Snow moving. Not as easy as I thought

[jbrumberg]

What I (and a lot of others I know) do is skip plowing for the first couple storms, and let it form a base an inch or two thick which makes plowing the rest of the winter a lot easier. This of course assumes that the first couple storms are 3-4" or less...a heavy wet snow early on throws a wrench in that. Here in the north country the ground is almost always frozen by first snowfall.



No cab on mine, but it's not really that big a deal most of the time. Generally it's in the 20s when we get significant snowstorms, and at least to this old yankee, that isn't "cold".

4" of accumulated snowfall and/or when my neighbor plows out his farmstand across the road is my "snow go mode" for snow management. I had two 4" snow events before the ground/gravel driveway froze here = a couple of "divots" this year.

I have an open operator's platform as well. I agree about the typical nor'easter/coastal storm events as to the post storm temperatures. "Grayson" was an atypical weather event. Starting the tractor and plowing snow in 0F/1F windchill in the -25F range did get my attention.

 

[CincyFlyer]

First snowfall of the year, the driveway is usually still not frozen yet. So I have to feather the blade and bucket when moving the white stuff. And yes, you have to pay close attention to the angle of attack on the bucket to keep from digging into the dirt and gravel. If you have a paved drive, then half the work has been done already. But paving isn't economical with a thousand+ drive that has several spots that heave like a bronco every year.

Anything less than 6 inches I can back blade off just running the tractor over it. Usually I'll drop the bucket in float mode for the first pass up the center of the drive, and roll the snow off with the blade going up and down.

Deeper than 6 inches I have to start with the bucket, and push off the sides once it piles up and I start losing traction. 12 or more inches, and I have to herringbone the entire drive with the bucket, which means about 4 or 5 hours of work.

Note that I've had to do a lot of work on the sides of the drive over the past few years chopping back trees and saplings, and grading the banks, to have room to put the snow. Stone walls 12 to 15 feet off the drive are also an obstacle later in the season; which is why I've been looking for a possible front end blower for my Bobcat CT230 (really just a rebranded Kioti.)

I only have a little over 500 feet, 150 is paved, plus a large pad in front of the garage. I removed six inches of snow yesterday (tractor started in 8ｰF temps, no problem!) using the bucket and a box blade. I also did three neighbors' driveways (I own the gravel part of the driveway, but three others have easements to use it.) I use both at once, and when the box gets "full" I angle toward the edge of the drive, dump the bucket off the side and the box blade smack in the middle, then bucket the spoils off the drive. Not very efficient, took a couple of hours. A regular angled snow blade would be nice, but for every year we have 30" of total snowfall we have two where we get 5" or 6" total, so not in the cards.

 

[Stomper]

Just thought I would do a follow up on my DIY cutting edge tamer that I built for my tractor. It was the reason for this whole thread. It has been working amazing and I couldn't be happier with it. We have had about 2 plus feet of snow this year and I have been plowing quite regularly. I know that isn't much for some of the areas, some get that in one storm, but it's good for around here. I have tried to give my 3 PH blower an honest try but absolutley hate it. I can move more snow faster with the loader and I'm not covered with snow when I'm done. I just have short distances where I have to move the snow so the FEL works great. I literaly havent scooped one shovel full of snow this year. I love it. Heres some pictures of the great job the loader does with the DIY edge tamer.



EDIT:
Why do my pictures load sideways. When I expand them they are the right way but as thumbnails they are sideways. Would it have something to do with them being taken with my iphone?