A 'tractor' needs 2 things, power and traction. Traction requires 2 things, weight, and the ability to keep the wheels following the ground as much as possible. The Traxter may be great for plowing snow, it has weight, and a good front differential. The solid rear axle is actually a benefit, as it helps keep the plow level. However, for trail riding, that thing is BRUTALLY stiff. For HEAVY work, may just be the thing.

Polaris makes 2 fairly decent workers, the Sportsman & magnum 500s. The Magnum is geared a little lower in Low, but the Sportsman has the HO engine. Kind of a toss-up to me. The solid rear axle has good work habits, but the IRS of the Sportsman makes a much better trail rider. If all you plan to do is work it, I say go Magnum between these 2.

Splitting the difference is the A/C 500. Available in auto or manual ( I would go Auto) these are great work machines!!!
The strength of a solid rear axle, combined with some of the articulation of an IRS machine. Probably the best of both worlds. Their only real shortcoming is they are S-L-O-W when compared to the Polaris machines. If riding fast or a long ways in a short time isn't important to you, you can't go wrong with a Cat.

Honda's are well built machines, but for work like plowing are too light. More weight will give more traction, and I would rather have weight built-in rather than added on. You can go on and on about the strength of their thin-wall chromoloy steel frames compared to the thick-walled mild steel found in a Cat or Polaris, but I have seen more cracked, bent, and kinked frame tubes on Hondas equipped with a plow, than any other. Only 1 bent Polaris frame, and never a cat. Also, there are about 2 cats with plows for each Honda so equipped around here, and maybe 5 or 6 Polarises (Polari?) There would likely be more Cats, as they do great, but our local dealership isn't what I wish it was.

Can't go wrong with a Grizzly for plowing, but the old air-cooled ones overheated working in the summer. The new water cooled one should be great, though, but only time will tell.

650 Kawisaki ranks with the 700 Polaris in my mind right now. Great on paper, with good potential, but I will wait for more experience with them before I make a judgement call.

 

Good Gawd guys this fella says he'll be plowing a driveway between 1300 and 2000 feet long, not your typical 50 or 100 foot residential variety; and he'll have to move 12 to 18 inches of heavy wet snow. I know we think our ATVs are invincible but this guy needs a 3/4 ton fourwheel drive pickup truck with an 8' Fisher plow. Don't forget to fill the bed with hardwood logs or cinder blocks, and put the iron the the rear tires. I don't know about your ATVs, but the heater in mine sucks. At least in a truck he won't freeze to death or have to wear a snowmobile suit.

 

You are right,that is a big drive to plow with an atvbut if he has his heart set on one it has to be the traxter. This is without a doubt the best utility quad made. And i did plow snow in excess of 10 in with mine last winter and it didn't spin a wheel. I even made it a point to angle the plow and pile the snow up further to see if it could stop me and it just spilled over the top of the plow and kept going. I had just bought the traxter and was very impressed.
In response to Farmr123 the suspension is not bad for trail riding which is mainly what i use mine for. The extra large soft seat more than makes up for the stiff rear suspension. I can ride all day without any complaints. As for polaris you forgot to mention the xpedition 425. It has a straight axle and gear trans. I think this would be a good worker,i just chose the bombardier because of its features. The rear mounted radiator never gets plugged up with snow or mud and i love the built in front storage compartment. There are a lot of good machines out there just wanted to let you know how satisfied i am with mine.

 

454 Casull, the 12-18" of snow is a worse case scenario-much more common is 4-8". I'm hoping an ATV will be up to this, in spite of the length of roadway involved. Much more versitle (sp?) than the plowing rig I have now. Parts for the old Land Crusier are expensive, and getting harder to find as well. If we do get the big dump every few years I have a neighbor with a D6 that can take care of things.

