What's the OP objection to using a winch for a lift? Mine works fine. I did put on a pulley fairlead and a short plow rope to reduce the wear on my expensive winch rope.
None really. I simply like the idea of hydraulic lift and blade swivel. Couple of folks I talked to that have the BOSS hydraulic plow love it, albeit a tad heavier than a conventional ATV setup. One fella has the straight blade system, another the V-Plow. He said the V-Plow is the cats azz - but that happening in this household @ $3K plus. One guy said he'd never go back to the winch operated lift system. He made some analogy to old tractors with loaders. Back in the day, the bucket was tripped, and then reset when set back down. Modern loaders have hydraulically operated buckets, with much better position control. Not sure how the analogy fits, other than maybe to underline progress.
