# What Moose Plow



## Nightmare

Hey guys - I'm not in the plowing industry, but it sure seems like this site is the place to go to ask questions to the experts. I'm in the market for a plow for my "new to me" ATV - 2006 Polaris Sportsman EFI HO 500 equipped w/a 3,000 lb Warn winch. I've read up about the Warn, Glacier, Cycle Country and Moose. In general I hear good reviews on all of these plows, most guys like what they have and consider their plow the best on the market. I've consulted 2 local powersports guys and one has recommended Cycle Country because they have less parts on the plow. His logic is less parts = less points of failure. He recommended Cycle Country over Moose because Moose "has too many extra parts that can and have failed" in his experience. The guy I spoke with today recommended Moose over anything based on their heavier gauge metal, its durability and the fact that he has sold dozens of them with no complaints. 

My plow needs are really minimal compared to some of you guys - I'm buying the plow to plow my driveway in Central IL 4 or 5 times a year and maybe 3 or 4 additional neighbor's drives. We live in a rural subdivision and all drives are about 5 to 6 car lengths long and 2 car lengths wide. Anyway, I've cleared the first hurdle - I've decided on a 55" Moose plow despite what one of the locals told me about Moose having too many parts. Now the big question - what does everyone think about their new rapid mount (front mount) plow system? I'm trying to determine if this is the way to go vs. their traditional bottom mount / push tube set up. Pricing is literally the same at this dealer for both systems and I was leaning towards the front mount due to better clearance of the blade off the ground, but I'd like to hear from you guys that have had experience with one or the other or both. Is either solution more durable / less hard on my ATV? Any problems with clearance on the mount plate on the bottom mount systems? Both seem to be very easy to hook the blade up to, the front mount might have a small edge here but that's not a deal maker for me. I just worry that the front mount might not be as sturdy and could also do more damage to the ATV's front end (including radiator) if for some reason I hit something while plowing. I do have a front brush guard, so I'm assuming during the winter months I'm going to have to remove that until I take off the mount during spring - fall.

Thanks and let me know your thoughts. Sorry this is so long, just wanting to give you all my information and logic I'm using.


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## Dave T

Personally, I don't like the Moose Rapid mount system. Made in China, and pretty flimsy. I had the same mount (Glacier II) on my PoPo, and bent the mount and the front frame where it was attached and almost put a bolt through the radiator (exactly what you are worried about). However, if your not going to be plowing anything nasty, it may hold up. They do offer easy on/off of the plow, and allow much more ground clearance than a bottom mount. 

I like my Eagle bottom mount system and plow. Made in America, and built pretty darn well. 

Good luck with you decision.


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## sublime68charge

my thoughts are the bottom mount will take more punishment. 
but then you have to lie on the ground to put the plow on/off.

is your thinking you put the plow on for winter and leave it on? 
due you store your ATV where putting the plow on/off is easy to due? 

or are you thinking it snowed enough to plow you'll put the plow on and plow snow for a few hours and then take the plow off and ride around on the ATV for the next few weeks and then put the Plow on again when you need it again?

I don't have any first hand knowledge of the RM3 system only what I've read on the web.

I would think if your only plowing 4-5 times and you'll be using the ATV for other things then the RM3 would be great. If your ATV will only due Snow removal for Winter get the Belley mount. 

just my thoughts. 

Sublime out.


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## Mnflyboy

I have the Rm3 on my 2009 Rhino with a 6' blade on it and love it. Sublime's got it spelled out for you....me, I take mine off cuz I cruz the lakes and river with the guys during the winter and my blade is off in 30 seconds or less. Eagle makes a quick attach plow mount now and Moose has released the Rm4 mount. I would stay away from the bottom mounts simply for attach/detaching and lifting height of the blade is much less. Just my 2 cents. Link to previous thread with my plow pics....post #6

Jaye(Mn) aka Mnflyboy

http://www.plowsite.com/showthread.php?t=93244


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## Nightmare

Thanks guys for the responses. I'm definitely going to putting the blade on and taking it off as needed during the winter. Between snows, or even when it's snowing, I'm going to be cruising around w/out a blade. I know the rapid mount takes 30 seconds or so to install, but I don't think putting the blade on w/a belly mount is that much more labor intensive. Of course when your fingers are freezing and it's -10 I might think otherwise...


