# ATV plow modification



## Greenscape4u.co (Sep 20, 2003)

I currently use my Walker tractors for snow removal and am considering purchasing an ATV to help with the walks. A friend of mine uses an ATV with plow but the constant up and down on the winch has been hard on it and he has gone through a couple of them since he's been doing this. 

Question , could the electric/hydraulic power pack from the Walker lift hitch be modified to fit the plow haeness of the ATV ?


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## EZSnow (Aug 13, 2003)

try this guy on:whirlwind industries 
The hitches are REALLY stout. They have to be to support the three-point attachments. I have talked to him a couple times. He's supposed to have a three-point mounted plow out pretty soon. Looks pretty sweet, and I imagine that his plow will have alot more lift that a normal ATV plow. It has its own hydraulic system so it doesn't beat up the winch... or your arm. It looks like some of the other attachments or other plow blades might be adapted to work on the three-point.


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## Progrounds (Jun 18, 2003)

We use two Honda ATV's for walks and will probably be getting another two this winter. We are not using the hydraulic winch, just the operators left arm. No complaints from my operators about it. The extra bonus is, they want to keep the plow down as much as possible, so tend to be pretty productive.


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## griffithtlc (Jul 24, 2003)

We use a Sportsman 500 with a factory 5 foot plow. We just use the lift arm, as it is faster than the winch. Ours locks up and down, so it has no strain on your arm. Besure to get some coil spacers though. We needed 2 on each side.


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## hyperpack (Oct 24, 2002)

*Hydraulic power*

My brother has a Polaris 700 with a 5 foot county plow that I mounted an outboard motor hydraulic trim unit on.
It works great and is faster than the winch, It seems to draw less power.
Hyperpack


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## EZSnow (Aug 13, 2003)

Griffith- do you have the new style atv plow with the push tubes extended back to the trailer hitch? Or is it the mid-mount type? I'm looking at the extended type and was wondering how it works.


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## griffithtlc (Jul 24, 2003)

EZsnow-we opted for the mid-mount, it was cheaper. Polaris calls it the universal mount. the one that you are talking about I belive is only for the Sportsman Series. The midmount works great, it only takes seconds to hook up and go. The plow has been great. The only advantage I can see with the hitch mount is that when you take it off, you have your factory ground clearance again. We lost maybe 1.5 inches in the center, but we take the plate off in the summer. 
Greenscape-I don't know about running hydraulics or electric lift-It is faster to use the arm handle. I would also think that it would burn your battery up faster. Our 4 wheeler has 4500 miles on it, and maybe 100 are trail. the rest is all work. We have toasted our battery 4 times now, due to winching. The winch is still fine, though. Our setup has proven bulletproof. We have the straight blade, but a county blade would be even cooler. If you want to be the envy of your neighborhood, get the Polaris V-plow . If you don't know about what kind of ATV, I would get a Polaris Sportsman 500HO, 600 or 700. As far as reliability goes, I have always been able to get home after a long mudding session, or pull with it. 
Little more info than requested, but I get excited about 4 Wheelers


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## Greenscape4u.co (Sep 20, 2003)

thanks for the reply griffith, coming from Buffalo you know about snow removal and what works ! "GO BILLS" should of kept Flutie though ! LOL. I was checking out Yammah's Grizzly 660 I belive with the full windshield , Polaris is one I haven't looked at yet but I will now , they have a v blade eh ? I bet that gets pretty costly. Do you have a driver for it or do you run it yourself ? Is it hard to train people , my concern is that I won't be using it myself and a new driver could do damage but that's the chance we all take. 

I love the idea of being able to have a "toy" that also makes you money ! looking forward to riding it up north on our fishing trips !

thanks again


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## SnoJob67 (Sep 3, 2001)

The Grizzly is a bad boy. However, I have the Kodiak and it does a great job as well. I was told not to get a belt drive (auto trans), blah, blah, blah... Despite the fact it is a belt drive machine, it has been invaluable from the start!

I bought a polyurethane cutting edge for the plow and it was worth every penny. You may want to consider putting a poly blade on because you have less worries of [your employee(s)] tearing up turf along the walks. The poly rides right over the grass edge without tearing it up. Try that one with the steel cutting edge. 

