# Winch or manual lift????



## skidmark845

I will be getting a plow for my 4 runner. Should I just go with the manul lift for the blade or get a winch? The dealer told me that the manual lift is not heavy to lift and faster then the winch. Also the winch is pricey. 

For the set up of 48" cycle counrty it's coming out to $613, is that an ok deal???

Thanks


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## Smitty58

I had a 48" CC plow on my quad a couple of years ago with the manual lift. I did not like the lift. It isn't heavy to lift just a pain. If you are mainly doing driveways you wil raising and lowering the blade a lot. The manual lift gets old real fast ,but it does work if it's all you afford. Maybe go with that set up until you can add the winch. I bought mine new off of ebay for something like $429 but that was about 3 yrs ago. Also installing it by myself was not fun either ,so try to line up some help to install it.
Good luck hope you get to use it a bunch this winter.


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## ddierking

I got a WARN plow, plow tubes and mounting brackets for $345 shipped (going on my 2002 Suzuki Eiger). As far as a plow, you can get a Viper winch very reasonable. You can get a viper 3000 classic with synthetic cable for $119 plus shipping. Let me know if you want more info. I'm not a dealer or anything, I just spend a lot of time and found the deals.


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## deere615

SOunds a bit pricey, but I brought my 48 CC used for like $150, still had to by the mounting kit though. It came with the manual lift but it never seemed to want to keep the plow up. so I got the winch, which is much easy and its not that much slower.


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## skidmark845

*send info*

ddierking,yes send me some info if you have it...you can send privagte message...thanks


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## ddierking

skidmark845,

Can't find a PM option, so I'll just share the info here. I bought my 54" WARN plow with the tubes and mounting plate from http://www.sportztrailers.com
You can check out their website, but I called them because they don't have everything on the website. They do a lot of business on ebay as well. For the viper winch, go to http://motoalliance.com 
The viper winches have excellent customer support. Peter is always eager to help.

I think you will be very happy with this setup.

Good luck.


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## sublime68charge

Are you going to be pushing snow across Grass at all?

if your doing that the Winch is the way to Go as you can pick the blade up 2" and still push the Pile of snow back across the yard with out Digging up the yard. with the blade at least.

Manual Lift is Up or Down, 
with a Winch you can set the blade height to what you want and Go.

if ya can afford it A winch is the way to go. 

but it depend's on the area your plowing .

My Dad has done his 30'x 20' drive for years with a manual lift on a 48" cycle country blade, when compared to shovel by hand its great.

I had a winch on my 60" Moose from the get go and used that for 6 years till last year I went with my Power Up/Down pressure system.

like I said it all depends on how much snow are your moving over what type of area, Grass/Gravel/Cement?

I due Drive way's and paths out into the grass and push the Snow over the Grass at the start of the year so I have room at the end of the year to pile the snow.

sublime out


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## skidmark845

hi sublime, yes I will be plowing over grass. I was wondering if I could plow with the blade up a few inches with the manual lift compared to the winch. I think I will be going with the electgric lift by cycle county.

Thanks for the info.
Mark


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## sublime68charge

on a Manual lift you can't hold the blade up little bit and Plow snow, Once you get any type of Weight/snow on the blade it just goes down the the ground, Have been there and tried that.

With the Electric lift you should be able to raise the Blade and Plow Snow with the Blade up.

Dont Have the blade raised all the way up and try and plow or bust through a big drift cause if you don't make it and spin out your really stuck.

also if you have 6" of lift plow with the Blade at 4" that way if you spin out you can lift the blade up the last 2" and back away from where you stopped. if your already all the way up chance's are your not backing up.


for what its' worth
sublime out


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## ATVGUY

*How to lift?*

Using a winch for plowing will work and it really does not matter what type other than you may want to get one with an "anti-back" feature. What this is the winch is locked so it can't be spooled out. Winches like Warn do not lock up since they don't want you to use it to pull something solid (using it like a tow strap). If you pull on hard enough it will come out, they do this to protect the winch gears.

In the case of plowing it will "creep" down and you will need to keep winching in line. No big deal just be aware of it. Also the rope is better for plowing since you are using the cable at a "bent" angle.

One note about using a winch for plowing. An ATV system is set up at 30 amps max. A winch is way beyond 30 amps so if you are plowing a lot the charging system can't keep up with the draw and it will kill the battery. Also in cases like a Honda electric shift it will get so low you can't shift the ATV. You may want to look into an electric lift like one from Cycle Country.

One true advantage to a winch is you can use the new down force kit from cycle country. it is a retro kit that will put 150 llbs of down force onto the blade so you can scrape right down to the concrete.

But with a manual lift there are none of battery issues. You can use one with little effort to lift and in most cases you will get done faster than with a winch if you have to lift the blade a lot.

At the end of the day it is a personal choice and how much you are going to use the ATV to plow. All types of lifts will work so just pick a company you can trust and purchase a system

PS" have fun plowing too!!!!