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## Nightmare

Mnflyboy - any problems with that RM3 mounting framework getting in the way when you're cruising around w/out the blade on? Do you remove that mount hardware during the warm months or just leave it on there year-round? That's a nice looking setup you have. 

Man - I don't know why I obsess over these decisions so much...


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## hoopdogusa

I have the RM3 on my outlander 800 and the mounting point the plow engages broke during our 1st blizzard last season. Thankfully i work in a machine shop and had our welder go over and beef it up and reweld. It held up then fine for our 2nd blizzard and other snowfalls. The speed of hooking up is awesome and i take my bracket that mounts on quad off in summer. I just figure the way we ride it will get bent up or will get me hung up in the ruts.


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## yamahatim

Stay away from the RM 3 Moose system, or anything similar. They have a design flaw that causes the plow to come off the ground when in the angled position. I work at a Yamaha dealer and I have been fighting with Moose on this for over a year. Moose is coming out with the RM4 next spring, but it is available for the Side by Sides now. I have one ordered, but of course it's on backorder, but I will fill you in when we install it. PM me if you have any questions. I am putting on a Warn tomorrow and will post feedback on that one.

If you want a conventional pushtube plow, a very well designed and well built plow is the KFI plow.


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## Mnflyboy

Nitemare,
I leave the plow mount on year around.....wayyyy too hard to take off and put back on because it is tied in with the winch mount bracket....besides, I dont ride much in the summer because of dust in the cab,etc. (I'm not a kid anymore  ) I pushed alot of snow last winter and my Rm3 took it all....I think it's all in how ruff you are on your ****. Anyways, I will tell you to look at the Eagle brand as I think that would be a close second or even comparable to the Moose quick mount. In the end, I just love hooking and unhooking in 30 seconds!!

Jaye


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## Nightmare

Ended up going with the bottom mount Moose system w/the push tubes and a 55" blade. Seems pretty stout and I got it for $400 out the door. I didn't think that was a bad deal. Having the front mount 30 second connect wasn't worth spending another $100 to $150 bucks to me. With the money I saved I can buy some more parts for my new toy!


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## sublime68charge

the belley mount works fine biggest draw back is the lying on the ground to hook it up and un hook.

I have a old broken Axe handle that I use to pry lift the Plow tubes up and hook in the connection pin then I'll hook up the winch raise the blade 2-3" lay down with my feet towards the blade on the unhooked side then I can use my feet to swing blade to help line up the other connection and pry up with the for-mentioned Axe handle. 

nothing to it. provide the floor is somewhat clean.

sublime out.


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## Nightmare

Thanks Sublime. Was pretty easy lining it up the other day, but then again it was 65 degrees in my garage. haha. I won't be so lucky when I really need to do it in a hurry! Oh well... Now I'm on to my next thing which is swapping out the cable on the winch with a hand winch strap. Tried to do that last weekend, but had some difficulties trying to remove the cable from the spool. Not really much information about replacing the cable in Warn manual, but I'm sure I can find something online about it. Thanks for the hints about that axe handle, I might have to try something like that myself.


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## deerjw

Nightmare, I'm looking at purchasing a plow system and have been reading a lot of different forums to educate myself on which one is best when I ran across the discussion you started. I'm thinking about going with the same Moose set up that you went with and was wondering if you have plowed any snow with yours yet and if so are you satisfied. Thanks.


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## KL&M Snow Div.

