The Snowman plow was originally designed by Ed Altheide in the early 1990’s for his own use. At that time he owned one 4-wheel drive pickup truck with a front mounted plow that he used to plow snow at a few commercial and residential accounts in the small town of Bloomfield, Iowa. Frustrated with the difficulty of back dragging snow away from loading docks and driveways, Ed used his farm background experience and ingenuity to convert his pickup mounted hay bale mover to a snowplow that operated from the back end of the pickup.

What he discovered was that his back mounted plow pulled the snow out faster, easier and scraped the snow cleaner than using just a front plow. When used in combination with his front plow he was soon clearing all of his sites in half the time of using the conventional front plow method. With more available time, he began picking up new customer accounts to plow. His customers also noticed that their lots were cleaner due to the hydraulic down pressure he used with the back plow.

Ed continued to purchase more vehicles and service more customer accounts using the front and back method of plowing. After hearing much encouragement to market the plow from his customers, he began to offer the Snowman plow to other commercial users.

Since 1996

There have been many improvements made to his original design as well as two additional snow plow models. The first new model was the (07)RS, spreader compatible, model. This plow allows the operator to use the plow with most tailgate or V-box spreaders. The second is the LDA, homeowner snowplow, which attaches to the vehicles’ standard receiver hitch and power angles left and right to position the snow. Because most SUVs and light trucks are not designed to operate a heavy front mounted plow, this plow is a great solution for homeowners wanting to plow their own driveway or long lanes.