Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Clearing snow with FEL

[whistlepig]

After you use a FEL for a while you'll get pretty good with it. I did. As far as a FEL verses a rear blade I'll take the FEL every time. Turning around watching a rear blade verses working the snow in front of me makes the FEL much easier. If I had to make a choice between a front blade and a FEL I would chose the FEL. The FEL can do all the things a blade can do in snow but a blade can't do all the things a FEL can do in snow.

 

[gavinol]

My Kubota L-185 with front end loader and rear scraper blade is doing a wonderful job moving the heavy snow. Scooping the snow forward and dumping the snow in high piles in the forward direction and plowing the snow in reverse gives me a huge advantage.

 

[merrickvilleguy]

we don't have a rear blade here ... but do have a box blade ... so we use that to pile snow and use the fel to move it to where we want it ... works fine for us ?

 

[MF 1532]

I am also a new participant to the snow removal . I have watched this subject on here for months , and there are a lot of different views ..... I guess we will have to be patient , wait for a snow and try them all , good excuse for seat time . My parking lot at my store is gravel . I thought about using the cylinder depth spacers on fel . We used to use them on some models of discs to set depth , it might help keep bucket out of rock or dirt ... Good Luck .

 

[Thomas]

"Try this - tip the lip of the bucket up 1/2" - 1" and put the FEL in Float."

I agree also use the rear blade...post pics snow removeal if you can...fingers cross for wamer temps on clearing.

 

[TripleR]

We don't get much snow, but when we do the FEL is the primary choice. Of course if we got a lot of snow we would probably buy snow blowers, but we don't.

Anyway a FEL is not useless in dealing with snow.

YouTube - How to Clear Snow with your Kubota Front End Loader

YouTube - Snow removal, tractor style

 

[CompactTractorFan]

This will be an interesting thread because this will be the first year of clearing snow with the tractor using the FEL.

 

[RoyJackson]

After you use a FEL for a while you'll get pretty good with it...

Yep, FEL/bucket works fine, but rather then trying just to push the snow, dump it (off the plowing area) now and then. The bucket works good for back dragging from buildings (such as a garage door) too.
Using the FEL/bucket may not be the fastest method, or the prefered method if your drive way is more then a few hundred feet, but it does work quite well once you get some experience.
And, of course, a FEL/bucket is what you have. You may decide on another type of snow removal equipment after your first season. Like Whistlepig, I used to use a rear blade...I just prefer using the bucket now (my drive is 150' long (or a bit more), so I'm not looking at a major event.

Downside is you will be putting some gravel (assuming a gravel drive) on your lawn. That's my annual spring clean up chore.

 

[TripleR]

This will be an interesting thread because this will be the first year of clearing snow with the tractor using the FEL.

You shouldn't have any trouble.

 

[Mousefield]

Yep, FEL/bucket works fine, but rather then trying just to push the snow, dump it (off the plowing area) now and then. The bucket works good for back dragging from buildings (such as a garage door) too.
Using the FEL/bucket may not be the fastest method, or the prefered method if your drive way is more then a few hundred feet, but it does work quite well once you get some experience.

Downside is you will be putting some gravel (assuming a gravel drive) on your lawn. That's my annual spring clean up chore.

That's pretty much what I do. Push it with the FEL and once in a while dump it off the road. This year, our first snow fall was 6 inches, I had the box blade on instead of the backhoe so tried using the box blade to scrape while pushing with the FEL. Once the box blade got full I would lift it and the snow would fall out, sometimes with a bit of help. Got the road a little smoother. :thumbsup: