Say hi to the newbie Sorry, but this post will be rather long-winded. Essentially, I am just looking for opinons (good and bad) from people who have used an ATV in the manner I am hoping to do.

I am looking for a utility ATV for snow plowing or snow blowing, grading my driveway and mowing my lawn. I live in northern Minnesota, have a 250 to 300 yard driveway and a 3 acre front lawn.

ATV's under consideration (no particular order): Polaris Magnum 500, Polaris Diesel (if I can find one), Yamaha Grizzly, Polaris 6x6, Arctic Cat 500. Additional suggestions welcome.

I realize I probably won't find a perfect machine to do all this... just want to find one that is close

Questions I have: Does anyone besides Polaris make a snowblower unit for an ATV? (I would prefer a blower due to the length of my driveway). Is a blower overkill? Currently, the driveway is plowed via truck.

However, I am tired of spending $600/year getting crushed concrete hauled in every spring because it was plowed into my yard the previous winter. Will a 60 inch plow do a "good" job or am I going to feel like I am trying to move an iceberg with a 14 ft Lund?

Are there any pros/cons to using a front mount mower vs. offset? (I have another rider mower to be used in tighter areas)

I appreciate any input or thoughts from those who are experienced. BTW... I am not completely stupid to motorized equipment. I use to race motocross (Go Big Green ) and snowmobiles (TX-L)

Thanks all

Eric

 

Greetings,

... and welcome. This sort of question gets kicked around here pretty well, so you might want to search the archives for some info. Also, might want to post it in the Utility or Buying forums to get more response. But now for my opinion.

I have a Honda 450ES. I've never used my ATV for plowing snow but I use it for dragging logs, pulling a cart (Northern's big wheel ATV model), and have tested a mower behind it. From what I see and hear, any of the big quads should work well for you. Some things to consider are manual vs automatic vs electric shift, floorboards (which I highly recommend for real work), and cooling systems. Most people like to have liquid cooling for low speed hard work, but there are lots of folks out there working with air cooled machines (though often with an oil cooler).

As for the mower, I have been looking at these for some time. Polaris and Cycle Country both offer similar pull-behinds and Northern offers a few other "finish" mowers. I also looked into the front mounted mower but didn't think it would hold up in rough field use (I think its built for a lawn). But something that really caught my eye was the flail mower. A farm neighbor has one and I tried it out and really liked it. Its built on a single axel and is far easier to use in close spaces. With no mower deck, its light. You don't have the blades to worry about and it chops everything very fine. If you're interested, check out the Alamo Industries web site -- I found them to be helpful.

Thanks,

Rod
98 450ES [...and its yellow]

 

I would'nt trust that snow thrower unit that Polaris has, its probably a single stage which will clog when the snow is damp, and I doubt that it has enough power. I'd rather take my chances with a snow blade, at least you'll know what's going wrong when problems arrise. Our family used to be in the power equipment business in Connecticut. Our product line included a snow thrower attachment for our lawn tractors, and snow clogs were always the biggest problem. The plows weren't much better, but they didn't cost an arm and a leg.

 

I do know for a fact that yamaha has blower attachments for it's bikes. Personally, I don't trust anything made by Polaris... no offense to you polaris guys, but I've just seen too much and heard too many horror stories. As far as lawn mowing goes, if you have a ride on mower, why do you want to fork out a fortune for a mower attachment for a bike? I wouldn't want to use a bike for mowing... especially a yard the size of your's. The slow driving in the heat will really get the bike hot, and I would suspect that it would be hard to get an even looking cut on the lawn because your throttle position will be changing as you cut. You will speed up and/or slow down without realizing it.

 

Thank you all for your input. This was the kind of feedback I was looking for. I need to address some issues.

Rod- Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately I was unable to find an "Alamo Industries" using a standard search engine. I will try again, but if you have the URL handy please email me.

Azrob- Actually, I believe the Polaris snowblower is a two stage blower. At least it appears so from the literature I received. It also "appears" to be constructed well. This blower uses a rear mounted electric start B&S 12 hp engine. Fairly pricey at 3K though. My dealer indicated that an individual designed the blower and Polaris bought the rights to it. Definately not the drum type blower sold for lawn tractors.

Derekjes- You bring up some very good points. I had thought about the varible speed of an ATV being a problem when using a mower. Regarding using my existing lawn mower. I would still use it. The rational (as twisted as it may seem ) is to use both the ATV and the rider on those days my wife and I are both at home to mow the lawn. The other reason is to get a bigger cut when I am mowing the lawn myself. Although, one could buy another lawn tractor for almost the price of a front mount. I would still need to address the road grading and snow plowing/blowing issues. From what I have seen around here, lawn tractors make crappy snowplowers or blowers. Regarding mowing.. it currently takes about 8-10 hours to mow my whole lawn with the 38 in. cut rider mower. I think one can understand why I am wanting to cut down my lawn time . I will need to investigate the Yamaha's blower if I can find the info. As far as heat build up, this could be a problem. However, the Griz is an air cooled model whereas Polaris is liquid cooled. I would think the Griz. would be more susceptable to an overheating problem because of this.

I have been thinking about the gang mower setup. There are cons there too. From what I read grass that is longer than 3 inches requires multiple passes. Since I am often gone for a week at a time, the lawn could easily grow out of this range.

Amyhow, I really do appreciate all your thoughts. It does help. If you think of any other issues, please let me know.

Thanks again

Eric

 

Found it: http://www.alamo-industrial.com/