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S4-163: Talking New Snow Products we used this winter, and our experiences!
0 Playsin 22 minutes
The guys sit down and talk about new snow products that each of them were using this winter, and what their thoughts and experiences were with them!
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:02
Speaker
This No Jobs podcast episode is brought to you by Top Gun Backblades.
00:00:08
Speaker
you ready for the best lot of your me a hell, me a gal Stand up right now And give me hell, give me gal Stand up right Get ready to go She moving she's taking control Pushing the pedal through the floor begging for
00:00:40
Speaker
Let's get it, Snow Jives Nation. Here
Introduction & Sponsorship
00:00:42
Speaker
we go. Episode 163 of the Snow Jives Podcast. Main show powered by Top Gun Backblades is off and running. As always. I'm talking to the juice box guy.
00:00:51
Speaker
You know who I am. You know who's with me. I'm one of the baddest motherfuckers of all time. i' One of the best singers. One of the best looking motherfuckers you've ever seen. Hold my drink, bitch.
Weather Woes in Fargo
00:01:00
Speaker
Steve and Jeremy doing it.
00:01:02
Speaker
We're here. The two mad men of snow. he's when in the own but You got some... you got some ah I don't know. You're little excited did tonight. Energy. Got to bring the energy. Yeah, energy. You're bringing the energy. That's for sure. That's good. should be exhausted. We had to do a whole separate episode for Sean, so I should be tired on this week. No, I got funny ah plenty of energy here. We're we're recording in advance.
00:01:28
Speaker
Jeremy's getting the great blizzard of Fargo in this weekend. The spring blizzard. The spring blizzard. Yeah, we're supposed to get, what? They said, i don't know, four four plus inches so it's huge snow and i just got my six o'clock update and now it's pretty much gone
Winter Challenges & Equipment Talk
00:01:48
Speaker
it's like it's like a coating to an inch so ah it's gonna be a standard fargo snow away it looks like oh my god that's so funny you know what i give zero fucks i don't care i'm in the same boat dude i we just got it sprung on us at like 5 15 or so that Oh, by the way, i know it's been 70 the last two days and you're supposed to get all rain tomorrow, but you could see some snow from 4 to 9.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, maybe it grass the the old grassy coating with wet pavement. Grass coating, yeah. oh that We're definitely scraping the tomorrow night. Definitely. We can't avoid it.
00:02:28
Speaker
But how's your week? It's been pretty good. Well, the other night we were yeah we were recording. Yeah. It was actually, we have a snow squat. It was supposed to snow some, but when we were recording, it was like, holy shit. it's like It was actually snowing really good. i thought to have to go out and push.
00:02:47
Speaker
And that lasted 15 minutes and it was done. So... You guys got snow last weekend though, right? Some salt down. yeah nothing Nothing pushable, I don't think. No. oh Last Thursday Friday, we had ice events. So we were all salting last Thursday and Friday. Then we ended up salting Monday. think was Monday when we recorded.
00:03:08
Speaker
We salted that day. and Sounds like we'll be salting possibly tomorrow night, which will be Thursday. Sounds like another chance of freezing rain.
00:03:19
Speaker
So, yeah, it'll be... I'm getting some salt out, I guess. So least we're doing something. So are you done? Are you done with this winter? No, no chance. I mean, ah honestly, at this point, I'm so fed up with this winter.
00:03:33
Speaker
The last three. I've had enough. But there's no no no chance we'll be done. We'll have, we'll get these, we'll get us. No, I know we're not done, but are you done? Oh, I'm done. Yeah, I'm done. Yeah, exactly. I'm done too. I mean, I'm done here. I'll go push somewhere else because I'm sick of these coatings to an inch shit constantly. Oh, man. I want to push some real snow. This is ridiculous. Yep.
00:03:57
Speaker
Yeah, you got to – Michigan and Chicago, I think, are going to get. Wisconsin, Michigan, Chicago, they're saying. I don't think even the Minneapolis might get something this week. Well, when this is out, it'll already be gone. But something like that the past weekend for them would have been – they're talking right now. It's supposed to get some decent snow down there. So we'll see if it happens. don't know.
00:04:16
Speaker
There you go. You going to go push with anybody? I don't know. You never know where I'll end up.
00:04:24
Speaker
10-4, you do never know where you're going to end up. just You are the literally the most interesting man in snow. Snow. Bill Secchi's man of snow. I just need think if I have my own airplanes. Ah, fuck, let's just go.
00:04:37
Speaker
There you go, bub. ah So what are we doing? Today is the day. Today is the episode. We're going to talk about some new stuff we may have had this winter ah that we got to use or we bought.
Snow Gear Reviews
00:04:50
Speaker
you know It's new to us. And we're going to throw some reviews out there, let you know what our thoughts were, and you know try and review the product to the best of our abilities and what we saw out of it.
00:05:01
Speaker
So we'll let you know what our experiences were with the products. And, yeah, we'll go from there because some of these were pretty damn good. So ah guys have been asking a lot of questions this winter. They've seen videos. They've seen what we're using. They know what we're using.
00:05:15
Speaker
So we wanted to get this done and and get some honest feedback out there to to you guys out there. you know, if you're in those spaces, then you might want to give them a look and check them out, see if they work for you.
00:05:27
Speaker
But before we do that, as always, we're going to hear from Team Top Gun. to come back, do a really abbreviated week review, and we'll get on with it. Gentlemen, let me tell you about the best kept secret in the snow game.
00:05:38
Speaker
Top Gun back blades. Our all American blade is the largest and strongest pickup truck plow on planet Earth. We're talking about a 16 to 20 foot wide blade that makes other snow plows look like toys. This is what peak efficiency feels like.
00:05:49
Speaker
Now you can do more with less. We're currently offering the fly high edition plows with exclusive perks in honor of our late founder Jason Yonkers. Quantities are extremely limited. Ask about our new skid steer attachment.
00:06:00
Speaker
Get your order started at topgunblades.com or check us out on Instagram and YouTube at Top Gun Blades. Welcome to Team Top Gun. all right, guys, quick week review, as we've mentioned the last couple weeks. Storks Snow Alliance, Snow Alliance, 2026 has been announced. It's the 24th and twenty fifth of April.
00:06:18
Speaker
If you guys have not gotten your tickets yet, go over to storksplows.com, get your tickets. This event will sell out. It's a great event. A lot of hardcore snow dudes there. lot of equipment. It gets bigger and better every year.
00:06:30
Speaker
The food's off the hook. They added the pre-party, the welcome party the night before that they started last year. That was awesome, right, Jay? That was fun. Really time. That was a lot of fun.
00:06:41
Speaker
Yeah, because it was it was such a good event the two years prior that Guys are like, it was so awesome, but it was so quick. Like we felt like we were coming in and out of town too fast. And like we said, if you could do anything else to keep guys there, I bet you get guys for, you know, make a weekend out of it. And a lot of guys did. That party was packed.
00:07:01
Speaker
Yeah, dreams it was a good time. And I think Case sponsored it last year and they had the 421 out there for people to see and stuff. So it was a good time. Yep. That party is again sponsored by Case Construction Equipment.
00:07:13
Speaker
So we thank them for that. Everybody had a great time last
Events & Merchandise
00:07:16
Speaker
year. I'm sure it'll be no different this year. I believe it's at the same place at that train station. I think that's what I heard too. I think it's at the same place. Don't quote me on that, but it's going to be a great time guys. If you have not gotten your tickets, they are going fast. They will definitely sell out. They do every year.
00:07:31
Speaker
And Gene's got a hard number this year. He's not going to, not going like, Oh, we're going to set it at two 50 and then we'll ah two 85 walk in. Like there's only so many places for people to go. So don't,
00:07:43
Speaker
Don't wait. Just get your tickets. Come join us. It's going to be a great day. Every year has been better than the previous year. So I can't wait to see what they've done this year. And then if you're, if you are coming in for that pre-party on Friday night, Friday during the day, they are having a golf tournament sponsored by Arctic snow and ice products.
00:08:03
Speaker
Yeah. The heck was that? Is it mini golf or real golf? yeah god Can you hear my German Shepherds running running around dropping their bones upstairs? Loud noises. I'm like, what is going on?
00:08:16
Speaker
ah But yeah, I'm going to golf. But like I said, I think that has legs, me and you sitting on one of the tee boxes with a speaker and microphones. Just make fun of everybody's outfits. I'll make fun of people.
00:08:27
Speaker
Yeah. No problem. We could definitely do that. We could definitely be persuaded to do that. <unk> be It'll be a good time regardless. But definitely, we'd love to see it, Storks. Everybody who's anybody in snow is there. It keeps getting better every year. So join us.
00:08:43
Speaker
Let's see. What else we got? Head over to snow job nation store.com. Get all your snow jobs gear. um We shouldn't have posted the picture of the luggage. We've got lot of DMS and texts about the luggage.
00:08:56
Speaker
We're not stock luggage. We're stock and or not sp this luggage. I just, I think yours is about done. and I think I got a bill for today. So I think it must be about done. So we're not stocking luggage, man. what We need to get some sponsors start paying for this shit. There you go. andm Absolutely. Right. You know,
00:09:13
Speaker
if you want If you want luggage, talk to Jeremy directly. Maybe he'll ah he'll sneak it in and order for you. But we're not stocking in the store. It is definitely expensive. But, you know, Carhartts ain't cheap either. My God. yeah Those jackets are insanely expensive.
