Snow Blade Which is better ?

[bill ns]

I have differece of opinion between two neighbours about plowing snow one swears by removing this bucket ( to keep it from wearing out )and installing a snow plow blade the other neighbour says this is a waste of time and the bucket is better for picking up snow and moving it and he has never worn out a bucket both do a lot of plowing and have done so for a very long time . what is your opinion ?

 

[Cat_Driver]

Theoretically the guy using the snow plow would be correct. Snow plows "usually" have either skid pads or "blade ski's" to keep the blade off the ground by a few inches. With that set up he can replace the "skids" forever and the blade will never ever touch the ground and encounter wear.

Theoretically the plow guy could do the same thing so for wear it would be a tie.

Now for the advantage bucket vs plow.

You can plow and when you want to stack the snow the blade will float and walk right up a snow mountain that you create.

A bucket will stack as high as a plow will float - so again tie.

I think where the blade wins is in speed. By angeling the glade you can clear a lot of snow faster. A bucket will not push the snow aside and end up eventually with an impassable mountain in front of the bucket which has to be lifted out of the way, taking time.

For me I always used a blade. I would go one way and force the snow to the right and come back the other way and do the same so that was two passes with an 8' blade I cleared 16' with 2 passes.

 

[Thomas]

I've tried both and plow works best for me..quicker also does cleaner job.

My plow attach to bucket and I can mount snow high,also stay on frozen surface less of chance getting struck.

 

[Zork]

I like a plow.

 

[flyingcow]

I can't see wearing out a bucket from pushing snow. At least not in my lifetime. if i had to choose, plow blade for sure. i think I'd hire someone to plow me out, if i had to depend on using bucket. Too big of a yard i got

 

[FastPauly]

My vote is for a plow. Being up to a couple of feet across the bottom, buckets are too sensitive to the angle (curl function) when attempting to scrape clean. Even trying to use float funtion, be prepared for a sod ripping event when you go off the edge of the pavement should the bucket be tipped downward even a very small amount.

A QA loader mounted plow will allow you to pile snow up plenty high. If you want to move the pile then the QA will get you back in bucket mode as needed.

 

[LD1]

Another vote for a plow from me.

Allthough I perfer the truck mounted type unless you have a cab on your tractor. I like staying warm while I work and a truck is also faster.

 

[jpm]

a plow works better it pushs the snow to the side. a bucket fulls up to x amount then pushs the snow all a round it so that you keep leaving rows of snow you have keep trying to remove

 

[jimmysisson]

Big advantage of a (old, worn out) plow is it will float over contours, both fore-aft and side-to-side. Bucket always parallel to rear tires doesn't clean the surface as nicely. Also speed and added width and not having to lift so much.
Two old farmer neighbors, one Deere guy, one Ford guy. Ford guy plowed in reverse for 40 yrs, swore by it. Deere man plowed forward, swore by it. Kidded each other. When they retired and had to pick one tractor for their own, they reversed methods, and each learned to swear by the new one. To each his own, then not!
Jim

 

[Train]

From this past months experience. I have a Ford 1900 with a loader and also a front mounted blade that both lifts and angles left or right. For general clearing of snow nothing beats a blade but, you have to plan ahead if your going to move a lot of snow. If you know your going to have a lot of it over the season, you'd best make sure you've pushed out of the way as far as you can because once it piles up to a certain point a smaller tractor with a blade doesn't work as well as you'd like. The other thing is packed, drifted snow. In a couple hours I'm going to go out to clear the drifts from our corals. Unfortunately the blade doesn't work for that at all so I'll remove it and use the bucket. Slow going but that's how it is. A blade on the loader arms itself would be a big improvement but it still wouldn't work in my case.