Re: Snow Options for my CUT
Paul, check my response in the <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=genoperating&Number=214552&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=>Check Your Grill</A> thread. I respectfully disagree that using the FEL is inefficient for a foot or less of snow. We had between 8" and 9" of snow this past week and my FEL worked very well. The less the snow, the longer you can push with the FEL before you have to dump a bucket full.
It was also interesting to watch the contractor clear the parking lots at work. (Funny the things that catch my eye now!). Where I work is a campus environment, with large parking areas and sidewalks. They use vehicles with plows to do the sidewalks, i.e., they push the snow into the roadways between the lots. While they also use dump trucks with plows on the roads, backhoes are also used frequently to plow the roadways in addition to relocating the piles of snow. So, using a FEL to plow snow is not limited to tractors or where the only purpose is to transport the snow to dump it somewhere. I had a front mounted plow on my garden tractor and found it to be an inefficient way to remove snow, at least on the areas I have to clear.
The other issue with plows is you have to have someplace to push it. This would seem kind of obvious, but sometimes it's overlooked. Over the years I used my garden tractor, I had to guess how far onto the lawn I was going to push the snow in order to leave enough area to push the next snowfall. In my experience, I use the FEL almost as a plow anyway, except with a FEL you also have the capability to pick the snow up and move it if you have to.
For those people who live in an area that gets a lot of snow, a snowblower makes sense, but spending a couple thousand dollars on a 3ph snow blower, or the more expensive front mounted version, doesn't make sense for me. Frankly, I'd rather spend $800 or $900 on a walk behind snowblower if I needed one.