00:09:29
Speaker
Yeah. They're good. Everything is expensive. Yeah. What's diesel there right now?
00:09:35
Speaker
Uh, four something. Four. Yeah. It's not five here. I'm going to send a tanker truck out there then. Yeah. I think it's 549 here. Really? they that I don't think it is here unless it went out today, but I'm, yeah, don't know. It's all good.
00:09:54
Speaker
All good. No big deal. But, yeah, keep hitting the like and subscribe on Apple and Spotify. All right. Drop reviews of the show. Definitely, ah you know, give us five stars if you can, if you think we're worth it.
00:10:08
Speaker
and and And just keep keep giving us the comments. Yeah, we're definitely worth it, right? Keep giving us the comments, though. It definitely helps us keep bringing you guys what you want. So i think we're I think we got everything else out of the way. You got any announcements we're going to make?
00:10:23
Speaker
We just know we missed again. We missed Connex this year again. have to wait three more years. And then we missed the the truck show at Indianapolis. We keep saying we should go to it too. We definitely got to do the truck show at least next year.
00:10:36
Speaker
what about yeah It's just tough though. March is like march is such a wild card. You can get nothing. You can get 30 inches in March. know. It's tough to make plans.
00:10:47
Speaker
One of my dealers asked me to go to Minnesota wild game tomorrow night and I can't go because there's a chance of snow. So I got to, you know, you know, mean it's work is work. You got to work. So you can't, you can't plan anything. So I guess can plan it. Once you plan it, you know, it's going fucked. So yeah. oh the second I make any plans between November and April guaranteed, guaranteed snow's coming.
00:11:10
Speaker
I literally said back in November, there's one weekend. I do not want any snow coming. And that was Lake Placid. And boom. You got hit with a little storm. Mega storm. The second mega storm in three weeks. Yeah, we're gonna throw that out there.
00:11:25
Speaker
But that's our life. We're used to it. We just complain about it. We're all insane. We make a plane, but it is what it is. We always get through it and bitch a little bit. But if you didn't bitch about it.
00:11:37
Speaker
Wait a minute. What are you wearing right now? huh What are you wearing right now? I see the tag, though. That's not the cheap shit sweatshirt I got. That looks like an unreal.
00:11:50
Speaker
No, I got you one. I got you one. I do not have a UNRL sweatshirt. It's in your suitcase. It's in your suitcase whateverever i whenever I figure out how to ship all these suitcases to you. i like this Wait a minute. What is that? i like That looks like UNRL. Oh, man. They should sponsor us.
00:12:08
Speaker
I like that. Unreal. hot Unreal. That's nice. Well, I'm wearing it, so I make it look better. so Unreal. Unreal. Join up. Join up. Get on board with the snow jobs. that's That'd be great.
00:12:18
Speaker
He wears all your stuff anyway. Yeah. It's in your suitcase. I got figure out how to ship all that shit to you. It's going to cost an arm or leg to ship it to you. God. Yeah.
00:12:29
Speaker
We'll do, like, less than less than truckload freight. Just throw it on a flatbed. There go. All right. We got anything else? think that's it, buddy. All right, let's hit some commercials and we'll get back and we'll get right into this.
00:12:42
Speaker
Hey guys, Steve here. We're always looking for ways to save on labor and increase safety for our people. Last year, I purchased a game-changing snowblower from my company that does just that. It's called the MuskOx.
00:12:53
Speaker
It's patented backdrag feature and design lets us get right up to our HOA garage doors and tight spots, clean them all right down to the pavement without
Innovative Equipment & Reviews
00:13:01
Speaker
scratching. This beast can also scrape hard pack going forward if you need it to.
00:13:05
Speaker
It's truly a dual-threat blower. Give MuskOx a call. Their staff are extremely knowledgeable and have been amazing with us. MuskOx. Snowblowers that backdrag.
00:13:16
Speaker
Step into the future of snow removal with Arctic Snow and Ice Products, where innovation has been our driving force since the early 2000s. We're redefining efficiency and reliability for snow contractors nationwide. Explore our range, from the game-changing sectional snow pusher to the versatile double-down salt bucket.
00:13:31
Speaker
Don't miss our latest innovation as we introduce the Razorback, the first-ever sectional moldboard truck plow. Join us in shaping the future of snow removal. Discover more at www.articssnowproducts.com.
00:13:45
Speaker
You know what it takes to keep winter in check. Long nights, cold mornings, crews that never quit. That's who Boss Snowplow is built for. From plows and spreaders to sidewalk and liquid solutions, every Boss product is engineered for snow professionals like you.
00:13:59
Speaker
Tested tough, built smart, proven to deliver when it matters most. We don't just make snow and ice equipment. We design it to dominate every storm. So when the snow starts flying, you're not just ready, you're Boss ready.
00:14:11
Speaker
We're Boss Snowplow, and we do whatever it takes to back you up. Guys, if you've followed the show lately, you've heard us mention the Plowrite snow stakes. Well, now that I've tried them, I have to say I'm a huge fan. Installing traditional snow stakes is time-consuming, expensive, and if you're using fiberglass, just downright dangerous due to the splinters.
00:14:27
Speaker
That's where the Plowrite marking stake system comes in. Their patented installation tool can install up to 450 stakes per hour. The stakes are made of hollow polypropylene, which will not crack, break, or splinter.
00:14:37
Speaker
They have three different size options from 26 to 46 inches. Come in five standard colors, orange, green, blue, red, and hot pink. Best of all, everything is 100% made in the USA.
00:14:47
Speaker
Log on to plow-write.com and order yours today. Be sure to use the promo code SNOWJOBS at checkout to save 10% off your order. All right, we're back. We are back. All right, buddy. So it's just us, man. We're ah yeah we're keeping the riffraff out.
00:15:03
Speaker
Yeah, just ah just us two dicks. We don't do many shows with us anymore. We don't. We really should do more, just us. um So you want to start with your list? You had some interesting stuff. I think ah i think everybody out there really wants to hear about the 421 case.
00:15:22
Speaker
Yeah, we we just picked that 421 up ah ah in January, so we haven't had a ton of hours on it, but we've got – don't even know what's on it, maybe 50, 60 hours or whatever. But that thing is you guys have been using it dusty, reuse it quite a bit. And then one of the other guys been using it not lately, but they really liked that thing. It's, it's a, you know, it's, it's a very maneuverable, got good, ah good visibility running out of it. And it's got plenty of power. you' got snow tires on it, obviously. And the thing is ah if you can push some snow, we've, We're just running a 14-foot Ardix on it right now.
00:16:03
Speaker
So we were going to put ah one of the new Phantoms on it, but we decided dusty for Dusty's route, I gave him a different loader. One complaint, I guess, we want to have ah is, well, at least for Dusty's a big boy, so the cab's a little smaller for him.
00:16:20
Speaker
Yeah. So that's why we switched that loader. two smaller guys going to get that got that one now than... He's going to go to 918. It's not quite the tightness of a 321, but it's definitely not one of the large frame, like 5 or 621 cabs. Correct. It's just, I mean, it is tight there. I mean, even, you know, it's it's just, I won't say it's tight, but it's, it's when you're sitting in like It's not as roomy. It's not as roomy. It's smaller frame machine. Yeah, exactly. i mean, it's... I think they could have gone with a bigger, more more room than that cab.
00:16:54
Speaker
I think they really could have. But but whatever. I'm not a designer. so The power to weight ratio is good? power rate Yeah, and weight ratio is really good. Putts and putts actually Josh from Valley Green putts. He got two of them himself, so he's been running them the last couple months too since like in the December.
00:17:11
Speaker
and And those are what, 100 horse? ah and then more i don't I think they're right. I can look it up. They're definitely DEF. Yeah, yeah, they have depth in them. I just, I don't remember the horsepower what it was. Yeah, it's all good. ah but But they are, they're doing everything we we want them to They're very agile and, I don't know, the guys, they keep up with the other loaders just fine. So, like I can say, Josh actually just today, you saw that picture.
00:17:43
Speaker
Yeah. you put He put a phantom on his today. So, I think he's kind of interested to see how that goes. Yeah. Very cool. um I got to give a shout out to the premier snow company in Fargo, Adam Nelson, premier, because Adam bet me last year. he said, hey, I am very confident.
00:18:05
Speaker
because I rave about the winter equipment, the edges on the MVP three. yeah um And they are phenomenal. But Adam bet me, he goes, let me let me get you a set of the Sabres.
00:18:19
Speaker
And you put it on the MVP three and you run them side by side. He goes, I bet you we scrape just as good, if not better. And I bet you we hold up longer. I'm like, um well, that's an interesting bet. um It's only been a season.
00:18:32
Speaker
So um'm I'm looking forward to season two. But my guy in the truck that we put him on has been plowing with a truck for 30 something years. And he literally said it is night and day.
00:18:45
Speaker
He goes, it they are phenomenal. He says they're absolutely phenomenal. um The only problem he had was he said, he said, they may be too aggressive on driveways.
00:18:56
Speaker
We have a driveway that's a little uneven and he took up some, He took up some blacktop on the one driveway with it. Oh, wow. In the parking lots, we've had um we had him come through one of the lots that we normally do with the loaders, and Mark was watching him, and he said that that scraped 200% to 300% better than our normal MVP three blades.
