Posted: 1/3/2016 12:01:11 PM EDT
| Looking for a 4x4 ATV. My needs are plowing snow (my driveway), towing trailers with firewood/dirt, and occasional trail riding. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I do not have any knowledge on them. Thanks |
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Quoted:
Looking for a 4x4 ATV. My needs are plowing snow (my driveway), towing trailers with firewood/dirt, and occasional trail riding. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I do not have any knowledge on them. Thanks They don't plow so well - tend to overheat, at least that's what I have been told |
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Expanding on what Nutter said, the winch tends to easily break while using the plow. My cousin does this with his, and almost every use its down. Usually in the middle of use. The winch is what lifts and drops the plow. And there is no play so every time you push the snow a lot of force is put on the cable.
Not the best option for snow clearing. For everything else you mentioned, perfectly fine 
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Unless you're going to Maine or somewhere ATV use is allowed on property other than your own, ATVs are more of a liability in CT. If you have kids and they ride on public land or someone else's private property, prepare to be interrogated by the Conservation police, get fined, and have the ATV impounded.
I would suggest a small tractor. It will be much more durable,and better suited to your uses. |
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I plowed my driveway for 11 years using an ATV.
Purchased a Polaris Sportsman with plow in 2005, worked pretty well... but was a tad under powered (although it was capable of plowing 10 or so inches of wet snow). Winch cables are pointless, and as mentioned they will break quite often (fatigue over the same spot dies them in rather quickly). After my first year I switched to synthetic winch ropes, warn actually made a 6 or 7 foot model that was perfect, and I'd just buy a couple (after my second year I never used steal cables again, even the summer winching was done on a synthetic rope if need be, way safer and no nasty steal slivers). In 2009 while riding at night I snapped an oil line a blew the motor, ended up finding a left over Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI (with a new plot mount I could use everything I had purchased for my 500, other wise I was looking at shelling out $1500 for accessories I already had, but wouldn't be able to use). Huge improvement. Fuel injected compared to carb.... much easier to start, turn the key and she'd purr. Twin compared to a single cylinder, much more power.... and some extra weight. Plowing worked pretty well on my gravel driveway, considering I had some tight areas.... that made it extremely difficult to plow with a full size truck. Over all its not for the faint at heart, very similar to snow blowing.... you will always be out in the cold, and for big storms you might have to go out a few times. Once the snow banks get high.... you may be limited on pushing snow. My neighbor shares my drive way, and had a Chevy 1500 with a plow, I could easily push the snow banks off the drive way, and handle the smaller storm with less were and tear on the driveway. If you are going to get one, get fuel injection and the biggest motor you can afford. The tale end of last winter I finally tapped out and purchased a diesel tractor. While it doesn't have a cab, it is far more versatile for snow removal, plowing, snow blowing (yep, got a 47" snow blower with it). Plus if need be I can easily move snow banks created by the larger plow trucks. I should have went the tractor route earlier, but the price was more than both of my ATV's combined (backhoe is priceless, bucket comes off in 30 second and I have a set of forks, backhoe also remove fairly easy, iMatch hitch allows me to put a weight box, your rake, box blade, etc.... you get the point). Hope this info helps you make the choice. 
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I have a 2014 polaris sportsman 850xp. Plenty of plowing power, awesome on the trails, can go and do anything I need it too. Get a big bore utility with power steering it is the only way to go. I have a 60 inch plow and hammered through all those storms last year no problem. My driveway is @ 1/4 mile long, so I need heavy guns to get rid of snow.
I ride @ 2 times a week, been riding for years in CT never been in troubles with police, although there is no where in CT to ride legally except on private property. But there are plenty of powerline trails and state forests if you know your way around that you can ride in all day. We typically only ride outside of hunting season |
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I use to like doing this with my Polaris Sportsman 500 X2 until I sunk down into the snow pile.. That took a bit of shoveling to get the machine out Now I use my Kubota L3901 |
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I've been plowing my 1600 square foot driveway since the blizzard of 1996 with my old Kawasaki Bayou 300 (man that sounds like I'm old!)
It's too tight to plow with my Jeep. Anything less than a foot is doable - just push the snow at least 8 feet off the driveway early in the season... Otherwise the piles will get too big! My wife bought me bigger tires and a bucket loader kit a year or two ago so I could move more stuff! 
After we started getting snow waist deep - I bought an old used Troy Bilt snow blower for the deep stuff - I can blow it 30ft off the driveway instead of huge piles... 
If I had to do it all over again - I would have spent $14K on a 4WD subcompact diesel tractor with a bucket loader... I used my buddy's to do his driveway when he was away and it worked great and easily replaces the quad |