Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Big Snow: Wait Til It's Over? or Take It In Bites?

[bp fick]

When the big one comes, with more than 6", life doesn't always permit the flexibility to choose between waiting until it's over or getting busy as each 5" falls. For the sake of this discussion, let's assume you do have the option.

Personally, I much prefer to push the first 5" far out of the way, and I mean far. I take the next 5" that falls and push it as far as possible out of the way. I know this means more trips and perhaps a bit more fuel, but it is preferable to waiting. Waiting sometimes means more than what was forecast falls and I personally do not like to get behind.

I prefer to go out early and often. That's my philosophy. I dunno. This is the way I was taught by the old timers back in the 1950's and 60's. Sometimes visitors laugh a little when they see the snow banks pushed out so far. I am not sure they quite understand that I prefer having the extra cushion, just in case,... just in case a really big event happens and I need the room.

 

[smfcpacfp]

I agree, especially if it is wet and heavy like the recent snow up east. I think that is why we are reading about the troubles that many are having up there with snow removal, but maybe the next time they will do things differently.

It is also easy to employee that strategy when you have a heated cab.

 

[biggerten]

I agree, as well. Been shoveling and plowing snow all my life, but I'd take advice on snowplowing from a yooper like Steve anyday.

 

[jdgreg]

+1, but I suppose it might depend on one's equipment. If you had a sizable tractor with a blower on it, you could almost wait until the event is over (depending on capacity of rig and amount dropped). My CUT can handle 6-8" at a time fairly easily with one pass. This weekend I was making several trips out trying to keep from getting too far behind.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

+1, but I suppose it might depend on one's equipment. If you had a sizable tractor with a blower on it, you could almost wait until the event is over (depending on capacity of rig and amount dropped). My CUT can handle 6-8" at a time fairly easily with one pass. This weekend I was making several trips out trying to keep from getting too far behind.

Yep, with a blower it really doesnt matter..IMO, it depends more if you have a cab or not
Me, I like playing in the snow...in the cab....so I'll go plow whenever I feel like it....with a snowblower it doesnt matter if you got 1" on the ground or 24". I once went to open a neighbor's driveway, he was out of town for 2 weeks and when he got back there was a good 30" of new snow in his driveway...I had no problems blowing it away.

 

[JB4310]

I'm of the wait till the last flake falls mentality.
But if I new it was gonna be a 2-3 foot storm I would definitely go out before it got that deep

One time it bit me good though, waiting till it stopped and trying to clear a commercial parking lot of 24 inches with an F-250 and an 8ft Fisher. Made one pass in through the middle and that was about it, had to get a back hoe to finish it.

Oh yeah, hit a curb and smacked my face on the steering wheel, felt my lip swelling up so I packed a little snow in there like chaw, well I kept feeling water dribbling down my chin, cleaned it off a few times before I looked in the mirror. I had a leak! teeth went thru the skin just below bottom lip!

No major damage, but later my wife said I sounded like Mike Tyson when I spoke with my beat up mouth

JB.

 

[bigtiller]

It is so darn windy on top of this hill in the middle of a corn field that it doesn't matter when I blow snow, the wind will fill it back in. But, I like to go out after lunch to clear the drive so my bride can make it to the house after she gets off work. And the next day I will do it again and the third day will usually need some touching up.

 

[tommcintire]

Having grown up on the coast of Maine and living in a "snow belt" in northern MA now, you definitely want to take it in "bites", but the size of the bites depends on a lot. If it is light & fluffy, I can easily plow & push back a foot of snow. No point bothering before then unless I need to get down the driveway for something specific. If it is wet & heavy, I'll plow when there is 4 or 5 inches. No hard & fast rules about "when".

My plow rig is a F-250 with studded snows on all 4. I then do any cleanup I need to do, as well as into the horse paddocks with the tractor. Works like a charm... A friend with a Ranger with a plow takes it in smaller bites, but follows the same sort of logic.

I plow the main barrel of the driveway a good 30 feet wide. One winter I made it down to about 15 by the end of winter, due to the snowbanks piling up. This year, we haven't gotten snow in a month, so it is real wide open right now...

The one other thing I'd add is that if I know the storm will finish with some rain, I either make sure I leave enough snow to "suck up" the rain, and then plow when the rain stops, or I plow the whole thing bare as soon as the rain starts...

My two cents. Your mileage WILL vary...

-Tom

 

[bp fick]

When I plowed commercially, back in the day, we were ordered to plow every 6" and absolutely not wait. Of course, we charged for each plowing. Some snows were bad enough, we charged out 3 pushes on each commercial lot.

When I had to hire snow removal on commercial property, years later, I found the same principle for billing still held true. I got charged 2 pushes if that what was needed.

What might seem a bit unfair but is misunderstood, I think, is that my old boss did not believe in hurting equipment. A six inch push was enough. There was no argument. If we had to go back twice, that was just part of the deal and the double billing was in the contract. There was no debate.

 

[Gittyup]

From a technical point of view, you remove snow at intervals that work best with your equipment/terrain. For me, that's 10" or less for my little John Deere GT. I would certainly think that snow removal with a SCUT or CUT would allow one to go deeper. Of course, terrain and setup will have a lot to do with that.

I usually follow my 10" inch rule. But, this time it got away from me (mostly because I wasn't willing to go out there after midnight). When I opened the garage door, snow had drifted up in front of the door to about 3 feet. I wasn't sure I'd even get out of the garage. But, I did, and 2.5 hours later I had plowed that 2 feet of snow away with my little itty bitty GT. It's amazing how good it works for its size. My driveway is flat, and not so big: 95' long fanning out from 12' wide at the street to 37' wide at the garage. In that time, I also did about a 20' circle in the cudesac (so I'd have a place to push snow out of my driveway). With 10" or less, the same area usually takes less than 10 minutes to clear. Little tractor got worked hard this go round.

I have a bigger tractor (Kioti CK25). But the deere is so much more efficient in and around my garage. I thought about getting the Kioti out to help the neighbors. But, the road back to the tractor was well over 2 feet all the way back (and there's a steep hill on it too). Decided it was best to leave the Kioti right where it was. Needless to say, I didn't clear that road. I'd say the steep hill on it limits what I could do with the Kioti. Never tried it; just didn't want to chance rolling it. If I ever do start using the Kioti for snow removal, I'll definitely have to stay ahead (10" rule probably a good one here too), and keep that second steep drive cleared so I can get to the main driveway.

In these parts 10 -12" snows aren't very common, much less the 2 foot variety. In 20 years I've been at this residence, I've seen no more than 4 or 5 snowfalls of this magnitude (including the 2 this season). So, I don't think there is a compelling reason to equipped the Kioti for bigger snows (as long as I'm not doing that steep road). Even so, the 10" rule should allow me to keep all lanes open, even the steep one.