Snow Will PT 60" Blade remove snow for business?

[RickeyL]

Will PT 60\" Blade remove snow for business?

Curious if I get one of these if it would save me some money on my snow removal bill for my bowling center parking lot?
Most of the snows we have are usually 2" or less with the exception of a big snow storm. I live in Iowa and was just interested if I bought the blade if an hour or two I could push it all to the sides? Lot is probably 150 x 300, maybe bigger?

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Will PT 60\" Blade remove snow for business?

Rick, I think you could definitely save money clearing your parking lot. Not sure how long it would take to actually "pay" for the PT, but I'm sure you'll be using in for many other chores as well. If you're primarily going to be clearing pavement, you might consider either the optional rubber lip strip, or making something similar yourself. I cleared my 1/4 mile street several times this past winter - usually took less that 20 minutes. The only time I had any problem was after one storm which left 3-4 inches of icy sleet which was very hard to clear. As MossRoad and others will attest, you can get moving pretty fast with the snow blade and move a lot of stuff in a hurry.

Scott

 

[bubenberg]

Re: Will PT 60\" Blade remove snow for business?

Yess! Just look what i was able to do under Cheap Snow Plow ...... good luck /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Will PT 60\" Blade remove snow for business?

Rick

Done a great deal of snow plowing in my day and while I love the PT, it's a terrible snowplower. If you're not plowing professionally, it will probably meet your needs, and, of course, then you have a machine for other uses. Versatility is where the PT shines.

The PT is lousey at snowplowing because of several reasons:
1) plowing in the float position the unit has a tendency to "climb" up the loader arms lifting the front tires off the ground. While the operator can compensate for this climbing by traveling slowly and going in and out of the float position it's annoying and not condusive to good productivity that a pro needs.
2) The plow is mounted (obviously) way out on the front of the loader arms. This position gives the plow so much leverage when pushing snow at an angle the very very very very often you can't even "crab" enough to push the snow to the side. (the snow pushes the PT to the other side).

I just plow using only the bucket, which for my sizable driveway is much more effective than the plow. (I sold my plow)

I have plowed professionally and for residential plowing far and away (Really by far!) the best unit I've ever plowed with is a Steiner. You can't believe the snow it will push and at very high speed and it's so small you turn around right in the driveway and blow the opposite direction instead of backing out. Besides the 60" plow I had the 48" snowblower and I would often do a driveway using both since changing is only 2 minutes. IN MY SINCERE OPINION, the Steiner on average for residential driveways is twice as fast as a conventional pickup AND does a much much much better job.

So, why did I sell my Steiner and buy a PT?
Versatility
Loader
Hydraulic drive of attachments
much more power (I have the 1460)
much bigger(size matters to me)

Hope this has been helpful.

PS
I love my PT

PPS
I would buy a Ventrac before a Steiner

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

Re: Will PT 60\" Blade remove snow for business?

Richard:
I have the 72" blade on my 1845, with the gauge wheels. My prior experience with snow removal was only with a 3 point scraper blade, pulling or backing, and a front end loader on a 2240 John Deere. (I have 15 minutes experience in a pickup with blade.) Compared to those, the 1845 with blade is a superb snow clearing machine. 425 owners report that theirs do well, and Bubenberg does commercial clearing with his.
Although your observations are right about avoiding climbing the blade, I have the rubber lip, so it happens seldom, and never if the gauge wheels are adjusted well. As to the snow kicking the machine sideways, that certainly happened when we had 25", but I found I could blast through it and once moving could keep moving, except where trees, fences, etc constricted things. For the big drifts, the bucket was better, but for any snowfall up to a six inches, I can do a road with a high-speed pass each way.
Your experience with the Steiner may be exactly what Hans raves about with the 425. It is small and maneuverable. He clears shopping center parking lots commercially faster than the pickups with blades. For the first couple of years, he used a bucket only. This past year, he adapted a blade, with trip springs, which are an advantage over the PT rigid mount.
You're undoubtedly right that the PTs aren't the best snow plow machines on the planet, but they are certainly the best ones that are also loaders, post hole diggers, tillers, mowers, trenchers, stump grinders, cranes, ... etc.
To echo your thought, I love my 1845. I only occasionally wish I had the weight and power of the 1460, and I occasionally wish I had the lightness and maneuverability of the 425.
Why is it we're never quite satisfied?
Bottom line, I think the PT can hold its own plowing commercially, and deliver a lot of other capability as a bonus.

