Plowing snow with a 4 wheeler

Started by new land owner, November 12, 2013, 04:18:57 PM

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new land owner

I have a Polaris sportsman 500 and am thinking of buying a plow for it. 

Is anyone plowing with a 4 wheeler and if so, how good a job can it do.

Also, how big (CC) machine are you plowing with and how wide a plow.

Thanks in advance.

rick91351

I put a plow on my 650 Arctic Cat.  My wife Ellen I can't keep her off of it.  She loves to really rip it and watch the snow go sailing.    8)

It worked real well down in the valley and say 6 or 8 inches of snow.  I never had chains for it so I would not want to try anything over that like a foot of snow.  Up here in the powder it might do fine we will see as snow is on the horizon......   
Proverbs 24:3-5 Through wisdom is an house builded; an by understanding it is established.  4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.  5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.


Redoverfarm

I have got a Suzuki 500 and a 48" blade.  Dependent upon the amount of snowfall determines it's use.  On average probably 75-85% of the season with snows ranging 2-8".  Usually have an annual of 72-100".  If you have to make multiple passes it will handle this much.  Of course that is dependent on the type of snow ( light-heavy).  With a lot of accumulation during the winter its ability to plow the previous snow berm accumulated is hard.  Of course I usually rely on the tractor and blade for that additional 15-25% of buildup and then it is ready for the 4-wheeler again.  To answer your question it does a good job.  Of course the grade and road surface has a lot to do with it.  I am plowing a paved road with the majority on level terrain.  But to answer your question "Yes" .  I have plowed the cabin road an unmaintained USFS road for about 1-1/2 miles during the winter when I was under construction and it did fine there as well with a steaper incline than the house.  I don't have chains for the 4 wheeler but haven't needed them.  In fact I don't think they would do much better because you are about at your limit at that 8-10" total snowfall. Hope it answered your question.

UK4X4

My neighbor has a 4wheeler with a blade and keeps his house and drive clear with it quite easily , but he lives there

being that we only visit irregularly when i asked him to open me a car width entry he can't cope with the acumulated snow and the bank left by the road snow plow

Patrick

my city neighbor uses one and i can shovel faster,his driveway is long and flat and he has to work the machine so hard Im sure its doing damage and if he doesnt beat the plow its impossible to do the end of the driveway he has to shovel and snowblow and 4-wheel its quite the show.


rick91351

Quote from: Patrick on November 14, 2013, 09:30:14 PM
my city neighbor uses one and i can shovel faster,his driveway is long and flat and he has to work the machine so hard Im sure its doing damage and if he doesnt beat the plow its impossible to do the end of the driveway he has to shovel and snowblow and 4-wheel its quite the show.

Oh for city work a snowblower and a shovel is great to okay.  But our lane to our house in the valley was a long eighth mile and up hill to the house.  We kept it open with the fourwheeler.  Here it is pretty level but short quarter mile to the road that might get plowed or it might not and another quarter to the road that has school kids and the mail carrier living on it.  It does get plowed.  The key to plowing with a fourwheeler is so long as it is snowing hard keep plowing.  Don't let it get over a couple inches.  In a mountain blizzard with those 40 and 50 mph winds with wind chills off the chart and heavy snows you just are not going to keep up.  Best go to bed or sit and look out the window, drink coffee and eat chocolate chip cookies and watch the snow blow and hope the power does not go out.

 
Proverbs 24:3-5 Through wisdom is an house builded; an by understanding it is established.  4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.  5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

Erin

The guys around here that plow businesses' parking lots and such in the winter usually just use 4wheelers...
The wise woman builds her own house... Proverbs 14:1

Redoverfarm

Not saying you can't plow snow a little deeper.  Sometimes our was borderline in choosing which machine.  Like I said the type of snow makes a difference.  You can plow deeper accumulation but you have to do it bassackward.  Plow the extreme side first and then on the return cover what you had already plowed returning and plowing again.  Makes more work but you have to do what you have to do with what you have to do it with.   ;)   Here when it starts it usually last and happens most of the winter.  So that 12' wide road after a few snows turn into 6-8 feet wide.  If you do decide to go this route make sure that you push back as far as you can the first time.

new land owner

Thanks for all the responses.  Now I have to figure out which brand to buy for my 4 wheeler.  I have a Polaris sportsman and I don't know if I should go with the manufactures brand or are there better units out there.

Any thoughts?


rick91351

We got our first snow of the year with any measurement really.  So I went and dug out the plow and hooked it up.  Then I remembered a couple items to toss in to this mix as well.  Both have to do with plowing and the winch.  Mine like most winches came with a steel cable or wire rope.  This I found was very short lived after I hooked up to the plow for the first time.  The cable became frayed and broke because of a couple mistakes I made.   :-[

So my Arctic Cat dealer ordered me a fiber braided rope for my winch and a new bottom roller.  ;D  He said he has to do so for over half of the machines he sold.  That was a couple years ago.  The high test braided rope did the trick and it gets used a lot.  Only down side I have had with the rope was this summers fires.  With our limited water tanks and pumps we were having to pull stumps burning above a road lest they come loose roll over the road and one down the hill and cause more fires.    We could have used a chain for a choker and hooked off.  When they were about burnt through give them a jerk and they rolled harmlessly into the road where we could get them in the barrow pit.  But it was sort of even risky then with the rope on the winch because of the hot soil and burning embers.  So we opted not to use my fourwheeler for that duty.  Only time I have found I could not use the fiber rope.

