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Dedication to quality and service has been a Fisher tradition from the start. Fisher Engineering has been
manufacturing snowplows for nearly 60 years in the coastal city of Rockland, Maine. Through the years our snowplows have earned a solid reputation for reliability and strength - especially among commercial snow plowers.
Today, we're proud of our products and we're confident that your investment in FISHER snow and ice removal equipment will pay dividends for years to come.
Fisher Engineering is a division of Douglas Dynamics, LLC, one of the country's leading manufacturers of snow and ice removal equipment.
FISHER snow and ice removal equipment are also produced in Douglas Dynamic's two other manufacturing facilities, one in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and one in Johnson City, Tennessee.
The result is the largest manufacturing capacity in the industry offering timely delivery and service to our customers, a hallmark of our company for many years. |
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An aerial view of our Rockland Facility
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In 1992, Fisher Engineering introduced the Minute Mount System; a revolutionary mounting system in which the entire snowplow mount is removed from the truck. This allows the truck to retain its original appearance while removing added weight from the vehicle when its not being used for plowing snow.
In 1997 Fisher Engineering introduced the EZ-V plow, a multi-position plow which can be used as a V-Plow, scoop, or straight blade snow plow.
Also, in the 90s, Douglas Dynamics and Fisher acquired a 200,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Johnson City, Tennessee.
With the introduction of a complete line of insert hopper spreaders and tailgate spreaders, the company was now positioned as a full line snow and ice removal equipment manufacturer. In just a few short years, this established FISHER as a major force in the snow removal and ice control industry with record sales season after record sales season in the late 90s.
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The revolutionary Minute Mount System
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A Fisher spreader in action
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The EZ-V Plow is first introduced
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In the early 1980s Dean Fisher, advancing towards retirement, decided to sell Fisher Engineering to Douglas Dynamics of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Owned by Douglas Seaman , Douglas Dynamics manufactured and sold a competitive line of snowplows.
During this time Fisher also invented the SnoFoil, which would prove to be one of many extremely popular snow plow accessories.
Since the sale of the company in 1984, the tradition of new product innovation and development continued to flourish.
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Dean Fisher, the founder of Fisher Engineering
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The Snofoil is first introduced
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As the snowplow business continued to grow, the company discontinued the off-season products and refocused on managing its exploding core business.
In the mid-70s it further refined its hydraulic systems before introducing the Single Lever Control. This allowed the snow plow operator to both raise and angle the snow plow with one control lever, rather than the two individual push/pull cables.
Fisher Engineering also developed and introduced the HS series snow plows for the new compact 4-wheel drive trucks that were being introduced into the marketplace.
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Single Lever Control
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The HS Series for compact trucks
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The use of underhood hydraulics would be further refined in the 60s. First power angling was added, which enabled the operator to angle the snow plow from inside the cab of the truck. Initially accomplished with one double acting cylinder, the ÒQuick-SwitchÓ snow plows would add a second angling cylinder in 1964.
Although truck and snow plow sales were modest in the early years, Dean's early vision of the business was accurate as the popularity of the modern day 4 X 4 increased in the 60s. As a result of increased truck sales, snowplow sales skyrocketed. Along with the increase in sales came the need to increase the size of the manufacturing facility, which Fisher completed many times over the years. Despite the companyÕs growth and success, in the 60s the snowplow business was still very seasonal. As a result, Fisher searched for other Òoff-seasonÓ products, some more successfully than others. They included the popular StepÕn Tow bumper, hay tedder, campers, the mini-tanker, and dump bodies.
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With hydraulics the angle of the plow could be easily changed
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A dump body designed by Fisher in the 60s
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Plant Expansion
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Fisher Engineering returned to Rockland in 1957, a site where the company operated and manufactured its snow and ice removal equipment products for over 43 years.
Before leaving Camden however, the company would introduce two new major innovations; features that would set FISHER snowplows apart from those of its competitors for more than 40 years. Those innovations were the trip-edge snowplow blade design and underhood belt-driven hydraulics.
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The trip-edge blade
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The underhood belt driven hydraulics
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From its founding in 1948 by Dean L. Fisher, FISHER snowplows have long been synonymous with quality and ruggedness, a trait that has followed its products as they have evolved over the 50 plus years of the company's history.
The company's beginning's were created through the vision of its founder, Dean Fisher. He believed that with the end of World War II, the 4-wheel drive Jeep would become as popular a civilian vehicle as it was during the war. As a result, Mr. Fisher also thought personal snowplows would be in demand in the snowbelt states.
In the early years Dean designed and built the first snowplows for Willys Jeep vehicles. It featured a six-foot, deeply concave blade made of sturdy steel. The snow plow was angled manually and raised and lowered by a lift arm actuated by a hydraulic ram.
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The first site of Fisher Engineering in Rockland
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A Willys Jeep outfitted with a Fisher plow.
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