Let's visit on the Porch II (Billings, Livingston: gallery, apartment, coop)

[Montana Griz]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

Food for thought Grid, a straddle mount ATV is going to be more agile for getting in and around tight spots. Side by side is going to be more comfortable.

My Honda is either Automatic, or manual shift. Put it in D and go. Manual is electric shift by an up and down arrow on the left handlebar with your thumb. No more foot shift. I chose it because I do not have to use feet at all. Left brake lever on Handlebar gives you 60% Rear and 40% front brake. Right brake lever gives you front brake.

Plow is single blade that I raise and lower with my electric winch via a rocker switch on left handlebar. To switch blade angle from straight to left throw or right, you exit the vehicle and push down on a spring loaded bar and then push the blade to snap into position.

If you can handle that machine, it will be more agile to get in and out of tight spots.

Side by side is going to be more comfortable (can have heater with windshield, top and even doors to stop wind. You can get a v-plow that is all electric/hydraulic that will change from V to left or right. Or a standard blade. Blade will give you a wider plow. Again, raising and lowering with a winch or with its own hydraulic system. Will haul that girlfriend on trail rides.

Both can be licensed in Montana, if you so choose. Highly recommend that you do so you can rude it where ever you want.

For mowing, take a look at shiptons at a small brushhog. Either machine will pull a hog and it has its own engine.

If I buy a new machine, it will be a side by side. As I get older and less capable, I want the added comfort. alYou can haul material (fence posts, dirt, grain sacks, etc with the side by side.

Highly recommend looking into a Can-Am side by side. They are the Cadillac. Bigger engine, radial knobby tires, more options built in, and far more options available from third part vendors.

I had rims made for my straddle mount so I can put standard 14 inch tires on them. Summer, I put on the rims with common tread, steel belted radials. Cheap and less wear. Winter, I swap over to the regular rims with knobby tires. Regular knibbys will wear out in a single summer running on pavement and running $120 per tire, gets costly. My standard size street tires run about $49 per tire and are currently on their 7th season.

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

I would love to be able to give you some advice Griz, problem is I don't have or use ATVs. Around my place we have farm tractors.

If you had an 8-N or 9-N Ford tractor with blade, those are great. You are backing up to plow, but they have a lot of power for such a small tractor, 3 point hitch with hydrolic lift, and the plow is easy to just push in a lever and move the blade to whatever angle you want. Also works for road work in the summer. It is heavy enough to really smooth out a gravel drive.

They are pretty economical to run, and you can get any number of sickle bar mowers or other gear to run off of the PTO.

I just never had any use for an ATV with the tractors, horses and 4 wheel drive trucks and Scouts and Jeeps.

If I were less than 200 miles from the Bitterroot I would be happy to come over and give you a hand. We have a snow blower that goes on one of the farm tractors, that thing will throw a frozen horse turd for 200 yards!!
Makes plowing a road easy. It takes a cut just a little wider than the back wheels on the tractor, and 3 feet of snow you can go through without slowing down.


I wonder if they make a snow blower attachment for an ATV

...........Hey Guys, thank you for all the comments & suggestions......it gives me a lot to think about and various kinds of research to do.

I wonder if any body makes a sickle bar mower (with about a 3 to 4 foot cutting swath) that somehow can be attached to the FRONT of a suitable ATV, and somehow has it's own power source or ???.

Thanks again.....................

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by Montana Griz

...........Hey Guys, thank you for all the comments & suggestions......it gives me a lot to think about and various kinds of research to do.

I wonder if any body makes a sickle bar mower (with about a 3 to 4 foot cutting swath) that somehow can be attached to the FRONT of a suitable ATV, and somehow has it's own power source or ???.

Thanks again.....................

That is an interesting idea. On an ATV, most of the plows mount on the front of a framework that pin to the center of the frame and stick out the front. Your winch pulls it up and down. I've seen these frames with plows, snow blowers, and brushes on them. The snow blowers and brushes both have their own engines.

If a person took a walk behind sickle mower and mounted it on the front of that framework, it might work pretty good. You'd have to mount a couple boggie wheels on it, one on each side so that you would maintain height. You can't try and set height by raising and lowering the winch, you'd want to use winch to pick it up to go somewhere else and then set it down on the boggies to start mowing. It's an interesting concept. If you bought one with engine on it, and then fabricate that framework to hold it, it should work pretty good. Here is a link to a sickle mower like I am talking about. You'd want to pull the wheels off of this and put on the boggies.

