Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Best Snow Plowing Machine: Tractor, Quad, or Truck?

[Gordon Gould]

I have all three and use them all for snow. It really depends on how much snow and how much plowing area and how much time and how much money.
I use a 1 ton 4wd truck on my one mile road. I use the 4 wheeler in and
around the door yard where jigging the truck around is a pain. And I use
the tractor to push the banks back when they get to high. My son down the
road gets the same snow but just has a driveway and he does fine with
just a 4 wheeler. They can push a lot of snow. My neighbor just uses his
4wd tractor and a rear blade for a pretty long drive.

The best one is the one you have!!

 

[Steve_Miller]

This would be my choice, then you could watch yourself plowing.

YouTube - Snowplowing with a selfsteered Cat grader using a ATU unit from John Deere in Sweden

Steve

 

[LBrown59]

Hey guys, so I have been reserching a bit on snow plows, and for argument's sake I would like to see who has tried the different methods? (note, I did not include dedicated snow blowers in this discussion, but feel free to add your input) So far in my reserch I have come up with a few pros/cons.

1*Tractor

Pros:
​

• Lots of torque and weight for traction, can plow through anything, can employ different methods and/or attachments to get the job done, will last a very long time.

Cons:
​

• Slow moving (comparitavely to other methods),expensive attachments, and not as common or easy to do jobs outside the home i.e. contracted out.
• 2*Truck
• Pros:
• Fast, very mobile, easily contracted out, capable of handling a decent amount of snow

Cons:
​

• Large amount of wear/tear on machine (unless sizable or using a dedicated machine), only plows 1 way (no attachments like tractor).

• 1*Been thinking about a cab and heat a for my BX .
• 2*but on the other hand I could just install a blade on a pick up for a lot less.

 

[kevinj]

* Truck comes standard with a heater.

So does the Kubota Grand L series

 

[Gittyup]

ATVs are fast, for sure. But, is it safe to go that fast?

The real problem with an ATV is that they have terrible turning radius, and forward to reverse is a little cumbersome, even on the automatics. Not sure it's too good for them to go back and forth like that either. But, if you have along lane to plow and you know it's clear of obstacles, they are really fast as long as the snow isn't too deep.

Pickups are obviously good if you have one and the space to use it to its full effect. But, it sure is hard on the truck. I wouldn't want to do it with my $35K pickup, that's for sure.

Tractors, big and small, are the most versatile. Me, I like my little JD425 AWS for the paved drive and around the house/garage. I can easily plow sideways with its turning radius (~13") or straight ahead. It's right-sized, and gives very fine control and visability. On my lane back to my barn, the CUT with rear blade is the best choice. It's nimble with power and traction. But, if we keep getting this much snow, I'll be looking for a blower for that tractor

 

[E/S]

* Truck comes standard with a heater.

So did my M.

E/S

 

[Dusty1]

I can pick up a good sized used city truck with plow and spreader for around $5000, and it serves multiple uses. You can drop close to that just for a new blower on your tractor. We don't get enough snow around here to justify 2 or even 3 snow removal machines. I already have been spotting up a dump truck for my business.

 

[PILOON]

Well I did snow removal for about 12 years, not as a main occupation but did maintain some 30 drives.
Nothing beats a 3/4 ton 4 X 4 diesel with an 8' Fisher plow for speed and comfort.
BUT when you get 3/4's into winter you also need a tractor (and not a cut) to blow back the snow banks as the drives simply get too narrow.
We'd often have to plow 4 and 5 times the same week and snow banks would be 6-7 feet high.
City would have to put big Cat graders with side wings to push back snow banks and 4WD loaders to haul away the accumulations.

We'd always figure about 30 snow events per season with 12 or so being in the 20-30 inch category.

We'd start the season with a drive 16ft wide and by mid Feb barely able to get by with the PU and blade angled.

This year, well most contractors haven't plowed since Xmas as we sent all the snow down south.
Downside is clients are very unhappy as they feel robbed and don't want to pay 2'd half of the contracts.

 

[NH-Rob]

Another great snow tool is a skid steer. great manuverablilty and can travel one direction spin around and back the other way. We plow the farm with two of them. Wish we had a blade on ours but the bucket end up doing the job. I also use the cat loader but in some ways the skid steers are faster.
Rob

 

[timswi]

I used an RTV on 2.5' of snow..Fast?..Not really. Faster than the quads..They couldn't get through it..Faster than my FEL could ever do on 1000' ft of road.

Can't get close to anything with a pickup. If you're running in the wide open, it's perfect.

I think I want an 1100 though...Got the green light, just don't know if I want to pony up that much cash.