what the f#!&. second snow plow and bent the bracket that bolts to the bottom of my quad. the flat part that bolts to the underside is all bent up on one side causing the blade to angle to one side. anyone else have this problem.

 

I went for a very short trail ride yesterday after plowing the ice rink. On the way back I hit a small moggle and the blade came off the winch hook and dropped. The plow dug into the snow and snapped down like it is suppose to but the top right side of the plow dug into the snow and dirt curling it over more. Needless to say I stopped instantly. Luckily I was only going about 5 mph, but two of the four kids ended up on the ground in the snow and the one between my legs told me he "bonked the clock". No one got hurt, but the blade is bent and it is slightly pushed to the right because the mounting bracket bent just slightly.

With that much force I expected more damage to the mount, but it is only pushed back on the right about half an inch more than the left.

tcihla79 do you have all the bolts in your mount plate? I have 5 holding it to the machine.

 

I have plowed alot of snow here in syracuse new york this year with mine and havent had any problems yet. Havent been to gentle either.

 

yep i got all five bolts in. there was a big pile of three day old snow at the end of my drive that i wanted to move a little more off of my drvive to make way nfor new snow and i was hitting it at the end of the blade and with some force. i did it about 5 times and wasn't really moving so i kind of gave up. went to move over and finnish plowing and noticed the plow was angled to the left a bit. pulled into the garage to find the bracket bent???? fix able but kind of upset, going to check with the dealer on the morn, chances are i'll end up straightening it my self and adding some reinforcement.

 

What did you do to keep it from bending? Mine is bent now also!

 

Is the new frame that much lighter? I have left my GP frame on my year round and never had any problems. I was recommending it to a friend that wanted a plow setup but after reading this it makes me wonder.

 

i ended up pulling it off the machine and straightening it with a big hammer and bench vise. went to fastenal and bought 3 feet of 1/2 x 1/2 solid sguare stock. after the bracket was straight (almost ) i cut the sq stock to fit down the outside underside of the bracket. from the v in the back to the front where it goes up the front of the plow bracket. welded it to the front riser piece and put one inch tacks on each side of the sq stock down to the v. then put a 1/4 by 2inch sq stock flat against the bracket in the front. can try to get some pics. have done alot more plowing since i fixed it and so far so good. just worried it will find another weekness???

 

hopefully this works, here are one or two pics.
<a href="http://s275.photobucket.com/al...rrent=0105081616b.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i275.photobucket.com/al...hla79/0105081616b.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s275.photobucket.com/al...rrent=0105081616a.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i275.photobucket.com/al...hla79/0105081616a.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

I managed to do some more damage to my frame yesterday. We've had a couple of melts and now some new snow on top. Hit some of the old snow (ice) banks without much force and bent the plate.

I took it to a welding shop and they straightened it and welded on a couple of 1x3/8 stock to the plate similar to tcihla79 (very nice work by the way).

After puting the plate back on and mounting the plow I noticed, when the plow is angled, the trailing edge is about 1" off the ground when the leading edge is on the ground.

The only way for this to happen is that the frame of the machine is pushed up toward the radiator. I'm not sure how to fix this.

Any suggestions?

 

the radiator support is probablt bent in. my bent just a little. i left the two carriage bolts out. i also drilled two new holes through the bracket and frame in the front. i put washers in the gap between the plow bracket and frame before i bolted them together.