That what John wrote holds very true.  You can not just plow snow.  You have to work it over to the edge - plus.  Get it way out of the way.  I have found you often times are setting a trap for yourself if you do not.  That berm you leave will act as a wind brake.  Anywhere there is a wind brake there are snow drifts.  So if you can set your berms out away from the road it is not so fast to drift into the road.  In effect you are using the plowed snow to catch more snow.  However that said in a real blizzard all bets are off.  Go to the house take a nap get rested up because you are going to need all your stamina when the skies turn blue again.   ;)         

         
Proverbs 24:3-5 Through wisdom is an house builded; an by understanding it is established.  4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.  5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

upa

Plowing with a 4 wheeler is ok when the snow is not too deep but what I find works best for me is an 3 point rear mounted 4-5ft angled blade on my compact tractor, no amount of snow stops me and its super quick, can remove a heavy snowfall from my 80ft driveway in 15-20 minutes. I find pulling/angling snow is way more efficient than trying to push with the front end loader, snow blowing, whatever.

rick91351

Quote from: upa on November 23, 2013, 08:38:19 AM
Plowing with a 4 wheeler is ok when the snow is not too deep but what I find works best for me is an 3 point rear mounted 4-5ft angled blade on my compact tractor, no amount of snow stops me and its super quick, can remove a heavy snowfall from my 80ft driveway in 15-20 minutes. I find pulling/angling snow is way more efficient than trying to push with the front end loader, snow blowing, whatever.

Boy do I ever hear you and agree.....  But most people do not have a compact tractor and wives are sort of balky at pulling a blade in the middle of a snow storm.   :D  Fourwheeler is a nice low cost option.  I and my wife kept the neighbors drives opened up a long with ours in the winter when we lived in the valley.  We got a couple gift cards and such for doing so.  We never asked for anything we just did it. 

The nice thing about a blower on a tractor or push / self drive machine is it tosses the material away.  I know DUHHH!  And shoving snow with a tractor and front end loader is not good at best because they are not made to shove with.  They were designed to fill the bucket and deposit it some where.  I have found in snow country the more you berm the more problems you have unless you can shove it far enough away from the road.  This is dictated by property lines and fences of course.

We were going to put a angled shover blade on our IH 1566 this winter as we need something large.  I have a set of chains for it.  It is no toy tractor at 140 hp 160 at the PTO.  It would shove a mountain of snow at an idle.  I really can not put on a blower because it only has 1000 rpm PTO and I can not find one that runs at 1000 rpm.  I have not found if I can reduce it down and how many $$$ to do so.  In the middle of this quandary I found a Cat D4 high track with good tracks and they only want $14,000.  It has a cab and is in pretty fair shape really.  Far from wore plumb out.....   But I am building a house ..... [waiting]  Most likely will go back to the angled shover blade on the 1566 and chain up.....  ;)     
Proverbs 24:3-5 Through wisdom is an house builded; an by understanding it is established.  4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.  5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

Redoverfarm

#12
This amount it can handle.



But not this



Rick I was going to get a rear blade for mine but I am not real keen on pusing in reverse and to me tracking and packing the snow in forward before plowing just seemed like extra work and generally didn't remove the snow where the tires packed it. 

So my alternative was this.  I have since altered the lift mechanism and last winter it worked great. Man I wish my tractor was set up for a "quick disconnect" but it's not and is a real pain to remove the bucket hence this alternative.   Sort of manuel on changing the blade to discharge from side to side but I seldom switch.  Very little alteration of the tractor bucket other than the blade mounts on the bucket.  What I really like is that once I have reached the maximum berm piles I can rotate the bucket to use conventional and push the piles further back.  The chains I seldom use and were bought for access to the cabin inthe winter months when the ice is present but since construction is basicly over I really don't need to get there anymore when the weather is bad.


new land owner



rick91351

OH No!!  John you can't use a fourwheeler in the much snow! ;) 

I love your application of the plow on the front end loader.  With a little work you can modify them to do most anything.  One of the most useful attachments you can own. 

The pusher blade we are planing for the 1566 is sort of like the type they use to shove and pack ensilage.  Around here they shove it up into huge piles at the dairies and feed lots and pack it tight and dense.   Those they use there are straight, we are planing an angled blade.           
Proverbs 24:3-5 Through wisdom is an house builded; an by understanding it is established.  4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.  5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

Redoverfarm

No Rick the 4 wheeler picture was from a different snow of about 10".  The piles it made about as far as my son could take them.  This was early in the season and with the subsequent snows I pushed it way back with the tractor.  Just for a laugh he did try and the key word was try to push the 38".  I told him there was no way and he concluded I was right.  d*  But with that much snow it wanted to roll over the blade of the tractor and he followed getting rid of the excess so I wouldn't have to make a another trip.  With the 7' blade generally one trip out and back and main part is done on a 12' driveway.