I've always been a bit of a Honda man, but the Kodiak made me a believer. The ability to switch between 2 and 4 wheel drive on the fly is a nice option. When you want to swing the tail end around, a little extra throttle in two wheel drive as you turn will get the machine to turn like nobody's business. (Time is money!)

Really, the Rancher ES and the Kodiak were my top choices. The Kodiak stood head and shoulders above the rest...at least for my needs. If you have the want/need for the extra power of the Grizzly, I say go for it, but the Kodiak would provide you with everything you need and more if you don't have the extra money to burn.

I hear mixed reviews on the Polaris machines, but that could be like the Ford vs. Chevy debates for all I know. I rode the Kawasaki Prairie and was unimpressed. I knew from the minute I got on the Kodiak that it was the machine for me.

I went with the Warn Plow with manual lift. It is easy to lift by hand and dependability is not an issue as it is with the winches. Also, the winches are much slower than raising the plow by hand.

Another nice thing about the ATV is that you can achieve hourly rates of $100 per hour and nobody blinks an eye when the walks are priced per push.

Theoretical Example: You may charge a retail store $50 to (plow only) their storefront walkway. By the time you plow and move on to your next account, a half hour may have passed. If you have 8 such sites, you have a route of 4 hours of walkway plowing at $100/hour and we have not yet figured salting into the equation!

I spent a tremendous amount of time comparing machines and plows (I'm a bit anal retentive, I know....) and feel that my time was well spent because I got the ideal setup for our company. There are lots of nice machines out there. Good luck with your choice.


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## Greenscape4u.co (Sep 20, 2003)

speaking of salting after you push , have you guys tried a salter for these ATVS ? makes sence to salt as you go rather than having two guys on your walk crew waste time loading buckets and going for a stroll !


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## micah79 (Aug 31, 2003)

Yes. I have a 2" receiver mount spreader on my atv. That way I can transfer it to the truck, if my truck spreader breaks down.


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## EZSnow (Aug 13, 2003)

greescape, time for a little south-of-the-border geography lesson... GO VIKES, GOPHERS, TWINS, TIMBERPUPPIES AND WILD!! (but not the bills)

Micah- can you post some atv spreader pics? How much do you have to lay out for the setup? Where'd you get it? I'm going to take a look at the warn plow setup. Cabela's carries it and it seems cheaper than most others.


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## Greenscape4u.co (Sep 20, 2003)

I agree EZ , be nice to see some of these 4 - wheelers in action , also agree on the WILD too  better bet is on the LEAFS though !! lol 

thanks for all the feed back on the ATV ?'s its been a big help , one more question , does any of the ATV dealers make a snowblower for their machines if so , are they any better than the blades and roughly how much are they worth ?


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## micah79 (Aug 31, 2003)

http://www.j-thomas.com/Catalog2003/page256.html

The professional suv with variable control would be a sweet setup. It would go nice on the quad with this:
http://www.hunterworks.com/inc/pdetail?v=1&pid=110

and provide a backup for the truck. Heck you could use it for both if you dont have a lot of accounts.

I'll post pics on here soon. I love my atv. I wish it were street legal. lol


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## micah79 (Aug 31, 2003)

I have never seen a blower. The lawn tractor blowers run off of the blade belt pulley, so they wouldn't work. It is a good idea, but I have never heard of one.


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## micah79 (Aug 31, 2003)

Ez snow. I just checked out that whirlwind hitch
http://www.whirlwindind.com/New_3point.htm

interseting to say the least.

You could just pop that in the receiver I was talking about and do all sorts of stuff. I am curious on pricing though.


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## James_Jimmy (Sep 19, 2003)

> _Originally posted by micah79 _
> *I have never seen a blower. The lawn tractor blowers run off of the blade belt pulley, so they wouldn't work. It is a good idea, but I have never heard of one. *


I've heard of a blower by one of the ATV equipment companies, though I don't think I've ever actually seen one, but as micah says, powering it on an ATV is the problem. I think it used like a 10hp engine to power the blower. Obviously, that's not an ideal setup. You'd probably be better off with a good sized self-propelled walk-behind blower. Of course, I've never used one, so that's just my opinion. For all I know, maybe those blowers work great. I do know, however, that ATVs can kick butt with a blade...


