Plowing with 1500 Denali?

Bdeevz · September 27, 2022

Anybody have any experience plowing with a 1500 denali with magneride? I'm debating putting a plow on my 16 denali 1500 for this winter just to do mine and my parents driveway, nothing commercial and not a ton of work. Have a leveling kit already installed on the truck, which should help sag. Just wondering if anyone has any info, advice or experience running a plow on theirs and what they ran.

JimCost2014 · September 28, 2022

7 hours ago, Bdeevz said:

Anybody have any experience plowing with a 1500 denali with magneride? I'm debating putting a plow on my 16 denali 1500 for this winter just to do mine and my parents driveway, nothing commercial and not a ton of work. Have a leveling kit already installed on the truck, which should help sag. Just wondering if anyone has any info, advice or experience running a plow on theirs and what they ran.

Think @aseibel would be a great source to start with, does not have a Denali, but does have a snowplow on a 1500.

Ed S · September 28, 2022

20 hours ago, Bdeevz said:

Anybody have any experience plowing with a 1500 denali with magneride? I'm debating putting a plow on my 16 denali 1500 for this winter just to do mine and my parents driveway, nothing commercial and not a ton of work. Have a leveling kit already installed on the truck, which should help sag. Just wondering if anyone has any info, advice or experience running a plow on theirs and what they ran.

All I am going to say is plowing normally will tweak a frame in time and also is terrible on transmissions. The transmissions on these GM trucks of recent years are not to rugged to begin with even without plowing. They are a troublesome area for GM as it is. Especially the 8 speeds and 10 speeds.

aseibel · October 11, 2022

Plowing a personal driveway with that truck is no problem. I got a Western HTS which is fairly light. My truck handled it like a champ. I put Timbrens on the front to limit sag. I also threw a couple sandbags in the rear when plowing just to keep the truck level. I always took care to be gentle on the transmission, not hitting the gas until it was fully engaged. I used that setup for about 5 years, never hit snow I couldn't move with it in Wisconsin.

I have no advice regarding the magneride, though.

If you're serious about it, I recommend looking at the plow brands you can get serviced locally. I ultimately chose Western just because the receivers come off, so in summer you don't have any brackets hanging down below the air dam. I had mine trimmed around the brackets, so you would want to see how the front end of your truck will get butchered up to fit the truckside mount on there.

If you have any other questions, hit me up. I researched the heck out of it before I pulled the trigger on mine.

Edited October 12, 2022 by aseibel

newdude · October 11, 2022

On 9/27/2022 at 4:50 PM, Bdeevz said:

Anybody have any experience plowing with a 1500 denali with magneride? I'm debating putting a plow on my 16 denali 1500 for this winter just to do mine and my parents driveway, nothing commercial and not a ton of work. Have a leveling kit already installed on the truck, which should help sag. Just wondering if anyone has any info, advice or experience running a plow on theirs and what they ran.

Advise against. Will eat the shocks fast.

aseibel · October 12, 2022

21 hours ago, newdude said:

Will eat the shocks fast.

Yeah if you drive around with the plow on for 4 months straight.

It depends on usage. I didn't daily drive my truck because I have a work beater. The new plow mounts are also able to be installed/removed in about 1 minute. I took my plow off if there wasn't snow in the forecast, so I put very few miles on when I wasn't actively using it. If you plan to keep it on all winter because you get snow every other day, and drive the truck to work- this isn't a great idea.

The front axle weight rating on mine is only 3950 lbs. Its not like you can carry a V-blade around. A proper sized half-ton plow only weighs around 400 lbs.

newdude · October 12, 2022

49 minutes ago, aseibel said:

Yeah if you drive around with the plow on for 4 months straight.

It depends on usage. I didn't daily drive my truck because I have a work beater. The new plow mounts are also able to be installed/removed in about 1 minute. I took my plow off if there wasn't snow in the forecast, so I put very few miles on when I wasn't actively using it. If you plan to keep it on all winter because you get snow every other day, and drive the truck to work- this isn't a great idea.

The front axle weight rating on mine is only 3950 lbs. Its not like you can carry a V-blade around. A proper sized half-ton plow only weighs around 400 lbs.

"Yeah if you drive around with the plow on for 4 months straight."

In NY state they sure do that LOL.

OP has a 2016 Denali. 16 Denali is Magneride. Magneride shocks don't last on a stock truck hardly let alone. A plow will only shorten their life that much faster. There's a guy a couple miles from me who has a 16-18 Denali with a 7ft6in Western Midweight that he kept from the HD he replaced. His valance on that Denali does more plowing than the blade does. Denali already sits a touch lower than a 4x4 up front, add the plow weight and its bottomed out.

A Denali with magride is a no-no for plowing, plain and simple IMO. If it had standard shocks, go for it.

Edited October 12, 2022 by newdude

BigBlue2014 · October 17, 2022

You should be fine. I have a Snowdogg VMD75 V-Plow on my Silverado 1500 LTZ. I also have a leveling kit to eliminate sag, but do not keep the plow on all the time. At this point I just have the plow on as a back up, but it gets the job done. I believe you will be fine with a straight blade.