Fishbone,

Just plowed my first plowable snow last night, 4-6 inches. The big 60" County plow worked great with the Superwinch setup. I even plowed out our county road as we have a small 3 ton bridge that the County boys can't go across.

The only problem I had was when I adjusted the skids on the corners of the blade to allow for the large 3" gravel (new driveway) on my driveway. I must not have torqued them down tight enough as I lost one, and the other one was really loose. They must need to be REALLY torqued down tight. So I will need to buy another set of skids.

I plowed out the whole neighborhood and loved it. I am everyone's best friend now. I too plowed as you did with the blade angled and letting the snow roll up to the larger end of the taper before falling off the shoulder of the driveway. I make a pass just to the right of center of my driveway the full length. Then on the return pass come back down the left of center. My next pass is to the right of my first pass picking up the snow from the earlier pass, etc... Essentially working from the middle out.

I read the Polaris V blade review from the main page and see that Polaris makes wedges to put between you spring to help with the suspension compression when lifting the blade. I wonder if they would work on my Grizzly or your 450ES. Sure would be nice to be able to pick the blade up more than 4 inches.

Take Care and good plowing.
Allen L. Grooms - 98 Grizzly

 

Hey Allen,
I saw the V plow review also.Seems like the wedges would be a nice feature. Higher front end would alow more vertical blade travel.Too bad about your skid.I really torqued mine down.No problems so far.I too am quite popular in the neighborhood.Loads of fun.People often drive by with a "would you look at that" look on their faces.
Something else I've done is knock out the 6+ foot snow piles at the end of my driveway.(accumulated from plowing driveway and from highways snowplows pushing into driveway) I start at one end and slowly "chip" away at the outermost edge about a foot at a time pushing it forward.I have a large ditch on either end of my driveway so it fills it.I back up about 5-10 feet and take a slow controlled run at it.The weight of the machine and blade take out the banks with ease.Blows my mind.I've examined the mounting hardware and body of mount.No obvious stress.I do take it real easy though.Making a lot more room for the rest of winter.
Fishbone.

 

We have those coil spring spacers on our Sportsman. It helps for the front end squatting down. I also use a tie down (a non-ratcheting one)to lift the blade way up as high as it goes when I need the extra clearance. Sometimes I won't use it, but if I get stuck or something and I can't back out, I use the tie down. It's connected to the front rack, and I hook it to the plow frame and then lift the blade and pull it tight, it keeps the blade there, then when I want it down, I just lean forward and press the release lever, and down it goes!

 

One thing I forgot to mention that I was a little disappointed in (Yamaha, not Moose), was, with the blade raised the rubber snow deflector sits right in front of my headlights. The snow deflector is great for keeping the snow from blowing over the top of the blade and into your face, however being able to see what's in front of you at night is always a plus. By the time I get home from work it is well into the darkness, so plowing at night is a must. If Yamaha just would have put an upper handlebar mounted light similiar to the Polaris Sportsman then I would have been alright. Oh well, I 'll just have to buy another accessory I guess. Not because I want to mind, but for safety reasons (sell the wife on the whole idea).

Take Care Allen L. Grooms
98 Grizzly with a few accessories

 

Here's a thought...has anyone tried using a piece of heavy, clear vinyl (similar to what they use at the entrance of a huge walk-in freezer to keep the cold in) as a deflector on the top of their blade? I don't know if it would reflect a glare back at you or not, but it may worth a try. Might help with lighting and vision problems.