 

[Schultz]

Re: Will PT 60\" Blade remove snow for business?

Out of curiosity, what exactly made the Steiner the better snowplow machine than the PT? When you say the unit (blade?) climbs up the loader arms. Could you explain this in a little more detail?

Tim

 

[MossRoad]

Re: Will PT 60\" Blade remove snow for business?

I think if you get into wet heavy snow and have the plow angled straight and the plow tipped forward a bit and the loader arms in float, the plow will climb up over the pile of snow, just like a pickup truck plow if the trip springs trip. I had that happen once or twice, so I adjusted the guage wheels so that I could keep the blade tipped back just a tad and still ride on the wheels just a little. It cleared my driveway very well the last two winters, although we never had any brutal, deep stuff like years past.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Will PT 60\" Blade remove snow for business?

(Richard will tell you what he means) - The mount on the Steiner is totally different - it is not a loader arm type mount - I assume that this - combined with other aspects of the Steiner make it a better plow (I can't comment since I didn't test it plowing) - I know that the Steiner is a much better mowing machine (I did test it for that - it is better than the 425 & 1845) for various reasons -size and the way the mower mounts - For certain jobs the loader arm mount is not the best system. Also the body is compact vs the long rear half of the 1845 which gets in the way when mowing.

I did experience some of Richard is talking about when plowing - but overall was satisfied with the 1845 for plowing - I just adjusted the tilt of took it out of float when it did it and was not too bothered by it - maybe it would be a pain in a commercial use. But I don't have anywhere near the size drive Richard has.

Why I chose the PT instead of the Steiner was the many reasons Richard stated - the Steiner is not really a loader (they have an attachment - only lifts 500lbs ) and it does not have the weight for pushing / grading etc.- also all hydraulic attachments for the steiner like a post hole digger has its own mount and a belt drives a pump (each attachment has its own) so I found all this a draw back - on the 1845 and especially the 1460 you can run standard skid steer attachments - no chance on a Steiner.

Richard I'm sure you didn't have any problems pushing the snow with the 1460??

In my opinion - again the PT wins hands down on the overall score.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Will PT 60\" Blade remove snow for business?

Hey Richard - just curious what is it about the Ventrac that makes it better than the Steiner? - I have looked at the website but I didn't see the obvious difference -

By the way I was not saying that the PT is a bad mower - just that the Steiner is a top, top mower - (thats the primary design in golf courses) - also it depends on the property - for large areas especially hills I would pick the PT all day long



Just wondering my fellow PTers, if you don't use the machine primarily to mow - why wouldn't the 2445 or 2460 be the choice?
Lift height and backhoe???? If you don't need a low profile machine for mowing?

 

[RickeyL]

Re: Will PT 60\" Blade remove snow for business?

Do any of you guys have any experience with front blades for pickups. I have one that someone left behind in a rental house..... everything is there except for the unit that goes on the pickup that it attatches to. Anyhow, I don't have a 4x4 pickup to attatch it to anyhow, but was wondering if I could attatch it to a PT mounting bracket for use with a PT425. My parking lot has a lot of asphalt patches that are a little high and some curbs that the springs and trip device of one of these would definately be nice. I really don't know much about them..... would I even need the hydralics for such a mounting and do they have the tilt? Any help would be appreciated...... Rick
I'm still trying to justify buying a 425 and if I could pull this off to use it for my bowling alley parking lot in the winter would be a definate plus. Like some of you have said.... for deeper stuff, you can always go to the bucket but then again, I would have to get the bigger bucket also.