I was at the dealers today and enquired about a plow.

He offered me a used 60" plow he had on his own RZR, with the pivot but no bracket to mount it to the bike.

Fabricating a new mount is the easy part for me, the question however, is 60" too big for an ATV.

It's a 500 HO sportsman, and it's just dawned on me I could always cut a bit off! DOH!!!

So do I try it at 60" anyway and cut it down if required? I also have a Ranger project which it could also fit in the future if I leave it at 60".

Love to hear your thoughts although I've just answered my own question

JF

 

Howdy James, how's life across the pond?

60" is a very good size for a Sportsman. Sportsman is 48" wide in that model. If you mount a 60" plow you'll have 6" extra on each side. When plowing straight that extra width keeps your tires down on the ground. It also helps to have the extra width when you angle the plow. Most plow pivots have a middle setting and two notches so you can angle it to either side on wide driveways and such. When you angle the plow, the width of the cut in the snow gets smaller. Without the extra width your tires would end up on top of or in snow rather than down on solid ground. I run a 60" plow on my Outlander. Works great. I've had one small and two decent snowstorms since I installed it and the extra width is great. A 48" or 50" plow are a waste of money on a 48" quad.

 

Thanks Moose.

Life here is great at the moment, my wife had our first baby, Archie, last week.

The snow is finally falling, and although I have a tiny driveway, I want a plow.

Do you ever add balast to your bike when plowing?

All the best

James

 

I don't always use weights but most of the time I have 2 or 3 60# sandbags on my rear rack when I plow. It keeps the rear tires firmly on the ground when I raise the plow. Without the sandbags the rear end gets kind of light and spins pretty easy. I've been plowing for about 15 years and never needed tire chains even when it gets icy, as long as I have the sandbags on there.

 

At my 350 lbs. and the quad's 700+ lbs. I don't need any ballast.

 

Seeing as I'm making the mount/push rods from scratch do you have any preferences or wish manufacturers had done something differently??

James

 

had a 60" glacier plow on my polaris xp 850 and on my sportsman 800, and on three outlander 800's I've owned- the plow was awesome. no counter weights needed.

my only problem was sometimes we get hammered with so much snow that I run out of places to push it to.

and like moose said- a 48 or 50" plow on a 48" wide atv is almost useless. you need to clear the snow from the tires as you plow- 60" works great and even allows for a bit of an angle to push to one side as to make passes.
I've even used my atv plow to spread and level loam & mulch in the summer.

 

Can't really help you there. I got a kit from Can-Am that made installing their plow pretty easy. Don't make it so the plow is too far forward or the winch will have to work that much harder.

 

Does anyone have an opinion about being able to plow with a 500 quadrunner in 2wd only and a 60" plow. I need to buy a driveshaft, until then I am stuck in 2wd.

 

As long as you have traction a 60" plow will work on a 500.