ATV Snow Plow Info

[Doc]

NOTE: These posts were copied from a RTV owners thread talking about snow plows. I was considering one for the RTV but ended up buying one for the ATV as I could afford it now.

Doc - Don't you have an ATV? Unless it's really heavy and I need the tractor, the ATV does a nice, quick job. Plows are cheap too.

Yeah, I have a 4x4 ATV. Honda ES 450. I got it as electric shift so the wife could drive it easier ...but shifting from forward to reverse you have a button pushed and a brake on before it will shift. Kind of a pain. Don't think all ATV's are like that. But you are right BC, I should look at all options before deciding. Like Spuds said, I will like looking forward no matter which one I go with.

If any of you have ATV plows please chime in with costs and how you have yours set up to work. With no hydraulics I'm thinking most work off of a winch to lift the blade. I even have an old 42" blade off a bolens tractor that might fit the bill for an ATV mount.

 

[SpudHauler]

Doc,
I had a 2000 Honda TRX450 electric shift with a Moose plow that was a ton of fun.

Made a small plastic insert to lock out the reversing button so shifting from forward to reverse was easier.

Still have the plastic insert and can tell you how to make one.

Warning:
Shifting from forward to reverse in either direction while moving will destroy something when using my lock out device.
Vehicle must be stopped, not moving, tires not rotating, you get the picture.
No problems in 6 years of plowing.
Sweet!


Oh and that Bolens plow, could very easily be fitted like the moose plow here.

 

[BaiJiu]

Doc over the years I've had many ATVs with plows, in fact I still have a Polaris 550 with a 5' plow that I use for a lot of my work. I once had a Honda Foreman 400 and it worked great with a plow they will push a lot of snow. I have two neighbors with Honda 350's with plows and they work as well as the bigger machines. Some ATV plows have a manual arm for lifting the plow but most use your winch.

 

[Doc]

If I was going to get a blade on the RTV I was thinking of taking it to the dealer to have that done (I'm more of a IT kind of guy than mechanic, and that's being nice). But if I can get er done on the ATV cheaper it makes the whole project more doable. Where I might have been waiting a year or more for the RTV blade addition I might be able to get an ATV blade added before this season is over ....if it's not to hard to do.

Would you guys show me how your ATV blade mounts and what all I'd need to make one work. the blade I have has arms on it with horseshoe like openings if I remember right. I'll try to dig it out and get a pic if I can get it past the boats stored in my pole barn.

 

[bczoom]

I have a Honda Rancher (420cc?) and the Moose plow. My setup is a lot like Tater Drivers. There's a skid plate you mount under your ATV which is normally left on year-around. 2 pins connect the plow to that plate and then it's just the winch cable on the front.

My Rancher is electric shift as well but I don't have any safety crap so I just move the shift lever from F to R.

 

[bczoom]

Would you guys show me how your ATV blade mounts and what all I'd need to make one work. the blade I have has arms on it with horseshoe like openings if I remember right. I'll try to dig it out and get a pic if I can get it past the boats stored in my pole barn.

I'm taking pics off the internet...

Here's an example of the skid plate that mounts under your ATV. It mounts using U-bolts in the 4 corners that go around the lower frame of the ATV. I may have a spare laying around if you want me to send it to you. NOTE: I don't know what it came from (I'm thinking Suzuki) so the holes may not align exactly and may need to be re-drilled but that's no big deal.

Here's the rest of the plow. On the far right of the picture, those 2 little tabs that stick up is where you attach to the brackets on the skid plate. This one shows the manual lift (but if you have a winch, that's the better way to go).

Here's what it looks like mounted to a Honda 250.

 

[Doc]

Thanks Brian.
From your pic that blade looks HUGE compared to mine. What would be a good size blade for an ATV? Where do you guys shop for them, and the hardware plate etc?

I still can't tell how the blade hooks to that plate. I see the rounded areas but no holes in them from my view.

 

[bczoom]

Here's a different pic of a skid plate. On the back of the push tubes on the plow mount (pictured above) there's 2 small vertical bars with holes in them. You line up those to the brackets pictured here and insert the pins.

The plow I have now came with the ATV. It's been years since I bought one. Actually, I had 3 or 4 of them sitting in a shed until I sold them all a few years back.

For an ATV, I'd say 48" is about the minimum and the most common are 48-54" although some go up to 60". Like the back blade on your tractor, you want to make sure it's wider than the tires when fully angled.

Moose and Warn makes nice plows but they're not the only mfgr's. Also, they're probably more expensive than others. A friend just bought one that has a poly/plastic blade. Works pretty decent but because it's so light, it has a tendency to float over some snow compared to the steel which can dig in better.

I put a 48" Warn plow and a Honda mounting kit in my cart and it came to $339 at this site. http://4wheelonline.com/atv/ And they're offering free shipping.
I'd check other places as well.

I did not include a lift system. If you have a winch, that's the way to go. If you don't have one... well, get one. I may have a 2000# SuperWinch sitting on a shelf (NIB) if that would get you started.
If you want that mount I have and already have a winch, you're only in for $270 for a new plow. I'd check CraigsList or e-bay as well.

