BX snow removal or 1000lb ATV?

[Jadd]

I was in your predictament last year. For the amount of snow you state, stick w/ the atv & save the money for some other implement.

 

[pitt_md]

In your case stay with the ATV. I have a Polaris Sportsman 500 with a plow on it and I agree with Lindy. The ATV is very quick and does a great job until you get a couple of feet of wet heavy snow. Then the MX5000 with FEL is put to work. Where I live its so darn cold most of the time that no matter how much snow you get its light and fluffy and the ATV handels it without any problems.

 

[KeithInSpace]

I tried it with a gravel driveway...didn't work. When my driveway was gravel, I was better off just smooshing it down than trying to get the snow off...just made a mess. I only do neighbor's driveways once they are asphalt. Just does too much damage to gravel.

 

[kcook]

Bobcat make a side by side that can take a blade or bucket. It might meet your needs.

KC

 

[easygo]

I plowed with a Honda Foreman before I got my tractor. In my experience the tractor is much better then the ATV. The ATV was challanged even by as little as 3-4" of heavy wet snow. I'm talking when you made the first three passes and there was some pile on each side of my driveway. The tractor handles it with ease. Plus I don't think an ATV plow would be significantly if at all cheaper than a 60" rear blade.

 

[brianidaho]

I've used both a tractor with a 7' angle blade and an ATV with plow (Yamaha Grizzly, about 600 lbs). I have about 3/8 mile of driveway to do. In the vast majority of cases the ATV works much better, the tractor doesn't go fast enough to throw snow off the blade, it just slides it to the side, fills in the driveway too quickly. On the other hand, in a bad winter the berms get too high for the quad, the blade I had on the tractor was on the FEL, I could push berms fine with it. Now this was only an issue when berms are over 2-3 feet tall, doesn't sound common in your area.

Good luck.
Brian

 

[donn12]

Thanks for the info. I think I am going to stick to the ATV for snow plowing.

 

[bandit67]

Donn,

Sorry I may be responding a little late.

I used a subcompact with a 60" rear blade for a few winters to clear snow. After moving and selling my subcompact, and before buying my bigger machine for my new property, I bought a 48" country-style plow for our ATV to get me through last winter.

The ATV plow is now buried under piles of stuff in my storage shed, and I have no plans to hook it up this winter. There is no substitute for hydraulics, and I desperately missed having a tractor last winter, so I am going to thoroughly enjoy again having a machine for snow removal this year and for years to come.

In my experience, the tractor is a much more enjoyable snow removal tool.

And yes, there are companies that use a common frame that you can switch between the blade and the landscape rake. Landpride is one of them, and now make their implements in Kubota orange.

 

[donn12]

Did you use the rear blade forward or reverse? If forward any issues driving over the snow before you plowed it? At this point I am only considering a rear blade because of money. I am hoping for a huge blizzard so I will need the FEL while I am out there.
My driveway is not flat and if it is a sheet of ice I might prefer to be on the ATV.

 

[bandit67]

I drove over the snow and pulled the rear blade most of the time. I had asphalt and recycled ground-up asphalt to plow - I turned the blade around when the recycled asphalt portion was not yet frozen to avoid digging up too much driveway material, but still pulled the rear blade after driving over the snow.

I plowed up to 14" snowfalls that way with no problems. That was during one of our snowiest winters in decades, and we had a number of 12"-18" storms over the course of 3 months.