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Posted by: JohnO
I have the Swisher plow, and it works pretty well for pushing loose dirt or brush around. Good way to shove things without worrying about getting your plastic torn up, or a branch through your radiator. I've been thinking about the dump bucket, but haven't bought one.
One tip on the Swisher universal mount - it works great, on an IRS quad. The rear bolts into the trailer hitch. Only problem I had with the swisher mount is it kills your ground clearance.
Posted by: tencubed
There have been a few threads about this in the past but I couldn't bring them up. Probably because of my limited abilities with a computer.
At any rate, I have the Swisher system on my Prairie 360. I use the plow primarily for pushing dirt and "stuff" out of barns and such and backfilled behind a trencher while laying waterlines at the farm. The bucket does dump but only from the height of the push tube under the quad. Think of it more as a "pick it up here and carry it to there" type of unit. I did modify mine to allow about 3" extra height but this puts the bucket at a rather severe angle when picking thing up but works for my uses. I did build a set of ramps I can set up to run the front of the quad up on to allow dumping into a small trailer I built to haul dirt and such around. It is possible to dump the bucket by tripping the release and then driving forward to "roll" the bucket to a vertical position. This is not real successful on hard surfaces. The bucket will do a lot of work when moving relatively soft material like loose gravel, piled up dirt, sand and such. It will not dig well into hard dry ground or heavy sod.
The push tube that goes under the quad and hooks on to the rear hitch takes the pushing strain away from the front of the quad but, on my prairie at least, tended to bind the movement of the swing arm if the rear bolt were fully tightened. I made a hinge and pin attachment that makes dropping the push tube a snap. I use pins on the front as well which is much easier than using bolts when removing/attaching the push bar.
I had originally thought I would need to buy a set of ag tires or some other after market tire with heavy tread. I found the stock Dunlops where more than capable of doing the job. I pump the front tires up to 8 PSI when using the bucket but run just 5 PSI otherwise. The stock rubber acts as a kind of "fuse" in that they will start to loose traction prior to tearing up gears or drive lines. It seems like the limit of the quad is about that of the tires and this gives a good check point to avoid overloading things as I am prone to do from time to time.
I did find that mounting my winch up high, top of winch level with the front rack, and running the winch cable to a block on the bucket, and plow, and back up to the winch mount made things easier to control as it slowed the lift and drop speed by 50%. It also reduces the load on the winch and allows it to run easier.
When the equipment arrived, I ordered from Cabela's as the price was the best when shipping was considered, the box was split and some bolts and a spring were missing. Called Swisher and they sent replacements by UPS Next Day at no charge. I also bought a Swisher rough cut tow behind mower and had a couple of questions about it. When I called Swisher they were very helpful and all in all have been an outstanding company to deal with.
Posted by: JTR21
I see Cabelas has an atv dump bucket. Do any of you guys have any experience with it? Such as how well it's made, ease of use, durability etc. It looks like something I could really get alot of use of but the price is a bit scary (around $500) It also appears that there is some sort of bar that connects to the rear hitch (just guessing from photo) that connects up to the bucket. Anyone know what that is all about? Thanks in advance for any help.