Traxterrick, the Traxter is appealing-even heavier (just over 700 lbs if I recall) than the AC, and I also like the front storage bin and the radiator out back. Also looks easy to get at the motor , just flip up the seat. I'm mixed on the step-through seat-how do you like it? The negative as I see it is that the suspension doesn't sound to be up to that on the Cat for trail riding and general "playing". Wish I had a good chance to ride and plow with both rigs before putting down my money! Do you have the electrically-controlled geared automatic (if that is the appropriate term) in yours? I kind of liked the idea of this-the auto when wanted (especially if the wife rides it) and the positive control of the manual when desired. My dealer has them for right around $6300, actually a bit less than the nearest AC dealer I've found.

Bri

 

The traxter has a dry weight of 755lbs. As far as the stepthru design i can take it or leave it. Believe it or not i use it mostly as a place to rest my feet when going thru deeper water,i really like it for that. Yes i have the electric shift and really like it. My only complaint is it could shift a little quicker. It is better than when i got it,i reprogrammed it to the quickest shift,something the dealer can do in a couple of minutes. The arctic cat probably would ride a little smoother but i love this machine even for long trail rides. Thats where another benefit of the stepthru comes into play. Ther are no frame rails up high and the motor is mounted as low as possible. This makes it without a doubt the most stable trail quad made. It never feels like it's going to upset even on the steepest hills or riding the side of a slope. Also the low center of gravity really seems to aid in traction. Like i said before you won't in my opinion find a quad that will push more snow than the traxter. The ac is a pretty good machine. A friend has one. Its only weakness is its not very good in deep snow because the front tires are too wide. Luckily for 2002 ac started using 8 in wide on the front,this should help alot. Still not sure if they only use a limited slip in the front. Also the 02 models look alot nicer. Just my opinion. Good luck with your decision and keep us informed.

 

KING QUAD

 

OK more questions for you guys...I just had the state forester out to the new piece of dirt on Friday to do a timber management plan, required for a tax thingey. I have some timber to thin, most of which is fairly small (less than 10" dia). Most of that I'll be dragging up to the house and cutting up for firewood. I also found out that some of my larger trees are diseased (root rot) or being killed by mistletoe, and will need to come out. These are a little larger (14-18" dia tam and red fir), and will be sold for timber. I'd like to drop these myself and skid them out with a ATV, rather than having a logger tear things up with a skidder or Cat. Any of you guys that use a AC for skidding, can they handle something this big? I'm going to want to keep the lengths as long as possible on these to maximize yield. I've skidded considerably larger ones with my pickup, but it is a little big to get in some of these places. I'm thinking I could weld up a small steel sled with a choker to pull the log and keep the leading end from plowing into the dirt. Cowboy and others, any thoughts?

Thanks again guys.

Bri

 

Brian-
I wish I had have remembered the camera while "logging" up at elk camp. Pulled a bunch of tamarack, along with some fir and pine as well. The largest of these logs was a big tamarack tree we dropped that was about 20-22" in diameter roughly. I had sectioned it up into lengths about 10-12' long for easier maneuvering through the rest of the standing timber to get back to the truck. Had to pull probably 200 yards or so which wasn't much, but down through a little gulley, then up a moderate hill back to the truck. Plowing dirt was the hardest part, as it dug a hell of a trench along the way. The shorter lengths were no trouble for me on the 'Cat, but did smoke the belt of a '02 Scrambler with ease. The last log I mis-judged, ended up being a hair over 15', and was the lower end of the log-towards the stump, and saturated with pitch. This thing was heavy as hell-two of us could not pick up the small end for fitting the choker chain around-had to tunnel under it. Surprisingly enough, the 'Cat pulled it with ease. I frequently pull logs in the 10" diameter range of mostly lodgepole-those you can easily pull an entire downed tree out with-depending on how big, you can strap two or three together and pull a small bundle of entire trees out-as long as they are of the 10" size or thereabouts.

