My First Tractor will be a Ventrac 4500Y.

[murphy1244]

I would not have spent the money on a blower then and those darn thingys are costly. We rarely get more than 6 inches at a time. How about you?

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

I would not have spent the money on a blower then and those darn thingys are costly. We rarely get more than 6 inches at a time. How about you?

It depends upon the year. In the eight years that we have lived here in the woods, two have had little snow. Other years, we have gotten walloped. The Winter of 2009-2010 was particularly memorable.

At our previous home, in a "planned community" suburb closer to Washington, D.C., some years, we would also get whacked. There, however, our driveway was about 50 feet long, not 1600 feet long. I remember skating on the lawn around the time of the shutdown of the Federal Government in 1995/1996. There was a thick crust of ice with about 18 inches of snow below that.

Maryland Winters.

February 5-6, 2010.

February 9-10, 2010.

The next season also started off with a bang.

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

I would not have spent the money on a blower then and those darn thingys are costly. We rarely get more than 6 inches at a time. How about you?

There's also the risk of getting walled in if a series of snowstorms hit in quick succession. If the walls get too tall, I can give them a haircut with the blower.

 

[Raw Dodge]

You can always do what I did and buy a decent used Steiner snow blower.The 2 stage Steiner SB348 is a rugged unit, and it was in production almost 20 years, I'd look for a serial number over 1500, just because they have some upgrades, but they work good and will do the job, mine was 1200.00 and let me tell you it rocks and really throws the snow.

 

[Raw Dodge]

I sped mine up quite a bit, in fact too much , went from an 8 inch snowblower pulley to a 5 inch mower deck pulley. .It really throws the snow now, it outperforms anything else I've ever seen...I ordered a 6 inch pulley I believe it will be the perfect size for my machine. Did this at my ventrac dealers suggestion...he says these steiner blowers are great units..all I know is with the little pulley throwing 30-50 ft is pretty easy even when it bogs down to 2500rpm, it is still throwing it far....

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

We Finally Got Too Much Snow for Broomhilda to handle. So John Z. got a chance to show his stuff. The snow started out light and fluffy Saturday morning. By 11 PM that same day, the snow had gotten much denser, and was starting to change into sleep. I adjusted the skid shoes on Sunday morning to bring the scraper bar a bit closer to the pavement. I may bring it a bit closer still.

I did our driveway, and that of our elderly neighbors next up the road.

Yesterday, the sun was out, and in the afternoon, the temperature reached 38ｰ. I used Broomhilda to do a final clean-up.

It was all downhill, temperature-wise, from there.

The sun is out again today, but the wind is brisk, and the temperatures are chilly, and headed to get even chillier... single digits the next two nights. Our radon-remediation pipes are humming (resonating, and setting up acoustic oscillations). Similar to what happns if one blows across the top of a partially full soda bottle.

I hit 50.1 hours on the hour meter Saturday night, so I changed the motor oil.

 

[murphy1244]

How did you get your tractor to stay sideways like that? Any problem with slipping?

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

How did you get your tractor to stay sideways like that? Any problem with slipping?

That shot was taken on relatively level ground.

I did have a bit of slipping when trying to simultaneously climb and blow snow off of the 14° S-Curved Hill. Nothing that I could not deal with fairly easily. Blowing while heading downhill is obviously a less demanding strategy.

Best,

John

 

[murphy1244]

That shot was taken on relatively level ground.

I did have a bit of slipping when trying to simultaneously climb and blow snow off of the 14° S-Curved Hill. Nothing that I could not deal with fairly easily. Blowing while heading downhill is obviously a less demanding strategy.

Best,

Kohn

What oil you using?

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

What oil you using?

This time, I used Shell Rotella T6 5W-40. Which oil do you use?