves and a bit of a grade) in Northeast Washington State. We get between 3' - 5' + of snow a years. Hope that this helps.
Wow - that's a much lighter duty application than mine even. I will say both of mine went together mostly as expected, aside from how the nylock nuts didn't lock at all and fell off.
I have a similar model of Snowbear plow. I use it to plow a 265 ft asphalt driveway that is fairly steep. I have had it about 6 years mounted on a Ford Explorer Sport Trac. I have had similar problems as you, except for the bent blade. In the spring
I walk the drive picking up nuts and bolts. However, before that I was using an ATV mounted plow and have had my share of problems with that as well. Plowing is hard on the equipment by its very nature. I still would not use the SnowBear for much more than what I have been using it for. Unfortunately, the plow truck was the first to suffer catastrophe. The rear frame rusted out internally at the upper suspension link and I couldn't get anyone to fix it.
Oh man, that walking the road picking up parts that have fallen off over the season hits way too close to home. Or worse, my neighbors calling me to tell me they found parts on the road. How embarrassing.
How fast were you taking these? That looks faster than the rated speed for those 15mph max on the dk2 and I believe it was similar with snow bear
@@codysphotography9716 Approx. 156mph.
@tmarbut what well it makes sense the jeep is light but dang I got dk2 for a good deal not doing hitch mount for the F250 but at the same time if I plowed my road that fast I thought the plow would fail sooner than that if you are seriously going 156mph
@@codysphotography9716 Possibly 157-158. Does a great job ejecting the snow from the road.
I bought a used one for this year i will refer back when it does break
Great video the manufactures should watch your review and fix the issues...
I sent it to them in advance, before I published it, in case they wanted to correct anything or make any engineering updates. No response (wow!).
No response is not a good look.@@tmarbut
@@dkat1108 sorry, I should have clarified: I got an automated response saying they'd gotten my message and a representative would get right back to me. 🙄
I have an old snow bear. Excellent plow. Very few problems. I use it for my driveway. I have never used it for high speed plowing, or would I .. mine is at least 20 years old. Consider what your going to use the plow. The department of transportation has heavy duty equipment.
How fast are you driving when plowing?
I dunno, but fast enough for the snow to clear the bank. Otherwise the road just gets progressively narrower all winter. But I don't spend a lot of time looking at the dash rather than the snow I'm moving.
Cheap plow plain and simple.
My 2 cents... your using a light weight plow and trying to do a heavy duty job... you need to get the correct plow and rig for the job your doing.... same idea of trying to dig a house foundation with a garden shovel....
I have an old 78 ramcharger with a 7 foot pro blade that i never drove as fast as you were, but it never had any issues as it was designed to do a larger job and was the correct tool foe the job...
The plow is marked as "heavy duty". 🤷 (This year I'm plowing with an 8.5' Snowdogg and a Ram 2500, so the old Comanche can retire to be a general ranch truck.)
Get rid of the drop hitch and go straight to the hitch and Use the turn buckels for dk2. change out the kickback spring to a Myers spring and install solid loop eye bolts. And your absolutely abusive to that weak of plow
Without the drop hitch, the rotational angle isn't right, and one corner drags while the rest of the plow is off the ground.
The plow is marked as "heavy duty". 🤷
I have the DK2. This will be my third year. It's good for my terrible gravel driveway, but it's not the best. The scraper popped off on first use. The VERY cheap bolts that hold it on just broke. The bolts looked like the heads of the bolt was just glued onto the bolt. I replaced them with grade 8 bolts and then spot welded it, it hasn't fallen off since. The side markers broke because they are the cheapest things on the planet. The springs fall off constantly. It sticks out too far and it pulls the front end of my vehicle down so far that the frame scrapes the ground constantly. I'm gonna try to raise it up this season. It does work, but it's not perfect. I owned a Sno bear years ago and that was complete garbage. The DK2 is better, but I don't know if the Sno bear got better over the years. This guy is using them outside the scope of what they are meant for. They are called "personal" snow plows. They are for YOUR driveway and maybe the neighbor, but these are not for plowing roads. If you have the right vehicle and this is your budget, I would recommend the DK2, just be aware of the things I mentioned.
@@richardcurtis8026 But I used them for *my* road 😑
@@tmarbut Yeah they're not for roads lol
They are both made in Canada. They are garbage. Mine bend where it was not supposed to bend. Lol
The material is total garbage. You really have to use them like they are plastic if you want it to last a long time unfortunately.
Spend some money and buy a Boss or Fisher.
I got a Ram 2500 and a SnowDogg, but close enough.
Don't support this crap. Buy a plow designed for a 1/2 ton truck from Fisher, Hiniker, Meyer, Boss, Western, or other builder of commercial plows.
I did. And then I made a video to help people know what these plows are like. There's a 8½' SnowDogg on my RAM 2500.