Snow Too much snow! Help!

[stimpee]

I live in Northeastern MD and spent about 5 hours outside yesterday afternoon moving snow. I have a B3030 with FEL and 1572 rear blade with R4's. Two of my neighbors were also out one in his TC29DA with FEL and rear blade with R4's, and another in a Deere 755 with FEL and turfs, no rear blade.

We basically clear the whole neighborhood when it snows. Approx 22 houses, all with driveways that are a minimum 200' long. I have two driveways, one to the house, one to the barn, with a total of over 900'.

The three of us spent a decent amount of time pulling each other out of the snow on the side of driveways and the road. Just go in a BIT too far to dump the FEL and boom, you're done! I am happy to say I did not get stuck to a level where I needed assistance. I was able to lift the front end with the FEL and reach under the front of the tractor with the snow shovel to get the snow out from under the front part of the frame.

The most effective method of moving the snow without risking getting stuck for me worked as follows:

I would try to clear a space at the base of any driveway across the road in the neighborhood to give myself a space to dump. Then I would push into the driveway with the FEL until the tractor stopped and would lift up a big heaping bucket of snow. I would then back out into the road, sometimes pushing snow backwards with the rear blade, spin around and dump, and then go back in for another bite. I usually had a 5-6' tall pile of snow in front of the loader. It was slow going, with lots of time spent just driving back and forth. But get stuck once, and you would lose 15 minutes or more, so overall I think it was more efficient. We live at the top of a hill, and I was going thru snow that was close to 3' deep in spots and even drifts over 4' tall. I don't even know how much snow we got, since we had so much drifting. I would estimate 26-28".

A front mounted (or even 3pt hitch) snowblower would have been the ultimate tool for this snow I think. However we typically do not get something like that often enough to justify 2500-3000 for a blower...

If these types of storms get more common, then a blower and a set of tire chains might become a necessity.

Have to go back out in an hour or so and do some more clearing and clean up since we are supposed to get more snow on Wednesday.

 

[fih25]

Here in Central PA we "lucked out" only got around 11" of snow. Thank God for my Kubota. I cleaned off the lower driveway with the FEL(as usual) But when I turned to my 200' driveway i tried using the rear blade both pulling and pushing but found that using the FEL was the best way.
And to Al Gore and his global warming crowd, I (and my Kubota owners in southern PA and the state of Maryland) we have a snow shovel reserved for you to help shovel out your global warming.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Most of the previous posters on this thread seemed to have to revert to the FEL to finally move their snow. What should they have done?

Mighty Mouse is both underpowered and exhibiting problems with the transmission. But it will creep along with the front mount 50" snowthrower and do a great job. Needs about 5moreHP for reasonable speed in the deep stuff.
larry

 

[Egon]

Mighty Mouse is both underpowered and exhibiting problems with the transmission. But it will creep along with the front mount 50" snowthrower and do a great job. Needs about 5moreHP for reasonable speed in the deep stuff.
larry

But most of these fellows do not have a snow blower. Also with the type of snow many got is very wet the blower will plug up unless you have an abundance of HP. Again which most of these fellows don't have.

In our area the snow is wet enough to stick in the bucket and sometimes water evens runs out.

 

[wildwillie]

I can relate! Last year we got 30" in one day to start with. We have 1 1/4 miles of steep winding road we share with neighbors.Nowhere to plow snow with the truck.(I didn't have a fel then)We hired equipment twice to kinda keep the road open.
Killed the plow truck and pretty much broke everything.
So I vowed never again Bought a L3400 with fel, Erskin rear pull snow blower, even picked up a HD7 crawler to do battle. So of course thanks to El Ninyo we have had a total of maybe 8" snow so far this year.
I cant win for loosing.
But I am ready.

 

[Ace3]

The key to snow removal is to NOT wait until it stops especially if its the wet heavy stuff. It seems to me that everyone who is having problems waited until it was over to tackle it. You need to get out there and start pushing it back as soon as there are a few inches, otherwise you will spend a lot of time beating up your equipment to remove it. Be proactive not reactive.

 

[jas67]

you guys are actually making me jealous of all that snow. glad to hear everyone is doing ok and finding ways to cope with what they have. Looks like majority found that chains do help but not necessary.

Chains were necessary yesterday for me to be able to take a full 60" swath with my snow blower (which the first pass has to be).

 

[SPYDERLK]

Also in the type of snow many got that is very wet the blower will plug up unless you have an abundance of HP. again which most of these fellows don't have.

In our area the sow is wet enough to stick in the bucket and sometimes water evens runs out.

Thats the kind we got here. Anemic HP. Only had it plug the chute 3 times and that was with slush later in the day when touching up already cleaned melting areas. I guess the Kub thrower has a pretty good discharge design.
larry

 

[IdahoTractor]

We have 1 1/4 miles of steep winding road we share with neighbors....So of course thanks to El Ninyo we have had a total of maybe 8" snow so far this year.

I also have a 1.25 mile driveway. This year's snow sure beats the last two years -- I haven't had to shovel my roofs this year!

I'm not aware of any of my tractor-owning neighbors using their FEL bucket to plow snow; it'd be like bailing out the Titanic with a 5-gallon bucket. Here's how I and my neighbors plow....

Blade Photo Gallery

 

[timswi]

From SW PA...Got pretty much buried...2 ft or so..Cleared this with an RTV500. Never started the BX. Took 8 hrs to clear the 1000ft rightaway, my driveway and the neighbors driveways..My neighbor helped with the clean up, once I slogged through the deep stuff...Too much for a quad.

I even plowed for a few hours Friday night to get ahead of it..Didn't seem to help much though. Some of the piles have shrunk due to the warm temps yesterday and the abundant sunshine we had..Thank goodness!!!