Snowplowing 4x4 tractor vs 4x4 pickup

[LarryRB]

I've plowed professionally the last35 years, Have a new pick up and do not want a plow on it.. The 48 does the job well, has home made designed cab, and is not a bother at all, Of course I no longer push the Tenco 12 ft plow hour after hour anymore, and do stay at home..

 

[Builder]

yeah, I plowed for 15-20 yrs and owned my own plowing business for 10-11 years. So I have a lot of experience plowing, but I never plowed with a cab CUT. Plowed with backhoes, lots of dumps, pick-ups, etc. never a cab CUT.

 

[jcmseven]

Builder,

I really prefer the boom mounted blades. They are much longer, so you do have to keep that in mind, but you can lift the blade much higher if you are in a tight spot, so in the end, not much different than frame mount. The visability is much better also. The front end movement can be a problem with the increased leverage, but that is easily controlled because you can use your joystick to fine tune both your angle (with hydraulic angling kit) and your pitch of the blade. I have never used mine when I could not correct easily while moving if the front started a little sideways movement and this is plowing at 6-8 mph in some reasonably heavy snow. 1600' is really not all that much for such a combination to plow. If one were plowing roads, I would say a truck mount is better, but I regularly have plowed my drive, several hundred feet, and service entrance, another half mile or so, easily with a tractor mounted boom blade. If the one you are considering is anything like my JD one, you could mount your blade, plow and be done almost as quickly as just mounting a frame mount, assuming you have to remove a FEL to mount the blade. To me, in many cases tractors plow BETTER than trucks because even though they are slower in speed, they have low gearing and are very heavy and the downpressure one can apply on a blade does a much better job. I can easily tell after I am done where I plowed and where our neighborhood plowguy plows, and I can go places he would never dare to go.

John M

 

[Builder]

Builder,

I really prefer the boom mounted blades. They are much longer, so you do have to keep that in mind, but you can lift the blade much higher if you are in a tight spot, so in the end, not much different than frame mount. The visability is much better also. The front end movement can be a problem with the increased leverage, but that is easily controlled because you can use your joystick to fine tune both your angle (with hydraulic angling kit) and your pitch of the blade. I have never used mine when I could not correct easily while moving if the front started a little sideways movement and this is plowing at 6-8 mph in some reasonably heavy snow. 1600' is really not all that much for such a combination to plow. If one were plowing roads, I would say a truck mount is better, but I regularly have plowed my drive, several hundred feet, and service entrance, another half mile or so, easily with a tractor mounted boom blade. If the one you are considering is anything like my JD one, you could mount your blade, plow and be done almost as quickly as just mounting a frame mount, assuming you have to remove a FEL to mount the blade. To me, in many cases tractors plow BETTER than trucks because even though they are slower in speed, they have low gearing and are very heavy and the downpressure one can apply on a blade does a much better job. I can easily tell after I am done where I plowed and where our neighborhood plowguy plows, and I can go places he would never dare to go.

John M

Those are great points you make. I think that if I do pick-up a cab CUT I will look for one with a QA loader and just mount a Curtis PA plow to it. Most used units I've looked at without FEL's mounted to them aren't that much cheaper than comparable ones with a FEL and the extra FEL will be nice as a backup to the my Case.

Otherwise if a cab CUT is too expensive, I'll mount a plow to my Case in the same fashion.

 

[NorthernMainer]

Here is a 32hp tractor making short work of 2ft of wet snow at 1800 rpms with a 90" Fisher plow mounted with one of our adaptors we build; burning about 25% of the fuel it would cost to plow it with a V8 engine.

 

[LoneCowboy]

I run both commercially
a Chevy 2500HD 4x4 duramax with a 8' curtis blade with wings
and a TN75DA (cab) with a 8' Curtis blade with wings.

The pickup SMOKES the tractor.

The tractor is awesome at stacking snow (obviously, you can create some HUGE piles), but the pickup goes faster which makes the snow roll. The snow won't roll over the side of the tractor because it's not going fast enough, so it builds up in front until you finally lose traction. You end up having to make shorter runs instead of winrowing it to one side like you do with a pickup.

I bought the blade because I figured it would help me pay for the tractor, but I wouldn't do it again. The blade cost as much as a truck install (within a few hundred bucks by the time you get hoses made), it wasn't worth it.

Plus of course your jobs for the tractor all have to be real close together, since you can only change job sites at 20mph.

 

[WilliamBos]

But, I must add that the tractor will outlast a truck. And if buying new, have a look at all the new tranny options, like the MF Dyna series. Finally, the high road speeds our Euro friends have been enjoying for years are finally making the way to NA.

I run both commercially
a Chevy 2500HD 4x4 duramax with a 8' curtis blade with wings
and a TN75DA (cab) with a 8' Curtis blade with wings.

The pickup SMOKES the tractor.

The tractor is awesome at stacking snow (obviously, you can create some HUGE piles), but the pickup goes faster which makes the snow roll. The snow won't roll over the side of the tractor because it's not going fast enough, so it builds up in front until you finally lose traction. You end up having to make shorter runs instead of winrowing it to one side like you do with a pickup.

I bought the blade because I figured it would help me pay for the tractor, but I wouldn't do it again. The blade cost as much as a truck install (within a few hundred bucks by the time you get hoses made), it wasn't worth it.

Plus of course your jobs for the tractor all have to be real close together, since you can only change job sites at 20mph.

 

[daveinnh]

There's a nearby Kubota L3830? with a front snowblower that services a group of about 12 homes all within say 1/2 mile. The blower throws snow up (maybe 10-12' up and 20' out) and doesn't create snow banks. Plowed drives end up with banks ~ 8 feet high that residents can't see over and just creep out.

This area ( near Concord, NH) may have it's snowyest year ever, but doesn't seem to be as much as the Syracuse, NY area.

You might want to review snowblowers. I thought about a front blower but can't justify cost/benefit - if the snow piles up next year as it did this year, maybe I'll re-think.

There's a neat video at:

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