The best/easiest way to skid logs with the 'Cat is getting that front end off the ground-it prevents you from "trenching" the entire way. I modified an old boat trailer so now I carry the full timber on the trailer, rather than skidding-whenever possible anyway, this has made a HUGE improvement on things. I don't like the idea of hanging that much weight off the back of the 'Cat, so I think if you were to weld something up, get a small axle and a hitch setup, then just mount a 2" ball on your hitch, drag this axle around. With this, you can effectively raise the end of the log off the ground, rest it on the axle and secure with chains. Depending on how wide an axle and how large you get, naturally you'll be able to handle heavier loads-basically what I'm talking about is similar to a log arch I guess, only instead of being in the center and hanging, the log would be resting on the front, just enough to keep the end from trenching along-if that makes any sense.

I've found that a 6' choker cable with slip hook on one end, and grab hook on the other works very well for choking and dragging. I was hooking this up to a 1/2" or 5/8" cable which I towed from, but have been using a short 6' 2" nylon strap lately. That cable is 16' long, ends up being a real burden when towing around stumps-gets hung up pretty easily with that long of a line. If you have any specifics, or any other questions/comments feel free to ask, or send me an email, I'd be glad to try and help. For what you're doing from the sounds of things, the 'Cat will handle that job with ease, and you won't have to worry about the loggers destroying your place in the process of their job. They made a HUGE mess up on my property of which will take many years to clean and restore the conditions it was in prior to the thinning. I hate to sound like a damn greeny here, but this is MY property and they've created a huge fire hazard, which has lead to a lot of work on my end to prevent a loss. A quick hot fire could destroy all of my 1,200 acres in no time flat-that would take forever to come back.

sorry-forgot to add-the brances will be your biggest nightmare-make sure you clean them all off before skidding anything!

Anyway, Best of Luck,

Mike

 

Thanks for the reply Cowboy-sounds like you have done alot of work with your Cat. I looked at some of your pics, pretty impressive the load you had choked together and were dragging. I like the idea you have for a small trailer-something that would keep the front end of the log up and keep it from plowing sounds like the way to go. I'd like to put together some fairly good size wheels and tires, but on a narrow track to get through the tight stuff. Time to start scrounging some material.

I'm with you on the commercial logging thing-I have seen some cuts that were done nicely, others that were badly trashed-what trees weren't cut were killed by the slash burn. I have to admit that doing a good job of cleanup is very time consuming. I've done a little thinning on the current place and was burning slash and clearing brush all day. Fun, but you work all day and it doesn't look like anything's accomplished. I'm both envious of you for owning 1200 acres, and in shock that you can begin to clean up that much area. LOTS of back aches. From what I saw, looks like great hunting country as well.

I've been cutting my firewood on public land for quite a while, and the easy stuff is always gone. I've had to drop some 28-30" fir on the downhill side of some steep hillsides, it has amazed me what the Chevy can drag out. Broken a bunch of 1/4" cables tugging at stuff, finally dropped the bucks for some 3/8 this year and rigged up a couple of loops-chain and hook on one end, and clevis on the other. I bought 60' of cable to get to where I needed, but have to double or tripple it up to shorten the pull length sometimes, need more shorter ones. Should be able to salvage some of the 1/4 for the ATV.

I also bought a DR mower earlier this year. Came across a used one at a garage sale, can't afford (or won't pay the bucks for) a new one. Works pretty well considering how much brush I feed it.

Gotta go, house plans need finishing. Thanks again for the input.

Bri

 

Greetings,

There's a company that makes several pieces of equipment to help skid logs. One had two wheels connected by a relatively tall arch with a set of timber tongs dangling below. Another one looked like a car hood with a hook on the front. Both were to keep the load from snagging on the way out. Sorry, but I don't remember the web site.

Also, I bought a DR mower a few years back and nothing has ever so exceeded my expectations as that mower. If you can push it over, it will cut it. And using it on brush and sticks just helps keep grass from building up in it. This weekend, I mowed out part of a field long neglected -- golden rod taller than me, roses and canes an inch across, vines, barberry, etc. -- now all obliterated. Its great therapy too (DR actually published an article on brushhog-therapy) -- I put on some head phones (recommended given the engine noise) and plug into the tape player on my belt. Definitely good for you inside and out. You might want to get on the DR owners mailing list. They have a quarterly newsletter, parts sources, upgrades (new brush-weight blades), etc.