Pirate
Gold Member
Been fighting our 900' steep driveway for about 10 years now. Decided this summer to concrete it. Really happy with the decision to do it. Still have some gravel up around the house. I thought I was all prepared with a brand new Herd 5.5 sand spreader mounted to the rear of my BX-1870, 10 tons of sand, and a nice rear blade on the old Jinma. Concrete didn't feel slippery after the first snow. Little did I realize that as soon as I moved that snow off the driveway, the exposed concrete turned to a slippery mess. So, I pulled out the BX, filled the Herd Spreader, and cautiously backed down the drive spreading a nice layer of sand.
Dirveway is just too steep. The BX with larger tires did fine but when I took the Jinma back down the drive, it slid just about halfway down. My neighbor and I winched it out of the ditch the next morning, no damage to me or tractor. I quickly realized that my expensive solution to using the driveway in the form of sanding was a bust.
After some emergency reading, I thought about chains but ruled them out right away. The only ones I thought that would work were around $500 just for the rears. I then caught some old posts about tire studs. Some of those were more expensive than chains. In the end, I went to Lowes and bought some hex head 3/8" screws and put two in each bar, all four tires. It worked perfectly! My tractor stuck to the drive like glue. I do have some scrapes down at the end near the road where I had to turn around but didn't see any others.
Funny how it turns out (and expensive) when $20 worth of screws is the perfect solution to being able to scrape snow off our driveway when we get an occasional snow fall. I wouldn't use these screws for extreme use. I plan on removing them next month. In the mean time, my brand new Herd 5.5 spreader sits in the garage. Sigh.
Dirveway is just too steep. The BX with larger tires did fine but when I took the Jinma back down the drive, it slid just about halfway down. My neighbor and I winched it out of the ditch the next morning, no damage to me or tractor. I quickly realized that my expensive solution to using the driveway in the form of sanding was a bust.
After some emergency reading, I thought about chains but ruled them out right away. The only ones I thought that would work were around $500 just for the rears. I then caught some old posts about tire studs. Some of those were more expensive than chains. In the end, I went to Lowes and bought some hex head 3/8" screws and put two in each bar, all four tires. It worked perfectly! My tractor stuck to the drive like glue. I do have some scrapes down at the end near the road where I had to turn around but didn't see any others.
Funny how it turns out (and expensive) when $20 worth of screws is the perfect solution to being able to scrape snow off our driveway when we get an occasional snow fall. I wouldn't use these screws for extreme use. I plan on removing them next month. In the mean time, my brand new Herd 5.5 spreader sits in the garage. Sigh.
