Western Washington snow storm: first plowing in 6 years

[MossRoad]

Did my first plowing ever! Too lazy and wimpy to put my back blade on my BX so I got a taste of trying to move 12 to 18in of snow that starting melting off of an asphalt drive. Wow, that stuff piles up fast! Hope I didn't do damage to the paving (new this year!) as I have a Piranha Tooth Bar on my bucket.. Didn't finish the job... we are still snowed in but I made a dent. I first tackled my neighbor's drive... it was shelters and wasn't as deep as other parts of the 1000ft of area to clear. I now have an appreciation for snow blowers and front blades appropriately outfitted and actuated.

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Was a beautiful day at 34degF and some much welcomed sun! I got in deeper and on steeper grade... started getting difficult to maintain control. More work tomorrow!

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That wet heavy stuff is a pain to move. It won't plow very well because it sticks to itself and just kinda packs itself in as you go along. And if you don't have room on the edges to push it off, well, then you're gonna be making a lot of trips back and forth to an open area. We don't get that wet heavy stuff too often, but when we do get it off the lake when the temps aren't much below freezing, it brings down trees onto power lines and makes things messy for a day or two. Good luck out there. :thumbsup:

 

[oosik]

Yesterday I plowed the yard. 17" in the yard. I plowed the driveway and mailbox for a second time. It got warm yesterday and all that fluff compacted. I would guess around 14" in the yard now.

It's still hard to believe that the West side is getting all that snow. This is surely a "first" for a whole lot of folks. I'm just real pleased that my brand new pickup is over here - safely tucked away in its carport stall. I don't need to take it out to find out how slick conditions are here. I found that out - real quick - plowing the driveway.

Even with my M6040 weighing 10,000+ pounds - this wet heavy snow is no fun.

 

[goeduck]

There are records of Seattle having 5 feet of snow in 1880 and Port Angeles having 6 feet of snow in 1915. And we think we got hit hard this time. Spokane got some monster snows around 2007 to 2009, but I do not recall how much at one time.

 

[grsthegreat]

There are records of Seattle having 5 feet of snow in 1880 and Port Angeles having 6 feet of snow in 1915. And we think we got hit hard this time. Spokane got some monster snows around 2007 to 2009, but I do not recall how much at one time.

i dont remember what spokane got over the season, but Coeur d Alene had 110” for the season. We received 3 feet + overnight back then

 

[ultrarunner]

Not Snow but this week living in the SF Bay Area has reminded me of Western WA just about every day because of the significant rainfall we are receiving.

They now call it an atmospheric river as a kid I think it was call Pineapple Express.

 

[oosik]

I keep a log book of major events here on the property. The winter of '93 we received over 70" of snow. It's the most ever or since for this property. It's also the winter I bought the PTO driven snow blower. It worked like a charm on the Ford 1700. The mile long driveway looked like a luge run. When it was cold our Cocker Spaniel would race around the yard on the frozen top of all the snow. He would occasionally fall thru and need to be rescued.

 

[jfh28]

the plow on the 400 series is 5 ft so with normal snow I will set it perpendicular to the tractor and plow a 5 ft wide swath right down the center of the drive.....once I angle the blade fully this reduces the effective plowing width down to 30" - 36" and I plow the remaining snow on each side giving me a drive width of 10'.....I'll run another pass on each side pushing the snow back further if the forecast call for another storm so I have room to push that snow........on wet heavy deep snow I use a different approach.....I'll angle the blade about 1/3 as any more and I'll crab right away.......I'll go down the edges of the drive first pushing as far as I can go until either stalling or crabbing and then back up some and push the snow to the side and then I'll continue on until it happens again......once I have a path on the side clear I'll start taking bites out of whats remaining in the middle with the blade fully angled......this will mean more passes to get everything off to the sides but I hate herring boning and would much rather just keep moving forward........after years of doing this I have just found this is what works best for me.......Jack

 

[ultrarunner]

I've never had the chance to try plowing snow...

It has always been with a shovel and better with many people and shovels.

I can see where it would be a great timesaver with long drives in snow country.

 

[grsthegreat]

I've never had the chance to try plowing snow...

It has always been with a shovel and better with many people and shovels.

I can see where it would be a great timesaver with long drives in snow country.

im confused. Whats a shovel:laughing::licking:

 

[LouNY]

That's a long handled device that you can lean on while talking to people, they even have a small steel step for a foot rest.