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## pby98

i bought a john deere plow and mounting bracket for 50 bucks and converted it to fit my atv. all said and done i spent about 75 bucks total on the plow, bolts and grinding disks


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## Sidewalk King

ATVGUY,
Have you ever tried the downpressure kit from CC that you recommended? 
I have a hard time believing that a "shock" normally used to hold up the window on truck caps would last through even one snow fall. You almost always see those things being replaced by truck owners with a stick because no one wants to spend the money to replace it. 
If someone is planning to use a winch they would be better off just throwing a couple salt bags on the blade for weight and save the $100.00 to use on buying an acessory battery and extra winch cables/ropes.


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## apik1

Sidewalk King;630187 said:


> ATVGUY,
> Have you ever tried the downpressure kit from CC that you recommended?
> I have a hard time believing that a "shock" normally used to hold up the window on truck caps would last through even one snow fall. You almost always see those things being replaced by truck owners with a stick because no one wants to spend the money to replace it.
> If someone is planning to use a winch they would be better off just throwing a couple salt bags on the blade for weight and save the $100.00 to use on buying an acessory battery and extra winch cables/ropes.


The shock is way stronger than a hatch shock, and it works way better than you salt bags I tried that.


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## IPLOWSNO

have you ever gotten a wheeler stuck? a winch is the first thing you put on a quad that big. what will the electric lift do for you other than lift a blade? i use mine and i have never had a battery issue but its also a honda. so its immune from mechanical issues lol.


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## Sidewalk King

IPLOWSNO,
I never said that a winch was a bad idea to install on a quad especially if doing alot of mudding and if you were to re-read my post you would notice I only questioned the durability of the shock. Also, I never mentioned an electric lift in this topic so I'm not quite sure how to respond unless you would like to discuss winch vs electric lift for plowing as a new topic rather than winch vs manual lift which was the original issue.


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## IPLOWSNO

im sorry i was replying to atv guy on the latter half. im a better plower than a typer lol


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## ATVGUY

*Yes*

Just used the down force kit this weekend. We got about two inches of snow and it worked great. It puts about 150 lbs down on the blade. The dealership did say it will last about two years and then the cylinder will need to be replaced for about $30.

I did see it is on you tube:


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## EaTmYtAiLpIpEs

no doubt electric winch


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## Sidewalk King

That’s cool their shock system worked well for you but I'm still skeptical to it lasting all winter. I don’t know how the dealer could honestly tell you it would last two year since the press release for it was dated Feb 08 and we're only in Nov 08. I'm sure he figured that if he told you he didn’t know how it would work or how long it would last he might not make the sale, so score one for the parts guy. However, if you have to use some sort of winch to plow and also own a Cycle Country blade this is probably the only practical option you have. I suppose that even if you had to buy a couple new shocks a year for $30.00 each at least you have a form of down pressure.


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## mercer_me

Use your winch it's much faster and eisier. I have a Worn 2500lb winch and it works great.


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## Sidewalk King

HERE,
I originally wrote this under the winch topic but it is definitely relatable for people (especially new guys) who are going to do a lot of plowing and don't want to break down in the middle of a project.

Trying to figure out the best winch to use for plowing is like comparing the best bald tires to use for going off-road. If a winch is all you got, all you can afford or all you want, that's fine but don't act like a winch is the best option for plowing just because before last year it was the only option.

There is a reason none of the winch manufacturers actually advertise that theirs is the best for this situation, it's because then they would have to warranty them when they wear out in under a year. Believe it or not winches are not designed to be used a few hundred times per snow fall, rather to be used under heavy load a couple times a year. I've seen the aluminum drum on two separate winches worn completely through from the cable constantly being wrapped and unwrapped from it when the cable was cut so that is was only long enough for plowing. The cables were originally cut to keep from creating a birds nest in the drum from too much cable but ultimately costed more in damages in the long run. The ropes that are sold have problems of their own as they can melt themselves together on the winch from all the fiction created from going up and down. Don't get me wrong, the thought of a winch doing double duty is a great thought but it will eventually fail which is obvious by looking at all the other threads here.

There are only two products that provide a fail safe plow operation.

1) The original and cheapest way is the manual hand lift
2) The new electric cylinder down pressure system from Mibar Products. www.mibarproducts.com

The manual hand lift is a pain if you have to constantly lift the blade and cuz the handle can get in the way but I've never heard of someone breaking one. The Power-Lift is what I purchased last year for my Moose plow because I refused to use the little plow winch I had any longer. I didn't have any problems through our record snow fall last year which is impressive since I do alot of commercial plowing (over 150 miles of sidewalks last year). They have bolt on kits for virtually any plow from the Cycle Country blade to the piece of junk Warn has sent over from China.


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## RLTimbs

Even though I'm sure it's worth $500.. thats to much for me to worry about right now.

If I had the money I'd buy it in a heart beat though.

Pretty nice.


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