Hey damguy....I folded the blade down more than a few times today in heavy wet snow and the machine just kept going forward cause I was on the throttle and stayed on it. Had I backed off the throttle the front end would've dived lower and it would've put more downforce on the unit. My spring tension on the front shocks are already at max, but the highlifter springs arrived today. I found a picture on another site of the highlifter spring compressor, and have the materials laying around here to fabricate a similar simple mechanism that will work very effectively. I've already designed it on paper. I'll be done with all my cleanups early tomorrow so I'll get the whole project done. The garage is already heating up and the beer is cold. I'm going to change the rear springs also to avoid some of the lean I get while plowing a circle court. I've read on other sites tht the highlifter springs did not cause any loss of ride quality. I'm going to take some measurements before I do the whole thing too.....just curious what its going to do to the height of the vehicle in the stock position.

 

When I bought my HD springs, my dealer used their compressor and put zip ties on them to hold them down so I could install them myself. But I was late picking up the machine so they just put them on for me.

A local dealer or auto shop would probably compress them for you if you bought some zip ties or something.

Ahh I just read that you're getting prepared, no stopping you now. Good luck.

 

OK guys.....its all done. It took me about an hour to make the fixture, and once it was made it only took me 45 minutes to remove all four shock, replace the springs and re-install the shocks. I gotta tell ya....what a difference those highlifter springs make when using a plow! Its a totally different machine now. I did all four springs just because I do things that way....and it worked out great. I'm a happy camper to say the least. In fact, it worked out perfectly because it raised the griz almost an inch, and that height worked out perfect to put the blackline electric lift plow all the way down and it gave me just the right amount of downforce on the blade if I leaned forward just a bit! It was tough to judge the correct amount of downforce before because the front end was so soft. That part of it was luck, but it certainly makes it easy to set my correct blade height now....just go all the way down.
I hav'nt driven the machine yet without the blade on it...maybe I'll do that tomorrow...its easy enough to remove. The only complaint I have about the highlifter springs is that they appear to have a little bit of a larger diameter at the bottom than the stock shocks did. Its not as perfect of a fit on the tension adjustment ring....but I don't see any problem with it. Just my $.02.....I'd post pics of the spring compressor but I don't know how to do it. I'll check the site and see if theres some way....or PM me with an email address and I can send them that way. Just one important point to remember....if you make up some kinda fixture like I did be sure to strap the shock down so it does'nt pop out as you're compressing the spring. I could really tell the difference in the pressure of the highlifter springs as I compressed them, although the uncompressed height of them was the same as the factory springs. I would not have wanted any of them to go awry on me during the compression process for sure....

 

Hey 24houradrenaline......sorry I did'nt get back to you on your PM.....I just found out I had some since march and have since answered everyone. I cant figure out how to shrink my photos down enough for the gallery...mine on file are like 456 mb and they have to get down to 150 to post them. Any ideas???

 

Just remembered....it was the "cycle country" plow I looked at ....that was the one that did not compare in quality to the blackline

 

Heres a great example of a cycle country plow....the blackline has many more supports to the rear...and I can't imagine what you would have to put it through to get this much damage.....I think you would have to be plowing boulders..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Yamah...97265547QQrdZ1

 

If you have Windows XP, open the pic with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, right click on pic, choose resize pic, and choose size.

 

oooo...grrrr...frustration!!! I've got it open in the windows picture and fax viewer...and I've got XP Pro....but I cannot find an option to resize pic. If I go to edit I can draw circles on it etc....but cant find resize there either. Gonna have to get my kid to show me tomorrow I guess....

 

with the picture open, right click and click edit then in paint program will open up and click on iimage then attributes. You can adjust size in there by width and height and then file save as a new file name. then check the file size to see if its small enough. hope this helps

 

To enable the "Resize Photo" extension, you need to download the Photo Resizer PowerToy from microsoft: PhotoResizer. Information on this and other PowerToys can be found here.

When you use it, choose "small" as your resize option (medium and large are too big).

Ty