"Well, you might be right about the weight of an ATV, but if I take a look from where you come from, its no question that you can easily plow through your Utah powder. If you have heavy snow, you need a heavy ATV."

"If you have heavy snow, you need a heavy ATV" A heavy ATV shoud plow snow better, isn't that what I said?

I don't plow snow with my ATV. I use a snow blower. I don't have enough driveway or sidewald to get out the ATV for.

 

In 3-wd you mean limited slip 4x4? All the 3-wd is bs. My wolverine and rubicon have limited slips. I use my rubicon for only plowing. I use my wolverine for just driving. The Rubicons limited slip 4x4 is not really 3wd. When I was stuck in the snow, I had all 4 tires spinning. Same with the wolverine. If your stuck the tires spin, just not as much as the back do but if you want them to spin more give it some more throttle. IMO

 

"In 3-wd you mean limited slip 4x4? All the 3-wd is bs. My wolverine and rubicon have limited slips. I use my rubicon for only plowing. I use my wolverine for just driving. The Rubicons limited slip 4x4 is not really 3wd. When I was stuck in the snow, I had all 4 tires spinning. Same with the wolverine. If your stuck the tires spin, just not as much as the back do but if you want them to spin more give it some more throttle. IMO"

Did I say your Rubicon had 3-wd? I have a Rancher and a Rubicon. I have almost 6500 miles between the two. I am very well aware of how the "torque sensing", not a limited slip, front differential works. Most older ATVs had "open" front differentials, like older Hondas. They had 3-wd.

Anything that "locks" both front wheels is more aggressive than any kind or type of limited slip.

A heavier, "all-wheel drive" ATV will push more, or heavier snow, than a lighter, less aggressive front differential equipped" ATV with the same tires and close to the same hp. Doesn't matter the brand or age.

 

I can see your point about wanting the heavest machine to plow. Now if we start talking about riding in heavy, deep snow then IMO it's a different story. Most of my friends ride the larger Polaris Sportsmans and I've found the extreme weight to hinder more than help. I've seen even the smallest/lightest 4x4 machines do much better as long as they had some sort of aftermarket tires. In snow I feel this is the biggest advantage over anything else to include CCs, weight, ground clearance, or "true" 4 wheel drive. This isn't to say that all these don't help becuase we all know they do but IMO tires are everything. Again, JMO.

 

I find that my little 485 pound wolverine goes through more stuff then my 600 pound rubicon. The rubicon has a bigger engine but my wolverine is faster so it gets through easier where if you have the rubicon in low you still get stuck because you are getting slow. (kind of confusing)

 

Nope Big Baller, not confusing at all. I think you are right on. There are a lot of places I think our Rancher is better than our Rubicon. Technical trails and boulders I think the Rancher is better. I have never ridden it in the snow but with equal tires I woul think it is the better machine out of the two.

They are all a little different and they all seem to have the things they do best.

 

For pushing snow I have used a Bayou 300, Prairie 360, Rubicon and Traxtor XT. Of those 4 machines the Prairie was by far the fastest and best machine for pushing storms in the up to a foot deep range. When the snow depth gets over that, the Traxtor steps ahead due to the extra power but more importantly due to the extra weight. I found the Rubicon to be very slow backing up and awkward to get around, if you look at the turning radius of a Rubicon compared to the Traxtor, the Rubicon takes almost 50% more area to turn it around plus it is harder to steer. IMO the best machine for 90% or more of the people pushing snow is a belt drive machine. I purchased my Traxtor mainly to pull ag. implements which is the weak point in the belt drive machines.

 

I heard plowing snow with belts messes up the belts. Does my wolverine and rubicon have belts?

 

No, belt drives work great. Some better then others but there is nothing a belt drive can't do that a manual can. Plowing, towing, or otherwise. The only thing is your personal preferance. Some like maunuals, and buy those, some like belts, and buy those. Everyone is happy! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

IM HAPPY! Im not that happy about the amount of snow fall in ny. hey, sum 1 tell this weather guy to make some snow come in new york. we got hit hard with about 16 inches and that was it. I wrecked my rubicons plow that snow storm and bought a new blade for that and a blade for my wolverine. IM already for the snow WHERE IS IT!