[AT] O/T Meyers or Western plow

[Cecil E Monson]

	Mike, I thank you for the rundown on Diamond. I hadn't thought
about the problems with my new plow until just this weekend sitting
there wondering what happened to the pump on mine that would cause the
failure. FWIW, when I went in to chat with the local dealer yesterday,
I was told at first it would not be covered under warranty because it
was "abuse". I asked how that could be and was told it could only happen
when trying to "pile" snow high. I scoffed at this and said there is no
abuse doing this as the plow hangs from chains and there is no way it is
going to jerk the plow as high as the hood. Then, I was told it wouldn't
be covered because it was "moisture" in the pump that turned to ice from
being inside a shop and then brought out to plow snow. No, that dog don't
hunt either, I told them, as the shop is just as cold as it is outside.
Well, to make a long story short, they finally said to bring the pump in
and that they had the parts to fix it. So it goes in this morning and
hopefully it will be back this afternoon. Imagine anyone telling a man
who has a $3500 plow that it is going to break down if you use it to plow
snow. Geez, it is the most rediculous thing I ever heard.

	I bought this plow because I liked my old Diamond plow so much
that was on the Ford F-350 4WD dump truck. This rig had an engine mounted
hydraulic pump that never gave me any trouble at all. I liked the plow
itself because for one thing, the blade had enough power that if you were
stuck with a load of snow in front and ice under the wheels, you could
swivel the blade and give the truck a little push to get moving backwards
again. I have to say this does not work at all with this new plow and the
front mounted hydraulic pump. No power at all except just enough to swing
the blade when moving with a load of snow. I still like the plow because
of the trip edge and the weight. The weight of it means it cleans my drive-
way in one pass instead of the two or three passes my neighbor had to make
on Sunday with his light plow. I don't plow at high speed like the pickup
truck guys do. I "tractor plow" with mine as I hate hitting rocks at high
speeds. Mine does a great job of doing the driveway. I guess the hydraulics
could be converted to engine mounted but the GMC has a slow electric/
hydraulic pump to raise the box and it is so slow you could never put up
with it for a snow plow. The only solution would be to mount a pump on the
engine - a lot of work but would be worth it if I was going to keep the
truck for life.

	I wondered about Diamond as they had a good name - right up to when
I bought my new plow. I'll have to take a look at the Fisher the next time
I need to buy a snowplow.

	We were wondering how you are doing these days, Mike. Haven't seen
you in quite a while. Glad to see you post to the List.

Cecil

> 
>  The Diamond, when this plow first hit the market, I quiclkly bought one, the reason being it was everything I liked in a plow and none of the stuff I didn't. I'll explain what I mean..........
> 
>  When The company that now owns both Fisher and Western bought these companies, Fisher put a few stipulations on their selling, the main one being that the new company would not change the design of the actual Speedcast snowplow, and that it will not be made in an electric over hydraulic design. Unfortunately due to the motor vehicle regulations just a few short years later, it was mandated that the front headgear for snowplows could no longer remain on the vehicle year round, and so the unimount design[also a Fisher design and innovation years ahead of everyone else]  became the standard for all plows.
> When the actual sale took place, a few of the engineers and key people from Fisher left the company and formed their own company, they called it Diamond, they made and marked their own plow with the proven Fisher style torsion spring trip-edge design, full chasis mounted headgear, and the best part, the actual Fisher engine driven full hydraulic pump and joystick controls, and because it was new the price was quite a few hundred dollars less than what was now the actual placarded Fisher. Boy was I happy, I used that plow troublefree until I sold the truck. In the interim, the original Diamond company was having all kinds of growing pains and did not have the capital to make the move over to the now mandatory minute-mount design, and was ripe for the picking, Meyer quickly sucked them up and incorporated it's own electric-over pump and controls, which as far as I know is where it is at today.
> 
>  Sorry Cecil, but I think that is the weak link on your Diamond, the Meyer controls. 


-- 
The nicest thing about telling the truth is you never have to wonder
what you said.

Cecil E Monson
Lucille Hand-Monson
Mountainville, New York   Just a little east of the North Pole

Allis Chalmers tractors and equipment

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