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## ratlover (May 5, 2003)

On long walks after we got done plowing/shoveling sometimes a guy would hop on the back and sling stuff out but most of the time I have found its better to just run around by hand. On spreaders and this is JMO by hand will waste less material and get it were it needs to go and not were you dont want it. I have never used a spreader, I think for _most_ instances it is conterproductive. JMO

Quite a few instances I have also found that a motivated muscle can move snow faster than a ATV. Problem is sometimes depending on the crew people rather get on the ATV than sweat. Sometimes paying by the hour for a side walk crew aint the best way to efficency also. Some people work much better when you link productivity to pay  . Different people are motivated by differnt things but most respond to payup

Like everything else good help is hard to find and hard to keep!

JMO for what its worth


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## micah79 (Aug 31, 2003)

If you used a spreader I think you would find it way more productive than by hand. And as far as the ablilty to do work, I bet my atv can do more work than 5 guys in one night. IMO


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## EZSnow (Aug 13, 2003)

IMO, there is no substitute for this receiver on a polaris with independent rear!! http://www.whirlwindindustries.com/Polaris Receiver Hitch.htm 

I've, see that blower, too. I belive it was on this site somewhere, but maybe not. Anyway, it was on a Sportsman, and it had it's own 8 horse or something on the back. It looked like the motor in the back counterweighted the blower in the front so the lift wasn't as heavy. It looked slick, but I can't imagine it to be as quick as a straight blade in *most* situations. It was marketed by polaris.

one other ?? how do you transport? I can't imagine going in and out of the truck, but even most trailer ramps (including my deck-over) have way too steep of an approach angle for a plow... I think. How's that work?


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## Greenscape4u.co (Sep 20, 2003)

I have a bi-folding ramp on one truck with 2' side walls attached along the side rail of the box for extra storage. We use this set up for the Walker and its plow and I had a custom shelf built behind the cab for carrying our other two Toros ,works slick. You're right EZ, our other Walker with the blower attachment won't ride the same slope gets caught up. We have to transport the blower unit around in our cargo trailor, total pain ! .  Thought of using a cargo truck for our walks crew , " if I had a million dollars ..... "


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## micah79 (Aug 31, 2003)

There is a 2" receiver mountedd rack that carries it. I'm going to lok into one. If not a trailer works too. You can also make some longer ramps that will work, but they will hang out of the bed.


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## ratlover (May 5, 2003)

> _Originally posted by micah79 _
> *If you used a spreader I think you would find it way more productive than by hand. And as far as the ablilty to do work, I bet my atv can do more work than 5 guys in one night. IMO *


I agree for some situations. All depends on what you are doing was my point though. In my expereince many walks get done faster by hand. Not all, there are also alot of times when having a ATV saves *alot* of time. It aslo varys by type/amount of snow. Its all about being flexable.

I also think the situations were a spreader would be more efficent than hand is there but not for a majority of the walks I have done.

Its pretty easy to figure out what ones and conditions are quicker by hand or by ATV.

There is never 1 process that is the most effiecent for every situation. Its all about flexability and using the right tool for the job. Sometimes people rather use the ATV because it is alot more fun/easier or they think that a machine is faster than a shovel even if the shovel would get it done quicker. That was the point of my post.

BTW I used an enclosed trailer and had all my salt in there too. Made life very nice but a regular trailer would do I think. In the back of a truck would be a PITA and a bit more dangerous IMO. But pulling a trailer in a blizzard can be a PITA too


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## justjason (Jan 9, 2014)

Greenscape4u.co;101111 said:


> I agree EZ , be nice to see some of these 4 - wheelers in action , also agree on the WILD too  better bet is on the LEAFS though !! lol
> 
> thanks for all the feed back on the ATV ?'s its been a big help , one more question , does any of the ATV dealers make a snowblower for their machines if so , are they any better than the blades and roughly how much are they worth ?


I have no experience with this, but it answers your question:

http://atvsnowblowers.com/





 quadivator ST50


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