I bought a new Ranger 1000XP yesterday, with the intent of plowing in the winter and running around the hills and lake in Spring and Summer. The dealer recommends the Polaris glacier plow system, the neighbors say go big or go home - and get a Boss V-plow. I DO NOT want to get out and move the blade left to right, so either hydraulic or electric.

This is typical of the areas I need to plow; what say you SF experts? This is my first UTV - so I'm clueless.

I put a MoosePlow blade on my Yamaha Grizzly 550 and it does the job well. Up and down I control with the winch, but side to side I have to get off and do by hand. I thought that that might be a PITA, but once I figured out a good pattern to plow, it only requires two adjustments for the whole job, so it's really no big deal.

Where are you at? Looks like up above Jette Lake maybe?

Lake County is the southern Flathead Lake area Gustofer.

Looking at those photos I'd opt for a B series Kubota myself and get a UTV separately. Just say'n.

You are like every other human. You get older every day, never younger.

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:
Lake County is the southern Flathead Lake area Gustofer.

Yep. I'm about 30 miles west of there.

Just trying to narrow him down a bit. Looks from the one shot that he's NW of Polson. Could be wrong though.

I have a tractor mounted snowblower.

My neighbor a few houses down has a utv with a winch lift plow and electric angle.

I've looked into getting a similar setup, but my driveway has too many turns and nooks to make plowing easy.

He seems to love his setup, and I'll admit that it looks like it works quite well. His plow is maybe 5 feet, and looks like the size you'd find on a quarter ton truck, but it looks better on the utv. Using the winch to lift isn't as slow as I expected, and the angle moment is slick.

I can try and get the specific brands if you want.

The better plows are quite expensive so it might be worth signing up on a Polaris forum where there are tons of guys with experience using several different brands.

Most of them have a separate area just for snow equipment.

I have a Ranger XP 900 and have been thinking about getting one myself. I haven’t done any research yet however so I can’t really give you any help. Looks like your place is prime for putting a plow on your Polaris.

I have about 1/4 mile to the county road just north of Kalispell. I started out with a ATV with a blade but that was not near enough for the rough winters. I ended up with a 29 hp Kubota B2920 with a 63” blower on the front. This is a perfect combination.

My neighbor put a gas powered snowblower on the front of his UTV. Works pretty good too.

I like my tractor. The loader goes back on in the spring and does all sorts of work for us.

Kubota is great stuff.
Mike

quote:

I started out with a ATV with a blade but that was not near enough for the rough winters. I ended up with a 29 hp Kubota

That UTV only weighs around 1,500 pounds. You would need to be on top of the snow as it fell to keep from overwhelming it.

I have a 3,600 pound 38HP tractor and had a slow go of it when I let 12" accumulate. The loader is useful in the snow as it will let you lift and push snow in ways that a blade alone won't.

i used my Kubota RTV500 recently with a straight 5' blade with the elect. hyd. system.
I wondered if the gas powered 500cc would do the job. Well the answer is like butter. Never even spun the tires or seemed like is was not enough power. I was pleasantly surprised.
I do not have any sided to side capabilities without getting off the machine. But not biggie. Very easy to slid off the seat, make the adj. and go again. If needed.
I am pretty happy.
I do not like the plow with a winch set up. It is a recipe for a break down.
your machine will move more snow than you can imagine. It will not be overwhelmed. My little Kubota is more than enough machine. I know I could move 18" of snow if need be. I might need to chain her up but plenty of machine.
Congrats on the machine. Spending almost $20k is crazy though

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:
Lake County is the southern Flathead Lake area Gustofer.

Yep. I'm about 30 miles west of there.

Just trying to narrow him down a bit. Looks from the one shot that he's NW of Polson. Could be wrong though.

Exactly, about 8 miles NW of Polson.

You will have to plan carefully for where to push your piles. They will usually freeze and can’t be moved, trying usually will bust equipment. Then you’ll find you’re drive getting narrower.

On my 4 car wide drive, I plow half way out onto the lawn. I use a 66” wide plow on my Polaris RZR 900 Trail and take about a 1/2 width path. The plow system is made by Tusk and I use a Superwinch 3,500lb winch to raise and lower. I added a 10’ synthetic rope and an extended roller lead by KFI to get a better lift angle.

I mostly plow straight unless the plow doesn’t fit, like on the sidewalk or through a gate. The powered angle was more money and adds more wealthy.

I’d rather have the KFI synthetic plow blade and mount setup, but they didn’t make a front mount, rather than mid under body mount at the time.

