mmranch
Gold Member
I need to order snow chains for my TYM 603.
I am located in Colorado in mega snow country at 9400ft elevation on a mountaintop. Our STEEP road is a half mile long with 3 switchbacks. Let's just say, yes we know snow.
I have a 68 Chevy K20 pickup with a 7.5 Snow-Way plow that I use to plow the driveway. It works great for the long runs down the road but has taken me awhile to get the truck dialed in. I put a lot of weight in the bed (sandbags and railroad ties) and plow in 1st (granny gear) 4Wheel Low. Works fine when plowing fresh snow where I can keep up some speed and throw the snow to the sides and over the edge. But as the snow builds up on the sides (up to 5ft high during certain times of winter) it forms gutters which keep me from throwing the snow further out. When I was first putting chains on the truck, I kept shredding the chains apart (on the rear) and went through several different chain types (and of course having to repair/reinstall them all the time... a huge hassle). Finally, I got a setup that works... ice-bar chains on the front wheels and heavy-duty mud service chains on the rear that don't shred.
In the long run, the tractor will probably be outfitted and used for plowing the whole driveway, but for now I will continue to use the truck to plow and use the tractor for edge pushback as well as removing glaciers next to our house. The tractor has a backhoe on it and a toothbar on the 78" loader bucket. It worked well for edge pushback at the tail end of last winter (without the toothbar in place and no chains) so I know it will be a big help to have the toothbar to break apart glaciers (as well as the backhoe... with chains).
Question #1: I don't want to go through the hassle I had with getting the right chains on the truck. I don't want the tractor chains to come apart. Do you think I have to search for some heavy-duty mud service chains for the tractor or is the tractor tire torque so fundamentally different than the truck (because of the large rear tires/tractor weight) that the snow chains I've seen on the net won't shred apart and will be fine?
Question #2: I have seen large 'snow buckets' on the net (skidsteersolutions.com, etc.) and I know they are of a lighter construction than a dirt bucket. But I am wondering how they would hold up to heavy duty use. (Our snow here is massive with glaciers of snow/ice). Anyone have experience with these 'snow buckets'? Are they robust enough to ram into snow mounds and tear them apart?
Question #3: In the long run, I will probably put a snow plow on the tractor herself. I have seen dozer blades for a quick attach and thought about using that instead of just a snow-plow blade so that I could use the dozer blade in summer. Anyone have experience with this?
Thanks for your thoughts!
I am located in Colorado in mega snow country at 9400ft elevation on a mountaintop. Our STEEP road is a half mile long with 3 switchbacks. Let's just say, yes we know snow.
I have a 68 Chevy K20 pickup with a 7.5 Snow-Way plow that I use to plow the driveway. It works great for the long runs down the road but has taken me awhile to get the truck dialed in. I put a lot of weight in the bed (sandbags and railroad ties) and plow in 1st (granny gear) 4Wheel Low. Works fine when plowing fresh snow where I can keep up some speed and throw the snow to the sides and over the edge. But as the snow builds up on the sides (up to 5ft high during certain times of winter) it forms gutters which keep me from throwing the snow further out. When I was first putting chains on the truck, I kept shredding the chains apart (on the rear) and went through several different chain types (and of course having to repair/reinstall them all the time... a huge hassle). Finally, I got a setup that works... ice-bar chains on the front wheels and heavy-duty mud service chains on the rear that don't shred.
In the long run, the tractor will probably be outfitted and used for plowing the whole driveway, but for now I will continue to use the truck to plow and use the tractor for edge pushback as well as removing glaciers next to our house. The tractor has a backhoe on it and a toothbar on the 78" loader bucket. It worked well for edge pushback at the tail end of last winter (without the toothbar in place and no chains) so I know it will be a big help to have the toothbar to break apart glaciers (as well as the backhoe... with chains).
Question #1: I don't want to go through the hassle I had with getting the right chains on the truck. I don't want the tractor chains to come apart. Do you think I have to search for some heavy-duty mud service chains for the tractor or is the tractor tire torque so fundamentally different than the truck (because of the large rear tires/tractor weight) that the snow chains I've seen on the net won't shred apart and will be fine?
Question #2: I have seen large 'snow buckets' on the net (skidsteersolutions.com, etc.) and I know they are of a lighter construction than a dirt bucket. But I am wondering how they would hold up to heavy duty use. (Our snow here is massive with glaciers of snow/ice). Anyone have experience with these 'snow buckets'? Are they robust enough to ram into snow mounds and tear them apart?
Question #3: In the long run, I will probably put a snow plow on the tractor herself. I have seen dozer blades for a quick attach and thought about using that instead of just a snow-plow blade so that I could use the dozer blade in summer. Anyone have experience with this?
Thanks for your thoughts!