We are approaching a steep uphill stretch and the automatic transmission on Micke Forselius’ Scania R560 calmly drops a couple of cogs and the V8 roars reassuringly. At the front of the Scania there is a new Mählers DPH 3700 high-throw plough busily breaking up snow compacted by snowmobiles on a forestry road while Micke waxes lyrical about how well the plough works.

“The DPH works far better than I expected; I would never have believed a truck plough could run so smoothly and still be this effective,” says Micke. He works for the company Siljan Schakt Entreprenad AB in Orsa , and during the winter he ploughs mostly forest roads for Orsa Besparingsskog in the areas around Orsa, Hamra, Noppikoski and nearby.

“A round trip with the plough is between 120 and 130 miles, so there’s plenty to do when it’s snowing,” Micke tells us. Today’s trip involves clearing a forestry road that hasn’t been ploughed earlier, and even though we haven’t exactly experienced blizzards this winter, it proves to be a proper challenge. When we reach the road, the snow is around 18 inches to 2 feet deep and there are also snowmobile tracks along the road.

“Well, this is going to be tough. The guy who drives the grader at Orsa Besparingsskog was pretty sceptical and swore he would buy a plough like this if it worked,” says Micke, dropping the plough and turning into the forest road. It’s heavy going, but even though the Scania has to work hard, it has no real problem clearing the road that is completely covered with snow. The plough lifts the snow, rolls it high and throws it a little way past the side of the road despite our not reaching any high speeds.

“You can see for yourself, the DPH is really smooth and docile even though we’re ploughing a compacted snowmobile track. “Just drop it and go,” says Micke. By smooth, Micke means the plough does not hop around in the slightest. When we head for home again, only needing to broaden the road we have just cleared, our speed is higher and we can clearly see how well the plough throws the snow. And it’s worth remembering that Mählers has spring-loaded blade holders, which is a really important safety feature when ploughing forest roads where stones and other obstacles often stick up from the surface,” concludes Micke Forselius as we finish ploughing and turn on to more ‘civilized’ roads. All that remains to be seen is if the grader driver places an order for a DPH 3700.