I have a fairly small driveway (4 cars long, 2 wide) and was considering a snow plow attachment to use in place of the walk-behind snow blower... not so much because the snow blower doesn't do it's job or is in need of replacement, but rather simply because I think it would be much more entertaining to fire up the ATV and have a practical use for it in the middle of the winter. (Especially considering I'm just purchasing my ATV now ['10 550 X2] and won't be able to use it around here through hunting season)

I'm a bit doubtful after seeing some YouTube-style videos as to just how well this would work out for me though. Based on what I saw, it doesn't look like the plow is really heavy (?) enough to cut through the snow and get down to the pavement. My wife would be pretty upset with me if I were to go "shovel" only to have a sheet of compacted snow and ice form shortly after.

So can someone that has done this tell me - does it work and actually clear the driveway, or does it really just take the snow from a foot down to an inch still remaining, in a nicely compacted form?

 

i removed the skid shoes from mine and it cleans pretty well. i have about 1000 foot of driveway to clear. 2 passes up and down and its done. i also clear about 3/4 of a mile of the county road also as the snow polws dont venture off the main roads very often. the amount you tilt the blade forwards also make a difference as to how it cleans/plows

 

My plow works very well for me, right down to the cement and here in WI, we don't have the light fluffy snow either for the most part.

 

my brother plows his driveway with his wheeler. I told him to just go buy a plow for his truck but like you he was thinking if he bought a wheeler it would be nice to have a use for it in the winter.

Now the plow works ok... His driveway is not paved yet (new house) and is 300' long. It does an ok job, seems to get down to the surface good. The key if you want to scrape is that you dont let anyone drive on it. The light weight of the plow just wont dig into compacted snow.

The wheeler can not stack a snow bank real high which is important up here in maine. the banks will only get a few feet high and then they will just start building out from there. I have to go down with the truck every once and a while and push his banks back so he has room to put more snow.

Im not trying to discourage you as it does do the job fairly well. Im just not a fan of sitting on a wheeler to plow when i can sit in a warm truck and listen to the radio.. lol.

Ill say this... if you dont have a truck to plow with, it sure as hell beats shoveling!!

 

Thanks for all the (quick!) feedback... sounds like it should do just fine on my short, flat, asphalt driveway - however silly I may look to all our neighbors. The driveway ends just before a big downhill area of grass, so I should have no problem pushing the snow completely out of the way. Of course, I'll still need to get the snow blower out for the sidewalk...

Now as for mounts and plow types... I've read on hear that the basic Polaris plows are made rather cheaply. I'm thinking I shouldn't be too concerned about going with that option anyway since I'm dealing with such a small driveway and so little use - but am I wrong? Is it really worth the extra cost for a heavy duty version if I'm not dealing with much in the first place?

And what about Polaris vs. aftermarket? Should I be avoiding one or the other? Is there a big cost difference?

I'm also curious about the mounts. What's the ATV look like & how much weight does it add by having the mount on without the plow? Would you normally take the mount off after winter? I know that the Polaris versions are "quick attach" as far as the plow goes. Does that quick attachment apply to after-market plows too?

I already went with a Polaris 2500 winch before finding this forum... Based on what I've read here, I have a feeling that may have been a mistake. (General consensus seems to be I should have got the best I could afford, but I figured I was really only planning on using it to pull myself out if I got stuck somewhere... and therefore didn't need much)

And finally - Seat warmers. I have a tendency to freeze to death in the winter. It's a known fact that I need more meat on my bones. I got the hand & thumb warmers, but was kinda bummed (pun intended) to see they no longer have a seat warmer for the 2010 550 X2. Are there good (great?) aftermarket seat warmers out there? I saw another post on the Gerbing's heated clothing - I'm seriously considering some of that...

 

Gonna throw my $0.02 in here With that short of a driveway - I don't think you're going to get up enough speed to throw the snow very far - especially if you get some wet, heavy stuff. I have a 600 foot paved driveway and I use my 4-wheeler/blade combo when we get up to 2-3 inches of light fluffy stuff and it works great for that because I can generate enough speed to get it to fly off the blade and off to the side. BUT - if you get wet snow, you WILL need speed to move it off the blade. That's when I break out the JD with a blower. Otherwise it's an exercise in futility. My blade mounts/removes fast - 2 pins to the frame and hook-up the winch to the front of the blade - done deal.

 

I've got a 52'' polaris plow as well, recently had a atv vs. deer crash and insurance replaced my my plow mount. T he new are reinforced a little better and thats what flimsy and weak not relly the plow. I remove the shoes too to get all the way down, keeo an eye on your edge and flip it over so not to grind down the actual plow. The edges that come with the plow can be flipped so you actually have 2 edges b4 having tp buy another one. My 500 does a fine jog, even in the wet heavy stuff here in Baraboo,WI!

 

Hey POpo man why don't you just plow your brothers drive for him? That's what family's for ain't it? Help a brother out dude!! Lol! had the opportunity that noone else took to give a little s**t! Lol!!

 

lol.. well id love to but hes 25 minutes away and i have too many other accounts I sometimes will be there during a storm and plow him out before i leave. he kinda laughs because what i spend doing in 10 minutes takes him over an hour on the wheeler lol..

 

I live on the side of a tall very windy hill, in Upstate NY....We got 150"+ of snow last year just to give you an idea. We've had snow drifts that reach the 14" peak of my garage.....It is a battle every year that my little Rancher with 48" plow has a struggle winning. I've had to literally pull the Rancher out of my garage with my truck, just so I could plow. Because the 4-foot drift in front of the door would never allow me to back out.....And I've tried backing in so I can "blast" out of the garage, but all that does is get me stuck even worse. Its actually better to back out, up ONTO the snow drift and cut your way down with each pass...... its crazy.....

The LAST thing you want to do at my house is "throw" snow in any way. So maybe he does not want to throw his snow either. Because you cannot possibly throw it far enough so that the wind won't throw it right back. Slow and steady is the name of the game here. Anything you throw is going to come back, probably to a place you don't want it.

So I push everything as far back as possible. The first snow of the season gets pushed 25 feet off the driveway at least because I know there is a chance that it will not melt until April. Usually by the end of the season by snowbanks are 8 feet tall and 20 feet thick.....The walls are usually closing in..... Last season I ran out of places to push the snow so I had to push it out into the street and down the shoulder....

Ideally I need a bigger quad with a bigger plow..... but if I can do what I do with a little 350 Rancher, then you big Polaris guys should be able to plow just about any amount of snow......