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Using an ATV to plow snow
Anyone with experience plowing snow with an ATV? Looking at the Yamaha 660 Grizzly. Needs to be able to handle 12" of wet snow. I'm torn between ATV/small tractor and suspect I'll go tractor just to be safe. But the ATV would be more fun, so hoping you can talk me into it. TIA, Bob
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Using an ATV to plow snow
I plow with a Honda Foreman 400, about 1/4 mile dirt road in up state NY. It does a great job but the rough road I dont think is to good on the four wheeler. The mount system for the plow is on the small tub frame and Im seeing some wear at the mount locations.
If your plowing on a paved drive way you will be ok, otherwise I would go for a compact tractor. Ive been looking for one but just have not found the right deal yet.
The four wheeler plows great, I bought chains for it but only used them once when I first got it. Found that the four wheel drive is more that enough to plow. Also Id go with the larger plow, I got the small one and now wish I would have went larger.
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Using an ATV to plow snow
The guy across the street from me when I lived in Alaska had a four-wheeler and a plow. It was a step up from the Sears garden tractor I was using, which was next to useless. I finally got a lightweight Winter Wolf plow for the front of my truck. It would move snow 6 or 8 times faster than the four-wheeler across the street. The ATV will do the job but be prepared to spend a lot of time in the saddle. A compact tractor or a small pick-up with a 82-inch blade will do it much, much faster. Plus you can get the whole kit for around a thousand bucks. Tough to find anything worthwhile that you can hang off a tractor for that price.
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Using an ATV to plow snow
Vick,
I plowed snow with a Honda Foreman 350 for 8-yrs. and a 400 for 2-yrs. I've plowed both wet and dry snow from 2" to 18" and would never do it again. You could buy a 4WD pickup with a plow on it for $1500 and save alot of $$$.
On the other hand if you bought a tractor you could use it for many other things. Plowing with an ATV is very time consumming, you would need chains for wet snow and the smaller the plow blade the better. A larger blade will push the ATV to the side, you don't have weight on your side like with a truck. I have 2-Honda's, ATV's are a blast But not for plowing or heavy ground engaging work.
David
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Using an ATV to plow snow
I saw a friend plowing the parking lot of her family's hotel with her 4-wheeler two winters ago. She had just gotten a blade and was trying it out. The snow that was there was fairly hard and my impression was of the blade bouncing around a lot and snow coming off both ends of the blade and probably underneath as well.
I don't remember the blade angling but you'd think it would about have to. If it didn't angle, snow would come off both ends of the short blade, and you really couldn't clear a very wide area. But even if the blade did angle, I imagine the snow would get too deep trying to plow the stuff that had already been plowed.
Anyway, back and forth across the parking lot she goes all the while we were eating. She was playing with a new toy. I've never seen her or anybody else try to clear that lot with the 4-wheeler after that. They have a Cherokee with a blade, which isn't all that great either. Serious plowing here is done with 3/4-ton 4x4's.
For speed, you can't beat a truck since in moderate snows they plow about 10 mph faster than road gear on most tractors. I think tractors with a blade work at around 7-mph and maybe 3-mph with a blower. A tractor with a loader and blower may have an advantage over a truck in very heavy snows and drifts. A blower also can save a lot of time if there's no convenient place to put the plowed snow. A major skill in snow plowing is figuring out where to pile it and how far back to push it so you don't run out of space by spring.
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Using an ATV to plow snow
Yeah, I was afraid of that but figured I had to give it a shot. Thanks for all the feedback, off to explore the tractor forums.
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Using an ATV to plow snow
The question is TRACTION !
I plow in Minnesota with a Kodiak 400 with no problem 85% of the time.The power is more than plenty but keeping traction is the trick.Get some good chains and even a 250
will do the job.
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Using an ATV to plow snow
I agree with Mark. I bought a winter wolf ($450 at BJ's - it was a floor model demo, awsome price - snowbear, the company, set me up with everything) for my Pathfinder, and now use it on my Trooper. Go to www.snowbear.co to see all the trucks and "fake" trucks they make mounts for. You will be amazed. I knew someone who had one on a Geo tracker. Another guy had one on his chevy van, 2wd, carpet cleaning truck. He plowed his own driveway. In big snow he used chains. If you have a truck, get the winter wolf. It is not commercial grade, but it works real well.
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Using an ATV to plow snow
obviously, it is www.snowbear.com I forgot the "m"
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Using an ATV to plow snow
iuse big bear 400 4x4 works fine but like mark said its time consuming.go with compact tractor if you have very much to do, asyou can push larger blade.
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