How much more productive is a Metal Pless Hydraulic Wing Plow than other plows?

Typically speaking hydraulic wing plows are 1.5-3x more productive than other plow options. Metal Pless hydraulic wing plows excel in areas with lots of obstacles, curb lines and back dragging compared to a fixed push box or straight blade plow. 

How important is it to get the Live Edge option? 

In our opinion choosing the Live Edge option is a no brainer. Between the 50% salt savings and 80-90% longer life on wear parts this option will pay for itself in a single season in a 30"+ snow market. For markets with less snow, a 2-4 year return on investment still seems worth it to us! 

What electrical connection do I need to run a Metal Pless Plow?

You will only need to wire in your plow if you are operating a Metal Pless hydraulic wing plow such as the PlowMaxx or MaxxPro. LiveBoxxes do not require any wiring. 

To operate the wings on the plow without installing any aftermarket wiring you will either need a factory 14 pin or 8 pin connection. Most modern skid steers have a 14 pin connection and many newer compact loaders have an 8 pin or 14 pin as well. If your machine is newer than 2012 and does not have one, you can likely get your dealer to install the factory option "work tool harness" on your machine. 

If your machine doesn't have a factory electric plug and/or you don't want to get one from your dealer, you will need to use the Metal Pless universal 4 pin harness with rocker switch, joystick or scorpion control switch. This may sound intimidating, but it's actually very simple. You will install a 4 pin plug near your hydraulic connection points (much like where a factory 8 pin or 14 pin connector would be) and then run the harness up into the cab of your loader. One part of the harness will connect to 12v or 24v power (depending on the voltage of your loader) and the switch, joystick or scorpion will be installed wherever you prefer, typically on the dash or next to the joystick. Install time for most machines is an hour or less. 

You can find more information on which plug is best for your machine HERE.

REMINDER: All machines do need front hydraulic ports to operate hydraulic wing plows. 

 

How do I operate a Metal Pless plow?

The plow is operated by the front hydraulics of the machine.  From the machine, you run the hydraulics to a DVDE (A diverter block on the plow that directs oil flow).  Once at the diverter block, the oil flow will run through the block to the hydraulic angle cylinders.  To operate the wings, you activate the control switch in the cab, which activates the corresponding coil on the DVDE to divert the flow to the wing function that you've selected.

If you wish to not use an electric over hydraulic system, you have the option to plumb direct hydraulic hoses to the plow for each function.  You will need one remote for each function needed.  This is a more common solution on an AG Tractor setup.

 

What size plow do I need?

Please visit or plow model matcher that can be found HERE.

 

What are the different types of edges offered by Metal Pless?

Metal Pless offers several different types of edge systems.

By far, the most popular of these three is their patented LiveEdge system.  It is the best of any edge system on the market.  Each section is  two feet wide and independently contour to the surface that it's on.  This allows for the highest quality scrape along with a significantly longer edge life.  Along with these benefits, you will also see a reduced use of salt and abrasives up to 50% compared to a normal cutting edge.

95% of all plows that we sell have the LiveEdge option.  From our experience, the ROI with the LiveEdge option makes it the best option of the three.  Our sister company (commercial snow and ice removal) have several LiveEdge plows going into season 6 and have yet to replace any LiveEdge sections.  For reference, our region averages around 45" of snowfall each year.  

The next option is the HD soft trip edge.  This edge still trips, but due to the location of the pin and how it trips, it results in less "jarring."  This means the plow will not jump when tripping and results in less snow left behind.  We find that the HD soft trip edge is not as popular as LiveEdge and Standard edge.  It is most common in situations where peeling up hard pack snow and ice is a reoccurring service that is needed.  This plows excel in this scenario.

Metal Pless offers a standard steel trip edge, which is made from CHT 400 steel.  This edge has a very traditional style trip system is is common on most plow brands.  The price point of the standard trip edge plows, allow more customers to begin their journey with hydraulic wing plows without the larger up front cost of the higher tier edge systems.  This edge system is also more common on plows that are being mounted to a skid steer.  With the reduced weight, and slightly lower stance, it gives the skid steer operator the benefit of better control and visibility.

You can CLICK HERE for a video that gives you a side by side comparison of the different edge types.