Traction on ice

   / Traction on ice #1  

WillyC93

New member
Joined
Mar 13, 2009
Messages
12
Location
Post Falls, Idaho
Tractor
Kubota L-2500DT (2000)
My road is approximately 1/4 mile of gravel and 1/4 mile of blacktop. There is timber on both sides of the road for most of its length and it goes up, down, and around. I plow snow with an L2500DT Kubota and a 7.5' Meyers snowplow mounted to the front frame. I was moving a lot of gravel to the side of the road, so I made a gravel saver out of 2' schedule 80 pipe, which saved the gravel. However, the gravel saver left 1" of snow on the road after each use and is worn half way through after 1 month of use. I removed it after the road was frozen. My problem now is approximately 2.5" of hard packed snow and ice due to traffic and the sun melting the surface during the day and the night time temperatures refreezing it. I picked up 2 yards of 3/4 minus gravel today and spread it with a shovel. At 74 I don't care to do that very often! My question is, has anyone modified a 3-point broadcaster or fabricated something to spread aggregate larger then sand?
Thanks in advance, willyC93
 
   / Traction on ice #2  
I am not aware of a spreader that handles stone, but hopefully someone here has an idea. My only thoughts are "tailgating" the stone with a loader bucket,.... or pave the other half of your driveway and plow it down to pavement. Life's too short.
 
   / Traction on ice #3  
If you have a woodstove, and burn wood without nails in it, you can spread the ashes across the drive every X feet [ depending on how big your ash supply is ]. The ashes aid a little in traction, and work with the sun to melt bands of snow off the drive some days in the spring. I leave an inch or two of the same hard packed snow you have on my drive and live with it most of the winter to protect my Afton stone driveway. The ashes get dispersed off the drive and add nutrients to your land.... Should not hurt your paved section, either... Here is a picture of mine just freshly cleared off yesterday.... layers of ashes underneath with more to be added about Wednesday after our next snow....
 

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   / Traction on ice #4  
When it freezes in NZ, well down where I live anyway, they get out the 'bulky' trucks, which are 4x4 fertilizer spreading trucks normally used on grass, and put on grit with them. So I think a 3pt spreader would handle it, especially an older unit with plenty of real steel! You may not want to have it revving very high as it certainly flies a lot further than fert granules do, they usually slow the spinners right down on the trucks, anyway. Maybe the newer ones would handle it too, but they seem to make stuff with ever less steel and more paint and plastic.
I won't need to tell you not to load it to the top and then see if it works... even half a load of grit will be heavier than the load of fert it'd be designed for.
I'd see what farmers have lying around, that you might get going for very little
 
   / Traction on ice #5  
snow weapon 009.jpg Willy,I think you could use a small stone (buckshot) in one of these. They are for rock salt and melting chemicals, I have only used a product called "snowplow" in this one. That product works great in it and on ice. You could try dry sand, but you would need to close off the opening some.
 
   / Traction on ice #6  
Willy - not to worry. I'm over here in Amber - 25mi SW of Spokane - doing the sun dance in my fluorescent orange shorts. It won't be long now and the snow and ice will all be melted - ha,ha. Another "product of '42" here also.
 
   / Traction on ice #7  
I use the FEL to spread the 3/4 minus gravel. It takes some practice. You only want to start with about 1/2 a bucket and as evenly distributed in the bucket as possible. Then slowly move forward with the bucket lip 2 to 3 feet above the surface, and slowly get the lip of the bucket to the flow point. As soon as some gravel starts to come out, instantly reverse your joystick to curl. In other words, just the instant the gravel starts to fall you need to curl to prevent a "wad" of it from coming all at once.

As soon as you find this "tipping point", you need to operate the joystick between dump and curl with a "Palsy" hand motion. Yes shake your hand as if you have a bad case of palsy. Keep observing the gravel stream as you move slowly forward and adjust your palsy hand motions so the the stream stays steady.

This all sounds more difficult than it really is. It becomes intuitive pretty quick.
 
   / Traction on ice #8  
If you have R4 tires, thats half of your problem. They simply suck terribly in run down snow and ice. I mean like the worst tire ever. Mine gets stuck in 4x4 on my ice driveway just trying to move itself sometimes! lol
 
   / Traction on ice #9  
Willy,

If nothing else you should be able to make one out of a old pickup rear end. Flip the rear end so the yoke is pointing up, make a spreader plate to attach where yoke is mounted, build a hopper and then add tow bar to pull. As the tires turn while pulling it will spin the spreader plate in return spreading gravel.

I haven't built one yet but I have put some thought into it. I think it would work.
 
   / Traction on ice #10  
Willy,

If nothing else you should be able to make one out of a old pickup rear end. Flip the rear end so the yoke is pointing up, make a spreader plate to attach where yoke is mounted, build a hopper and then add tow bar to pull. As the tires turn while pulling it will spin the spreader plate in return spreading gravel.

I haven't built one yet but I have put some thought into it. I think it would work.
That's how they used to make rotary mowers, only they would have the pinion pointing down and mount the blade carrier/stumpjumper on that.

Aaron Z
 
 
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