 

[BaiJiu]

Excellent pictures and instructions zoom, I think this will help a lot of people. Good point on the length, if the blade isn't wider than the tires you will have tight windrows very quickly. My driveway is 3/4 mile long and if I don't have more than 8" of snow I use my ATV rather than the tractor especially early season. I have the 60" blade on my Polasis and it lets me ride the tires on the edge of the ditch but the blade is slightly over the ditch, thus throwing the snow off the road and into the ditch. The tractor tends to just push snow off the end of the blade whereas the ATV can travel a little faster and throw the snow away from the blade.

 

[Doc]

Thanks Brian. Awesome info. I will be getting one set up for sure. Snowing here now ...4 to 6 by tomorrow predicted. This has sure been a white February for us.

 

[Doc]

I checked around and found I liked the 4wheelonline prices and FREE shipping on all the stuff I needed to add a blade to my ATV. I had trouble finding the right front mounting plate so I called and found out I had to use the mid mount so I could also use the winch for lifting. No problem. I went ahead and ordered the whole shebang. 800 and change. Not bad. I can't wait. I've procrastinated for years on getting a winch for the ATV and RTV. I got a winch for the RTV for Christmas, and now I have one on order for the ATV. Awesome. I feel like a kid at Christmas ....can't wait to get this plow stuff for the ATV.


http://4wheelonline.com/atv/Warn_ATV_ProVantage_Snow_Plows.104741.0#

 

[SpudHauler]

Doc,

Some of the things I learned while plowing with my 2000 Honda TRX450ES.

- removed my original cable on the Warn 2000 and used about 10 feet of cable instead of the 50 feet it originally came with. Some just cut the 50 feet in half (25 feet) and use that. Reason being is that after many up and down trips of the blade, the cable gets real loose on the drum and will eventually bind up between the drum and the cross bolts that hold the winch together. Very hard to get loose once it does. Less cable allows more room for slack cable.

- front end was a little soft so wooden spacers cut from hardwood tied on with heavy duty plastic wire ties made a big difference. Cheap fix. Not totally necessary, but a nice to have. They were still on the TRX 8 years later when I sold it.

- being stupid, I was constantly bending the winch mounting plates. Lifting blade until I heard the winch grunt was too much torture on winch and mounts. After 3rd mounting plate fix, I installed a cut out switch. Found the wire going to the handlebar switch that controlled the up lift. Cut the wire and placed the button switch you see in the pictures as the cut off. Mounted switch so a 2"x2" flat plate riveted onto the lift arm of the plow would push the button cutting off power to the lift side of the switch. Worked perfect.

- next was the angle release. Attached small piece of tubing to release lever for more leverage, attached simple pulley to top of plow blade where bolt was used to hold rubber onto blade. Then routed piece of clothline wire up to a little handle that loosely hung down over the front rack. Now to angle blade, pull on the line, releasing the locking pin and bump the blade against the snow bank to angle. Worked great. You need lots of slack in the cable because when the blade snaps forward because of hitting somethine real hard, the clothline wire gets snapped as well. Hurts the hand if the line is too short.

- mount the reverse lock out release and away you go.

- never added any weight for traction, ran standard tires with standard air pressure.

- had a Battery Tender with leads attached to battery that I would plug into after plowing each night. Lights on and lots of winch useage leaves batteries low on power. First indication is the electric shifter gets lazy. Battery Tender solved that issue nicely.

My album has pictures related to this post.

Enjoy!

 

[Doc]

Thanks again Spuds. Awesome info. My forerunner is one year older than yours; a 1999 model. Had it since new. 1500 miles on it and it's never been off our property. It is a 450ES ..they never made 400 ES's. I'm already in the habit of using battery tender for it. When it sits most of the winter and I need it to repair the gas line I had to be sure I had a good battery. Without the tender the battery would be dead way to often.

I'm not clear on what you mean by front end was 'soft' or where you put the hardwood blocks.

That 4 wheel web site had a cable to use for the plow, so you would remove your 50ft regular cable and replace it with this shorter one that is made for the wear these cables get.

 

[SpudHauler]

Doc,
I was on a trail ride once and meet up with an owner with just over 9,000km on his. (5,400m).

It was hard to swap cables on my Warn winch. That was always a sore point for me. Would run a 25' foot cable if I was doing it again. With the automatic cut off switch and 25 feet of cable things would stay okay I believe.

Soft front end: With the plow on and lifting I found the front end dipped easily and could use stiffer shock springs. Hard to find and costly.

So I removed the shocks, removed the springs, made the wooden spacers, re-installed the springs on the shocks with the wooden spacers at the bottom. Really hard to get the springs back on but I'm stubborn. Worked quite well.

By the way I have a 2" lift kit for the front of a TRX 400-450 that I never used. Paid $88.00 for back in the day.

Anyone interested $40.00 + shipping.

 

[bczoom]

Bump.

Doc - any updates?

 

[bczoom]

Doc

Sorry. Meant to post these awhile ago.

Some pics.
First shows the plate mounted to the bottom of the ATV and the connection to the push tubes.

Second shows the snatch block I use for the winch.

Third is how I end the winch cable/hook.

Fourth shows the entire setup for connections to the ATV. It's only 2 pins in the rear and the winch cable in the front.

Last is a pic of the winch tucked into its cubby hole. I don't know if all the Honda's have this space built in.