Snow Snow Removal JD4100

[Anonymous Poster]

I am in the process of buying a JD4100 with 54" loader and ballast box in rear, 60"deck. To remove snow how is using the loader? What is best technique? What is the best low cost easy to adapte way to do this? I also want to grade my 600ft. gravel driveway. Thanks

 

[PaulB]

Congratulations on your new rig. I think you will find the loader useless in moving snow except to reposition mounds that have already been moved. The majority of us on this forum use a rear mounted blade, either with the blade facing forward and the tractor driven forward, or for heavier snow with the blade mounted facing backward, and driving backward into the snow. I also have a gravel drive, and I keep the blade an inch or 2 off the ground so I don't end up moving a ton of gravel - I still do move some which I then move back into place every spring, again using the rear blade. Your tractor should handle a 5 foot rear blade easily, and maybe even a 6 footer, and even the good brands are not that expensive, less than $500. The alternative is to use a rear mounted blower, which will run around $2,000, but moves a heck of a lot of snow a far way.

 

[jyoutz]

I also have a JD4100 and I use a 5' rear blade just as Paul described. Works great. One thing to add-I spent $100 extra on my blade and got a set of skidshoes. This allows my blade to float above the gravel and reduces the movement of gravel. Good luck and have fun. The 4100 is lots of fun.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

where would I get a rear 5' blade? what is best and cheapest? How are they going backwards? Is this a better alternative than the JD front blade option for $950?

 

[PaulB]

You can go to TSC and get a really light duty one for under $200, or get a brand name like Woods or Bushhog and get a much heavier duty tool. I got mine at my dealer when I bought the tractor, and it was $325. It is a Woods 5 footer. Any tractor dealer sells one brand or another. You might be able to get one online if you look up the various manufactureres. Woods. King Kutter, and many others all have web sites which someone will likely post, or you can look them up on a search engine (jeez, now I sound like Harv! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[jyoutz]

Carl, I bought a fairly heavy duty Landpride 5' blade for $355 and then spent an extra $100 for skidshoes. Not too bad of a price for such a versatile implement. Last winter I plowed snow, this past summer I constructed ditches and moved a lot of dirt around with it. No complaints about durability. And I was pretty rough on the blade with the dirt work.

 

[jyoutz]

Carl, in my experiance, the internet search will yield a lot of suppliers and good prices, BUT you will end up cheaper and with less hassle if you just buy from your local equipment dealer (or used from a rental yard). By the time you pay for the freight charges, you will not really save money by going elsewhere.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Just cleared 12" of snow (it is still falling) here in southern Missouri using a JD4100 with turf tires (about 200 yards cleared). It works great. The turf tires provide plenty of traction. I use a heavy (386lbs) 5' rear blade from Monroe Tufline; the loader is OK for pushing loose snow and moving it around, but not for clearing a large area. While the Tufline blade is expensive (over $500 plus another 100 for the skid shoes), it comes with a stand which is nice and will adjust any way you want including offset.

 

[Thomas]

Everyone seems to be getting tractor time in but us in the northeast.

Last 48 hours all we got was cold than warm than cold temps,plus heavy rain also high winds.

The snow storm you folks in the mid west got,the weather station said maybe an inch when the system comes thru for us. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Stay safe and have fun.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[markcg2000]

I finally got to use my 60" 3pt snowblower Monday. Holy cow!! $1,600 delivered made it ~ same cost as a really good walk behind, but the steel is MUCH stronger. Used to take about 30-45 minutes to do my ~100' drive with the 28" snowblower that died last year - now takes about 10 minutes (well, plus about 10 minutes while the 790 warms up .
Only got a few inches, but it was fun... now if only Buffalo could send us a foot or so of that snow they've been getting :-O

ps - good thing my wife doesn't read this, eh??