00:19:21
Speaker
Oh. And we have almost nowhere after one season, and we plowed lot this season. Yeah, you guys did. yeah We definitely did. yeah So very impressed with the Sabre cutting edges.
00:19:33
Speaker
um The price point's a little better. So it's a pretty good alternative. Yeah, we we got ah we got some Sabres on a couple of Artics, and then I got actually have an Artic set up with with Sabre Carbides and then Winter Carbides and head-to-head on those. and To be honest, I don't see the wear difference at all. Six of one, one half dozen the other? Yeah, yeah they're they're they're both doing really well. So um um I'm happy with them.
00:20:03
Speaker
We scraped. We don't get the big heavy snow like you, but we we our blades are on the ground a lot here, even for the little shit. You probably would wear more than we would because, yeah you know, scraping a half an inch a hundred times is going to get more wear on it. 100%.
00:20:18
Speaker
Yeah, we're just, yeah, theyve they've been working great for us. And, yeah, they're good edges. I mean, I guess good stuff costs money. So well he jumps our 112 horsepower that case. okay.
00:20:34
Speaker
A little bit more than 100. I thought it would be 100. Cool. her um Yeah, so, you know, you you read the – I don't chat in the chat groups and stuff, but i I definitely watch, you know, when they come up on the feed, the conversation and stuff. And you you see the cutting-edge, you know, conversations and stuff. And guys – you know they throw mud back and forth on this brand, that brand.
00:21:00
Speaker
It happens, right? But, ah you know, some of the things you were hearing, it just didn't make sense. Like this, you know the guys were dogging Sabre a little bit.
00:21:10
Speaker
I did not see any of the issues that guys were talking about. So. so I have not experienced any of it, and we did a lot of plowing this winter, and Rick was in love with those things. So thank you, Adam, for making me try them. And, yeah, they are definitely, definitely a ah big player in the game.
00:21:29
Speaker
we We also had – we also put Sabres on one of the Arctic's last year, and we love them on the Arctic. I didn't think they would have as much impact on an MVP three.
00:21:41
Speaker
scrape only because, you know, they're not floating edges. They're not, you know, they're not sectionals, but they actually did have, uh, have a quite a huge difference on the scrape quality of the MVP three.
00:21:53
Speaker
So, uh, if you got, if you got a truck plows out there and you're, you're in need of cutting edges, uh, Sabre definitely worth checking them out. Uh, I definitely like them. I can't wait to see what they're like after two years. Cause we have next to nowhere on, um on, uh, on one season with probably,
00:22:09
Speaker
God, I don't know, 200 hours on them. very happy. What's next on your list? I'd probably go, let's go over to Boss.
00:22:20
Speaker
The Boss stuff. I got to try ah try the vb VBX spreader. Got one of those this season. Yeah, VBX Plus.
00:22:31
Speaker
It's a two-yarder, and ah Chase has been using that all summer, or all summer, all winter at Amazon. Yeah. He's put a lot of salt through that thing. And the a thing he's he's like, we need more of these salters. there We've had zero issues with it.
00:22:46
Speaker
Really? I guess the only issue we had with it wasn't... When we got it, we didn't have the vibrator on it. Okay. So he had a little bit of a bridging. So we I got a vibrator from Boss and we put that on it.
00:22:59
Speaker
Ever since then, he's no issues at all. That thing's been working flawless. He loves it. i mean, that he can't, out of all the salters that we're running, he he says we need to get more of those. Yeah.
00:23:11
Speaker
He's very really happy with that. so Were you guys using the material tracking feature? Yes. Yep. We are using that, and he he likes that as well. and It's working really well for him. so Was he able to tell how accurate it was?
00:23:24
Speaker
He says it's pretty much right, pretty pretty damn close is what he's he said. i can I haven't used it, to be honest, this winter because it's in his pickup, but he he says it's working great. and I mean, he's probably put...
00:23:40
Speaker
I don't know, a hundred thousand plus pounds for that thing this, this winter. So good. yu That's good to hear. It's been really working well for him, especially where he's been going. So yeah, great for that. and then we also got from a boss, uh,
00:23:57
Speaker
I know we always talk about stand-up machines out out here don't work well. cold. to Too cold out there. It definitely is. It definitely is. But we did have a site that we we needed a smaller option for, and the boss came through, and we got a scout here.
00:24:13
Speaker
And once again, Chase has been using that probably out of most guys. Yeah. He actually has been on it quite a bit himself, and he's really impressed with the old scout. you know It's just a blade, but he said as it saves him a lot of time for what he's using it for.
00:24:28
Speaker
He's using it around my Amazon out there. So... So that's just a stripped-down version of the original Boss Snow Raider. It's a straight blade, no spreader. Nope, no spreader, right? Nope, no spreader. But sub-10,000, which makes it very attractive if it works. Yep.
00:24:44
Speaker
Yeah, and he loves it. that they I mean, for what he's using it for, it's working great for him out there. So it's, yeah, it's, it's like you say we we don't we don't have those here. we I've seen, like, think there's, like, only a couple people in town that have them.
00:24:59
Speaker
have like a mag or a ventra or, and you know, so there's, they're not really a thing around us. So no yeah, he's pretty happy with it Works great. That is true.
00:25:12
Speaker
That is not really a thing. Oh man. look and out there Yeah. That's good, man. I'm glad it works. That's a, I mean, we gotta, we gotta to figure out something now with the elimination of the SSV.
00:25:25
Speaker
We got to figure out something for 36 inch sidewalks. the the the I've said it numerous times on here with you. the The original Snow Raiders, we had them. They were great. No complaints whatsoever.
00:25:36
Speaker
The exact bat spreader was awesome on them. They had plenty of power. But when you got a winter like the winter we just had, you can only windrow so high before the snow starts coming back down into the sidewalk. And then you either got to run a um walk behind snowblower through and widen it out. Or, you know, you got to just keep pushing it straight ahead.
00:25:55
Speaker
you need the ability to switch attachments. And now with the elimination of the SSV, to my knowledge, you know, outside the mammoth, which, you know, I'm not buying that. um There's nothing on the market in 36 inches that has the ability to switch attachments.
00:26:12
Speaker
So anybody wants to make a 36 inch wide buggy with a direct drive, hydraulic attachments, you will win. Listen up, get it done. the The door is open.
00:26:24
Speaker
It is open for sure. I don't know what we're going to do. We're going to have to figure it out. We're going to have to baby those. our see How many hours you have on yours? Quite a few. or No, not not too many. Maybe the three three to three fifty, maybe on a couple. And then the other ones are like sub one fifty.
00:26:45
Speaker
Yeah. So we we we only really used the two of them this year. So we really didn't get a lot of use because the the ninjas are so fast. By the time they take them out of the trailer and stuff and get work and they're done.
00:26:59
Speaker
So they're like, yeah, we don't even need them. We're faster on foot. But love that's not that's not the case in all all places, though. That's that's one place. But. It is what it is. Yeah, that's good, man. I'm glad the scout worked out for you. No engine problems, nothing. The Kohler was good.
00:27:17
Speaker
Nope, it was all good. I think only one time it didn't start, and that's just because I think the ground cable got loose on the battery or something. so there That happens. No big deal. So you tighten that up, and away you went.
00:27:28
Speaker
so There you go. Ground wires come loose. I've had it happen. Yeah. but How was you? What do you got next on your list? ah Let's see. Well, we've talked about it before. Yeah.
00:27:39
Speaker
at length on the Arctic, the Arctic episode about it, but the, the Razorback, the whole season, boy, what a, what a year to have that plow out here. um Cause that thing just killed it. And I, I can't say enough about it because I, there were storms like that. You don't want to break your plow. You never want to break it, but there are storms. You got to move, like you got to move and hustle to keep up with it. And you just got to muscle the shit around and hope for the best.
00:28:08
Speaker
And, Everything I threw, that that that plow is a freaking big yellow pinata. You keep hitting it, it keeps spitting up candy. that That thing took everything I gave it and then some.
00:28:20
Speaker
And I've had, I think I bent one cylinder because I caught it on a curb. this last storm. That's it. And I hammered the this out of this thing. Yeah. One of the wing cylinders, I think i play wing so that's operator error. That's not the plow. I literally caught it on ah on a curb seam and I didn't know I was caught until oops, damnmit but I didn't even notice it. I plowed the rest of the storm.
00:28:46
Speaker
And then a couple days later when we're putting the plot, taking the plow off, Mark's like, dude, put your wing out. I put it out. It's like, that don't look right. I didn't notice it. It still operated just fine, still scraped exactly the same.
00:28:59
Speaker
But, yeah, a little bit of a bent wing cylinder. But, again, that was 100% on the the operator, not on the plow. But I couldn't – the big storm that we just had, we already had snow piles, and I really had to push it and ramp.
00:29:16
Speaker
And I sent a couple pictures of how high I was stacking piles with that thing. It was – it had to be three feet, four feet over the hood. just It just kept ramping up. I can't say enough but The scrape is incredible.
00:29:29
Speaker
um I really yeah you know i feel bad for the the regular OEM straight blades and V-plows because you know these new technology plows, the Razorbacks, the Snowpowers, if you're not running one of those, you're just you're really throwing money away with efficiency increases. They're so much more efficient.
