Hi,

Im looking for an atv which is good for snow plowing. I live in an area were we get from 4-16 inc of snow. I was thinking about plowing my neighbors drive ways to.

What are the minimum requirements for the engine 4wheel or not etc.

Thanks for the help

 

800 outlander will work great.

 

This is one of those never ending discussions - everyone has an opinion.

BUT! the basics...
400 cc or better for power,
Optional 4 wheel drive (on demand)
Winch - required to lift the blade.
Hand warmers - very nice! Much better that holding onto cold steel handles!
Power steering - There are a lot of slow speed turns in snow plowing, which can tire you out in a hurry, this is nice.

My choice for this job is the Suzuki KQ500 - but everyone has their own preferance.

Good Luck

 

You can plow snow with a 250cc 2wd machine if need be. I even saw a guy olnce that had a plow rigged onto a Yamaha Warrior(sport quad!) I agree with the 400cc and 4wd as being a good starting place. A geared tranny or a cvt with a low range. The heavier machines like Polaris and Arctic Cat may get you better traction, but not necessary. Plowing can be hard on a machine, make sure to stick with the major brands.

 

It's like way too hard with a 2 wheel drive. I have a 2wd rancher and wouldn't consider a plow on it.
Any 4x4 will do and a low range is not needed.
My 88 zuki 4x4 (250cc) plowed and plowed. My neighbor just got a 360 arctic cat, it plows and plows. Other neighbor has a 400 arctic cat and almost plows commercially with it and the only failure in 4 years has been the winch cable.
Stick with the name brands.

 

Go for a pre-owned Suzuki Eiger 400/King Quad 400. They are 4wd, and push 50" plow with ease (in 4wd low range).

 

absolute minimum -
300cc 2wd
extra weight on racks and tire chains when its gets deeper
blade with handlift

I have a buddy with this setup - on a 300cc Honda 2wd utility wheeler from the mid 90s......the model name escapes me now. Works great for him and he does his shop, his driveway, his dads, his grandmas, his brothers etc.....he plows 10x more than I do. You MAY be able to do it with a smaller, lighter machines like a 200cc machine but I would think you would be giving up enough machine weight you may have traction problems.

recommended minimum -
300cc 4wd
blade and winch
hand grip heaters and insulated mitts

I have a 2000 Suzuki King Quad 300cc machine. It will plow plenty of snow with ease. Sure a 800cc machine with power steering would do it *better* and it may be *easier* but it never struggles and it sure beats the hell out of using a shovel.

No matter what machine you plow with good tires are key. A quad with **** poor tires will barely pull itself thru the snow......let alone push snow.

I also HIGHLY recommend the grip heaters. I buy the cheap TUSK ones from Rocky Mountain ATV - they cost $19 for the set and go under your grips. Coupled with a set of $15 TUSK handlebar mitts you will burn your hands if you dont wear gloves. Me and my girlfriend went trail riding a couple days ago on a couple of my quads with the heater/mitt combos. We left the parking lot without gloves. After about 10 mins (takes the heaters awhile to warm up) we both had bright red palms and had to stop and put some snow on the grips and turn them off so we could hold onto them.......we went back to the vehicle for some gloves. I had been running the heaters by themselves for quite awhile and was only mildly impressed......but adding the mitts made them beyond rock.