Need advice on best way to remove snow

[PapaPerk]

Hello,

I have a brand new concrete driveway. It's approxmately 300' long. My question is the best way to remove snow from it. Obviously any damage of the surface is no good and must be avoided at all cost.

I have 2 machines available. A Kubota 3830 and a Toro 25 hp garden tractor. Temporarly I have attached a rubber scrapper to my grader blade and pull it with the Kubota. Works okay... but doesn't clean real well because I leave it high. The Kubota is a little big to be running up and down my drive.

Another idea is to buy a snowblower attachment for the Toro. This may be my best bet.

So for all you expert snow removal guys out there.... what would you do? Thank you!

[schmism]

i wouldnt say the bota is to big...

I use my 6' rear blade on my TC33 set to just skim my frozen gravel drive and works great in 2 passes (one down one back) leaving about a 10-11' path.

If you have a rubber edge on your rear blade you shouldnt have to worry about tearing up the concrete with it. Just put it all the way down and go.

a blower will work well on the smooth hard surface.

Is there a best way? probably not.

[studor]

The companies contracted to blow out the driveways at my place in town are all using 70+ horsepower four wheel drive tractors with 3PH mounted pull type blowers -- and the longest driveway is probably 30 feet -- My choice for a concrete drive would be the Kubota with a rear mounted pull foward blower -- once down ,once back and no worries about where to pile the snow. If you don't want to spend the money -- lower your rubber protected blade or put a piece of pvc pipe on it and clean down to the concrete

[PapaPerk]

Any advice on a brand of snow blower? That would really do the job!

[dodge man]

I have a rubber edge on my rear blade for my asphalt driveway. I don't think it will do any damage to a concrete drive. I'm not sure even the steel edge would hurt concrete if the drive is in good shape, ie no edges to dig into.

[studor]

Erskine is the name that comes to mind for rear mounted pull forward blowers although I am sure there sure there are others. Do a search on here and I am sure you will find lots of threads
regards
Steve

[smfcpacfp]

I am partial to a blower where you have a lot of snow. If you don't get too much snow maybe one of the roller brushes would do the job. They wouldn't scratch up your concrete

[PapaPerk]

Originally Posted by studor

The companies contracted to blow out the driveways at my place in town are all using 70+ horsepower four wheel drive tractors with 3PH mounted pull type blowers -- and the longest driveway is probably 30 feet -- My choice for a concrete drive would be the Kubota with a rear mounted pull foward blower -- once down ,once back and no worries about where to pile the snow. If you don't want to spend the money -- lower your rubber protected blade or put a piece of pvc pipe on it and clean down to the concrete

Do u have details on installing the pvc?

[stuartshomepc]

Originally Posted by PapaPerk

Hello,

I have a brand new concrete driveway. It's approxmately 300' long. My question is the best way to remove snow from it. Obviously any damage of the surface is no good and must be avoided at all cost.

I have 2 machines available. A Kubota 3830 and a Toro 25 hp garden tractor. Temporarly I have attached a rubber scrapper to my grader blade and pull it with the Kubota. Works okay... but doesn't clean real well because I leave it high. The Kubota is a little big to be running up and down my drive.

I used to plow snow commercially and if you have ever looked at a snow plow blade (like a truck mounted Western (red) or Fischer (yellow)) you will notice that it has skids on the bottom. They sometimes look like inverted mushrooms.

These are adjustible as you realy don't want the edge of the blade riding on the surfage ot the pavement. Sure, if the edge is right down on the pavement it will scrape the snow right down cleanly to the pavement, but the blade would scuff the pavement too much (especailly asphault) and wear the crap out of the were edge on the blade and also catch in any expansion joints. This is one reason why truck mounted snow plows have the big springs connecting the blade to the mounting frame, to flex when the blade hits a joint.



That said, most comercial snow plows don't ride the cutting edge on the pavement like a back blade would. Perhaps you could fab up something like these skids and leave the 1/8" or so of snow that a snow plow would typically leave. But I think that scaping right down to the concrete and also not hurting the concrete surface are opposing efforts.

Stuart

[studor]

Papa
All I have done is cut a slot in a piece of 2" abs plumbing pipe (the black stuff --- I made a mistake when I said pvc although that would probably work too) on a table saw and then pushed on the blade to stop it from digging into a gravel drive. I ran it through a table saw and then wacked it on with a piece of wood and it held for the season. Other guys on here have bolted wood onto the blades and I think that would work well too.
You will always be leaving a little snow on the driveway cause as just stated the not damage and clean to concrete are oxymoronic!