Snow, driveways & tractors.

[kozak]

BruceNorthEast,

As others indicated, strange that you had trouble with R4's spinning. I'm sure those Tractors with R4's you tried out did not have additional weight on the back, be it loaded tires, a backhoe, or snowblower. That's all you need is some additional weight. I put 500+ lbs on my 3 pt hitch & have not had any problems whatsoever with TURF tires. If you don't want to go that route, as others have indicated, chains will make all the difference as well.

Don't worry.....get the R4's if you will be doing work close to the house in the summer. You'll do fine.

[robison]

I use a John Deere 4510 to clear snow on the road and the driveways in my neighborhood. My tractor has fluid filled R4 tires, the front end loader, and a Pronovost 72 inch snow blower.

On flat ground I can put the bucket down and shove snow forward but as others have said elsewhere it's not very efficient moving snow that way. That being said I do not have traction problems on flat ground doing so. However the mass of snow and limited traction in front make it hard to turn while pushing a huge mass of snow.

Front chains will improve your ability to turn but on many tractors - mine included - it's easy for the front chains to snag parts of the tractor and cause damage while turning sharply.

Rear chains will also improve traction, especially on hills, but at the expense of leaving marks in the pavement. You may not care about that but some people will. If marks don't matter chains will help out on hills with a machine like mine.

For overall snow removal performance, the snowblower is a vast improvement over the bucket. With a 12 to 15 inch snowfall I only need 4wd occasionally on hills. Otherwise I'm in 2wd and it does a way better job than a bucket. In really heavy snow (2 feet) you will need 4wd but you should not need chains unless you are on an ice base.

A blower is less likely to cause damage to lawns than a plow or bucket. That's why I use it. A blower also prevents the gradual narrowing of a drive or side street as winter progresses.

When the town plows come through they will leave 5-6 foot high banks at the end of our street where is joins another road. I use the loader in 2wd to knock these banks down and back so they don't block visibility.

One final suggestion is that a heated cab is a wonderful addition to whatever tractor you get.

Attached is a photo of my tractor clearing driveways Friday in about a foot of snow.

[megotatractor]

Im running something called HDAP tires on my JD 2210, these are basically heavy duty atv tires but they are great snow tires and give a decent ride on the lawn. No snow chains necesary with 4wd. The drawback is they would be a bit light duty for say pulling anything heavy as the rears are a bit squishy. Good all around light duty tires. I am using a 5 foot rear blade with skid shoes on my 150' drive. works great on light snow. last winter however there was that one 20 inch snowfall where it took me five hours with the front bucket to push it back into the fields. A snowblower would have been nice. Picture attached is in that 20 inches.

[cag]

I use my tractor commercially, and in my view R4 are the best all around tires... For snow removal I have no complaints. Robison great set up you got there [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]...cag

[turnkey4099]

No comment on the tires. As for attaching a blade to the bucket: We did that on a 9N Ford back when. It was more or less a neighborhood tractor. Was -very- inefficient due to the excess weight way out there in front. Not bad with the blade down but it wouldn't go up a slope of any degree with it raised. Made real problems when you couldn't plow up and had to get 'up' to plow down.

Harry K

[wolc123]

For many years I have used an 8n with a rear 7 ft blade and loaded R1's with chains. That setup worked ok on stone but marked up the blacktop a lot. When the chains fell off as they did on ocassion, the tractor would just sit and spin. This year I put that blade on back of a new jd 4120 fwd with front loader and loaded R1's. I am amazed by ability of this machine to push that plow thru heavy snow without chains. I am sure it is a combination of 1000, plus pounds of increased tractor weight (without the loader) and fwd. You will be making a big comprimise on traction in snow or mud with R4's and unless you will spend time on the lawn, stay with R1's.

[daTeacha]

Box blades are popular around here for snow. If your driveway gets to be ice, you can just set the teeth down and gouge it up for traction. I do something similar with the forks I have on my FEL. They're sort of cross between a tooth bar and manure forks. If the ice is bad, I set the loader so the bars/forks dig up the ice in chunks about 1 or 2 inches in size. These may freeze in place or not, depending on the weather. In either case, it ends up roughening the surface so it can be driven on.

The major advantage of the box blade is that it will keep most of your gravel in the driveway instead of alongside it. You can also use one backwards without getting off and reversing the blade. Guys around here use the forward motion to pile up compacted snow, then move the pile aside going backwards.

[Typhoon]

When we get a big snow here in Southern Illinois (6 inches or more), I drive my tractor to town and blade driveways all day. I have a TC29D with R4's, and to be quite honest, I can blade driveways for 8 hours + and VERY rarely spin a tire. Maybe on hard packed snow/ice, they might spin a little, but for the most part, they do an outstanding job. And, in the summer, they don't gouge my yard when I mow. I would recommend R4's to anyone with a CUT. Hope this helps!

[ccsial]

Did you have the 4WD engaged with the R4's?

[meanstreak]

had the same problem with the r4s, i would buy 5 tons of sand and sprinkle some with the fel when then snow was on the heavy side . that would help alot but when i bought the chains i didnt need the sand anymore. i only have chains on the front, much easier to get off and on