Snow Attachments How good isFEL for snow removal?

[jmattox1]

With the little snow we received here in Indy and this being my first winter with a tractor, I found the FEL works great.

I have a split level gravel drive. Just drop the bucket curl a little upwards and set to float. Works great! Less removal of gravel.

 

[RichZ]

I use a back blade and an fel for snow removal. I have a 3ph snowblower, and don't even use it anymore. My driveway is dirt, and no matter how frozen it is, a rock always finds it's way into it to break a shear bolt! Then you have to clean out all the snow, replace the bolt, only to have it happen again!!/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

The backblade, fel combination works great.

 

[hazmat]

If you rearrange the letters in Wisconsin, it spells SNOW IS INC.(short for included) /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif[smart] You guys get some serious snow. Get the blower unless you've got extra time to spend.

Here's how I'd rate the efficiency of removing 2-4" of snow, from Low to high

FEL
Rear Blade
Snowblower
Front Blade

6" +
FEL
Rear Blade
Front Blade
Snowblower

We've had 40+ inches to date in Mass. I've run out of places to pile the snow with my plow & FEL. 90% of my drive has 5' snow banks. Neighbor has blower & NO snowbanks.

FEL will do the job, but it is significantly slower than even a rear blade.

 

[bellweather]

what I want to know is...doesn't the FEL accumulate snow quickly and then you need to dump it somewhere? or is there some trick to getting the FEL to push the snow to the side, like a regular front mounted blade? I'm in western MA and the deep snow on my 500' driveway probably amounts to hundreds of buckets of snow.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

There is a trick. Get a full bucket of snow then the rest of the snow just pushes to the sides. When you get a big enough V in front of the bucket you can start to direct where you want the snow to go a little easier. At the end of the run you just push the pile into the weeds and start again. What I do is use the box blade and pull the snow. IT allows more snow to be draged and the wheels allow a bigger box because the snow builds up under the tractor. Then I just drive off the side of the driveway and lift the box.

 

[JJT]

WingNut - Six Sigma Black Belt training, are you a fellow GE employee?

I plowed with a truck for many years, and switched to an 80" blower 4 years ago. I wouldn't go back to a plow for any price. We get 60" - 100" of snow annually with lots of drifting. When I plowed I'd start the season with a 40' wide driveway and some years I'd end up with a 10' path by the end of the winter. The plow also couldn't handle more than 18" of snow at a time, the blower walks thru any depth and there are no snow banks. Knock on wood, I've never busted a shear pin or a drive chain link. For my conditions the blower is the way to go.

 

[hazmat]

Robert is right, you can kind of use it as a straight only plow & push snow ahead of it. But I'm sure his 60+HP TN is a whole different animal than our little "toy" tractors./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

You don't have to dump the bucket every time.

I imagine that an FEL works better for sqaurish parking areas and maybe a U driveway where you can push for a short distance & then get it into the lawn. For a more "road like" driveway, you want to cast the snow to the side via a plow or if in the snow belt a snowblower.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

So far we haven't had any snow to move this year. Last year I only had to clean the driveway 3 times.
I am looking at getting a JD2210 at the end of the month and I don't have enough funds to get the FEL and the blower at the same time and the blower is about $3K and the FEL about $2K.

 

[RoyJackson]

I am looking at getting a JD2210 at the end of the month and I don't have enough funds to get the FEL and the blower at the same time and the blower is about $3K and the FEL about $2K.

Definitely go for the FEL. You can use that all year. Even with a lot of snow, the snowblower is going to set idle most of the time.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Its only 57hp/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif but close enough. Have fun.