Snow Plow Blade Consultation: 8 Questions That Find the Right Blade.

Why the blade has to match your operation

A blade that’s wrong for your routes shows up in three places.

Safety. Every blade change in a storm puts a crew to work in the cold, in poor light and on bad footing. A change takes about 45 minutes per plow, depending on plow type and size, and each one risks an injury.

Uptime. A truck that’s getting new blades isn’t plowing. In a multi-truck fleet, worn blades can sideline several trucks at once, right when you need them most.

Your roads. A blade with the wrong footprint for your surface can peel pavement and open potholes, and plow speed adds to the damage. See 3 Avoidable Things That Cause Low-Bid Blades to Severely Damage Roads. A blade that leaves snowpack behind also means you spread more salt to finish the job. See How to Use Fewer Chemicals on Your Roads.

The 8 questions we’ll ask

Each question tells us something about how your blades wear. Have the answers ready before the visit, and the conversation moves faster.

Your current set-up

1. 1

   Question 1: What cutting edges do you run now?

   Your brand, type and set-up, such as a carbide insert blade with a steel cover, give us a baseline to compare against.

2. 2

   Question 2: How often do your blades break or wear out?

   Breakage points to a different problem than fast wear, and each one has its own fix.

3. 3

   Question 3: How many blade changes does each truck need per season?

   This is the number the right blade should bring down, since it drives your labor and parts costs.

Your goals

1. 4

   Question 4: What do you want your blades to do better?

   Fleets often want several things at once: longer life, better ice cutting, road protection or riding over obstacles. We’ll ask which one matters most to you.

2. 5

   Question 5: What’s your chemical strategy?

   Whether you use salt, brine or both matters, because a blade that scrapes cleaner can let you spread less.

3. 6

   Question 6: Do you need bare pavement, or can you leave some snow behind?

   An aggressive blade cuts through ice and packed snow. A road-friendly blade has a wider footprint that wears longer and glides over manhole covers and bridge joints. Your clearing policy decides which one fits.

Your routes

1. 7

   Question 7: What road types and surfaces do you plow?

   Highways, city streets, gravel and chip seal each wear a blade differently and take damage differently.

2. 8

   Question 8: How fast do you plow?

   Speed depends on the route: up to 45 mph on highways and slower on city streets. On chip seal and gravel, slower speeds generally mean less damage.

Have your blade measurements ready too, including each blade’s size, thickness, trip-edge type and punch pattern. Will My Cutting Edge Fit My Plow? shows you how to take them.

What the on-site visit looks like

You don’t have to come to us, because a field representative comes to you.

1. 1

   Step 1: Before the visit

   Send a request through our contact form or call 888-294-9485, and we’ll find a time that works for your crew.

2. 2

   Step 2: During the visit

   Your representative brings parts and samples and looks at the blades you run now. Then they talk through the eight questions with the people who plow your routes.

3. 3

   Step 3: After the visit

   You get a recommendation built for your routes. Often that’s a complete cutting edge system, with blades, guards and hardware made to work together. The Savings Analysis puts numbers to it.

If you buy for a public agency, you can use any of Winter Equipment’s four cooperative purchasing contracts. In many jurisdictions, an eligible agency can buy from one without running its own bid. Check with your purchasing office first.

• SourcewellContract #033126-WECView contract ›
• NASPO ValuePointMaster Agreement #29505View contract ›
• COSTARSContract #4600016860View contract ›
• Local Government Cooperative (LGC)Contract #MA-26-002-Winter EquipmentView contract ›

See every contract purchasing option

If you need to get the purchase approved, The Snow Plow Bid Process covers who to involve and what to ask.

What the right match changes

The goal is simple: fewer blade changes, fewer trucks in the shop and less damage to the roads you maintain.

It starts with longer wear. Winter Equipment’s WearFactor rating shows how many times longer a product lasts than a standard product of the same category. A Razor® Cutting Edge System, for example, has a 2x WearFactor. It lasts twice as long as a standard tungsten carbide insert cutting edge.

Longer wear means fewer changes and less time in the cold. The Village of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, switched its fleet to carbide cutting edge systems. Maintenance Superintendent Bryan Beitzel put the result simply:

Read the Buffalo Grove case study.

Still deciding between a complete system and ordering parts one at a time? See Is a Cutting Edge System or Non-System Right for You?

Frequently asked questions