Best snow removal tool for this winter

[Karl2]

I'd say the front blower hands down, handle and get rid of the snow one time . I have both 72'' front plow, 47'' front blower, I'ts more fun to plow but takes longer and unless you have a whole lot of room or don't get alot of snow in the season you will envenually run out of places to put it.I've got a heated cab so its easy for me to say snowblow.

I do commercial snow removal and 80% of the time you will find me carrying an industrial 72" rear blower and a reversible snow bucket up front. Sometimes I replace the snow bucket with a 72" heavy snow blade hydraulically extensible to 96". I use this blade for small quantities of fluffy snow but mostly it's for clearing snow from the side of buildings, when extended the blade will reach the building without having to literally rub the tractor against the wall.

But the reversible snow bucket is by far the most useful snow implement when time matters. Most of the time you just reverse it and scrape/pull the snow towards where you want to blow it from. In no time at all you have a large area cleared and a single big pile of heavy snow. Heavy-duty blower will take care of that, again in very little time.

The downside is that these implements require serious HP in order to be efficient, so only the largest CUT's are suitable. But lately I have seen guys with medium-size machines (35/45 hp) using smaller reversible snow buckets with smaller blowers and while probably not suitable for a commercial operation such setups should be ideal for private use or residential clearing contracts where smaller tractors have the advantage of being more maneuverable and able to squeeze into areas larger CUT's can't reach due to clearance limitations.

 

[wolc123]

There is no universal "best snow removal tool". Everyone's situation is different. For myself, a 43 hp CUT, gear-trans. diesel with block heater, fwd with loaded R1's, no chains, no cab, 7 ft extra-high backwards facing rear blade, and front loader is about optimum. This rig will push virtual mountains of snow with that blade and has absolutely no traction issues although I dont have any hills. Dont need any chains so my wife and nieghbors dont yell at me for tearing up the blacktop and concrete. I dont like hydo-trans because they are sluggish until they get warm and I often have to clear the driveways quick before work in the morning. I like the open station for visibility in tight places. When I run out of places to stack the snow with the blade, I have all kinds of fun moving it out of the way with the front loader. The loader is also nice for backdragging close to garage doors so I dont have to turn the tractor around in driveways. I paid $125 for that rear blade 25 years ago (currently on its third tractor) and it has never needed any repairs that took me over 1/2 hr with a welder. I am up north in the Great Lakes region where snowfall is about the highest in the nation and even so, I like this rig a lot better than a blower mainly for reasons of effectiveness on any type of snow, dependability, ease of maintenence, and low cost. That said though, I would still reccomend a blower for anyone who has traction issues including: R4 or turf tires, light-weight, and 2wd. Blowers require very little traction to get the job done, especially on flat ground. Plows of any kind are best left to folks with adequately-ballasted 4wd's equipped with R1 tires. Of course if you do go with a blower, you will also want a cab and make sure you have some shear pins handy at all times.

 

[sunnyside360]

My vote goes to the front mounted snowblower especially if you have a cab tractor to keep warm and dry. Otherwise, front mounted snow plow. I'm currently using a front mounted JD 59 Snow Blower on a 3720 cab tractor and it's far and away better than anything else I have ever used for snow removal over the past 45 years. Just my $0.02 cents.

 

[whistlepig]

Well, it is 40 degrees outside and cloudy. The locals are calling (again) for a bad winter. So far, my wife and I have lived here three winters, and not much snow so far. People keep telling us it will be bad one winter soon, and they tell tales of chest deep snow at times at the higher elevations. Many of us come from snowy areas, and do not think NC gets snow. I suppose that depends are where one lives. Here, we have had some pretty mild winters, but when it snows it does a lot and I am concerned THIS is the year. My question is this: I sold my HPX Gator about four months ago and I used it to plow with (72" blade) and it did a great job. I am looking at a new UTV style vehicle but am not 100% sure I will be able to get one for a while. I have a 3720 and had a 72" boom blade I sold. It was nice, but due to space considerations both with storage and usage I sold it. I have briefly seen the front mount plain blades for my tractor and they seem quite nice but pricey. I have used rear blade in past with fairly good results, but I plow a lot and I am not sure whether it would suffice (it might). I plow 300' of drive and about one mile of side road to get to the main road. I would like opinions on which way I should go here for this winter. I want to make sure we do not get hit and me not have anything to plow with. Money is not a major issue, but of course I would prefer to keep the cost down as much as possible. I have an idea or two, but wanted to know what the group thinks.

John M

I'm not sure about your part of the country but where we live we don't get a lot of snow. I tried the rear blade thingy for a while. After about three hours twisted around looking backwards at a rear blade I walked around like the Hunchback of Notre Dame the rest of the day. Also, perhaps from my lack of talent, I was either leaving an inch of snow or peeling up an inch of gravel. The front blade works best me. It has skids that ride on top of the gravel. And it is up front where I can see it. I would think the cab and snow blower would be the ultimate but there just isn't enough snow around here to justify the expense.

