I figure with all the diesel heads around here, there has to be a lot of opinions on ATV's, so here goes.
I currently have a little Yamaha Bear Tracker 250cc 2wd. (camo if it matters). I use it for yard work, bringing in firewood, towing the leaf rack, yard work and snow plowing driveways.
My snowplowing consists of the following.
I have around 400' of 10'-20' wide driveway that has blacktop at one end and at the garage door openings. One section of this driveway is 20% grade but it is stone.
My neighbor has 100' of concrete on a 20% grade (which I share to my bottom garage where my truck parks), plus he has an additional 1000' of stone driveway. (I really need to keep this concrete section open so I can get my truck out!)
My Yamaha can move the snow, but its way to small. If I don't plow down the concrete driveway first I will be stuck at the bottom because of the 2wd.
I run tire chains but it is making a mess of my new blacktop.
Last year I broke off the trailer hitch pulling around 300 lbs of firewood so I put a 1 1/2" receiver hitch on it.
I am looking for a new ATV that fits the bill a little better.
The new Honda
Fourtrax Rancher ES 4x4 has caught my eye. I like the fact it is now 420cc, has fuel injection (maybe it will run better cold) and has water cooling! Even when its 20 deg out my Yamaha will run hot because I am beating the heck out of it trying to plow! I called CycleCountry who makes my plow, they said if they will get this new model as soon as they come out, and if they need to make a new plow mount kit it will take 6 weeks. That's well into snow seasons so I guess I should keep my Yamaha for the rest of the winter
I guess no one can have an opinion on this model since it hits the show room floors next month. Some times I am afraid to buy a new model but I did survive the 98.5 ISB I owned.
What kind of ATV are you using for plowing snow? All the dealers recomend the smaller 350-400cc sizes saying its eaiser to drive them for plowing.
Linear Mode
