I was at the dealer and was looking at their snow plow. It looked good but I had several concerns.

The attachment brackets stuck down about 1.5 inches right in the middle of the frame. When not plowing I am often climbing over trees and these are in the the right place to get hung on a log. (when the plow would be off) Are there any attach kits that do not compromise ground clearance? If a bracket were made to attach the plow on the rear axle, the clearance reduction would not be an issue. Also the stresses would be reduced going through the frame.

The dealer said to remove the brackets when not using the plow, but that is just more fussing than should be necessary.

He had a Warn winch to raise and lower the plow. It looked too fragile to last with the tiny motor and 1/16 diameter cable. Anyone have some experience with it? I have a winch so I'd use it to lift the blade.

The ITP 589's are great in the snow. I hope that they'll push a blade OK. Has anyone put on chains or extra weight?


Bob

 

i have the cycle country plow setup and i take the plow mount off when i am riding rough terrain. i dont know of any other way to mount the plow, other than under the footpegs. very easy, 4 bolts on each mount. imo, the manual lift is the way to go. very easy and fast up and down. with a winch it takes a bit for the blade to be raised and lowered. also i have heard that the winch motors overheat and crap out when you have to go up and down alot. dont worry about chains, i have the crap dunflops and plowed thru a foot of snow like it was not there. one thing for sure, you will have a blast plowing with this beast. good luck with your purchase.

 

We just got 18inches today. I didn't have the chance to get the 650 out in it yet. But, I was at my brother's house and we took his P400 4x4 in it. All he has are half bald dunflops that leave him stuck in the mud all the time. They sure do well in the snow. We had a blast. We tackled the 18" snow, the deeper drifted snow, and the snowbank left by the snow plow which was even deeper. I loved it. The tires, and much of the empty space inside the machine is now caked solid wih snow. It will melt in his garage soon.

We also tried the LT50, but it seems to not be able to go through more than 2".

I too have been toying with the idea of mounting a plow to the ATV in a way that is quick release without leaving anything hanging down or having to remove the mount, but don't have any ideas I like yet.

1. Weld 2 heavy nuts to the frame so that they don't hang down and screw the brakets in by hand and send a long pin through them both and then attach with a hairpin. 60 second plow removal. I don't like welding on the frame.

2. Attach lengthen plow push bar to go all the way behind axle and attach to trailer ball. Attach a tie rod from the push bar to the floor board to support to prevent sideways motion (by welding a nut in a way that it doesn't hang down). I don't know if is is a good idea to apply all the push force from the plow to the rear axle.

The plow has a spring release, so it can't be pushed to hard. Probably both of those Ideas aren that bad. I'm still chewin on it.

 

the bracket that hangs below the frame is bad news in the mud.... it noticalbly reduced the Sportsman 500's capabilities.

Not getting a plow on the 6-5-O..... but I'm not sure if it would be as big of a deal since the rear end sits lower than the frame... the poo-laris on the other hand is flat all the way back

 

My dad and I used to sell Gravely lawn and garden tractors. The snowplow attachment for their riding tractors had a long pushbar that attached to the rear axle. It worked great. The spread on the attach points was about 18 inches and that was enough to absorb the side loading. Pushbar length was about 5 ft.

Some older farm tractors used a similar arrangement.

Looks like I might get one from the dealer to get me going then re-engineer it next summer.

Bob

 

I bought a moose kit and the hooks hang mighty low however no big deal to remove it I just remove 8 10 mm nuts (I bought new u bolts) and install the plate in less than 15 minutes. I use the winch and it retracts real fast I made me a switch behind my handguards to run my winch and I like the setup. The reason the winch onverheats on most units is that the wiring with most warn 2000 winches unless you buy the upgrade with the contactor is small and it is usually the selonoid and not the motor that overheats.