00:29:50
Speaker
What you can do with a Razorback, I mean, it's got to be – I had to have cut 60% off my time on ah on some lots. And what a great year for that full kit to come out for the hundred snow has been across country. as I mean, every of me hundred years i mean i would say everybody I would say majority people that have them this year got to put some good hours on them and really, really put them to the test. Guys got to use them. Guys got to abuse them. They got to durability test them over a lot of hours, not these little wimpy winners that, you know, half the country has been having lately. You know this was hundreds of hours of of truck plowing. So, yeah, it really got not tested.
00:30:29
Speaker
we We have one as as well. Chase has got one on his pickup for the Amazons, and he uses that thing all the time out there for everything from a touch-up to – yeah mean he's he's touching tips with that phantom going down to the backside of it. you know he don't That thing is hogging. so yeah that theny silly and then Andy Broughton's got mine. and that thing is ah he's been The shit hard pack that he's been breaking up with that thing is... Oh, it's insane and hard pack. Every time he does, he's like, it this thing is just insane how much this thing will cut. you know It's just crazy.
00:31:04
Speaker
so it's ah It's definitely a ah hard pack killer. It really is. But the The most impressive thing for me that I don't know if it took me by surprise, but I don't think I was expecting, you know, you windrow with a truck and you've been windrowing with a straight blade or a V plow for years.
00:31:24
Speaker
You know, everybody knows if you got more than, you know, two inches of snow, you got to start at, you know, at the middle of the blade. Otherwise, you're going to start having spill off on the leading edge. That Razorback, I was putting within three to four inches of the line, the snow line, and I was losing nothing off the leading edge with six, seven inches down.
00:31:43
Speaker
Like, it really just rolls that snow forward and to the direction that you're windrowing to, and it just keeps it moving so you're not meeting a lot of resistance. The snow's not...
00:31:54
Speaker
it's not resisting the plow it's rolling with it. And it's really, it was impressive as hell. So, I mean, I can't say enough about the Razorback. Um, I know guys were saying there's guys out there that were saying, you know, the hoses were leaking, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. We, we built ours.
00:32:11
Speaker
It came in a box. So if you follow the instructions that were in the box and you, you do what they tell you to do, which is put the hose in, lock tight it, turn it to this torque.
00:32:22
Speaker
Boom. Boom. Mark did all that to their spec and we didn't have a single problem. so Yep. I mean, we did hear that issue. i think my plow to Andy's using, had he had him loosened up. We put the Loctite on. I think it's been good ever since. so Yeah.
00:32:39
Speaker
Loctite works. Loctite works. Yeah. So, yeah, it's ah it's been working great. And I know – uh mcintosh has got one out and he said they've been using it using it they love that thing out there too for clippers and plow right out there so yeah they he said his guys love it so i guess i'm really hurting too bad on it ironically The only really heard, honestly, is about the hoses. you know But there's haters. I mean, not haters. hose Yeah, that's an issue. We give Metalplast shit about hoses. So, i mean, it's only fair to give shit. But we all, you know, it is what it is. you Yeah, tighten them up, and it' it's all fun and games.
00:33:19
Speaker
Yeah. No, I've been very impressed. It's all fun and games. so You run out of hydraulic fluid, and you're fucked. Yeah, right. um But the nice thing is you can very easily check your hydraulic fluid level.
00:33:31
Speaker
It's got a clear tank. Yeah. You pop open the headgear and there's a clear fucking tank. You can see what your level's at. And you can actually fill your tank easily. It's a, what is it? A flathead screwdriver, three turns, rotate the tank towards you and fill.
00:33:46
Speaker
It couldn't be easier, but we didn't need to fill because the line that we put on there with the marker. The fluid's still at the same level as when we started, so we haven't lost anything. um the only thing i The only even remotely, not even negative thing I can say, I used a lot of down pressure this winter, and we plowed a lot of hours, and my edges are wearing. Edges? Yeah, my edges are are wearing really. like I don't know if I'll probably have to put a new set on before next year.
00:34:16
Speaker
But yeah i believe the amount of money I saved in salt with what I didn't have to put down after the Razorback went through, forget it. Like those lots were getting done with a truck plow.
00:34:27
Speaker
I was putting a lot more salt down on those lots last year than I was this year. So I'll replace edges. Salt was cheap year What's that? Yeah, salt's cheap. Yeah, yeah. but This guy's fucking stealing it in the middle of the night and shit, dude. It's crazy. ye But no, but.
00:34:42
Speaker
it's worth like, I'll put a set of edges on there and I'll still be ahead of the game for the amount of salt savings that it saved. So, and the, the edge, the, ah the wings, the wings scrape just as good as the mold board, really very similar.
00:34:56
Speaker
It's um like, you don't expect the, the wings like on certain wing plows. You don't expect the wings to scrape as good as the mold board will. But these do, these really scrape very much, very similar.
00:35:11
Speaker
So, It was, like I said, can't say enough about it. Great job, Arctic. that's Those things are to take over. What else you got? What's on your list?
00:35:22
Speaker
Well, I will stay with the loader a little bit since I did get the demo ah Bobcat loader. Oh, the Doosan with the body kit? Yeah, it's a Doosan. I mean, yeah. so they reach as and That's what they always say. It's a white Doosan. But I tried one of those a few years ago, and I did not like – this Bobcat just felt way better than that was. you know Obviously, it's been a few years What size letter was it?
00:35:49
Speaker
It was like – what was it? Nine – I can't remember the number. It was like a – Give me the equivalent. It's like a 938. Okay, there you go. Yeah, was like a 938. So, I can't remember the number of the buck. Anyway, think it was a 285 maybe. I could be wrong. But anyway, that thing, I think we put like 80 hours on that thing and multiple guys ran it.
00:36:15
Speaker
We used it for hauling. We used it for stacking. We used it for pushing. you know, we did everything with it. Yeah. Very impressed with it. I mean, I think wouldn't have a problem with having a few of those in the old shop.
00:36:28
Speaker
Those things were, they were they were great loaders. That thing was kind of, so I can't still can't believe it the same size as 938 because it looks so much smaller than 938, but the weight-wise and everything, same as a 938. Interesting. So a little more compact.
00:36:44
Speaker
you know Only thing, you know, couple things we kind of didn't like. I didn't like where the mirrors were. It seemed like you had to kind of look around them. I like to have a nicer seat in it. It's like a low back seat, like a high back seat. You know, know guys are going to be in there for hours, so you want them comfortable. So, I mean, those are just piddly things, you know, just to talk about. But I would i would honestly compare it to a John Deere loader, like a 544 or a 624, whatever that's, or a 544T.
00:37:13
Speaker
That's kind of how it felt. Hydraulics kind of felt the same and everything like that. So it was really, it a it was a good loader. I mean, I i didnt didn't really have any complaints on it. We actually had snow tires on it for us, too. So that was great. so They're not stupid. They're not sending you anything without snow tires. Everybody around it liked it. So was very impressed with that. so Sweet.
00:37:38
Speaker
That's good. And the price tag wasn't bad. That kind of came out of nowhere, right? Like Bobcat's big loaders? Yeah, he I went over probably a month, a couple months ago and they had it in their shop. Kind of they had a thing about it. And so that was my first time seeing it. And I'm like, ah if you get one for winter, let me know. We'll try it. And they finally they got one that wasn't sold and we got to test it. so I think they had couple hundred or so out this year in the States, and I think it sounds like they're all gone, obviously. but yeah I was The winter that we had, yeah, I would say there's very few machines out there right now.
00:38:16
Speaker
It sounds like the price tag is going to pretty good. Good. Sweet. Love to hear it. Yeah, they came out of nowhere. Didn't even expect to see them, and then all a sudden like, what the hell is that?
00:38:29
Speaker
Yeah. Bobcat? I don't know. That white looked pretty cool out there. I mean, it got dirty pretty quick when we were using it some slop. But definitely the one the one we would, if we ever got one, we'd definitely put full fenders on it because this one, he couldn't see how the window was going on the road. 10-4. Cool.
00:38:50
Speaker
How about you? What do you got next? ah The Wolf. The Wolf loader. because So that thing um came in, you know, $65,000 loader. We're all hoping that it's the the answer for, you know, smaller to medium guys to get into compact loaders if they need to and maybe get into many of them um instead of only being able to afford one of one of the big three.
00:39:18
Speaker
um We got it. We ran it. I wish we had it the entire season because it didn't show up until, I want to say, mid-January. We got it like right before the big, big storm, which was awesome. because we really like We had two small events and then we went right to that 20-inch thing or 23, whatever it was.
00:39:39
Speaker
and um We had the same guy in it and he said this thing did everything I asked it to do. ah It had plenty of power, had great traction with the snow tires.
00:39:51
Speaker
um It had Let's see. What else did Danny write down here?
00:40:00
Speaker
So he said it did everything it asked. It had plenty of power. It took him a little bit to figure out going up and down hills what gear to be in for best results. But once he did that, he once he got that squared away,
00:40:13
Speaker
He said, dude, the thing did everything I i needed to do. He he calls it the high chi. The heater is actually electronic, the auxiliary heater, and it's in Chinese. So when you turn it on, it says it's like high chi. And he says, dude, the high chi will literally burn you if you're if you keep it on too long. And it's in Fahrenheit.
