Snow Attachments How good isFEL for snow removal?

[hazmat]

Didn't realize it was an "either FEL or Blower" question. Get the FEL! You'll more than make up the "extra" time taken clearing snow using it for chores the rest of the year. Wait unitll you see how fast you can spread mulch, move firewood etc. etc. etc.

For short money $300? a back blade is a significant improvement over the FEL.

You can also get a rear mounted blower for $1,400 +/- Vs the $3K for the front one.

Happy Tractoring!

 

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

GEJLP,

If you only have X $$ to spent on an attachment, I would then get the FEL, best wheel barrel you can buy!
BUT if you have the $$ get both! I have a FEL and it works OK for snow removal, BUT the 3pt snow blower works a lot better. I have a Puma 54" unit, 3 passes and the driveway is done. With the 48" FEL many more passes are required to clean the driveway. The FEL is good for cleaning the end of the driveway after the town plow has gone by and leaves a mountain of snow at the end. A 3 pt snowblower is about $1000, if it is a front mounted type add another $2000 for the BX 2200. The FEL was $2200, so for about $3200 you can get a FEL and snowblower for the cost of just the front mounted snowblower.

If you want as much seat time as you can get, and like the cold, then get a FEL. Oh yea do not forget some sort of a cab to keep the snow off of you if you use a snowblower. I used a golf cart cover for $100, you can also go with a $1500-2500 hard sided unit by Curtis if you have the extra $$$ to spend.

Here is my snow removal tool.

Regards

Tom

 

[OkieG]

For the past 3 years I have cleared snow for folks around our neighborhood. All I have to do the job is a FEL and Boxblade. Either one will get the job done for the small snowfall we deal with, BUT neither is very efficient at snow removal, in my opinion. Once your bucket (or Boxblade) fills with snow, the rest starts spilling out to each side. Unless you are only clearing a path as wide as your bucket, that spilled snow has to be moved again. You can push a full bucket of snow down the driveway or road for a hundred yards, and leave a clear path behind you, but when it's all said and done, you have only moved 1 bucket of snow. If you really want to clear the full width of a long diveway, dump your bucket within several feet after it fills. That way the spillage will be minimal and will be collected and dumped on the next pass. If you don't, you are wasting time, since you will see the snow that spills off to the sides again and again on subsequent passes. This suggestion is more valid the deeper the snow is that you have to clear away.

Clearing snow here is an infrequent, but critical job. I can't justify the cost of a snowblower or a nice frontblade or backblade because the work is infrequent. However, to really move snow, I am convinced that an angled blade (front or back) or snowblower is the way to go. I've never used either one, but have spent a lot of time shivering on my tractor, wishing I had one or the other.

One last point. Clearing snow all the way down to pavement can be tough on your cutting edge. Mine have taken some major wear over the past few years. An alternative, specialty type cutting edge, just for snow use is probably worth looking into. There is currently a good discussion about using a horsemat</font color=blue> which I find interesting. Good luck.

OkieG

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Tom,
Thanks for the info. I was thinking of getting a 3pt blower if I go with the FEL. Nice setup, get to save some $$ in the process.

Glen

 

[thcri]

I would take the FEL any day. I just love watching my neighbor blow the snow right back in his face! Yes when the snow is really deep you end up going back over because of spillage, but the snow blower throws it all over the place also. I can must move the snow right where I want it, and also the bucket can be used in the summer for other things. Snow blower just sits there.

 

[longway5]

At work we use a small collection of equipment to move snow, including a BX2200 with just a FEL, a L2850 with FEL and box blade, and a Case 580M with a usual loader bucket (not a snow bucket).
To answer your question, with only a few snow storms under my belt working with this equipment, including a 17"+ storm, a FEL will move the snow just fine, and for small storms, is much quicker than a blower. The biggest problem with a FEL is that the snow spills out the sides when the bucket is full. There are some plowing techniques to minimize the amount of snow that spills out the sides, but be prepared to make many passes over an area if it was a heavy snow storm. I found that a box blade works fairly well as a snow remover as well. It too will spill out the sides when it fills, but ours holds more than a loader and is wider, making it faster. With a little practice, you can pile the snow just as high with the box blade as with the FEL.
This is the first winter I have used the BX2200, and even it can handle pushing quite a bit of snow with the FEL, so the size of the tractor doesn't make much of a difference when pushing uncompacted snow. Make sure you push your piles up well out of the way, since once they are piled its a pain to deal with them with a CUT and a loader. Compared to the 580, which with 4-wheel drive will push its way through a pile almost as tall as itself with a minimum of work, the smaller tractors take a long time. With a blower, you don't have to worry about piles, which is nice if there is limited place to pile snow.
To recap this much too long post, I would get the FEL. In addition to being faster for smaller storms, its use in the other months of the year far outweigh that of a blower.