 

[Karl2]

I'm not sure about your part of the country but where we live we don't get a lot of snow. I tried the rear blade thingy for a while. After about three hours twisted around looking backwards at a rear blade I walked around like the Hunchback of Notre Dame the rest of the day. Also, perhaps from my lack of talent, I was either leaving an inch of snow or peeling up an inch of gravel. The front blade works best me. It has skids that ride on top of the gravel. And it is up front where I can see it. I would think the cab and snow blower would be the ultimate but there just isn't enough snow around here to justify the expense.

There is lots of snow here: about 125 inches per season and it doesn't melt between storms so most tractors used for clearing snow are fitted with snow implements on both ends. The front end usually carries the implement used to either move or lift snow while the back carries the ubiquitous blower. Front blowers are mostly only found on very small tractors in these parts, although a few guys who don't mind hitching/unhitching equipment on a daily basis do alternate front blower with front bucket. But the huge majority of CUT's used for snow clearing have the blower in the back, and a majority of larger tractors as well. Industrial loaders on the other hand usually have the blower in front and a small "pusher" blade in the back, a configuration well adapted to the type of work most of these very large machines do: clearing large parking lots and loading the snow into 10-wheelers for carting away to snow disposal sites. Most tractors operators have the blower in the back because the blowers we use have tall chutes that impede vision and because we try to limit the use of the blower to clearing piles of snow gathered from large areas. But still many of us including yours truly find themselves in situations where use the blower is required half of the time due to terrain configuration.

Using rear snow removal implements is tricky and definitely requires a period of physical adaptation before one gets relatively comfortable with it, and I insist on "relatively". I've done it for a long time but never enjoyed it despite the fact that I usually love my seat time, in fact I don't know any of my colleagues who likes it. In cramped quarters you twist your head so many times between looking at your implement, watching where you're throwing the snow (in the case of a rear blower), looking in both rearview mirrors to check clearances and watching where you're going you get dizzy and need to stop to regain your sense of orientation. The larger the tractor the worst it gets. I suspect that's how the bi-directional tractor came to be: someone got pissed off and did something about it.

 

[JasonMac]

I would be screwed if I only had a front blower on my machine. I have to use my loader 50% of the time, and my rear 74" Blower the other 50% of the time.

I'm not a big guy at all, so I just get comfortable and sit sideways in my seat, and let my left foot do the hydros.... it's not uncomfortable at all for me.... besides when I'm sideways, my controls are all right in front of me.. it's pretty easy actually...

I can't get rid of my loader for the winter, because I have so many other chores for my loader all the time, and besides I have to do a lot of scraping with my front bucket too... the packed down stuff the snow blower would just ride over...

So my best setup for me is: CAB, Rear Blower, and 300cx 73" heavy duty bucket...

 

[Karl2]

I'm not a big guy at all, so I just get comfortable and sit sideways in my seat, and let my left foot do the hydros.... it's not uncomfortable at all for me.... besides when I'm sideways, my controls are all right in front of me.. it's pretty easy actually...

I find it easy as well but it took some getting used to and in some situations such as cramped quarters or parking lots where I have to weave around cars while making sure my front bucket won't hit anything while I'm blowing I still find myself with a sore neck at the end of the day sometimes. But it's only a minor inconvenience. After last night's storm I looked around today to see how many front blowers I could spot on the road and only saw one CUT that had one, and one small JD machine that looked like a zero-turn mower with a custom cab (it looked quite weird, and is it normal for those mowers to reach 10 mph?) was also sporting a front blower. All other CUT's and larger tractors that had blowers (the majority of them) had them in the back. One exception is those 300+ HP industrial loaders. Those only have one implement and a few had humongous blowers up front.

 

[yooper68]

For 1 mile of road, you need either a front angle plow or a blower. you either have to blow or angle the snow to the side. Back-blade is okay for light snow & helps for cutting/scraping the mat. I use my JD 3520 cab with 300cx (73" bucket) and 6' backblade to keep my yard clear. Would like a 6' or 7' snowpush; would eliminate having to "dump" the loader bucket each trip & also carries much more snow. Also eliminate the "beaver pelts" of sod that inadvertently get carved up with the loader bucket. We get about 250" or more snow each year here in MI UP. The ultimate snow machine here is a rubber track Bobcat with a hydraulic snowblower on the loader arms; however, I prefer my JD 3520; it would be too difficult to mow the field with a Bobcat

 

[AKfish]

Yep... been following this thread and it snowed again last night... it's 11F and blowin' and I gotta go out and plow.

Figured it out -- A PLANE TICKET!! That's the best snow removal tool - bar none!

AKfish

 

[LBrown59]

Any thing with heat inside.