Snow Advantages/Disadvantages of Snow Plow/Blower/Scraper Blade

[funwithahoe]

I see a lot of questions about what to buy for snow removal so I thought this might be a good thread to start. I have owned all three and they all have their pluses and minuses - Feel free to tag on with your experience.

Advantages:

Scraper Blade
1) Easy to take on and off
2) Easy to leave the loader on so you can pile high
3) Cheap (by comparison)
4) You can use it in the summer for light grading (spreading the cost over multiple duties)

Blower
1) Throws snow far out of the way so you don't have to worry about piling too high.
2) Tractor traction not as much of an issue since you don't have to push
3) Usually can handle a deep snow well

Snow Plow
1) Hydralic angling makes life easy (compared to scraper blade)
2) Fast
3) "Shoes" allow you to keep the blade about 1/2 inch up off of a gravel driveway so you aren't pushing the gravel into your grass
4) "Trip" feature is easier on tractor and blade (Compared to scraper blade)

Disadvatages

Scraper Blade

1) When you hit something frozen (covered stump etc) something is either bending or stopping in a hurry.
2) Pushing backwards is not how a 3pt is designed so it is easy to bend arms
3) If you don't adjust correctly it will scrape the heck out of your driveway.
4) You are facing the wrong way which means you may soon have a new friend at the chiropractor's office

Blower
1) Slower
2) You miss the fun of pushing snow into a huge pile and then letting your kids climb up it
3) Lots of moving parts - More to break
4) Loves to throw gravel or atleast break the sheer pins throwing rocks
5) Some are tough to get on and off
6) Expensive

Plow

1) More $ than a scraper blade
2) No loader
3) With my B3200 I can only pile about 4 feet high


Feel free to add your own ideas.

[grsthegreat]

thanks for your input...im in a quandary myself what to buy for my tractor. taking on alot more winter snow work than i have in the past.....getting a little nervous that ill buy the wrong equipment. i do love my rear push snowblower, and the shoes keep gravel intake to a minimum....but pretty slow going. my old plow is 60", the new one will be at least 84". should help some. front blades are a mystery to me...never used one before. I keep envisioning a huge side berm that keeps encroaching on the road every snowfall.

[Don87]

I use the FEL, and the front snowblower. Each has it's good and bad as you described. I need both for my property.

A plow would do me little good here.

[K7LN]

I've used a hydraulic angling plow for 32 years and wouldn't consider anything else. It's fast, cheap, easy to remove and store, and has it multiple uses. I think the choice really depends on your property and how much snow you have to deal with and perhaps the element of time.

[Ford tractor]

I use a rear blade while driving forward. Will curl off the snow real well up to about 8". More than that and you have to back into it and push it off at a 45 degree angle.

[sawduster98]

I also use the rear blade angled while driving forward. This handles 75% of my plowing. I took someone's advice and added a strip of stall mat to give my blade a 3" rubber edge so as not to tear up my gravel drive. Thanks to whoever had that idea...it works great! It's more like squeegee the drive now.
For deep snow, I tilt the bucket down and lower it so it knocks down all but about 8".

[NHbotanut]

I run a 6.5' front plow and a 60" rear blower. Driveway is 1,900' @ 10% hill. First pass I angle plow to the left and drive to the road, and then back up with blower & I'm done.

In the open areas, I plow all the snow to one pile and then blow it all into the woods. I had a snow pusher and still have my rear blade. For me, this is the best set up I have found it terms of time and not having to deal with snow banks or mountain piles.

[nybirdman]

Funwithahoe.
You forgot FEL mounted snow-plow....a lot more lift,easier removal with QA.
Also users should list size and weight of their tractors,what works on a large tractor may not work on the smaller rigs.
I use a 8ft.FEL mounted and a 7ft.rear blade,my total weight is about 6500lbs.
Also total average snow-fall plays a big part.

[SHORT KID]

With the 2 tractors I owned I used loader, back blade ,then I converted a 61/2' power angle blade to my loader arms. I use the tilt for my right, left direction. I mounted the whole pusher and A frame to a bracket on arms. I ued this for 9 years with no problems. This last storm I measured the height of piles, 8+ feet. I don't use shoes once the ground freezes it does move some gravel when not frozen. I am using a 2615 Mahindra now. I tried to post some pix of this but for some reason I can't do it, sorry.

[grsthegreat]

thanks for your replies....they help my thinking processes a great deal