00:40:38
Speaker
So, okay no, it's in Celsius. What are we? Celsius. Yeah. It's in the opposite of what we are. So celsius if you're not careful, you can have that thing on thermonuclear. And he was he was plowing in a T-shirt in that thing.
00:40:53
Speaker
um He had a 13, 13 LD on it. Arctic pushed all day. No problems. Yeah. We had a couple couple minor problems.
00:41:05
Speaker
we had he lost He lost lights and the dashboard like intermittently for like a second and a half. um For like an hour it was happening here and there for like you know a couple minutes here, a couple minutes there.
00:41:18
Speaker
ah It's easy to diagnose. It's a ground wire. Yeah. miss you yeah yeah So you find something about that. yeah You find the ground wire. It's literally you remove one panel with two screws.
00:41:31
Speaker
The ground wire on the frame is right there. You tighten it up and boom, done. Never happened again. um It's a $65,000 loader. expect that. i expect to have little issues here and there because I can pay $130,000 for a big three loader and still have a bad speed sensor controller that shuts me down.
00:41:51
Speaker
Or, you know, one of the million fucking sensors in these modern day loaders now that require a tech to come out and hook a computer up to it for 300 bucks an hour just to get you back up and running when it was nothing wrong with it to begin with.
00:42:05
Speaker
Just a bad trip. ah So, That was, we had the the loose ground. um We had a problem with the auxiliary hydraulic, but it didn't affect the machine.
00:42:21
Speaker
So we we had a power angle 13 we were using for the one storm. And that somehow got air into that hydraulic motor somehow or other.
00:42:32
Speaker
It got air into the auxiliary hydraulic motor. So the auxiliary hydraulics did not want to operate on the fly. but So he he could before he started moving, he could turn the plow left and right.
00:42:46
Speaker
But here's the here's the upside. That did not affect the operation of the machine. The main hydraulics still work just fine. So you plowed all night, all day with it the next day.
00:42:57
Speaker
No problem. So and if you take the power angle off and just put a 13-foot Arctic or something else on it, you're still plowing all day. You don't even need the auxiliary hydraulic. Was that the telescope one you had or just the regular arms? No, we had the regular we had the regular loader that Harry and Aaron sent us out. I never got mine, Harry.
00:43:18
Speaker
Well, I will say this. they you know when Harry and Aaron were on here, they they said, you can fix if you have any kind of general mechanical knowledge, you can fix this thing with a couple of wrenches and a trip to Napa.
00:43:30
Speaker
They're not lying. like It is very easy to work on. It's very easy to figure out. Sorry, didn't your buddy have a fuel filter issue with his that down the road? fits fit Fitz did have – it was the secondary fuel filter.
00:43:48
Speaker
He was going to bypass it, wasn't he? He bypassed it. Yeah, he said it it was something – somehow the either the line was cracked and allowing air in or something was was not not happening as it should have been. and it was starving the engine for fuel. So he just bypassed the filter, and he says it feels like it added 20 horsepower to it since he bypassed that secondary.
00:44:12
Speaker
um But like I said, $65,000 loader compared to a hundred and thirty k I expect to have little stuff here and there go wrong. Yeah. um That's good.
00:44:24
Speaker
But it did everything we asked of it. i my only My only complaint is i cannot speak to the longevity because, we were like I said, we only had it for half the season.
00:44:35
Speaker
So I can only speak to putting 75 hours on it. wonder who's who's got the – you know They sold quite a few this year. wonder who's got the most hours on them. we're going to find that out because we're not done with this yet. like We really yeah want to keep working on this because if it I've said it numerous times on the show, and I've said it to to Harry and Aaron.
00:44:56
Speaker
If this thing can get 1,000 hours on them without i the wheels falling off, yeah it's a win. It's a win. That's 10 years of plowing. I thought I heard Harry said he sold one a couple to a feedlot or something like that, those guys just run nonstop, like ah like a cow feedlot, know, cattle feedlot. Yeah. We'll definitely to do our homework for everybody. Those loaders usually get thousands of hours on just, you know, if they're idling or whatever. They're always running these ones I know of that work feedlots. The air ride seat's not bad. ah It's not an American air ride seat, but it's still an air ride seat. It's comfortable. Yeah.
00:45:33
Speaker
The cab is a little tight, but they are redesigning the cab, Harry said, for the new ones. um Yeah, I mean, dude, I think 65 grand with snow tires, and it pushes all day. And it's fast going down the road.
00:45:45
Speaker
it is It says 23. I think it's a little – I honestly think it's a little quicker than 23 because it outruns the 321 down the road. Okay. okay so But, ah yeah, I mean, we it did everything we asked of it in the time we had it with no major problems.
00:46:03
Speaker
So, to be continued. Stay tuned. i'm hoping ah I'm hoping we can work something out that we can run it again next year and maybe maybe get somebody to put hours on it this summer and then send it back and then let's hammer it again, put the hammer down next winter and put another 100 hours on it. Because it's that was the downside, that we didn't get it until mid-January because – If we had had it from late November on, we would have easily put 200 hours on it.
00:46:30
Speaker
No problem. Of hard labor. um but Yeah, we unfortunately it missed a bunch of storms. We we were were going gangbusters in December and it didn't show up. so But nothing can do.
00:46:41
Speaker
But like I said, to this point, to the 75 hours we had it, did everything we asked of it and no major problems. Little stuff. little stuff They definitely need to redesign the um the wiper arm and the wiper motor, which that Harry and Aaron are on that. They already know about that. Yeah, I think I heard them say something They're on top of that. They know because they have them in their fleet. They know where the the things need to be improved, and they're already you know looking at it.
00:47:08
Speaker
Uh-huh. But yeah, the LED lights are bright as hell, which I expected them not to not to be that good. The only thing we did was we changed out the beacon to a light bar, you know, a better light bar. But the other than that, like i said, we've had we had no issues, so can't...
00:47:26
Speaker
Can't say anything anything bad about it. It did what we asked it to do. And hopefully we can do some kind of longevity test with them, work it out. I guess these things could ah they could be very good for a lot of guys, you know the small to medium guys that need to get into compact loaders, but just can't fit the bill for $130K.
00:47:46
Speaker
ye So to be continued on the Wolf, but so far so good. What else you got? You got anything else on your list? Yeah, I got they got a couple more here. We we also were able to we' go to a hydraulic wing paw. AMI came over once again and sent us an AMI wing paw we got to use for a storm.
00:48:06
Speaker
And we put on our 908 13-footer, think it was, with their guess,
00:48:14
Speaker
but they're new what they're new i guess live edge or they whatever they call it i'll remember what they call it but the thing was it actually cut pretty good it it did fairly decent but we just couldn't get it to backdrag that great we tried every different you know the wings just obviously the wings didn't scrape that great on it so i mean the price tag on it wasn't too bad but uh It just didn't – you didn't get the scrape that we wanted to get out of it, I mean, for backtracking and stuff. But, I mean, she would scrape going forward really good and everything at that, but just the wings just didn't seem to scrape that good, I didn't think. and
00:48:52
Speaker
But, I mean, for the price tag and for a wing plow, I mean, it's a good option. It wasn't terrible. Yeah, like let's qualify that that answer because you're speaking – you're taking AMI, whatever that plow is, and comparing it to what you use, which is all tier one.
00:49:09
Speaker
So, like, for yeah would it would it be a good wing plow, tier two wing plow, like put it in, like, a Quattro type arena? For sure. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. it it'd be It'd be fine with that, too. What was the price tag on it?
00:49:23
Speaker
I thought guy, did he me it was $16,000 or $13,000 for it? Sold. Sold. sixteen or thirteen thousand for sold Yeah, know that wasn't that wasn't a bad – I was like, really? That's not bad. was like, that's – I think was 16. I think he said it was.
00:49:38
Speaker
was like – I mean, for hydraulic wind blowing out age. That's in that market. That's in that realm, that arena. It was between 13 and 16. It's been a month or so better. But it was – I mean, I wasn't completely disappointed. I mean, like I had an AMI plow before, and I hated it Yes, you've been very clear about that. I'm not Dustin Van Hale. You're out of your mouth. I still have your shirt you sent me, Dustin. But, no, like I said, I'm not afraid to try anything. I mean, they look pretty good. They got some bigger ones now, too, the wing plows. Yeah. I didn't try those yet, but I won't let me try it now since I, but I'm going forward though. Yeah. Yeah. We scraped good going forward. We just couldn't get a good scrape backtracking, which is kind of weird because usually that usually everything else scrape pretty good backtracking, but I don't know. It was, it did what we wanted to do. just wasn't perfect. You know, we're comparing it to our Arctic wing plow and our phantom, you know, so.
00:50:42
Speaker
What is this phantom you speak of? We'll get to that in a little bit. ah We'll get to this phantom. All right. What do you got? My blue ribbon winner of the best new snow product out right now.
00:51:01
Speaker
I mean, if you're in that realm, in that realm and that market, ah the Vernig Salt Spreader. That redesigned Boss Quick Cube that Vernig put out.
00:51:12
Speaker
ah that thing is legit. It's the tits. If you are a operator or owner and you have machines on sites like this, this system now, although it is a little pricey and they're working on that, that is the one, the one downfall. It is pricey, but say you are after this winter right now, say you're asked to take a site well outside your core area and it's maybe two or three, four acres maybe, and you can handle that with a one compact loader or a skid steer and you don't need or don't have the ability to send a salt truck out there.
