ATV Snow Plow

[SLC1]

We currently run a Yamaha Quad with a 60" County Plow on it and it works great, but we have constantly had the same problem with it for the past two years. We have the plow hooked up to a warn winch and we can not keep the cable from breaking. We have tried taking all the cable out except for 5', we switched over to the heavy duty rope that they sell for it and still no luck. We break the rope at least once per storm and the cable breaks constantly. Hopefully someone out here has a better idea, hate to start another winter with the same problems.

www.schmidtlawncare.com

[John Banks]

Would it be possible to use a chain? How about a short length of a tow-all or recovery strap? Have you tried the fiber core wire rope?

[snowplowjay]

I think ATV plows are jinxed PERIOD!!!

We had the manual hand lift on the ATV we have been using the past 2 seasons and even that has been nothing but headaches.......


Jay

[wyldman]

I've had similar problems with ATV winches.

Use a plastic lined cable.It will reduce the friction and prevent the fraying and breaking.It will still wear quickly,but it should last a lot longer than regular steel cable.

[snowtogo]

I went through the same thing for the first two snow seasons until I figured out the solution. The cables don't last because when they come out of the fairlead they travel down at a steep angle the the lift point on the plow. Even using a roller type fairlead dosen't help much. What I did on my Bruteforce is mount a pulley in front of the winch right below the top bumper tube (this puts the pulley higher than the winch drum). I used a pulley from an old come along. The pulley has a nice deep grove in it to support the cable. I also removed the roller fairlead completly. This way the cable comes off the winch drum and UP OVER the pulley and then STRAIT DOWN to the plow. With this setup my cables will last at least an entire snow season. :rolling

[EZSnow]

I was going to suggest engineering something similar to what snowtogo described. The problem is tight radius of the roller fairlead. A pulley will offer a much larger radius, the only issue is making sure the mount for the pulley can carry the load of the plow, as it will now bear the weight rather than the fairlead mount.

[snowtogo]

I also wanted to add that I knew that the pulley/bracket setup would have alot of stress on it so the pulley I used is about 2in. in dia. and solid steel. I made the bracket out of 1/2 in X 2in strap steel. It's proven itself to be plenty strong enough and I love over kill! :grinz

[Heron Cove PM]

What you need is called the winch rotator. The system IS pricey but maybe you can make your own.

http://www.montanajacks.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=127

[QuadPlower]

I have ran a Warn recovery winch to raise and lower my plow and I have ran a dedicated plow winch that attached to the plow and the cable went up to the bumper. You could make/buy a bracket to mount your winch to the plow and run the cable up to the bumper. This makes it a straight pull. I took the hook off and pinned it to a U bolt (like a muffler clamp) that was attached to my front box. I did not have the bumper on at the time. This will add a little weight to the plow giving it a little more "down force".

I gave up on the winch and went with an air set up. Check it out at www.bbyardscape.com