As some of you may be well aware, New England (specifically northern Maine) received a fair amount of freezing rain over the weekend, leaving all surfaces in a nice coating of ice. After things quieted down Sunday morning, I decided that I'd see if the box scraper could drag some salt/sand from what had been plowed at the edges of the driveway, around the yard enough to scrape up the surface and make it a bit more passable. As you can see from the first picture, it worked fairly well - I was pleased with the results and it made a decent surface to walk on and drive across. The forecast called for warm temps the next day, so I anticipated it melting quite a bit anyway (as I write this I can see that most of the driveway is bare again :thumbsup
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So feeling pretty good about my results and the tractor doing a nice job, a part of my brain, that I apparently should not listen to, decided that it would be a good idea to head down the gravel driveway to the back sheds, and see if the box scraper could rough up the surface enough to make it more passable. Now, to paint the picture, I've got the 2520 set up with the cab on it, snowblower on the front and box scraper, without scarifiers, on the back - NO CHAINS. My driveway that I mainly clear is in the first picture - nice and flat and really no need for chains, even with the R4 tires. As I mentioned, for some reason I had thought this was a good idea...... right up until the second that the front tires hit the gravel surface and went over the edge of the hill...... The weight of the tractor shifted forward and the sliding began! I quickly dropped the box scraper to the ground, followed by the blower - making any attempt at all to stop the slide. Unfortunately, neither was helping and I was headed towards an embankment (fortunately ROPS up and locked with seatbelt on!). As it all happens in slow motion, and I'm envisioning cab and blower damage, I made the decision to lift the blower, hit the left wheel brake and step on the forward pedal while turning left, as hard as I could (glad I went JD instead of Kubota so I could easily and quickly hit both pedals :laughing
. LUCKILY, the front tires spinning left brought the direction of travel away from the embankment and towards the lawn, missing the fence by a few inches. As the front left tire hit the grass, the tractor spun another 90 degrees across the road and came to a stop. After checking my shorts, I said a few words to the Man upstairs and hoped that I could drive up over the lawn back to the garage to put the tractor away ASAP! It climbed the icy grass with no problems, so I tucked it back in while questioning my sanity for attempting such a stunt. I was WAY to complacent on the icy surface, and I'm usually a fairly cautious person - not sure what got into me! (And yes, that is an extension cord that I forgot to unplug before heading down as well that goes to some Christmas lights. Fortunately, it just unplugged and was not damaged at all!)
Anyway, just wanted to share my experience and pictures of the tracks so that with any luck, the same situation will not happen to you! I'm not up on my chains, but maybe I should be looking at something good on ice but won't tear up the hot top driveway? Do they make such a thing??? Hindsight, I see where SO many things could have gone wrong and I was extremely lucky. Lesson learned! :ashamed:
Stay safe out there - plenty of winter left!
