I think you’ll find that everyone has their own preference on plow brands. My personal order would be SnowEx, Boss, Western, but dealer support should honestly be the ultimate deciding factor.
Douglas Dynamics owns Western, SnowEx, Fisher, and previously Blizzard, so they are a huge market leader. The numbers I’ve seen put Douglas Dynamics at roughly 51% of the U.S. market and 66% in Canada through Fisher, Western, and SnowEx. Boss, owned by Toro, is also a major player at around 31% of the U.S. market. So both sides clearly have plenty of market share and proven equipment out there.
We’ve run straight blades, V-plows, and power-wing plows. Personally, I was not a fan of the Boss V-blade I had. It could’ve been the truck it was on, the age of the blade, or just that specific setup, but I didn’t like the attachment system, wing control, and the need for different controllers for different blades felt cash-grabby to me.
After years of plowing, breaking things, and fixing things, SnowEx has been the best fit for us. SnowEx is Western and Western is SnowEx in a lot of ways, but I still prefer SnowEx. Our SnowEx Power Plow is very similar to a Western Wide-Out, with a lot of crossover part numbers, but with down pressure. That is the biggest reason I like it so much.
I’m personally not a fan of Western-style chain lift plows because of the lack of down pressure. I know the old-school argument is that if something breaks, you need a chain lift plow to get home, but you can usually run the blade up a snow pile in float and strap it up if you really have to.
The SnowEx Automatixx attachment system is also the best attachment system I’ve used. That alone is a big selling point for me.
The cons with SnowEx are mostly factory-related. The hoses from the factory are garbage, especially if you’re plowing in harsh conditions. I’d replace them with high-quality arctic-grade hoses right away. I’ve also had some factory pins work themselves out, so I’ve replaced several with good bolts and nylock nuts and have been much happier with that setup.
We did look at the Boss EXT, and I wouldn’t say Boss is bad by any means. I’d still personally run Boss before Western. But for what we do, SnowEx has been the best overall setup.
If someone is trying to avoid electronic controls and wants pure simplicity, good luck. Every plow brand seems to be moving more and more toward some kind of module-controlled system. At this point, I’d focus less on brand loyalty and more on dealer support, parts availability, attachment system, and whether the blade actually fits the kind of plowing you do.
