GPintheMitten
Elite Member
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2009
- Messages
- 3,336
- Location
- Flushing, Michigan
- Tractor
- Kubota B2620 with BH65 backhoe, Ford 2N
Here's a pic.
Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Using Blower on a grade
- Thread starter Franko
- Start date
JoeL4330
Platinum Member
______________
I, myself, have a very long very steep gravel drive (that seems to be up hill in either direction) ...and use my blower quite successfully with loaded rears and chains on all 4 over turfs. For ice, my front chains are v-bar-reinforced and I can't imagine ice that I could not get up (and, we get an ice storm or two each year, in addition to snow). Were I you, I would load the rears and switch to ice-eating chains for the front (which are cheaper and easier to install using the FEL).
I don't try to get to bare gravel (but then all my vehicles are 4wd and run studded winter tires...more for the icy highway than for my drive...and, I have chains for them, too, which ensures that I never need them).
Is your loader a QA? If so, were I you and needed to get to gravel, I would get a QW adapter to mount my/your rear blade, and reverse it and angle it ...then I/you, in reverse, can blow the bulk of the snow and the following blade can do what you prefer: scrape down to gravel ...and, inasmuch as the bulk of the snow will have been blown some distance, the small remainder left by the blade at the side should be no problem. IMHO the worst snow implement for a drive is the FEL, so a blade and blower one-pass combo seems ideal for the heavy stuff ... I should mention that this can work easily on an HST, and probably would be unfriendly to a clutch on a gear machine unless you have a creeper gear. Of course, for the bulk of the snows, you would still have your blade on (the front, rather than the rear, true). If you push with the blade on the front, you can float it and, if you are concerned about the occasional immovable rock you might strike, you can use chain instead of a solid "top link" and the QA adapter, so that the blade will kick up and generally float along (as on a truck plow)
And, there is gravel for a drive and gravel for a drive ...I find three-quarter-minus (crusher run) packs down quite had and smooth and there are no rocks, to speak of ...since you mentioned black-top, re-gravel-surfacing might be also worth considering...probably cheaper and certainly more maintainable.
OP stated: "I am pretty sure that once I get down the hill that the blower and tractor will not make it back up until Spring arrives. I now have chains for the front and rear tires and I notice a great increase in traction, but on a test run last year, it did not seem like enough..."
______________I, myself, have a very long very steep gravel drive (that seems to be up hill in either direction) ...and use my blower quite successfully with loaded rears and chains on all 4 over turfs. For ice, my front chains are v-bar-reinforced and I can't imagine ice that I could not get up (and, we get an ice storm or two each year, in addition to snow). Were I you, I would load the rears and switch to ice-eating chains for the front (which are cheaper and easier to install using the FEL).
I don't try to get to bare gravel (but then all my vehicles are 4wd and run studded winter tires...more for the icy highway than for my drive...and, I have chains for them, too, which ensures that I never need them).
Is your loader a QA? If so, were I you and needed to get to gravel, I would get a QW adapter to mount my/your rear blade, and reverse it and angle it ...then I/you, in reverse, can blow the bulk of the snow and the following blade can do what you prefer: scrape down to gravel ...and, inasmuch as the bulk of the snow will have been blown some distance, the small remainder left by the blade at the side should be no problem. IMHO the worst snow implement for a drive is the FEL, so a blade and blower one-pass combo seems ideal for the heavy stuff ... I should mention that this can work easily on an HST, and probably would be unfriendly to a clutch on a gear machine unless you have a creeper gear. Of course, for the bulk of the snows, you would still have your blade on (the front, rather than the rear, true). If you push with the blade on the front, you can float it and, if you are concerned about the occasional immovable rock you might strike, you can use chain instead of a solid "top link" and the QA adapter, so that the blade will kick up and generally float along (as on a truck plow)
And, there is gravel for a drive and gravel for a drive ...I find three-quarter-minus (crusher run) packs down quite had and smooth and there are no rocks, to speak of ...since you mentioned black-top, re-gravel-surfacing might be also worth considering...probably cheaper and certainly more maintainable.