00:51:49
Speaker
you can get a couple of these pods, the spreader, and now you can take that site. And if it's a new site, you work the cost of these pods and the spreader into that bid. And you know you spread it out over the three to five years.
00:52:02
Speaker
Uh, it, the boxes are great. We had no moisture inside the product at all times. Uh, it was all dry as a bone in there. The lip is extended. So there's literally no way, uh, moisture can get in there unless you leave the lid open.
00:52:18
Speaker
Um, The boxes hold three quarters of a yard of salt. um They recommend, if I remember correctly, they recommend a 2,600-pound machine or better, 2,600-pound lift.
00:52:32
Speaker
We had them on SV-280s, and those handled them just fine. No problems. The salt miser, they they have different flighting.
00:52:43
Speaker
Is that not the right word? yeah Yeah. Chains. and stuff yeah yeah So they have they have different options for that. So you can basically order these to put out how much salt per acre you want to on the machine that it's on. And ours were, I told them I want to put out as little as possible. We're using treated salt, little as possible.
00:53:01
Speaker
And, We put out a perfect spread. those dual The dual spinners put out a beautiful overlapping spread, probably, i mean, easily 40 feet ah at full at full throttle.
00:53:16
Speaker
um Yeah, I mean, it worked great. It really worked great. It was everything that I bought the the original Boss Quick Cube for, hoping it would do that it didn't, this one does.
00:53:28
Speaker
They really took that design and said, what are the top five complaints of the boss quick cube when it was back in the day, when it was in existence and how can we make this better? And they did it.
00:53:39
Speaker
A lot of stainless steel ah parts in there. are The bushings, it's like said, we, we loved it. That thing is great. I started using it around the shop just to test it.
00:53:50
Speaker
And yeah I had no problems. We put it out in the field on one site and it was great. you know, if the salt trucks were delayed or you had to get emergency salt, boom, it's there. Two-minute hookup.
00:54:02
Speaker
I'm disappointed. I thought I was going to get a couple those to try them, and it just didn't work out for some reason. year would have been a good year. Well, we usually sell quite a bit anyway, so any year is a good year. But I was really hoping to try one because I – Get them next year. You kind of sold me out on it and how good they were. And I think couple sites, they'd work pretty good for what we need it for.
00:54:24
Speaker
Here's so the boxes are all lockable, which funny enough, we did have to end up locking because we had to put a lockout tag out cable locks on them ah because we did have one bin completely emptied out by a contractor that was in the complex doing roofing work.
00:54:42
Speaker
So they just helped themselves to our fucking salt. So we had to put locks on all the bins. But the good news is they are lockable. Um, the only The only, not even complaint, but the only thing that you need to do is the hoses are cut.
00:54:58
Speaker
ah The hydraulic lines are cut. There's no electric, no 14-pin, none of that. It's straight hydraulic. Excuse me. um The hoses may not be long enough, depending on your hydraulic connection locations on what brand of machine you have.
00:55:14
Speaker
The hoses may be too short ah to do the entire range of movement. so Test that beforehand. And if it's not long enough, it's, you know, a trip to your hydraulic hose shop and, hey, make me another one. of Unscrew them, take them to the shop, say, give me six more inches on this line.
00:55:33
Speaker
They make up two more lines. you're You're in business. But that is the only thing i saw and that I relayed to them that, you know, they're the hoses on the 280 are a little tight if you're if you're going full bore down angle.
00:55:48
Speaker
but um You always need six more inches, Steve. That's what I keep hearing. I don't know. I've never experienced that. Is that what your Razorback tells you? Is that what your Razorback tells you? Let me tell you, I'd like six more feet of Razorback, man. Oh God. I don't know if the truck would handle it.
00:56:04
Speaker
But yeah, no, the Vernick knocked it out of the park with this. They really did. This thing is the... The spreader attachment is bulletproof. The thing is heavy duty as heavy gets, which you would expect from Vernon. Vernon, yeah. They don't build flimsy shit. You know, they do it to the nines.
00:56:21
Speaker
um But yeah, they're the great. the The spinners are awesome. It looks cool as shit when the machine's coming down the road and those ah those dual patterns are overlapping like they do.
00:56:32
Speaker
um Yeah, yeah this is ah this is something out there that can get guys into a whole different market, like that we've, we've turned down properties just because, yeah, I can put a machine out there, but I can't get the salt truck on that route in a reasonable time to get out there. So we've turned them down.
00:56:49
Speaker
This allows you to get into that. And the downside is the only downside is is, it is a little bit pricey at this point, but they are working on that. So I think they've already come down to what they first came on the market at. So, uh,
00:57:02
Speaker
You know, i I they're worth they're definitely worth checking out. If you if you have a bunch of skids or you have ah a couple of compact loaders and you want to throw them on a remote site, this is your answer. um The one thing I can't speak to is a guy asked a great question when we posted a couple of videos of us using them.
00:57:22
Speaker
ah He said, does the salt freeze in the boxes? Have you had the salt freeze up? I can't speak to that because we only use treated. So no, the magic never froze. We had pristine salt.
00:57:33
Speaker
um There are still two boxes that we have the original salt that we put in them in in December um just to see if they would freeze over a long period of time without moving or without being used. And those bins are still they're still pristine and loose. so But I can't speak to the untreated freezing in them. That was a good question.
00:57:51
Speaker
I just can't speak to it because we only used to treat it. but kudos to Vernig. um You guys knocked it out of the park with this one. So that, that would be my, my blue ribbon winner of the, of the winter for sure.
00:58:06
Speaker
So what else you got? Anything else? I got one more thing, I guess. yeah We're going to talk about the phantom. We got our, we got ourselves to try this, uh, storms producing a new plow called the phantom. It's, uh,
00:58:22
Speaker
I don't know. I got, we we got three of them this year. Actually, I just got the fourth one yesterday. yesterday So it's it's a um I even want to, it's just a hydraulic wing plow that's so simple use. The scrape is unbelievable for,
00:58:41
Speaker
It's comparison partner, i guess you want to say, wherever that would be. It's just the plow just – I like to compare it to like an Arctic. You just set it down and go. there's You don't really have to fuck with it. you know I remember the stuff you were saying last year. You don't have those issues. No, definitely don't.
00:59:00
Speaker
It definitely, i mean, you have one too. I mean, we have, the ones we have, we have a few hundred hours on them already. So they are, they've been working great. um the The wings actually scrape. The wings are scraping. The wings scrape. Yes, they do. yeah So, I mean, we have a one on our 908, which is a, what is that one? A 16 footer, I think it is.
00:59:23
Speaker
Yes, it's an 816. Because that's what we got. We got yeah for the compact, they sent an 816. We got 1022 that's on our 926, and we got 26-foot van wing one one we have on our the to trailers.
00:59:42
Speaker
and we also got a just got a eighteen footer for our mine eighteen just yesterday so but these things are They're so quiet too. i mean, you, you run a plow on dry pavement for it. yeahp You can run these on dry pavement and you don't even hear them. It's crazy. Not that that really matters that much, but you don't get the chattering. You don't, you don't get the gouging into the concrete or asphalt that the, that I've seen, we've seen on some other plows. So the thing is just, a it's got half the hydraulics hydraulic hoses as its competitor. I bet you it's less than half.
01:00:21
Speaker
yeah It just probably is last thing off. I was astonished by how simplified the hydraulic design was. Yeah, it's very... The thing is... i don't know. I have nothing but good things to say about and you know Me and my hydraulic plows don't get along usually. so This one's been an eye-opener. It's been a good plow to use. A lot of lot of my guys have used and they all seem to love it. so i mean yeah he's Anybody got any questions on anything I'm saying, then I even...
01:00:51
Speaker
you know, send me a message and I'll answer whatever you want. So I'm very impressed with this plow. It's for a hydraulic wing plow. This thing is so simple, so simple and way less hoses.
01:01:07
Speaker
I mean, you're probably still going to have – it's hoses. You're probably going still have the old same old issue with everything. you all You might have a fitting loose or a hose blow. This is what it is. That can happen on any truck plow, on any you know anything with hydraulics in the winter.
01:01:24
Speaker
Yeah. Nobody has the market cornered on blown hoses or leaking hydraulics. all Everybody that uses hydraulics is is capable of having a problem.
01:01:35
Speaker
Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. And it's always going to happen at the worst time. So it is what it is. But, yeah, this ah you'll be seeing this plow beyond the circuit this summer, I know. So everybody be on the lookout for it, and there'll be lots of questions. And there's ah there's quite a few them out there to try out. So if you guys want to try them out.
01:01:59
Speaker
Oh, it's definitely worth checking out. it's What do you think about yours? You've you've had a couple of storms on yours now. what What are you thinking on it? Well, i' I'm not a hydraulic wing plow guy. And that's so that that is the first thing I will say. And I think everybody that knows me knows that, that we are. ye We are Arctic sectionals.
01:02:18
Speaker
um Same. But. We have had the experience the last couple of years of using an Arctic, or an arctic a hydraulic wing plow. And my complaints about, not complaints, the things I wasn't crazy about. They weren't really complaints. They were just stuff that using sectionals for so long, I felt that, yeah, this this wasn't worth my time if I have to deal with this, this, and this.
