ATV snow plow v. 2.0 (DUW)

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ATV snow plow v. 2.0 (DUW)

December 15, 2006, 10:42:02 PM

So you've seen my first attempt at a snow plow for the ATV. It came out OK, but I knew I could do better:

The main things I didn't like about the first one were the pivots where it attaches to the bike (after making 'em I figured they'd be weak) and the fact that the plow "picked up" the snow when raised. As it went through the arc about the pivot points the blade tilted back, hanging onto any snow in front of it. I decided to give that plow to my father since he's got a small "city" driveway, and decided on a beefier, more complicated version for myself.

Both plows started out like this:

...a 100lb propane tank. I got three of them from a neighbour (this is the third one that isn't a plow yet). I removed the valves, made sure there was no gas left, and cut them in half. I then welded the two halves together so the plow blade was 46" wide (allowing it to fit on my utility trailer). To prevent the plow blade from pivoting I decided two pivots were necessary, sort of like an SLA front suspension in a car, and to keep the blade as vertical as possible the upper "control arm" was made shorter, with the frame mount further out, just like a car. I used one of the metal bracket things you see leaning against that tank as the lower "control arm". It is solid steel, 3/4" diameter, with 3/4" eyes on all for corners, with 1/4" steel bracing and a vertical "eye" that would be perfect to attach the winch cable to. The upper "control arm" was made out of 1" angle iron welded into an "A" configuration. A view of the "control arms":

I mounted the two pivot points to the custom tubular front bumper on the bike. The lower pivots use homemade 3/4" clevis pins with spring loaded retainers, while the upper points are simple 3/8" bolts with cotter pins to prevent the nuts from backing off:

The upper pivots also required another strip of metal on the outside of the "control arm" so that the pivot on the bike would be "sandwiched":

The control arms mount to the blade in much the same way: 3/4" lower pins and 3/8" uppers:

The framework was installed so that when the plow is lowered (no tension on the winch cable) it will tend to "dig in", so its light weight shouldn't cause it to "float" in the snow. You can't see it, but a piece of 1/2" angle iron is welded to the underside of the blade. This piece of angle iron should prevent the blade from digging into the ground. If the blade starts to dig in the angle iron should kick it back up. A 1/8" X 2.5" piece of flat bar was bolted to the lower edge of the plow blade to act as a wear bar, so if it ever wears I can just unbolt it and put another one on:

And when raised (it's hard to tell, but the plow is up about 8" in the photo below) you can see that the blade stays somewhat perpendicular (it actually tilts downward a bit, which will help it shed snow):

...And it comes WAY up (it's about 18" off the ground here):

So there you have it. The Thundercat Automotive (R) ATV plow. Now all I need is to finish the wiring of the winch (it is only temporarily wired in the pics, which is why the winch wiring looks sloppy), install some headlights on the bike (I had bumper mounted lights but they were too low for the polw, so new lights will be mounted up on the rack), and to put the plastic back on the bike. Oh yeah - and some snow.

ATV snow plow v. 2.0 (DUW)

Reply #1 – December 15, 2006, 11:03:17 PM

Very nice job there

ATV snow plow v. 2.0 (DUW)

Reply #2 – December 16, 2006, 12:04:46 AM

Now I wish I took a pic of the homemade plow that came in for repair today. Was a piece of plywood bolted to two pices of 1X1 tubing that used lynch pins to hold it to the foot rests of the guys TRIKE.

Funny shiznit.

Looks awesome though, you get a new quad or just have two?

Scott

ATV snow plow v. 2.0 (DUW)

Reply #3 – December 16, 2006, 12:09:08 AM

Very nice work; creative and well-designed.

You didn't stick that bumper cover, header panel, and axle in the background just to impress us, did you? :D

ATV snow plow v. 2.0 (DUW)

Reply #4 – December 16, 2006, 12:42:00 AM

That looks about 20X more durable than the $559 contraptions in this weeks C.T. flyer, and probably cost you a 1/10 of that. Very Impressive. You've got me thinking about making my own, because my driveway is difficult to plow nicely with my truck, because I have a 9' blade (too wide) on it.

You may not realize it, but your mounting setup looks basically like a three point implement hitch on a tractor, which proved to be a very durable design.

Next time chain goes on sale at PAL you'll have to make some homemade ATV tires chains for deep snow traction. I'd show you pics of mine, but a friend borrowed them (just the chains thankfully) and sunk them in kississing lake last may.

ATV snow plow v. 2.0 (DUW)

Reply #5 – December 16, 2006, 09:48:26 AM

Quote from: tbirdscott;118589

Now I wish I took a pic of the homemade plow that came in for repair today. Was a piece of plywood bolted to two pices of 1X1 tubing that used lynch pins to hold it to the foot rests of the guys TRIKE.

Funny shiznit.

Looks awesome though, you get a new quad or just have two?

Scott

My father and I went "splits" on two bikes. The first one is a '99 Yamaha Kodiak 400, the second is an '87 Honda TRX350 Fourtrax. We usually keep both bikes at the cottage, but we'll be keeping the Yamaha at his place and the Honda at mine now, at least for the winter. I had originally planned on keeping the Yamaha here, but I like the Honda plow better, so he gets the Yamaha :pbb: The Honda, BTW, is 10X the bike the Yamaha is. It may not be pretty, but it's TOUGH AS NAILS. Gotta love the solid front axle...

Quote from: cougarcragar;118592

Very nice work; creative and well-designed.

You didn't stick that bumper cover, header panel, and axle in the background just to impress us, did you? :D

That's just a testament to how cluttered my garage is

There's a left fender in there too somewhere, all of it will be going on the T-Bird over the winter. Actually, if I hit my shin on that God-ed axle one more time I just may stick it in the river:beatyoass:

Quote from: merccougar50;118599

That looks about 20X more durable than the $559 contraptions in this weeks C.T. flyer, and probably cost you a 1/10 of that. Very Impressive. You've got me thinking about making my own, because my driveway is difficult to plow nicely with my truck, because I have a 9' blade (too wide) on it.

You may not realize it, but your mounting setup looks basically like a three point implement hitch on a tractor, which proved to be a very durable design.

Next time chain goes on sale at PAL you'll have to make some homemade ATV tires chains for deep snow traction. I'd show you pics of mine, but a friend borrowed them (just the chains thankfully) and sunk them in kississing lake last may.

It actually cost me about $20 (for the length of 3/4" threaded rod, two cans of Tremclad, nuts & bolts, and the welding wire I used). The winches were bought a long time ago without a plow in mind, and I only just got around to installing them. All of the metal used was s.

I had the three-point hitch in mind when I made it, too. My small Allis-Chalmers tractor (the one I blew the engine in) has a three-point hitch setup that I liked. It's on a smaller scale than a big tractor, of course, using only 3/8" pins for pivots, but it works for the tiller attachment. I'll probably end up making tire chains as per your suggestion, too. At least for the Honda, as it's got 1/2 worn tires (the Yamaha tires are nearly new)

Next year's plans are bigger - I'm gonna mount an engine to the snowblower attachment I've got for the blown-up tractor and mount that to the bike.

ATV snow plow v. 2.0 (DUW)

Reply #6 – December 16, 2006, 10:44:09 AM

thats really cool!