I need a better way to move snow...

[855Idiot]

I go break out the tractor to do some snow removal.

Never mind that 3-4 feet greet me at the garage door, I'm ready for action!

http://www.tractorbynet.com/photos/s...php/photo/4911

http://www.tractorbynet.com/photos/s.../cat/500/page/

Snow is light fluffy stuff, surly I'll win this battle?

I'm making good progress pushing and lifting, I've gone almost 20'.
The snow piles in front of the tractor are now about as high as my FEL can lift,
but I'm just pushing and lifting and pushing and lifting.

Now I can now begin to turn and push different directions and this is helping
as the piles in front of me are getting bigger and more stubborn...

All of the sudden I hear a "Boom" and the tractor shudders

I can't quite figure out what just happened until is try to steer?

http://www.tractorbynet.com/photos/s.../cat/500/page/

My steering arm gave up the ghost in a rather dramatic fashion.
I now have no steering.
I ended up having to move the tire with my hands in order to turn tail and retreat from the snow.

So at the end of round 1 the score is Snow 1, Tractor 0.

[jcmseven]

Blower....

John M

[Casco1]

I do my snow removal with my front loader yesterday I don't know how many ton I cleaned. Might I suggest driving straight out like you did until you feel it's enough. Pick up only what your bucket can lift and drop it to one side as much as you can, let's say your left. Back up to where you started go the right and widen your path and dump left, keep this up until you have a space big enough to move around in and go from there. It takes longer with a loader but it can do a better job.

[fgross335_2210]

It's hard to beat a blower when the snow is that deep! Back in the Blizzard of '78, I spent two days clearing neighbors' driveways with a 12HP, 212 garden tractor and a 38" snowthrower. Snow was too high to shovel, people were willing to pay and amazed at how high and far my little snowthrower would throw snow. Many times we had to knock down drifts with shovels in order to get through it, but the blower would then remove all the snow. Time consuming but it worked.

Hope you get your tractor fixed quickly! Wow.

[Gryantaylor]

Originally Posted by fgross335_2210

It's hard to beat a blower when the snow is that deep! Back in the Blizzard of '78, I spent two days clearing neighbors' driveways with a 12HP, 212 garden tractor and a 38" snowthrower. Snow was too high to shovel, people were willing to pay and amazed at how high and far my little snowthrower would throw snow. Many times we had to knock down drifts with shovels in order to get through it, but the blower would then remove all the snow. Time consuming but it worked.

Hope you get your tractor fixed quickly! Wow.

As a recent convert, I'd have to second the get a blower. I've been plowing snow ever since I could reach the floor of our old CJ years ago and I've always been able to "plow" my way through anything and always thought plowing was the way to go. Well this year we've had many, many storms that were 1-2 feet, with lots of blowing snow. I started with my little B7100 (an amazingly powerful, little machine) with a back blade and the bucket. The first few storms went really well, one slow bucket at a time I pushed a little path through the snow and then proceeded to widen it out. Well pretty soon the piles were as high as my little bucket would go for the entire length of the drive and my driveway was quickly becoming a ever narrowing canyon. Just when I though I had it all undercontrol the wind picked up, and the snow blew level with the top of the snow banks. So I borrowed the neighbors L series machine, which was able to push through the drifts and make the snow banks even taller. Realizing that I was soon going to be in trouble 2 saturday's ago I finally broke down and bought a used snow blower for my little machine. The next day we had 2 more feet with blowing and drifing snow. My neighbor jumped on his L series and 12 hours later was still working on his driveway. The little snow blower cleared my drive, the local road and most of the neighborhood on Sunday. I had almost 15 hours on the snowblower before the check cleared the bank monday morning.

All I can say is WOW, Instead of beating the snow into submission, at the expense of the tractor, the blower simply ate through it at an amazing pace, My little 16 horse machine was 100 times more productive then the 30+ HP L series that day. Instead of beating the tractor up all I had to do was backup, very slowly, and watch the snow fly. I've now owned a snow blower for 10 days, in that 10 days we've not only cleared the driveways but also blew all old, drift causing piles of snow out into the fields. I will never go back to plowing large storms. The blower is so much better is so many ways I only wish I had seen the light years ago.

[kude]

Some people have all the fun.

[smfcpacfp]

If you get a lot of snow consistently, you need a snowblower, which is my situation. If I saw as much snow as you have, I would have to tell myself to go very, very slow. So slow in fact that it almost makes your skin crawl, especially for the first pass. Once the first pass is complete then I take very very small cuts. This would be true whether I was using a plow or a snowblower. Using a front end loader for large quantities of snow on a consistent basis, would be a huge waste of time.

Having been in the business of moving large quantities of snow for the last 32 years (just my own driveway), I have learned that patience is rewarded. I had figured that going slow saves a lot of time compared to going fast and breaking things, and then spending days getting those things repaired, and asking my neighbors to help me out. I don't think I have broken a shear pin, or had an equipment failure in the last 10 years

For the occassional snow storm which is too much for a small tractor, hire a big boy to come in.

[gunmaker]

Blower and a new, bigger tractor, with a heated cab, and a radio, and a cup holder!!!

[Egon]

A team of horses???

Park the tractor till spring!

[newt92]

855Idiot, That looks fun and frustrating all at the same time! Sorry for your steering gremlins but your were probably getting cold anyway. Have fun and post some pictures when your dug out.

Dennis