01:02:45
Speaker
um That all went away. all That whole list, basically, that I had, um except for one, except for ah the amount of spillage off the sides.
01:02:58
Speaker
ah it's it's Every hydraulic wing plow is going to have that problem. You don't have the attack angle. You can't have the attack angle of the mold board. um This thing scraped...
01:03:11
Speaker
a How do I put this? Hmm... It scraped better than any wing plow I've ever used um in all conditions, and the wings actually scraped the same as the moldboard. You couldn't tell where the wing started and the moldboard ended, ah which was – that to me was huge because in a couple years prior that I had been using a couple, um you could definitely tell where the moldboard ended and the wing began.
01:03:41
Speaker
On the scrape. um It was like, like you said, it was fucking whisper quiet. um Last year, last year we had a different one.
01:03:53
Speaker
We had a different brand wing plow that we were trying out. And when it went by me and i actually got a video in the same spot when it went by me, you couldn't hear the three 21 over the plow.
01:04:06
Speaker
over the plow Yeah. This year, all you heard was the 321 go by and you didn't hear anything out of the plow. um It was, yeah, I, I didn't get to run it too many hours. I actually didn't get to put too many hours on it this year. But my two guys that did, they were extremely impressed.
01:04:27
Speaker
um They, What did they say? I'm trying to think. The only, the only not, and it wasn't a problem. We had an eight 16. Like I think you did.
01:04:40
Speaker
yeah ah We had it on a three 21 and it's heavy. Well, it's an R and D model, which the production model is going to be a lot lighter and hundreds of, you a couple of hundred pounds lighter. Um,
01:04:52
Speaker
it was It was heavy that he said, you know, it was, you know, at times you would, you know, pop a wheelie a little bit type deal if you ah if you went into a pile or something.
01:05:04
Speaker
But as far as the scrape 16 feet wide on a 321, it was awesome. it was awesome the The guys loved it. They loved having it. And you're talking about hardcore Arctic dudes.
01:05:18
Speaker
Like, yeah Mark is a hardcore Arctic guy. And I'm like, you're not getting the Arctic. Run this. You know, like, he was like, no, just give me the Arctic. Come on, let me put the Arctic on. I'm like, dude, run this plow and let me know what you think.
01:05:31
Speaker
I'm not going to like it. don't know. Yeah, well, it didn't take long until he liked it. And he was very good with it, very quick with it. And and Danny liked it, too. So, yeah. you know, those guys will let you know if they don't like it. so Same. I got the same guys, and and we use ours. Ours goes out easy for all the cleanups. that'll They'll take that one out now just because you can, you know. is Usually we do like a cleanup or something during the day. it's It's, you know, we cruise down the road with it easy, you know.
01:05:58
Speaker
So it's it's it's a great ball. It was very Arctic-like. It was very Arctic-like in the dropping it down and go. yes There's no checking this, lookup checking that indicator, making sure this is right, that's right. Because there is no indicator because you don't need it. Drop it and go.
01:06:17
Speaker
Drop it and go, and that's that's what they wanted to do. and I think they succeeded with that. i mean the It's a very compatible comparable to an Arctic where you you set it and go. you know i I think this thing is going to have no problem taking off.
01:06:35
Speaker
Yeah, it definitely... The Phantom is here to stay. i mean, it's going to be... a
01:06:42
Speaker
MP killer. Jesus. ah Oh, man. So what else do we have? I think we're going to, we'll probably have a more in-depth episode on. ah Yeah, we'll have it more in-depth. That's just kind of our rough on raw takes on it. there's There's a bunch of guys that had them and stuff.
01:07:01
Speaker
We'll talk about them. but um But, I mean, for for two hardcore art of guys like us, you know. that are giving our honest opinion about this stuff. And it's, you know, it is what it is. That is the honest opinion. It doesn't scrape as good as an Arctic, but it scrapes better than any other wing plow I've ever used.
01:07:19
Speaker
Yeah. but but we're we're But we're honest about it. i mean, we're not sure. We're not sure going to say, no, this plow is great just because of this or that. It's no, it's, it's a good plow. I mean, no, I would like to see, i would like to see them for a compact. Black.
01:07:36
Speaker
it it was The thing was sexy as hell. yeah It was sexy as hell in the black. yeah um ah if If the 16 could be trimmed down weight-wise, maybe 500 pounds, or maybe go to an 814, maybe that would would be better for a compact. um because Like I said, it was just a it was a little bit... well But the 321 is light in the ass anyway.
01:08:02
Speaker
So that's a tough machine to test it on. I mean, I wasn't on 908. I mean, if you have your blade up in there and you're going to cruise, and then you hit the brakes, you're going feel like you're lighting up on you. You're not going to go slamming face forward. No, no, no, nothing like that. You didn't slam the plow down and pop the back tires off the ground.
01:08:21
Speaker
but No, but the 321, that's a known thing where it's a little light in the butt. there yeah There should be like another 500-pound counterweight on that bumper or something.
New Features & Apologies
01:08:32
Speaker
so no it's a It was very fun to use. and I'm excited for them. yeah i'm I'm very excited for them. It's nice. Compact compact Van Wing.
01:08:44
Speaker
You guys are looking for that. They're going to have that. Compact Van Wing. You know what that means? yeah Yeah, I know. Give me an automatic drop Van Wing. I don't want to get out of the cab and drop the fucking wings myself.
01:08:59
Speaker
You don't have to These don't drop. no these are um it's It's just cut out. You don't have to do any of that stuff. oh I thought they have a little you can middle flappers. more flappers. little flas yeah no there no more flaers ah this is I want one with automatic flappers. So you want more hydraulic closes? Yes. Yes. More lines more hydraulic hoses and fittings. Oh my God. Those can be like air actuated springs or something. I don't know. But no, it's funny. I'm just being a jeout jerk off here. um
01:09:32
Speaker
What else you got? Anything else? I think that's the everything that i we have used this winter so far. i mean, that I know of. I have to apologize. I'm going to be honest. I have to apologize to Douglas and Western and Gene Stork.
01:09:47
Speaker
um By the time my, we got the reprogrammed, they had the tech glitch on the, the rate control spreader controller. Yep. um By the time we got it back, we were already hot and heavy and it got put on the shelf in the shop and honestly never even thought about it again. It never went into the truck.
Awards & Top Equipment
01:10:08
Speaker
Oh, that sucks. I know. Dude, I just literally... I honestly hadn't been in the shop. Like an assaulting event yet? You can put it on. Well, we may. Yeah, actually, we may now that I'm thinking it. You should. Now that I saw it on the shelf and said, holy shit, we never put that in the truck, too.
01:10:24
Speaker
You're going get asked about it at Storks, so you should. I will say this. The Storks new knobs for the Douglas brand spreader controllers, those are definitely worth buying.
01:10:36
Speaker
Those are true knobs. They are very good. They take two seconds, pop the old ones off, pop the new ones on, and it's a very noticeable difference. I like them a lot.
01:10:47
Speaker
um bo Let's see. we should we I'm going to throw out a couple awards here because I think what we should do and what we're going to do is we're going to start doing polls for guys. don't just you know We don't want to take our word for it We want to hear everybody's opinions.
01:11:02
Speaker
y'all Agree with us, disagree with us, doesn't matter. We can all have different opinions. But I'd like to know you know what what the large volume of Snow Guy feels about certain products. So we're going to start doing Snow Jobs Awards.
01:11:15
Speaker
And we'll put some polls out there for different categories and see what you guys pick and see ah you know what specific products deserve the like the People's Choice Award type deal for Snow.
01:11:28
Speaker
So I'm going to throw a couple out there. Then we'll do our awards. Then we'll do our awards. Or we can do our awards. Yeah. The Snowjobs Awards? We'll do a whole award show. Big banquet. Yeah. Big banquet? Yeah. Be like the Oscars. Oh, shit. ah You imagine the suits that would come to that?
01:11:45
Speaker
Oh, my God. Jonathan Wise. or Jonathan. I was thinking of Susan. I was thinking Jonathan. That's badass. I love it. But yeah, so I'll throw out a couple awards because they just this year they reinforced.
01:11:59
Speaker
They just reinforced how great they are. Best single stage snowblower for me for snow jobs. I'm going to put this.
01:12:10
Speaker
It's hands down the Arians Pro 21 best single stage snowblower. durability. it's ah It's metal. It's not plastic. Sorry, Toro. it's It's a metal um steel fucking case.
01:12:25
Speaker
ah There is plastic on it, but not where it counts. Not where you're going to break it and crack it in the winter, in the cold, loading it in and out of trucks. The thing just eats It eats slop. It eats powder. It doesn't seem to care.
01:12:39
Speaker
My guys love them. I picked up two more of them this year. ah Those things are just, they're force multipliers, and they're light enough that you can, you you know, they're light enough you can throw them around without getting tired. And the cool thing about their handlebars is the the way they're designed is you back the thing right up to the tailgate when it's down, and you step up into the truck bed, And you literally reach down with one hand and slide the thing up on it on the rails of the handlebars right into the truck bed.
01:13:09
Speaker
it's ah That thing is a home run. Arians Pro 21. you know I'm not a fan of your mammoth, but I will give credit where credit's due. mean, that's not a secret, but I'm being fair. like It is really hands down. Arians has always, always belt built bulletproof walk-behind snowblowers, and this is no different. These things are awesome. We've had no issues with them. I think we've got seven of them now.
