thnx guys, this thread gave me sum things i should look out for this winter, lol gotta learn from others mistakes. anyways... this is my first winter with the grizz and ive never plowed before so it should be interesting. ive only seen my friends do it a couple times but there wasnt a lot of snow. do u think ill be ok plowing with stock grizz tires and no chains or no? here in nj we get plenty of snow, and idk if i should get chains or not. thnx in advance.

 

Last year I had a Honda Foreman 450ES with a 56" blade and chains on all 4 tires. My neighbor had a Polatis 500HO with a 48" blade and NO chains. In most instances, he did fairly well. If the snow got too heavy, or if the snow needed to be piled higher, I kicked his butt! Even in a yard with 10"s of snow and blade raised, I would still out perform him.

From your statement "plenty of snow", I would definitely recomend chains.

I would rather have them and not need them, than not have them and need them...

 

IMHO, no chains and stock tires will do the job. Sure it would be better with them, but I plowed for 4 years with my 00 Kodiak that way with no problems at all. My driveway is 20' wide x 90' long plus I usually plowed out several neigbours, plus took the Kod to the cottage to plow there, all with stock tires only.

4WD, low gear and practice, you'll be a pro in no time.

 

Wax your snow plow. It really makes the snow "CURL" and "SLIDE" when your pushing it!

There is also a spray that all your county and city crews MAY use to spray there plows. I do not know the name of it off the top of my head. It is at home on the shelf. but it also acts as a lube so the snow with easily curl and slide off to the side, instead of bunching up.

 

Hey spraay.. I have a Polaris that I use for plowing. See my pics. I have two wheel drive with chains and it plows just as well as a John deere garden tractor with chains and wheel weights that I used to use. I have never run without chains because of my experience with the JD. The key point about a two wheel drive is keep the front tire pressure high (5-6 psi) so that the front tires don't bog down and keep the rears lower (2-3psi) so they get better traction. I use a manual lift, I find I feel the blade better with a manual lift. I have a belt drive with no low range, but I am sure the gearing is different than yours. I have no problem crawling at 3-4 mph when need be or I can go faster if I run a long stretch. BTW, 10 inches of snow is no problem in a single pass.
Bryce

 

When you push the snow into a pile make sure you back up a little bit before you lift the blade or else you'll be lifting 50lbs of snow.

 

I let the blade scrape right on the ground--noisey and bumpy, but it's a better plow job. I just screwed in about 180 of the gold ATV studs into my tires and I really like them. Not sure how long they will last, though. I just had to plow some deep older snow - 8" and kinda heavy. I had to push most of the snow volume away perpendicularly before I could do my blade-angled passes. I use a 60" blade and would not go less than that. Try to plow downhill [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] If you get stuck raise the blade, rock the wheeler front to back and maybe side to side. I also waxed the blade--nice. Try not to hit stuff.

 

Thanks for all of your helpful tips. We got a few inches of snow here last week so I got to try out the plow a little bit. It works pretty much as I expected. The Polaris ATP in AWD gets good traction with the factory tires and the snow rolls right off the blade. I have the 48" Cycle Country plow with the manual lift. I may upgrade to a winch later. I only plow my own driveway, so it's not that big a deal just using the handle. I selected the 48" blade before coming to the forum, so I hadn't heard all of the advice to use a larger one.

Thanks again for all of your input.

Best Regards,
Shane

 

A 54 or 60 inch plow is nice, because with a 48 incher at full angle, the plow path is thinner than your tires.

Make sure the first few snowfalls you push the snow way back off the driveway -- later in the year, you can't move the snowbanks like you can with a 3 ton truck. On a beltdrive atv, you will be fine as long as you aren't riding around right on the engagement point -- make sure when you are hitting the gas, the tires are turning. If they aren't, you are just burning your belt. Whenever the plow's on the quad, it should be in Low. With a 500, you shouldn't have any power issues.

A quad with a plow on it gets stuck a lot easier than you'd think -- the really limited ground clearance in the front does that. If you have downhill slopes on the sides of your driveway, be careful. If the front gets into some deep snow and begins to slide, the light rear end wants to slide down too. Sometimes it's just better to get a truck and pull yourself out before you can really bury yourself rocking back and forth. I've been stuck so bad plowing that even a running start with a Suburban didn't do the trick [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img].

I put a sand bag on the back of the quad -- with all the weight on the front, the back gets really light. THe sand adds traction and makes the ride smoother, making steering easier too. (Without the sand and the plow raised, a sharp turn can cause the quad to spin around on the front tires because of all the overhanging weight).

Last thing - plowing for two years really wore out my stock front springs. I went to the dealer and got some "HD" front springs and put them in, 28 bucks apiece. Quad rides much better now, and holds the plow up better (a lot less sag). With a polars, you can install springs for the 700, HD 500 springs, and Ranger springs. That is from softest to stiffest, but they are all stiffer than your stockers.

 

I've found that on ice, chains are necessary. Unless clearing off a skating rink, because chains rip up the ice, so the key is speed.

On icy pavement or frozen ground, chains definetly help.

But when plowing fresh snow (so bare pavement shows up) I've found that rubber tires get a lot better traction than metal chains. If there is any ice at all, the chains win by a long shot. But wet pavement, the chains just spin and scratch it up.