I am going to buy an atv for play and to clear snow from my gravel driveway which is about 300 ft up and down a hill. I'm leaning to Polaris 500 Deluxe with the Glacier 2 plow system with 48 inch blade. This seems to be the best plow configuration with the easiest hookup that I've seen.

Does anyone have insight into plowing do's and don'ts and/or comments on what I'm considering or should I consider other machines?

 

I'm not sure what the best atv is. I plow with my Kawasaki Prairie 360 4x4 and have a warn plow, and stock tires with no chains. I never had any problems, in regards to not enough power. I use a warn winch to raise and lower it, and would recommend that over the manual lift. My buddy has the manual one and he hates it.

I plow my driveway which can fit 10-12 cars and it is paved. I do my neighbors if it's real deep snow and his is about 30' Wide by 120' long. I never tried plowing uphill.

I know you should get a blade that is wider than the ATV tires even when the plow is angled left or right. I think the Polaris500 should be good, but I think the width of the plow your looking at should be wider than 48".

 

Thanks Scott, I hadn't thought about the plow s/b wider than the atv. I believe the Polaris is 48" wide itself.

 

Polaris is the easiest to plow with because they are the only ones without a safety procedure to go from forward to reverse,plus it,s true 4wd pushes harder.

 

You make a good point for the Polaris with the shift pattern. Just pushing the selector forward & back without having to run it through an obsticle course. You only use L & R while plowing. That is one of my main reasons for owning a pol. Also the weight of the machine helps with plowing. You will hear some bash the weight but for plowing & pulling it sure helps. The seamless AWD activation is nice also & true 4x4 without having to hold a lever in. The ride is also top notch. You definately want the plow wide enough to clear a path for your tires, not sure if a 56" would do it but a 48 will not. Also the winch or power lift is the way to go. Had manual on my first machine and would not reccomend it (does beat shoveling though I guess). As for technique, plow it as far back as you can early in season so have plenty of room later.

 

Polaris and AC would be the best as they have a weight advantage.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: v2rider

Polaris and AC would be the best as they have a weight advantage.</end quote></div>

Sand bags will take care of any weight advantage. That being said, the machine with the lowest gearing, most power, and best tires would plow the best.

 

I sure want to go through the trouble of putting sand bags on my machine just to plow.

 

Agreed

 

You're willing to go through the trouble of hooking up a plow, maybe snow chains, and gassing it up. But you aren't willing to throw a couple bags of sand on the racks? Well, in that case get the heaviest machine you can find if you don't care about anything other than plowing.