01:13:32
Speaker
um They're phenomenal. I'll keep buying them. You keep making them, I'll keep buying them. so And they're relatively inexpensive. and I think $8.59? $8.79? I think they were.
01:13:45
Speaker
have no idea. That's cheap, dude. That's cheap. For the amount of work those fuckers do, that's cheap. And I got a second award. The best shovel. What think that's going to be?
01:14:01
Speaker
The snowplow shovel? You heard of the snowplow shovel? yeah they' so plan Those things are shit. Those things are great. Whether it's the scoop or the blade, whatever style you use, those things are awesome.
01:14:15
Speaker
They will survive everything short of a skid steer running them over. um And even then, only half of it broke. Our guys lose them ah all over the place. You lose those?
01:14:27
Speaker
Well, I don't. but yeah Those are too expensive to lose. I mean, they're $45 pop. You know how many have picked off of streets for the guys who fallen out of the pickups and shit? You've to air tag them.
01:14:38
Speaker
Yeah, should for what they cost. ah But, yeah, dude, the the snowplow shovel, those guys, and that's literally what it's called, the snowplow shovel. I'm not sure the website, but if you're not using those things, the blades, the poly blade ones are awesome.
01:14:54
Speaker
The blades are self-sharpening. The more you shovel with them, the more you shovel with them, the more attack angle on the blade it is. They get all different widths. Yeah. Everything from 12 to, I think, 48 inches on the blades. They go bigger than that. Yeah, do they? I've seen a double-handle one.
01:15:13
Speaker
I have seen the double-handle one. I mean, I'm being realistic. That must be the airport challenge. That's for the air side, Top Dog shovel. Top Dog doesn't use shovels. Oh, my God. But, yeah, they also make – But their scoop shovel is by far the best scoop shovel out there.
01:15:34
Speaker
That thing is – it takes – year after year. we don't Those we don't have. We don't have those. Scoops are great. Scoops are awesome. Yeah. The only – like I said, the only – I don't think we've ever had a problem with them.
01:15:48
Speaker
think we broke one handle maybe. We rotated. Oh, we break lots of handles. I'd buy handles. We rotated maybe one one too many. And, yeah, that was it. But other than that, dude, that those shovels are the nuts. They're worth every fucking penny. You can get them on Amazon.
01:16:04
Speaker
You can get them on – I think we got a bunch of them on Prime Day. And it was like a two-pack, a scoop and an 18-inch blade. And I want to say it was like 60 bucks. Yeah.
01:16:16
Speaker
No way. Yeah. Yeah. You can get them on Amazon. I'll have to look that Yeah. yeah You can get them on Prime Day. Yeah. As soon as I saw them on there, I'm like, okay.
01:16:28
Speaker
um And that's, yeah. The only other thing, it's not even a snow product, but the life-saving product that you definitely need. If you don't have a no-co jump pack, school yeah get a no-co jump pack.
01:16:41
Speaker
Those things are freaking life-savers.
Conclusion & Future Plans
01:16:44
Speaker
Yeah. They're nice to have. Yeah. They're, they're fucking awesome. But that's all I got, dude. You got anything else? Any other products you use this year?
01:16:55
Speaker
Nope. I don't think so. Not, not this year that yet anyway. So it was, it's been a good year. Very cool. Yeah, no, that's, it's been an interesting year. I mean, uh,
01:17:07
Speaker
Thanks to everybody who sent stuff that wanted tested and wanted honest opinions on. this you know Definitely. Thank you, everybody. We're always here. We'll run it. If you're confident about your product, whoa we'll run it. We'll try anything. We'll let you know, good or bad.
01:17:23
Speaker
Send it our way. We'll try it and give you an honest opinion. so Yeah, we'll tell you the good, the bad, the ugly. And you can go back to the drawing board if you need to and resubmit but uh yeah it's been it's been a good winter i'm glad we got i'm i'm really glad we got the stuff this winter because this was some winter i mean for everybody not just us not just you know you actually had a shit winter but i mean yeah most of the country had a great fucking winter with a lot of hours so you know equipment got tested well
01:17:54
Speaker
mean, if right people are all the way around us got had a good winter, we just, Fargo's got a dome over us. Snow dome, baby. Snow dome is real. Fucking 60 miles to the north, they got way more snow than we did. But anyway, whatever. Here's what it is. Here's what it is.
01:18:08
Speaker
We do have ah one not a one-mile little, there is another something coming up. We're going to show on here in a couple weeks, I think, aren't we? i don't know.
01:18:19
Speaker
News to me. What are we talking about? Nah, it's on your shirt. oh Oh, yeah, you're right. I am. yeah We're going have an announcement here pretty soon. I am Muscox proud. Yeah, yeah. There's going to be Muscox announcement coming up. Yeah, something big and unexpected coming from Muscox. They're teasing on that on social media. i see yeah dude if it's Come on, Adam. Adam, we got to have that show, buddy.
01:18:43
Speaker
If it's anything like the blower, watch their snowblowers, watch out, dude. Like, oh, my God. Those guys just, they build shit right. yeah Yeah. So it's a, it's pretty unexpected and pretty exciting.
01:18:58
Speaker
And yeah, we will, whenever we can definitely need it, definitely need it Yeah. Adam, anybody that knows Adam Bergman from Muscox knows that like, That man's schedule, God, yeah. Trying to fit in 10 minutes here or there. what We will make this episode happen. We're just, between the three of our schedules, who knows when it's going to hook up. We've been talking about it two months. He said March, so we got to get it done. Yeah, I know.
01:19:25
Speaker
Let's send him a message again. We got to get this on, especially now that we're talking about it again. Well, when I saw him and Noah, when they stopped by on their um on their dealer tour of the Northeast in December,
01:19:36
Speaker
We said, yeah, in the next couple weeks, let's hook up and and do an episode. Yep, no problem. We got you. And, yeah, that was December. We're still talking about it.
01:19:47
Speaker
We'll get them on. Those boys have been busy, man. Building an empire is not easy. So, but yeah, Muscox is coming. And then I think ah think what else we got? We got another episode of ah of the the cutting edge there. Boss. Boss. Boss is coming
01:20:06
Speaker
we got another Arctic Army roll call coming. So, yeah, big month. Big month of March. yeah Got a lot of good stuff coming. Maybe we can get the the Ask Big Daddy, the new show. Oh, yes. ah We'll have him on.
01:20:24
Speaker
Talk about his new show. Big Daddy. All right. You got anything No, that's it. Call it night. All right, buddy. All right. Then we'll ah we'll hit some commercials real quick and we'll come back and wrap it up.
01:20:39
Speaker
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01:20:52
Speaker
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01:20:57
Speaker
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01:21:11
Speaker
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01:21:24
Speaker
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01:21:39
Speaker
Check out yetisoftware.com and use promo code SJ25 for two months free. right, gang, we're back. Any parting thoughts, Jay? No, just so like like we said earlier, just it's been fun to use all this equipment and have these is people reach out and let us try their equipment or buy their equipment, whatever, and give us an honest opinion about it. And that's what we do. so i mean there's we're not we're One thing about us, we're honest. you know Whether you like it or not, we're going to be honest about what we're using. We're not going sugarcoat anything. Yeah.
01:22:15
Speaker
And everybody doesn't have to agree, you know, because it's all it's all based on viewpoint and experience and needs. So, you know two people could use the same product and have vastly different experiences know for any number of reasons.
01:22:28
Speaker
Exactly. You know, look at all the guys who use Artix and blow seven blocks every time they push into a pile. I've never blown a block. so You know, but we can have that argument all day because there's guys out there that say that.
01:22:40
Speaker
oh We haven't blown a block today either. Well, there you go. We didn't push. though You're doing good. you're doing We didn't push today, though. Yeah, well, that's okay. I don't know if you're ever going to push again. Fargo is like the new Bahamas.
01:22:54
Speaker
Yeah. You never know. We'll always get that spring storm. it always freaking happens. I'm pulling for you, dude. I'm pulling for you. Hopefully you get it this weekend and we can talk about it the next episode. before the We pulled the one tank truck off the brine tank off the one truck today. So maybe that'll run a low on fire. burn know so you're running wire fire burn No fire, Brian. Can't have snow.
01:23:19
Speaker
don Well, fire, Brian will take care of that snow. But you don't have it. So nothing you can do. we got We got some left. We just have a couple trucks to spray it. One less truck.
01:23:32
Speaker
but We melted the bottom out of the tank. so we had the Oh, can't have it that hot, dude. That's irresponsibly hot. So hot. Preheat. preheated All right, gang.
01:23:45
Speaker
We're going to wrap it there. So that'll do it Episode 163 of the Snow Jaws podcast. Main show is in the books. the equipment review show for the winter of 25 and 26.
01:23:56
Speaker
Again, thank you to everybody out there for listening. Thank you to the manufacturers that either allowed us to buy or sent us their equipment to use this winter.
01:24:07
Speaker
um It was, we had a blast and you know, we hope the feedback we gave you helped you along your journey too. So everybody have a great week. Be safe out there.
01:24:18
Speaker
If you're getting squeezing that last little bit of snow for the winter, And get ready for Storks, all right? So have a great week, gang. We'll see you next week. motion