Help Montana Slush

   / Help Montana Slush #1  

RAllen

Silver Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2000
Messages
199
Location
Kalispell, Montana
Tractor
Kubota 2910
I really need some help. Right now its raining in Northern Montana. For the last two days and nights we have experienced very warm weather. My wonderful base on my driveway is now 8 inches of prime slush. Its finally going to freeze tonight (I hope/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif).

My question is how to plow this stuff. Should I wait until it freezes and back blade the mess or do it now? Right now there are 8 inch ruts that need to be smoothed out. I need to do something because I will be stuck with this stuff until spring.

How would you handle the mess. I have a front blower and the above back blade. The drive and road is gravel.
 
   / Help Montana Slush #2  
The ruts would be easier to smooth before it freezes,and you should be able to shove the slush out of the way now. If it was me I would make an attempt to try it now and see how it goes.If the stuff freezes it would be a lot harder to do anything with.
 
   / Help Montana Slush #3  
Definitely scrape it off now while it's thawed - it will only cause you heart-aches in the weeks to come. It should roll up with your back blade. If it doesn't roll off the blade, just lift the blade (to dump the load) drive ahead of the load and either push it backwards with the back blade, or use the FEL when you came back by to get it off the road.
if you have 8", you must not be plowing it soon enough after it snows (gets packed down by traffic) OR you are not removing enough of it when you do plow. This trend will result in a terrible spring when you have 12" or more of packed snow (now ice) that thaws and is a REAL mess. Should try to scrape all but about 1-2" of snow off the road surface. This layer will set-up and then the blade should be able to scrape along this frozen surface the rest of the winter.
I use a 7' back blade on my 2210D yanmar - I had a set of shoes installed (keeps blade from digging into the gravel - most commercial plows have them - some are wheels, mine are dish-like) they really make a big difference.
mike in Troy, MT
 
   / Help Montana Slush
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Hillbilly and Geese

I think your right about plowing now. We let a base build up to avoid sucking up giant rocks when using the blower. The base is normally around 6 inches. Got 2 inches of the white stuff then it turned to rain. Its only 8 inches in places. Went to pick up the mail and played slip n slide all the way back even in 4X4 mode.

Will go out after the neighbors are home for the night, otherwise the ruts will reappear.

Rick
 
   / Help Montana Slush #5  
I'd try the blower on the slush, then you won't have to deal with solid ice packs on each side of the drive. There are some folks that have problems with wet snow and their blowers. My AgroTrend blows the slush just as well as the dry snow, (just not as far).

I have a gravel drive and adjust the toplink to keep the leading edge of the blower 1 - 2 inches off the drive until the ground is frozen or I have a solid base, (1inch of ice). Do you really let the ice build up to 6 inches?
 
   / Help Montana Slush #6  
Get it while its still slush however which way works. Use the backblade, use the snowblower, use the snowblower like a front blade. If it freezes you know what it be like till thaw time.

Nice area you live in.

Egon
 
   / Help Montana Slush
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Well I just finished the driveway (1/4 mile) and the private road (3/4 mile). The road is hilly. The back blade did not work. The heavy wet snow caused the tractor to crab. I have back chains but none on the front. Had to use the blower and three shear bolts latter, its done. My blower blows wet snow fine but doesn't like the large rocks that seem to find their way into the bucket. I blow with the blower bucket off the ground because of the rock problem until I have good base built up. Up here, snow usually lasts until spring and then the thaw is gradual and I reverse the process, skimming a little off the top until down to couple of inches. I use the back blade to smooth things out.

Until this year, the temp never got over 32 degrees for more than a couple of hours if then, so the snow never turns to ice. Driving on compacted snow works very well.The last few days have been strange. The temp hovered between 35 and 44 with periods of heavy rain. As I write this the temp is finally below 32 and I am glad.

PS Until this thaw we had 32 inches of compacted snow on the ground. Lost about a foot of that but it is supposed to snow tonight.

Rick
 
   / Help Montana Slush #8  
Richard:
Glad you got it cleared. It ain't no fun driving down a road with a car that has the wheels on one side in different ruts or meeting someone and having to back up.
Ice and then fresh snow should make for good avalanche conditions in the backcountry.
By the way, your the first person that has admitted the tractor may crab when using the backblade!

Egon
 
   / Help Montana Slush #9  
<font color=blue>the tractor may crab when using the backblade</font color=blue>

That's the main reason why I use chains on my front tires. It makes a big difference.

Corm
 
   / Help Montana Slush
  • Thread Starter
#10  
<font color=blue>By the way, your the first person that has admitted the tractor may crab when using the backblade.</font color=blue>

My Kubota 2910 does not have room for chains in the front. The steering wheel linkage is too close to the R-4 front tires. Besides, my dealer says not to put chains on the front. I am going to take the front tires down and put studs in them but I am afraid studs would have made little difference in the slush.

It seems the crabing has much to do with the amount, wetness of the snow and how much friction the tires can muster.

Another problem with having the back blade on the back is it take weight off the front end and causes steering problems in the snow. The tractor works much better w/o the back blade.

I have wheels on the back blade. This makes it impossible to turn the blade around a push the snow in reverse. Seems this is the only way to tackle large amounts of snow with a back blade.

Rick
 
 
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