After reading that R4s were horrible in snow, I wasn’t sure what to expect on snow with my new L2501 HST with R4s and loaded tires with bucket only. I was a bit apprehensive and played for a bit up near my upper shed before making the plunge down my driveway. I was hoping I wouldn’t need my Ranger to pull me back up the hill. 
We had about 8-10 inches with drifts up to about 1 1/2 feet. Almost all of the snow plowing/moving was on gravel.
Most of the work was done with my Polaris Ranger Midsize 570 on the long driveway. But it was nice to move the snow with the tractor instead of just pushing to the side of the road with the plow blade in straight position. Even in Low the Ranger is much faster as expected.
I’ve never operated a tractor, so maybe these observations are obvious to some of you. My experience was limited to the test drive, and a little bit of time on the delivery day.
Observations:
L2501 HST with R4s did push the front at times, but so did the Ranger today. I had to run in true 4 wheel drive with the Ranger which I almost never do plowing with the Ranger. I did order chains for the front for just this situation, but I don’t think they would be absolutely required. Diff lock didn’t help me move forward, but it didn’t make the front steer.
Loved the HST for going backwards and forwards to dump snow.
It was around 20, and I was just fine in the rops without cab and minimal wind.
Lifting/moving the snow off the road/parking areas was definitely helpful
I did use diff lock a couple of times to push snow. Lifting the bucket to reduce the force was helpful in those cases as well as dumping the snow.
I did need to back off the treadle peddle to go “faster” uphill. I’ll do better next time. I was a bit surprised how slow it went if I pushed the peddle too far. Counterintuitive, but not a problem.
The Ranger can’t do everything the L2501 can do and vice versa. I think I’ll probably use both on the next snow, and we are expecting more over the coming days.
We had about 8-10 inches with drifts up to about 1 1/2 feet. Almost all of the snow plowing/moving was on gravel.
Most of the work was done with my Polaris Ranger Midsize 570 on the long driveway. But it was nice to move the snow with the tractor instead of just pushing to the side of the road with the plow blade in straight position. Even in Low the Ranger is much faster as expected.
I’ve never operated a tractor, so maybe these observations are obvious to some of you. My experience was limited to the test drive, and a little bit of time on the delivery day.
Observations:
L2501 HST with R4s did push the front at times, but so did the Ranger today. I had to run in true 4 wheel drive with the Ranger which I almost never do plowing with the Ranger. I did order chains for the front for just this situation, but I don’t think they would be absolutely required. Diff lock didn’t help me move forward, but it didn’t make the front steer.
Loved the HST for going backwards and forwards to dump snow.
It was around 20, and I was just fine in the rops without cab and minimal wind.
Lifting/moving the snow off the road/parking areas was definitely helpful
I did use diff lock a couple of times to push snow. Lifting the bucket to reduce the force was helpful in those cases as well as dumping the snow.
I did need to back off the treadle peddle to go “faster” uphill. I’ll do better next time. I was a bit surprised how slow it went if I pushed the peddle too far. Counterintuitive, but not a problem.
The Ranger can’t do everything the L2501 can do and vice versa. I think I’ll probably use both on the next snow, and we are expecting more over the coming days.
