Slack rope and lift control for use with plow

A system for controlling raising of a device associated with a vehicle, comprising:

• a winch coupled to the vehicle;
• a plow pivotably coupled to the vehicle and operatively associated with the winch;
• a first member coupled to one of a frame of the plow and the vehicle;
• and
• a limit switch coupled to the other of the frame of the plow and the vehicle;
• wherein upon raising the plow relative to the vehicle to a predetermined raised position with the winch, the first member is brought into at least substantial alignment with the limit switch to change an activation state of the limit switch and thereby disable raising of the plow by the winch while allowing a lowering operation of the plow by the winch.

A system for controlling raising and lowering of a device coupled to an all-terrain vehicle, comprising:

• a winch coupled to the all-terrain vehicle;
• a plow coupled to the all-terrain vehicle and operatively associated with the winch;
• at least one support member pivotably coupled to a frame of the plow, the support member carrying a pulley rotatably coupled thereto, the pulley receiving a winch rope of the winch for selectively raising and lowering the plow;
• a first Hall-effect switch operatively associated with the frame and the winch and configured to selectively enable and disable lowering of the working implement by the winch;
• a first magnet carried by the at least one support member and operatively associated with the first switch;
• a biasing member configured to bias the at least one support member to a first position when a load on the winch rope is below a predetermined threshold, the first member being in at least substantial alignment with the switch when the at least one support member is in the first position, the switch configured to change an activation state upon the at least one support member and the first member being in the first position to automatically disable lowering of the plow by the winch, and to enable lowering of the plow when the load in the winch rope is greater than the predetermined threshold so as to overcome a biasing force of the biasing member and pivot the at least one support member from the first position to a second position where the first magnet is spaced apart from the first switch;
• a second magnet carried by the frame of the plow;
• and
• a second Hall-effect switch coupled to the all-terrain vehicle and operatively associated with the winch, the second switch configured to change an activation state when the plow is raised to a predetermined raised position whereby the second magnet is at least substantially aligned with the second switch so as to be sensed by the second switch and thereby disable raising of the plow by the winch and to change the activation state to enable raising of the plow by the winch when the second magnet is spaced apart from the second switch.

A system for controlling slack in a winch rope associated with a plow coupled to a vehicle, comprising:

• means for raising and lowering the plow;
• means for pivotably coupling at least one support member to the plow, the support member rotatably receiving winch rope for selectively raising and lowering the plow;
• means for biasing the at least one support member to a first position when a load in the winch rope is below a predetermined threshold, wherein when the load in the winch rope is above the predetermined threshold the at least one support member is pivoted to a second position spaced apart from the first position;
• means for sensing when the at least one support member is in the first position and the second position;
• and
• means for disabling a deploying operation of the winch to lower the plow when the means for sensing senses the at least one support member is in the first position while allowing a reeling operation of the winch to raise the plow, and for automatically enabling the deploying operation of the winch to lower the plow when the means for sensing sense that the at least one support member is spaced apart from the first position.