# First plow; Not impressed. Any suggestions??



## pav466 (Jan 27, 2014)

I purchased my first plow and tried it for the first time today. I have a Yamaha Grizzly 700 and added a Moose 60" straight blade plow yesterday. I plowed my driveway for the first time with high hopes, but I was not terribly impressed. We had about 4" of snow (not wet/heavy). My hope was that the plow would scrape down to the asphalt driveway, but it didn't clear the snow as well I thought that it would. When I was done, there was still a layer of snow across the whole thing, regardless of how many passes I made.

A few notes about my setup - the skid shoes were set high enough that they were not touching the ground at all. The trip springs were set half way and didn't trip at all (half way equals about 2" from the nut to the top of the threaded area).

After I was done today, I made a few changes and will try again tomorrow - 1) Removed skid shoes all together, 2) reduced tension on my springs so only 1.5" is showing above the nut.

After I made these changes, I put a bright flashlight behind the blade and noticed that light is still visible across most, not all of the blade, so I'm guessing that it will not make much of a difference. I plan on testing again with the next snowfall but hope someone can tell me what else to try. 

One other question for you... Is more or less tension better if I'm not tripping my blade? Basically, do I want "some" flexibility in the blade for it to angle down without tripping to get better contact with the ground? Any other suggestions?? My goal is to have the plow scrape any/all snow & ice from my paved driveway.


----------



## Antlerart06 (Feb 28, 2011)

Sound like you edge hasn't worn evenly If you seeing light across the edge Take down the street few blocks on the ground and back Once you wear down should scape better

If its tripping to easy it wont clean well If you only doing your drive you could put a rubber edge on it


----------



## pav466 (Jan 27, 2014)

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try to wear it down evenly and see if that helps. It's a brand new blade that I purchased from the dealer, but guess that there is a chance that it's not even.


----------



## whitegoldrider (Jan 24, 2014)

Have the same issue every time I reverse my wear bar. Go up and down my paved street with the plow lowered a few times always does the trick. Sounds like you just need to break-in your new setup. 


Good move removing the shoes. I only use those on gravel drives or frozen grass.


----------



## Antlerart06 (Feb 28, 2011)

pav466;1737162 said:


> Thanks for the suggestion. I will try to wear it down evenly and see if that helps. It's a brand new blade that I purchased from the dealer, but guess that there is a chance that it's not even.


every new edge you have to wear even before it cleans well

One thing you want make sure if the pitch of the plow is where should be If the plow is pitch to far forward or to far back it wont clean well

My old pow there is adjustment for the pitch not sure about your new plow

I run a 3/8 thick edge but I do a lot walks with it The 3/8'' edge give more weight that gives me more down pressure

If you doing a rough drive your plow might be skipping since its a lite plow I don't know


----------



## whitegoldrider (Jan 24, 2014)

You can also stack the wear bars. I've got three of them on my blade now. I just had to switch out the 3/4" bolts with 1.5" bolts. Each bar weighs at least 10lbs so 20 additional lbs of downforce for a couple wear bars that have been worn out and was just going to be thrown in the scrap metal pile.


----------



## jasonv (Nov 2, 2012)

hahahaha, lol. This thread is hilarious.
The plow will never match perfectly against all points on the driveway. The driveway is far far far less "smooth" than glass. It is the unevenness of the driveway that causes the plow not to sit in perfect contact. This has nothing to do with "wear" -- bad advice, BTW: Driving it down the road to wear the edge... that won't make it any better, and could get you an interesting run-in with the police, because it is definitely illegal. All doing that would do, is force you to REPLACE the edge sooner.

You have two problems;
1) unreasonable expectations -- your objective is to get *most* of the snow off. Not all. NO PLOW WILL EVER TAKE ALL THE SNOW OFF!!!! Ever watch a city plow clear a street? It will *never* get it all. EVER.
2) Weight. The heavier your plow is, the harder it will scrape. Try adding some dead weight to the blade.


----------



## BlueRam2500 (Jan 15, 2005)

I leave two salt bins on my front tack and sit closer to the back of the seat on the quad to try to add more weight. The plow will never clean the driveway perfect, and as Jason said, have you ever seen a city plow have the street completely clear? No. Quads are awesome to plow with, you just have to use it a few times to get used to it.


----------



## oldbluehairhemi (Oct 22, 2011)

what are you lifting the plow with? I used my brand new quad and plow yesterday. The time I was on it the better I got.


----------



## gasjr4wd (Feb 14, 2010)

jasonv;1757292 said:


> hahahaha, lol. This thread is hilarious.
> The plow will never match perfectly against all points on the driveway. The driveway is far far far less "smooth" than glass. It is the unevenness of the driveway that causes the plow not to sit in perfect contact. This has nothing to do with "wear" -- bad advice, BTW: Driving it down the road to wear the edge... that won't make it any better, and could get you an interesting run-in with the police, because it is definitely illegal. All doing that would do, is force you to REPLACE the edge sooner.
> 
> You have two problems;
> ...


Listen to this guy. He knows what he is talking about.
If your drive has a lot of high spots and low spots the plow will only hit the high parts. I've seen guys use rubber edges to get a more squeegee affect. Seemed to work well.
To do the highs and lows you would need a sectional blade.
I used to have one long drive client with two ruts worn in the black top from tires over the years of use. They couldn't get it in their head around the plow is a straight edge and the drive isn't flat. Getting a new drive done... they were not going to do. And they didn't even want to hear the word salt.


----------