I just got a Moose 55" blade, got the mount on the other night and the winch and winch mount. But I can't put the blade together yet because my dealer sent me push tubes for a Cycle Country :hammerhead: I hope to have the right tubes by the end of the week though. My plowing situation has been an ordeal this season. But anyways, let me know how you like it. Also, could I get some pics of your mount for the moose, and the back of the blade where everything hooks up. Thanks


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## Nightmare

Hey DeerJW - I've got a few snowfalls under my belt with it and couldn't be happier. I'm a big fan of swapping out the winch cable with a tow strap. I've heard the cable can get buggered up, kinked or otherwise frayed pretty good with all the lifting and dropping that's associated with the plow. Got a $15 20' tow strap at the local harbor freight, cut it in half and wound 10' up and it's working great. Plow works great and I've been able to fit the whole thing in my garage without having to take the blade on and off every time I want to use it. I pull my boy on his sled with a towstrap and the blade has plenty of clearance when I'm driving the Polaris around the neighborhood or in the back pasture. 

I've got to play around a little with my washers that allow the plow to either set flush with what I'm plowing or to be raised 1/8", 1/4" etc. I've got it only one washer off the ground now and it's working great except for that bottom layer of snow on my driveway. I'm a bit afraid to get it completely flush as I don't want to harm my blacktop driveway. Not sure if anyone worries about that or not, but I sure do. Especially when I'm helping my other neighbors out. I don't want to plow their drives only to find out I've hurt their driveways. I kept my little single-stage snow blower to do the "detail work" so I've got the best of both worlds. That thing used to be ineffective against large drifts, but now I just plow for 20 minutes or so and do a quick 10 minute snow blow to get the little stuff.


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## sublime68charge

nightmare,

in this thread skywagon post's a link to a Poly blade edge which would be alot smoother on you asphalt drive for plowing.

http://www.plowsite.com/showthread.php?t=78022

sublime out


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## jim331656

I was really worried about driveway damage too... But after talking to some people on this and other forums the general consensus was if you were plowing asphalt to pull the skids off all together and scrape the blacktop. I did this with my moose plow with the steel wear bar and was fine on the 3 drive ways that I did. I am looking into getting a poly edge for it but for now the steel worked fine. I do however have 1 year old blacktop that has no cracks and is perfectly flat.


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## irv

im on my 6th season with the non provantage center mt plow. i have
all the stuff for a front mt but hate the thought of beating up the frt
end. i dont beat the crap out of my stuff though. as far as im concerned 
the blade lifts plenty high to push snow. we are not pickup trucks.
--irv

looks like we will have 6-89 inches out of this snow. wet stuff


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## RugerRedhawk

Nightmare;1116198 said:


> Thanks guys for the responses. I'm definitely going to putting the blade on and taking it off as needed during the winter. Between snows, or even when it's snowing, I'm going to be cruising around w/out a blade. I know the rapid mount takes 30 seconds or so to install, but I don't think putting the blade on w/a belly mount is that much more labor intensive. Of course when your fingers are freezing and it's -10 I might think otherwise...


It only takes a couple minutes in worst possible conditions to unmount from the bottom.


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## BlueRam2500

sublime68charge;1125869 said:


> the belley mount works fine biggest draw back is the lying on the ground to hook it up and un hook.
> 
> I have a old broken Axe handle that I use to pry lift the Plow tubes up and hook in the connection pin then I'll hook up the winch raise the blade 2-3" lay down with my feet towards the blade on the unhooked side then I can use my feet to swing blade to help line up the other connection and pry up with the for-mentioned Axe handle.
> 
> nothing to it. provide the floor is somewhat clean.
> 
> sublime out.


I do the same exact thing to mount my Cycle Country on my Foreman. I put my plow on and leave it on until spring. I have the belly mount and have hit it pretty hard on railroad tracks and stuff and the only thing that bent was one of the bolt ends.


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## deerjw

Nightmare, I like your idea of using the tow strap instead of the cable. Did you completely remove your cable or attach the tow strap to the cable in some manner? I got to try my plow last week on a couple of inches and it worked well. Suppose to get a bigger snow this week and I'm anxious to see how it does. My driveway is concrete and I have the same concern about the blade setting right on the concrete. I'm afraid I'll catch my expansion joints and damage the concrete or plow.


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