Hey Guys - Got out in the woods yesterday to do some splitting... Got some video of the Ground force ATV system in action. Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with them nor is this a paid advertisement.. I just REALLY like this system.
Seems like this would put a lot of stress on the front end suspension. Much more than a snowplow, but nonetheless it is innovative. Wonder how much weight it can take and if much counterweight would be needed.
With the suspension locks in place, the machine handles very well. I've got some prototype GF suspension locks installed, which work infinitely better than what originally comes with the system. The ATV has a specification of like 300 lbs on the front rack, which I'm sure is on the low end with engineering factor of safety. I don't run counter-weight on the back so I DON"T over load the front. When the back tires start getting light, I know I'm a bit heavy. This thing will easily pick up 400 lbs without problems, which will pick up the back end. The whole system doesn't weigh any more than my plow. The bucket maybe weight 65-70 lbs, which is easily what my plow weighs. Again, as I mentioned in other posts, its NOT a tractor, but I can get around in the woods where a tractor couldn't go.
I have the swisher system, just like this on my sportsman 500. It's been in the ATV for 10+ yrs. It works. But not was well as you might think. It works better for lighter stuff, TBH. Now I'd love to have that bucket here at my house for moving the mulch/ dirt from the stump grinder that came last Friday. Instead it's more manual loading.
yeah, I can definitely see it coming in handy for that. We all have our different ways of processing wood.....the way I do it I really would not have a use for it seeing as how I don't split as I go. The way I do it causes me to handle the wood more often though. I tend to abide by the saying, "work harder not smarter" I have to load it into the trailer (1), drive it to my pile to unload it (2). Then in spring I have to pick them up again from the pile to place it on the splitter beam (3) and then throw them into the trailer as I split. Then I have to stack the splits from the trailer (4). So I've already touched the wood 4 times by the time I have it stacked. If you are splitting as you are cutting like Joe is doing, I can see it helping out by loading the wood once in the bucket and having it right at beam height for when you go to split. Seeing as how I do my cutting in winter, I really can't stack on top of the snow, unless I want to re-do it all come spring when the snow melts.
There's also this one a buddy told me about. Looks to transfer the weight a bit more rearward....although also looks to have more "stuff" to deal with due to the hydraulic pump and hoses. Front End Loader ATV Attachment | Hydraulic Powered ATV Bucket
I was looking at the hydraulic version as well (Wild Hare MFG). I didn't go with it due to complexity, cost and the hassle of taking it on and off. The GF system takes about 5 minutes to pull of the machine. At the time I was looking, they hadn't mounted one of these to a 2019 CAN AM so there were question as to whether the lift arms would clear the front fenders. I wasn't going to cut up the ATV to make it fit and didn't want to spend the time modifying the system to make it fit my machine. However, several months later, I did get some pictures from Wild Hare showing the system mounted to my model ATV. Looked to be a pretty good system as well.
Yeah, it looked like something that was not going to be cheap coming with full hydraulics and a pump. Just looked up the prices.
