Well it wasn’t that long ago that most snowplow pumps were mounted under the hood and run off a belt on your engine.

The cables and hoses were run through the grill to the plow frame in front of the vehicle. It work well until the belts

started to get worn or you were idling, then the plow would move slower then normal. Why? because the pump pressure was lower at the time. The pump was usually produced a set amount of output pressure and the pressure adjustment was on the outside of the truck on the valve body on some models. The control were activated mechanically from the cables in the cab. We did not use DC voltage to move the plow at all, except for the plow lights obviously. You are probably wondering were am I going with this?

I will tell you, the new style pumps and controls are usually not mounted a part from each other in most models. Those cable are now gone and you use dc current to control the plow , through you remote control or mounted joy stick. So basically how does this work. The pump and hydraulic valves are on the same unit so there is instant pressure, no delay for pressure to go from the pump out side to the controls. The valves are the solenoids that control where the fluid goes in the valve body

to activate the cylinder you need to weather it is up, down, left ,right, and so on. But in order for all this to happen as quick as it does ,it is all working from the truck electrical system. The plow pump is not run off of the engine belts, it is run of the electrical system and that takes some strong amperage.

So knowing all that I just explained to you what pump system would be more prone to more maintenance . The old belt style or the new electrical pump systems? In my opinion the older system needed less maintenance, but did not perform as fast as the New systems of today’s plows. Not that being said. I would do a quick inspection prior to a night going out to plow.

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Since everything is electrically operated I would check the all the connections to make sure they are snug and coated with dieelctric grease for anti corrosive applications. I would check the battery connections and also check the grounds these seems to be ignored to many times. It is also a good idea to make sure you have the proper fluid level in your pump and the fluid is clean, with no water in it. Some plows allow you to check this level on the truck. I hope this give you a better understanding of how your snow plow pump operates.