Snow Removal Frustration

[MHarryE]

Weight helps a little, chains a lot, but rear blades aren't great for heavy snow. I've got by with my rear blade for all but 2 of our snowfalls but for them the driveway was just getting too narrow so it became loader time. My banks are now 4 feet high and 8 feet wide. This year a blower would have paid off. My tractor was equipped with mid-mounted PTO and front blower on the lot but I made them take it off and replace with the loader. Big mistake . Should have kept both.

 

[Lightnsound]

V-Bar Duo chains on gravel made my little B7610 go from a mouse to a monster in snow. But put something down on the garage floor, because the chains ate the concrete pad. The V-bars are too aggressive on paved surfaces, so think twice before you go doing favors clearing your neighbor's paved drive.

Loading tires is cool, but it can't be undone and redone easily. I don't want loaded tires when I'm mowing a couple days after rain. I'd dig in too much. Chains go on and off pretty fast after the first couple of times and you get it figured out.

With a rear blade I've had a lot better luck running forwards dragging the blade behind me for clearing snow. Running in reverse makes the blade want to dig in and I always ended up giving the driveway a washboard texture. I have used this to my advantage a few times on ice by getting the blade to chatter, chopping up the ice a bit and giving it some tooth. I never put a pipe on the bottom of the blade so I don't know if it makes things any easier. I always used top link length to control blade cutting angle, and sometimes ran the blade the wrong way so it would ride up a bit and smooth things over.

I agree that having a blade that covers your wheel width is pretty important. Maybe a wider blade is in order. Maybe you can narrow the rears a bit on the axle, not sure about your machine. Maybe a bit of both.

Come spring there will be some repairs and crowning to do, but that's the beauty of gravel. You can mess it up and put it back with the same implements. Just don't widen the gravel every time you plow otherwise you end up with something wide enough to land a Cessna on after a few years.

It's not the arrow, it's the Indian. Yes the right tool makes the job go better, but no matter what you use, it takes time to get the feel. Practice makes progress.

I had my drive paved and its cool, but I have to admit that I miss grooming the gravel. We had a couple over for dinner one evening, and I had just finished crowning and York raking the drive. When our guests arrived the gentleman mentioned how nice the driveway looked. The way I felt hearing that must be darn close to how a women feels when her friend notices her new dress and hairdo.

 

[vtsnowedin]

In just one winter I have gone from the bucket and box blade to a front mounted used snowplow blade. With just two paying customers the blade has already paid for itself. This set up works great for pushing back the banks when they get too high as I can just hold up the loader arms another foot and put the right side tires right into the bank while pushing over the top two thirds of the bank five feet or so. I do have to remember where the drop offs are and come back into hard ground to avoid getting sucked down but I don't have many of those and only wing back in daylight between storms.
So this is my set up. Loaded tires, ice chains rear, front power angle eight foot plow with wings. regular 73" bucket for loading out and pileing snow between storms.

 

[High Compression]

You may not want to hear this, but it's kinda the nature of the beast, using a rear blade. I live in KC. I got 14" on the first storm and 8" on the next. I have an L5740 with 1298# of RimGuard ballast, and grooved R4s. With my spreader on the back with 800# of ice melt loaded in it, I can shove my 9' plow almost through anything. So after I was done with all my accounts, I decided to clear the sidewalks here in town, so the kids could walk to school. So I put a little 72" blade on the 3pt and gave it the max angle so I wouldn't scrape up too much grass on either side of the sidewalk. Using the 9' plow to knock off the top 12" or so, I still ran out of traction quite often as the rear blade filled up. As soon as I lift the blade, I'm off and running.

 

[kiotiken]

I've used this set up on 3 tractors now, a JD955 (1700# + FEL, non loaded tires), Kioti CK30 (3200# + FEL + Loaded tires) and my current Kioti DK45 (4100# + FEL + Loaded tires). The only time I've ever struggled is when the machine doesn't have enough clearance and tries to push snow with the front axle or my pile of snow becomes really, really big. I've always found that using a rear blade backwards is next to useless. Try turning it around and pulling it, I'm sure you'll have a lot more success. This will also allow you to scrape it down by angling the blade forward. Chains will do more than weight, but I'd load those tires regardless, it will be a whole different tractor after you do. Regardless, I don't think you'll be able to push that much snow backwards, but pulling it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[kiotiken]

You may not want to hear this, but it's kinda the nature of the beast, using a rear blade. I live in KC. I got 14" on the first storm and 8" on the next. I have an L5740 with 1298# of RimGuard ballast, and grooved R4s. With my spreader on the back with 800# of ice melt loaded in it, I can shove my 9' plow almost through anything. So after I was done with all my accounts, I decided to clear the sidewalks here in town, so the kids could walk to school. So I put a little 72" blade on the 3pt and gave it the max angle so I wouldn't scrape up too much grass on either side of the sidewalk. Using the 9' plow to knock off the top 12" or so, I still ran out of traction quite often as the rear blade filled up. As soon as I lift the blade, I'm off and running.

HC, it's a whole different story when the snow has nowhere to go, but if the OP starts pulling instead of trying to push and still has room for a furrow, he should be fine. With 12" of snow, he'll probably need to start by making a few relief cuts, then the rest will be easy.

 

[deezler]

When the snow is too heavy for me rear blade I just use my front end loader. Yes its slow, but I do my best to think of it as just more tractor time - playing in the snow. Start taking bites that you can handle and it will get done eventually.

This was my approach for our last storm. I haven't gotten to use my tractor much for snow clearing since it doesn't live where I do.

But after 7" of wet sloppy snow last week, I set off with the rear 6-ft blade to clear the driveway. Boy was I dissapointed when it just lifted up and over the compressed snow slop! So I ended up with a procedure using BOTH the rear blade and front bucket simultaneously. You don't have to pick up everything in the front bucket, but if you keep it low and skim/scoop/push at least half the snow, you can get pretty far before you need to stop and dump the bucket. Meanwhile the rear blade will have had no problem cleaning up the path behind you, clearing much less snow than you otherwise would have had to ask it to do.

 

[coldstream]

Wow, 3 pages of replies. Thanks for the great input folks. Since traction is the root cause of my problems I believe that I will start budgeting and planning for a set of chains. Based on your replies that seems the most likely way to improve my performance in the snow. Now, regarding chains, are there different styles and designs? Lightnsound mentioned the "V-Bar Duo" chains being pretty aggressive. Is that a style or a brand (I'll google it)? I wonder how much a set of chains will break the bank. . .

 

[rjwerth]

In the order of cost effectiveness. 1. rear chains, 2. front chains if you have clearance on steering arms and loader parts, 3, load rear tires, 4, bigger rear blade with offset, 5, front plow 6.5 foot, use dump function for power angle. 6, add third function for power angle to allow front plow to float 7, rear 3PH snow blower. 8, six drunk relatives with snow shovels.

Skip the shovels...just use 'em for ballast!

 

[Pine Strip]

Focus on the good little things that are continually present in my life.....

Like blowing snow !







When I bought my tractor new because I had turf tires installed I asked the service dept. about getting chains. he said.... 'You'll never need them !'