I have a mile long gravel driveway. When I had my Ford 1710 4x4 I had both a rear blade and a rear mount snow blower(called - Blue Machine, 60" wide). What the rear blade would handle depended upon three conditions - how deep was the snow, how wet was the snow and how high was the snow berm along the driveway from previous plowing. If the snow was deep & wet it was a PITA. Likewise, if the berm was fairly high, I couldn't safely maintain control of the tractor and go fast enough to get the new snow over the berm. Lets face it - wet snow is a real PITA. I would use the blower only if the snow was dry, deep and the berms were tall. I would blow the snow off the driveway and also cut into the berms and widen the driving lane. I plow the driveway 6-8 times per winter, depending upon conditions, and would blow it maybe 2-3 times. With the bigger tractor, I can plow the driveway and cut down the berms using only the rear blade. The first pass of the season down the driveway with the blower usually resulted in 1-3 shear bolt replacements - large rocks.
However, now that I'm retired - no more midnight runs down the driveway so I can make it to work in the AM. I go to bed early, sleep in late, have a good breakfast and THEN wonder if I should go out and plow. Retirement allows you to wait until the snow is just right and it will be a good time in the seat.
The rear blade on my Ford would easily handle new, dry snow 12-16 inches deep. Three years ago I waited to plow a path to one of my out buildings - the snow was 42 inches deep and compacted. The new tractor easily went thru it but because of the confined area I was unable to go fast. It took two passes in each direction to make a wide enough path and have additional width plowed alongside the path to hold all the plowed snow.
