Honda Foreman 450 Plowing Snow

PapaPerk · Feb 26, 2015

Thought you all would like to see my Foreman plowing snow. Around 8" of freshly fallen snow. The plow is a 60" Moose.

http://youtu.be/ELv1V0UtIvQ

NS Gearhead · Feb 27, 2015

Nice! I grew up on Honda 300s and 450s. Tough as nails!

check · Feb 27, 2015

Yeah, nice! We have a 2011 420 with auto tranny, and I was wondering if it had enough power to put plow on it. What year is yours, and were you using four-wheel-drive?

Also, that snow was fairly light and dry it seems. Have you tried it on thicker and or slushy snow?

nybirdman · Feb 27, 2015

We just put a winch on a 500 Foreman for a friend's snowplow.His is chained up and will really push some snow.
I lot of people would be surprised how much an ATV can push snow.
I have had one since 1998 but my tractor gets most of the work now.

PapaPerk · Feb 27, 2015

NS Gearhead said:
Nice! I grew up on Honda 300s and 450s. Tough as nails!

Yes they are! Amazing how much torque that big one cylinder produces. Reminds me of the two cylinder John Deeres! Pop pop pop!

PapaPerk · Feb 27, 2015

check said:
Yeah, nice! We have a 2011 420 with auto tranny, and I was wondering if it had enough power to put plow on it. What year is yours, and were you using four-wheel-drive? Also, that snow was fairly light and dry it seems. Have you tried it on thicker and or slushy snow?

My Foreman is a 2003 450 with selectable 4x4 and pushbutton shift. I bought it used with around 900 miles and 150 hours from some corn farmers in southern Indiana.

I was in 4x4 the entire time. If you try to plow in 2wd it will spin due to so much weight on front (blade). It needs more counterweight on rear rack. I have about 40 lbs on it now but should have 100 lbs to offset blade.

Yes the snow was powder type and very cold. Moves it with ease. I have plowed around 5 inches of slushy snow and it also did pretty darn well. Key to ATV plowing is to plow right after snow fall. Don't let it sit or it won't plow it because it freezes solid. Even my big Kubota will have some trouble when that happens.

PapaPerk · Feb 27, 2015

nybirdman said:
We just put a winch on a 500 Foreman for a friend's snowplow.His is chained up and will really push some snow. I lot of people would be surprised how much an ATV can push snow. I have had one since 1998 but my tractor gets most of the work now.

Yeah they are stout! My tires are the original set and I'm not running chains... And it will still push that plow like a dozer. Real impressive. Plus it's pretty darn fun! (0:

Jay4200 · Feb 27, 2015

I've been plowing my city property for 15 years with a Foreman 450S (yellow) equipped w/ Moose 60" County plow - that the one that looks like a wing. Works great. You run out of traction WAY before you'd ever run out of power. I actually put 600 miles on my machine over the course of 10 years plowing my two driveways - only 100' and 60' long, BTW - which I think is amazing.

PapaPerk · Feb 28, 2015

Jay4200 said:
I've been plowing my city property for 15 years with a Foreman 450S (yellow) equipped w/ Moose 60" County plow - that the one that looks like a wing. Works great. You run out of traction WAY before you'd ever run out of power. I actually put 600 miles on my machine over the course of 10 years plowing my two driveways - only 100' and 60' long, BTW - which I think is amazing.

Wow that is amazing! That's a lot of plowing! How do you like the foot shift?

PapaPerk · Mar 3, 2015

They are calling for another 10" of snow! Looks like the Foreman is going back on duty. So far I have had no failures. Anyone had problems with winch solenoids failing?