UTV Snowplow choice?

[John_Mc]

My driveway has a grade to it but not extreme. I've never ballasted my Polaris Sportsman with 60 inch razor plow or my RTV.
My RTV has the Worksite tires and the Polaris had the Carlisle Badlands radials and most recently Swamplite Reptile radials.
I don't know how your Ranger is setup for that plow, but with my Sportsman and the Glacier Razor plow, it used the winch to lift and it has a roller fairlead. After a winter it broke the steel cable. I then switched to synthetic rope and it didn't last any longer than the steel.
So I just use a cable clamp now to re-tie the hook every time it snaps.
So every winter I have a bit less than 50 feet of cable, LOL

Switching to a strap instead of the cable will take care of that, but you do need to switch back when you want to use your winch for actual winching. The strap is only about 5 or 6 feet long.

 

[ArlyA]

I switched to a 10ft strap and never going back to cable ever, even in the summer. I get about 2 years of snowplowing before it breaks. No big deal. I believe they are 20ft, 8000lb towing straps and I cut in the middle. Like this.

 

[John_Mc]

I switched to a 10ft strap and never going back to cable ever, even in the summer. I get about 2 years of snowplowing before it breaks. No big deal. I believe they are 20ft, 8000lb towing straps and I cut in the middle. Like this.
View attachment 919751

I looked at doing that, but did not have a good option for attaching the strap to the drum on my winch. (Not sure I wanted to trust the duct tape method). How did you attach yours?

I also need to switch back to cable in the off season, since I need more than a few feet of each on the winch. (The bigger jobs get the 3 point hitch logging winch on my tractor, but it’s convenient to handle the smaller jobs with the UT, if that’s what I’m on when I happen to run into them.)

 

[Paystar]

Switching to a strap instead of the cable will take care of that, but you do need to switch back when you want to use your winch for actual winching. The strap is only about 5 or 6 feet long.

I switched to a B2620 with loader and blower and an RTV-X1100C with a Boss vee plow instead, LOL

 

[ArlyA]

I looked at doing that, but did not have a good option for attaching the strap to the drum on my winch. (Not sure I was to get it it’s my wife’s trust the duct tape method). How did you attach yours?

I also need to switch back to cable in the off season, since I need more than a few feet of each on the winch. (The bigger jobs get the 3 point hitch logging winch on my tractor, but it’s convenient to handle the smaller jobs with the UT, if that’s what I’m on when I happen to run into them.)

Ha! I cleaned the drum and used exactly that. Been holding for like 6 years (do replace the strap every 2 or when it breaks) Duck tape does fine.

 

[Ricn]

My JD diesel utv 4x4 works ok on level ground in snow, not so much on our hilly driveway. If putting 400# in the box it will come up just barely; I should have chains maybe. UTV's just don't have the weight for plowing other than flat ground with shallow snows, at least around here because the snow is very heavy. i use the excavator for snow removel leaving the mule in the shop.

 

[gstrom99]

Is your winch cable synthetic or steel?

I ended up going with one of their Plow Straps, rather than using the cable on my winch. A neighbor who has been plowing with his ATV for years mentioned that he does wear the end of the cable more quickly: it's a lot of in and out motion over just that last short length of cable, and depending on how your angles work out, it can be a sharp bend. Replacing the cable with the strap is supposed to hold up a lot longer. The downside is that you have to change from cable to strap at the start of snow season, and back again at the end of the season. The strap is also only 64" long, so you lose the ability to do longer winching while it is in place.

I also added the optional plow strap roller. It mounts down on the push tube. The strap runs down from the winch, around the roller, then hooks on back up on the bumper frame. This cuts the line speed in half on the winch (as well as reducing the load by half, not that the plow is a heavy load for the winch). The diagram at the link probably describes it better than I am. If you like that slower action on the lift, but don't want to go to a strap, you can do the same thing with one of their plow fairlead pulleys (These can mount on your fairlead, so the cable does not bend as tightly, or down on the push tube, where it works like the strap roller.)

The straps or extra rollers are something you can easily add later, if you try the standard set up and decide you want to make a switch.

One other word of advice: if your Ranger 800 has larger than stock tires or a lift kit, you will probably need one of their push tube leveling kits. These compensate for the higher mounting point of a lifted UTV in order to keep the pivot geometry of the plow properly aligned. Which kit you need depends on how much lift you have. If you have stock diameter tires and no lift kit on your UTV, there is no need for this addition. My local KFI dealer was not too familiar with how this works on a Honda (they are not Honda dealers), so I emailed KFI directly for some input on choosing a leveling kit size, since my tires are bigger than stock.

Thanks. Stock tires and no lift. It has steel cable now, but the synthetic rope or straps look tempting. I'll run it this way at first, and modify as/if needed. I have a ~300 foot, level gravel drive. I have a tractor (with chains if needed, but no heated cab) for the heavy storms. I saw the built in receiver on the mount - liked that.

 

[ArlyA]

We push snow with our atv type machine every winter 3 to 5 days a week. Today I'd take the original cable off first thing and replace with with a 2" flat tow strap.