Snow plowing/salting with a quad

[Squamch]

Winter is coming (seriously! Its gonna snow!)
Every year while I am out shovelling walkways at the buildings I do maintenance work at, I start muttering to myself about a tax deductible quad. Most of the work is clearing walkways for residents of apartment buildings, with minimal driveway or parking lot work. One building has a sloped entrance to underground parking, but that's it.
So...who's plowing their driveway with their quad? Anyone doing commercial snow removal with one?
Anyone running a salt hopper on the back?
What brand of plow do you use?
How big of a quad? 500? 700?
Running chains, or just standard tires?

Any other thoughts on the subject?

[835]

We have a Artic Cat 500 with a blade. We plow a long concrete drive way 100' or so with a pretty big 6 car parking lot at the end, which is my house plus the occasional neighbour. Last years snow was super easy to keep up with.

the problem is if it keeps snowing like last year with a quad, if you don't "forecast" your plan right and it keeps snowing you run out of room.... They key is speed, throw it as far as you can on day 1 and plow right to the very edge of what you can... last year every inch counted. and yes we chain up all 4 and keep it in 4x4 ...... we have pushed pretty good piles with the lockers on, but as you know that is straight on and straight off... no turning...

if you have a decent size driveway they are worth every penny.....
going commercial with it might be tough on the bike. a lot of impact on it...

[srupp]

Hmmmm great point on the first run having a place for subequent snow..
I use a Honda 500..with the top of the line Warn Snow plow blade. .and the strap for raising lowering the plow.great quality..warn...installs in mere minutes. .the attachments stay on machine all year.you can get a motor to swing blade left or right..I have not.
After every winter the blade gets removed, washed..then waxed..bottom scraper wear bar lasts 5...6 years..blade bars..etc..long time..20 years ?
when plowing it packs snow so tight that 11 hp snowblower wont move it easily.
They have ATV like units in Europe that have a snowblower on the front..but $$
I use specialty studded tires out of Qubec..
Been using the quad snow plowing for over 20 years.
steven

[bighornbob]

When I bought my quad (a Yamaha Kodiak 450), the salesman asked if I was going to be plowing driveways. At the time I said no as we did not really have a big driveway. He said good because if you want to plow snow you should get a 700.
Well 3 years later we buy a new place and it has a concrete driveway and it has parking for three (front to back) along the side of the house and another three in front of the garages. As there is a fence along the side of the driveway down the side and we share the front with the neighbors, all snow from the back has to be pushed out to front then across the main part of the driveway and onto the front lawn.
I will tell you this, its scary what the 450 can push. So I personally don’t think you need a 700 like the saleman was trying to tell me.
All the back snow get pushed to the front and piled in the driveway. Then I get a different angle and push straight onto the lawn. This is where you can really push a ton. I don’t own chains and rarely do I put it in 4x4 unless Im pushing the big pile off the middle or piling it on my lawn.
I think the limiting factor of plowing is the plow itself. If they were built higher you could push more. Or if they came with sides then snow would not slide off the sides.
They are great for plowing big amounts of snow in a hurry but I find I am always using a hand shovel to clean up the little rows it leaves behind as snow slides off the plow. I have thought of welding some sort of sides on to it to make clean up easier but have not got around to it.
I use the Kolpin X-Factor plow. No complaints with it but the skids wear off each season.
I also had my winch cable snap half way through the first season. I guess the up and down a million times on the same 4’ of cable really wrecks it and started gouging the roller fairlead. After doing some research, I bought a 6ft tow strap with hooks on each end. I cut this in half and wrapped the bare end around the winch drum. The strap is way better, has lasted two season now and no damage to the roller.
Like the previous poster, you have to find spots to put the snow as you can only push it, you are not throwing it up and over like a blower can.

The first snow gets plowed right across the lawn to the edge of property right away and gets piled that way then after. Last year i just hand shoveled a inch only to the edge and it left like a 8 inch bump. Well that froze after a week or so then it made plowing a bitch. The next day it basically got chiseled out so it would be smooth for the plow. Now if I hand shovel to the edge, the plow comes out within a day and it gets pushed to the far edge.


BHB

[BromBones]

I use my 700 Grizzly to plow ~ 1km of road access to my property, sawmill yard, + driveway at home. I use a 60'' plow. 3 passes and it's done but on your first snowfalls wing the snowbanks as far back as you can. When I have the tracks on it will out push a small pickup and I can ramp the snowbanks up as high as I want.

With an ATV, it's not about the horespower so don't let a salesman fool you. Its all about traction. A 450cc with the racks loaded down & chains will out push an 800 with no weight on it, plus the smaller atv does a nice job in small areas. Strap a deep cycle or 4D battery to the rack and run your winch off it, adds traction + doesn't bog down the ATV battery. Trickle charge it at night.

And use a strap to lift the plow or you'll break winch cables and wear out the rollers. If you stick with cable, keep a box of cable clamps on hand so you can fix it on the go. Those small sand hoppers work well, but if you run that + winch + lights off the stock battery it is hard on it, that's where the extra battery helps out.

Warn plows are good but have some weak spots, mine has been broken & beefed up in a few spots.

[Squamch]

Good info guys, thanks!

I've got an email out to my accountant concerning the financial end of it, as well as some contingency plans for low-snow years...flat rate to be on call kinda deal.

Great info on the actual feasibility of it though. The guys I know who have quads run either canned ham or Yamaha. The cannedhams seem like toys with gobs of power, but they have those stupid belts that get wet and slip. I haven't seen that with Yamaha, but I also haven't seen them being used as hard as the ones that are just toys.
Are there direct drive transmissions? Or do they all utilize some kind of belt? Benefits and draw backs to each?


Hahaha...my phone has seen so much shit talking about Can-Am that it autocorrects to cannedham.

[firstshot]

I used a Grizzly 700 without chains on a large gravel driveway for about 5 years. It’s doable but you have to keep on top of it and ramp your snowbanks or you will run out of room. For a couple inches of snow it worked well and very fast but if was deep, heavy, wet snow it’s going to take forever. Just replaced it this year with a HD lawn tractor with snowblower and am very happy with it. Plowing with the quad can be hard on the machine ( wheelbearings and winch).

[BromBones]

Yamaha uses a belt drive but it's extremely tough. It's common for the Yamaha clutch & belt to go beyond 10,000km on the originals. Some have upwards of 15,000. Them and Honda are the best for pure work machines.

[RiverOtter]

Moose 'County' 60" blade on a 500 Sportsman and a 1/2 km driveway with a large parking/turn around at the top. Takes about 20 minutes to clear, depending how much snow is on the ground.

Used to use chains, but don't anymore. The biggest limiting factor is NOT the quad, but the spring release that tips the blade if you hook something solid. Quads will push a STOOPID amount of snow, it's crazy.

Agree with the comments above about needing to 'over plow' so you don't run out of room. Speed is your friend. LOL. Often, I will do an extra pass along the banks after big dumps, with the blade fully up and a tire in the bank itself to cut it down and wing it back.

I deal with gravel/shale, no cement/asphalt driveways where I live. So I find packing the first snowfall or two down with the truck(quad for the center piece) makes a nice smooth base to plow on.

[Grumpa Joe]

Don't get much snow here but after the accumulation 3 winters ago I got a Switchblade for the Viking. Made short work of my small driveway so I ended up plowing all the sidewalks in the neighborhood, about 100 meters of road in 3 directions (live on a corner) and moved the stuff the city plow deposited in front of the driveways of the seniors in my close vicinity. Have cable chains but never had to use them, most of the time just used 2wd. Was 6" - 8" (15-20 cms) of snow