Troy Bilt Sickle Bar Mower Walk Behind Brush Cutter | eBay


You would want the boggies out closer to the sickle bar. Maybe just ahead of the engine? The put them out further to give better stabilization. Not out to the full width of the sickle bar, but further out than the current frame shows.


When you mentioned a sickle mower, the first thing that popped into my mind was my first mower. I bought it at auction up in Belle Fourche South Dakota. It was a #7 McCormick Deering, horse drawn mower. I put a shorter drawbar on it and pulled it behind a pickup truck mowing ditches to get hay for my 2 horses. I raked the hay, with a pitchfork. I not only put up enough hay that summer to winter my horses, but I put up enough to sell some. I sold enough hay that the next year, I bought a "B" John Deere and pulled the mower with it that summer. Put up enough hay and sold it, I bought a dump rake. I was in tall cotton then! Started doing contract work around Rapid City, cleaning up 10-20 acre lots that people bought with intention of building a home on. I had more lots than I could get to, so I bought another McCormick Deering and this time it was a #9. In 4 years, we had done enough that we had 2 windrowers, 2 bailers, a farmhand, and a Peterbilt with a 40ft flatbed. Started doing haywork on shares then.

[Threerun]

I use a 30hp compact tractor (John Deere). It came with a front blade snow (about 5.5 ft). I put the rear scraper blade on at the same time and it really cleans the road quick. Two passes up and back and I'm done.

I found I don't need chains like I did in WV either. Nice dry snow- pushes great!

[Reziac]

Who was it said we don't have enough snowpack this year?

Yes, you! Front and center! See this shovel? Get to work!!

Shoveled my way out to the dog yard... did chores ...an hour later had to shovel my way back. Couldn't even tell where my path was!

Ya know, snow warms you twice too. Once when you cuss at it, and once when you shovel it. If we get enough snow, we won't need any firewood.

[Reziac]

Lookin' at the highway webcams, most of 'em look like Siberia. Except for Saco and Malta. They've actually got GREEN stuff coming up. Either somethin' is seriously wrong with their snow, or this is totally unfair.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Lookin' at the highway webcams, most of 'em look like Siberia. Except for Saco and Malta. They've actually got GREEN stuff coming up. Either somethin' is seriously wrong with their snow, or this is totally unfair.

Typical Winter programming, they're playing re-runs.

Been snowing hard here. I'm getting ready to go out and plow to try and stay ahead of this storm. I usually try and plow when there is about 6 inches on the ground and then it's not so difficult, I can really fly.

[Reziac]

Not only can I not even see that path I shoveled twice already, I think it's deeper there than when I started.

There's something to be said for raised walkways, so you can shovel the snow into the ditch once instead of moving the same snowdrift over and over!

[Reziac]

Yesterday's exciting weather system:

[Threerun]

You know- as much as this sucks, it pales in comparison to the winters I had to deal with multiple feet of wet moisture laden snow in WV. The wind would blow there too, but the snow was so heavy it didn't move around.

That's the only difference here, you get light snow that blows around, not the wet heavy snow.

I'll take this ANYDAY over that crap. The last winter I had in WV was over 95" of wet, heavy snow. This is nothing compared to that nightmare. Nothing.

[Reziac]

Oh, there's something even better than wet heavy crap -- it's two feet of wet heavy crap that's blown into huge drifts, followed by a seriously below-zero hard freeze!

At the time I lived just ouside of Belgrade... The county managed to get a bulldozer stuck up in front of the next place and there it sat for a month before they could get it out. Idiot neighbor thought he could get out with his 4x4. It sat there stuck for a couple weeks before he got it dug up and towed out, too.

My place wasn't quite that buried but still the snow was like iron. I'd hack a bit with the axe to make a toehold, then chain up the truck and back into it at the best speed I could muster (it has a big heavy back bumper). Shovel the chunks out of the way, rinse and repeat for about 4 hours a day for 3 days to get through about 50 feet of rock-hard snowdrift.