Do you actually plow snow with your UTV? for multiple seasons?

[grsthegreat]

I'm a little gun shy on snow blowers. I had a bad experience about a dozen years ago with the only snowblower I've ever owned. It met a big rock that one of my kids left in my driveway. The rock was completely covered by a foot deep snow and I had no idea it was there. Basically it was the perfect sized "murphy" stone to trash my blower, light enough that the front auger could pick it up, but big enough that it trashed the impeller when it hit the throat of the chute. Multiple shear bolts sheared, but not before one the augers bent, and the spinning impeller bent backward and gouged into into the housing, and cracked the metal housing. So that blower went bye-bye during the second winter I had it. I sold it for for $350 for parts basically and I never tried another. The only problem I've ever had in 35 years of blading snow was a broken 3 pt. lift arm on an old Ford tractor in sub-zero weather. All that took was a quick trip to the farm store and a couple wrenches to fix.

i used to go thru 10-20 shear bolts in a season, with minor blower damage with my old farmking blower. The new front hydraulic blower uses a hydraulic bypass valve if impeller picks up anything. Never caused any damage, and NO SHEAR BOLTS. All i have to do is remove obstacle. I get so much snow every year i would run out of room to put it. I use my plow for the first few snow falls until ground packs, then i use blower rest of season.

 

[ArlyA]

That does help. You probably get double the amount of snow as I do. And I've previously looked at the x2 sportsman, which is the 4 wheeled version of your big boss, as a replacement or my Rancher. It offers a little more power and utility than my Rancher did, How many winters have you used the Polaris? How has it held up? And are those Polaris branded tracks? That Rhino pic is probably a good sign for my potential Viking path also. Have you experienced any issues with the rhino and plowing?

Here is the thread about the plow used on our boss 6x6. https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/atvs-utility-vehicles/416665-b-boss-6x6-plow-setup.htm

The boss is relatively new to us and this past winter was the 1st year for plowing with it. The pods on it are made by Soucy and I'm not a fan of Camso made ones. The other machines were not owned by me, but used at my job. I'd guess we get more than twice the snow you get there. :laughing:

 

[powersrp]

It's more money but have you thought about a snow blower for a UTV? The problem with a plow is that once the snow banks get built up higher than the plow the snow just goes over the top. If all you ever get is 8" snow falls and it's mostly gone before the next event than a plow is great. But, up north, where snow lasts for months banks can pose a real problem. Most plow trucks push the snow into a pile where the weight of the truck helps. With a long sidewalk pushing it into a pile may not be an option. With a blower once it blows it it's gone (unless the wind pushes it back).

I started off plowing my driveway with a 2 1/2" ton 4wd dump truck. It has a 10' blade and the weight and power to move lots of snow. But by mid January the limited spaces to put the snow were full and I was now dealing with trying to move it with my loader. It would also get more difficult to plow because, as I said earlier, the snow would go over the top of the blade. When pushing snow to the places where I could pile it I often had to make repeated passes. If the snow was wet heavy stuff it took even longer to deal with.

I have a front mounted blower that I us almost exclusively now. If you are looking for a long term solution and you get plenty of snow I would seriously look into a blower over a plow. It's not as fast for smaller storms but I just make a pass down one side of my driveway and back up the other. Unlike a plow where the vehicle's power, traction, and weight are all needed the blower does the work and all that's needed from the vehicle is to slowly move forward. The pictures I've seen of UTV snow blowers have wheels so they don't even weigh down the UTV's front suspension. A plow is hard on a vehicle but a snow slower shouldn't be.

I was thinking the same thing, then came across your post, i mounted an old airens 2 stage 10 hp blower on my grizzly: mounted it to the plow brackets and used the winch to lift and lower. As a first time effort and no welder it worked great, in 2 minutes,off with the blower and plow back on, i agree with the frozen snow banks, they will close you in quickly, then your screwed, hours with a loader to move them. with a small heated vehicle a set up with a universal mount, blower and blade the op would be all set, and a lot less stress on the machine in deep snow.

 

[ruffdog]

Would this be considered a six stage blower?

 

[grsthegreat]

im not sure why anyone needs 3 blower chutes.

 

[ArlyA]

Let me add that when I got this plow on da boss appreciably operable, that took 90% of blowing snow at our house out of the picture. It worked much better than I imagined it would. I can't comment on the snow where you reside or how your yard is setup, but here, most people have area's that are called "snow dumps" and this is where the snow is being pushed into. This is why our dear Honda blower has got more lonely over the winter. here are some pictures of snow being pushed into these mentioned storage areas..

PS, I couldn't do this with a rubber tired machine.......

 

[milkman636]

Would this be considered a six stage blower?

Hey, what else you gonna do with three old snow blowers? LOL.....What it lacks in practicality, it makes up in ingenuity.

 

[ruffdog]

Hey, what else you gonna do with three old snow blowers? LOL.....What it lacks in practicality, it makes up in ingenuity.

I once saw a video of someone that had 3 old blowers in the FEL. Hey, if you got hit with a bad snow storm it sure would be handy.

 

[milkman636]

Let me add that when I got this plow on da boss appreciably operable, that took 90% of blowing snow at our house out of the picture. It worked much better than I imagined it would. I can't comment on the snow where you reside or how your yard is setup, but here, most people have area's that are called "snow dumps" and this is where the snow is being pushed into. This is why our dear Honda blower has got more lonely over the winter. here are some pictures of snow being pushed into these storage area..

PS, I couldn't do this with a rubber tired machine.......

Our residence has a U shape drive that’s about 200’ across with parking areas in front of the garage and barn. The house sits between them at the bottom of the U on nearly the highest point of the property. I take advantage of the downhill grades and utilize the areas next to both parking areas as snow dumps. I also push back the banks at the end of both drives generously enough that I don’t have to move the same snow twice. Most winters we only get between 60”-100” of snow, but the stuff can stick around for awhile some years.

One of the reasons I prefer a blade to a blower is that my house is open to the west and prevailing winds will invariably be pushing the snow plume towards the buildings or part of the driveway that I’ve already done. Plus i do enjoy making big piles of snow. Sometimes I’ll plow one up at the edge of the hill in our backyard just to enhance our sled run for the kids. I guess I’m just a plow guy.

Your boss setup looks pretty sweet. I gotta admit I’m a little scared of Polaris durability though. I’ve never personally owned a Polaris product. But I just don’t hear their owners raving about durability. They look nice. The Sportsman X2 and the new Ranger 1000 both look real interesting to me. But I still haven’t seen that good long-term feedback from Polaris owners to make me feel comfortable buying one for a challenging application like plowing snow.

 

[grsthegreat]

Every bad snow year i end up having to use my blower to widen neighbors driveways because of the mounds caused by plowing. Plows Work ok on light years, but not on heavy years. I only use my plow for the initial snows, before the ground freezes up and i know its here to stay fir the season. Then i hook up the blower. I simply like blowing it 40 feet away snd not having to deal with it later.