Get a UHMW plow edge, it quieter and less damaging to the surface. Something like this: https://www.interstateplastics...hickness=0.250&qty=1. Cut and drill holes rather than spend for a premade one. With a poly edge and smooth surface, I take the feet off the plow. I plan my route in the summer to avoid edges.

Plowing is rough on equipment if you’re not gentle. The Ranger will work better than the RZR.

quote:

Originally posted by Riley:
You will have to plan carefully for where to push your piles. They will usually freeze and can’t be moved, trying usually will bust equipment. Then you’ll find you’re drive getting narrower.

Every so often we get a ton of snow here and I find my driveway getting narrower and narrower....

My little blade will push quite a bit but it has it's limits.

Then, it's time to bring out the Kubota and push the edges back a ways.

I bought a fairly pricey Warn plow for my Grizzly 660. It was also operated by my winch for up and down movement. I used it for about two months or so but that set up was just too damn light for the amount of snow I was encountering. So...I ended up parking it and went back to my 4x4 tractor with a front loader. 5000 pounds of tractor made the job a whole lot easier, believe me.

Why did I buy that damn plow in the first place? Doesn't matter I guess as I sold the ATV and plow the next year and got a really good price for the set-up.

Have exactly zero value in advice here, I use a snow blower and my neighbor plows the main road.
Just wanted to say hi from Bigfork!

My driveway is straight as a arrow so I didn't need the hydraulics which about equaled the cost of the blade and mounting kit. I love plowing with this thing.



Last week I added a new accessory to it. Love to ice fish in the winter months.



I'm considering putting tracks on it for next season.

Lots of good advice here! I have an Atv with a plow, not a UTV. Plus, an 8'Super Duty Boss straight plow on my truck. I see you live in Montana, so you will get varying amounts of snow at one time. I very seldom use the ATV plow now.

Your pics of your driveway show some kind of incline/decline. You will need chains on your UTV if you get any amount of snow. How much time do you want to spend plowing, and how clean do you want your area? Back dragging with an ATV or UTV plow is not the greatest, in which you have a nice big garage that would benefit from back dragging to clean it up. Your pics show a big area of plowing. An hour or so with the UTV or ten-fifteen minutes with a BOSS.

A V-plow is not necessary, unless you get big drifts across your driveway. The Boss is simple to hookup and take off. I have had mine since 2009 with zero problems, and I beat mine up on the lake for ice fishing.

I have no UTV experience, but living in Vermont, I do have snow experience and a 1/4 mile driveway. Last week we were blessed with about 18” of snow. Other areas more.
I have a 2000 F-250 with plow and sander. I can’t imagine trying to plow t with a UTV, but again, never tried. Also I’m not retired, so I get up early, make a couple of passes, and after work clean everything up.
Bought a new Fisher sander last year, have been sanding driveway with a shovel for the last 30+ years. Stupid me.
Just wanted to throw another option out, used truck with V plow and for me, remote car starter!

tbh, last winter I hired a guy with a gas f250 and plow to do 1/8 mile. Having watched him I could of done it much better with my Kubota had I had it then. Would of taken me twice as long. Maybe and hour vs 30 min. Job would be been better when finished with the utv. Just say'in.

Thanks to all. I've been having a guy with a big V-Boss do the driveway, and occasionally have him run up the hill to the shop. Unfortunately, he's moved away and many of the yokels here cruising the roads with plows on their trucks want $100-125 to plow me out. That's fine when we get dumped on, but more often we get 6"-10" and I'm not going to pay 3X a week for what can be done with a UTV.
I realize the right machine for *just plowing* would have been a Kubota, but around here UTV's are an accepted way of short distance transport on the county roads and even the 70 mph speed limit highways. Kubotas on the road here are a pest.

I'm leaning towards a straight blade UTV Boss, but waiting for the Kalispell Polaris dealer to give me some more options. I'm about half way retired, so if I'm in town an extra hour or two to plow isn't a big deal. Walking behind the Ariens blower and shoveling snow, is however, beginning to piss me off .

This is just one more thing I'm still learning about; at 68 one would think I'd already learned the things in life I need to know :-)

Sooma: Hi neighbor! I'm on our deck having morning coffee waving to you!

I think the Polaris brand is decent, but over priced on the ones I've seen. Not familiar with Boss as it was way too much plow for my machine.

KFI is made in the USA, a lot of dealers sell them too.

For tires, these have been awesome for plowing and trail use. Radial as well: https://www.rockymountainatvmc...rabite-radial-tire-p