Fred Pathfinders Snowplows
Fred Hone founded Pathfinder Snowplows in North Kingstown in 1965 in a garage he built on Spencer Drive. The first snowplows were made from used steel. In seeking an efficient method of forming the curved snowplow blade, he invented the unit hydraulic one step method previously; it required 4 men to curve the moldboard (the curved portion of any snowplow) in a set of rolls or with a press brake. With this new method, one man can perform the job quickly and easily. All snowplow manufacturers use this method today. With this advanced technique in place on the production line, the business expanded, moved to Exeter, RI on Rt. 2 to much larger facilities.
Kubota Tractor of Osaka, Japan was the first OEM to purchase Pathfinders in 1972, the Snowplows being painted to Kubota orange with the KTC logo and exported by Kubota to various dealers worldwide. This relationship lasted thru the 1970’s , when other tractor manufacturers also secured OEM arrangements with Pathfinders-Ford, John Deere, White Iseki, Deutz Allis, and Massey Ferguson-as well as Subaru of America in using Pathfinders on Subaru vehicles. During this time, Pathfinders were also produced in with the Pathfinder logo and traditional yellow coloration for direct sales thru Pathfinder distributors, in the US and Canada and dealers for both farm tractors and all models of 2 and 4 wheel drive trucks. By this time, the business had been relocated to the Exeter Business & Industrial Park on Rt. 95 on a 16 area parcel of land and Industrial Drive constructed to serve the business. At its peak, Pathfinder employed over 80 employees, used over 500 tons of steel annually and manufactured over 8,000 snowplows for trucks, automobiles, and tractors annually. NorthEast Hydraulics, a Pathfinder subsidiary at that time, manufactured hydraulic cylinders, hydraulic pump systems and log splitters.
By 1996, Hone eliminated other stockholder’s interests, downsized the business, and changed marketing direction to local and internet sales. Pathfinders have been used in most of the States of the US in either snow removal or light dozing mode as well as being exported to Canada, the Orient, North Africa, South America and Europe. Pathfinder today continues to be a leading snowplow in the field with the Town of North Kingstown possessing some that were first put into service in the early 1980’s. At Pathfinder, we build in quality for longevity.
While manufacturing snowplows as a major product line, Pathfinder also manufactures the Busy Dumper, a dump body inserted into a pickup truck or placed on a stake body truck to convert the existing truck to a dump truck. The Busy Dumper exceeds all specifications of all competitors and being sold direct as Pathfinder snowplows, reflecting a distributor price to all customers. For loads not exceeding 400lbs, the Busy Dumper facilitates inexpensive deliveries of low volume.
