Deep snow techniques?

[RoyJackson]

His time is better spent calling people with equipment IMO.

With that much snow, this is the best idea...but it might take a few days to get someone to do the job. That means the OP is stuck until then so he may as well start the job. I hope he's got enough diesel fuel!

We all have 100% hindsight...and he should have started clearing a lot earlier.

 

[skyhook]

We got 39 Inches of snow yesterday. I have an older Kubota B2410 with FEL and Woods rear blade. I have Turf tires front and back since I primarily mow fields with it, but do have chains on the back so am not entirely immobile.

It took me all day to just get out of the garage and 50 feet down the driveway (paved). Once I get to end of my paved drive I am then looking at about 1/4 mile of gravel drive.
My biggest problem seems to be how little ground clearance I have under my frame, but this is really deep snow and the drifts are even higher. Finding a place to put the snow as I move it a bucket at at time is a real challenge. Just not sure how to attack it.
We don't get a lot of snow here, and I am just not that experienced at moving it effectively with my machine. If anyone has any common sense (or other!) tips that would help me get the best idea I can on tackling this problem would be much appreciated!
Thanks much!
Roy

Since you already have 50 feet done, here's what I'd do in your situation,,a "T"pattern, clear both sides of your driveway in the shape of a T, if you can, and continue forward, picking up snow and backing up with the bucket full and filling in the sides of The T, when thats full, continue where you were, making another "T", eventually you'll have er done. Hope I said this so you understand,...by the way, is it me or is this site "extremely" slow this morning, lots of bad "gateways' etc also.

 

[von-mil]

It's not just you, TBN page loads are crawling. I'm signing off and will try again tomorrow.

 

[Tomtint]

I don't know if it has been mentioned, but you need to plan ahead when stacking the snow. Push it far enough back so there is room to stack more in the future without a problem.

 

[Garandman]

. You can bet guys with pay loaders will be all over the place and if no one can go anywhere, what's the difference of him waiting until the main ways are cleared instead of beating himself silly trying to remove 39" of snow off a 12' wide drive that's a quarter mile long?. His time is better spent calling people with equipment imo.

Yeah, a friend of,mine waited to do that until we were ears deep in snow last winter: that's how he had to wait three days and pay $2,200 to have his gas station parking lot cleared.

I'd go for it, what else does he have to do?

 

[Garandman]

. You can bet guys with pay loaders will be all over the place and if no one can go anywhere, what's the difference of him waiting until the main ways are cleared instead of beating himself silly trying to remove 39" of snow off a 12' wide drive that's a quarter mile long?. His time is better spent calling people with equipment imo.

Yeah, a friend of,mine waited to do that until we were ears deep in snow last winter: that's how he had to wait three days and pay $2,200 to have his gas station parking lot cleared.

I'd go for it, what else does he have to do?

 

[newbury]

<snip> I also try to make the snow piles higher and deeper where I eventually know the melting snow will run off away from the house/barn, etc., when the time comes so the lawn has time to dry before winter arrives again...

Since he got 39" in this storm I suspect the OP is a lot further south than you.
I'm from Vermont and still have ~75 acres in East Fletcher. I could generally plan on not having to shovel snow during summer vacation.

Down here where we got the deep snow in this storm I can often go the entire winter without having to shovel.

Even though now some shoveling is required

 

[varmint]

Now, that is very interesting! Based on the size of the fuel tank, costly to operate, even with today's diesel prices. Sure could intimidate other drivers.

 

[arrow]

Yeah, a friend of,mine waited to do that until we were ears deep in snow last winter: that's how he had to wait three days and pay $2,200 to have his gas station parking lot cleared.

I'd go for it, what else does he have to do?

Where? On the east coast where everything is crazy priced? You cannot look at just the expenditure. It took him "all day" just to go 50'. He'll have to do that 26.4 more times. Even if it costs him a thousand bucks, it's money well spent. As far as your assertion of "nothing else to do", that is assuming he has enough fuel on hand to work his machine another hundred hours. If he fries something on his little tractor trying to do a job way bigger than it was designed for, that might cost more to fix than the plow out job.

 

[KYKub]

Now there's a good human...shoveling an area for the short-legged Corgi!

 

[ovrszd]

No sarcasm intended at all.....

If he's snowed in, what else does he have to do??? Might as well get at it. Hiring it done would be totally out of the question to me.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Seems to me if the op can't get to work until his driveway is cleared then he has the time. As to weather the tractor is too small for the job it doesn't matter. I'd far rather spend the time cleaning the driveway rather than sitting around waiting for something to happen. He's not going to be able to buy or rent a bigger tractor till everyone else is finished with their snow at this point in time anyways. Just chew away at it and have fun.

The best idea is to make sure you get the snow far away enough so that if it snows again you have somewhere to push the snow. I would modify the "T" design talked about previously to a "Y" design. It's just less turning and easier on you and the tractor.

 

[jenkinsph]

Since he got 39" in this storm I suspect the OP is a lot further south than you.
I'm from Vermont and still have ~75 acres in East Fletcher. I could generally plan on not having to shovel snow during summer vacation.

Down here where we got the deep snow in this storm I can often go the entire winter without having to shovel.

Even though now some shoveling is required

At least your dog has figured it out. Cute dog

 

[prs]

I only had 30" to deal with Saturday. My little JD 650 has no FEL, but I have an 8' heavy duty grader on the rear. I have the big fat Pillow Diameter turf tires. I have logging chains for the rear and have used them a lot, but did not install them last fall because the fenders have to come off and all that jazz. So with chains on the front, two big suitcases on front and loaded tires all around, I pushed the snow downhill in reverse. I had to use a right to left "sweep" pattern in about 6' swaths. The left berm is the "cliff side" so I was pushing the snow right to the edge or even over. Toward the bottom of my driveway I could use the "herring bone" or double sweep pattern as there is not cliff side there. It took 3 hours to clear the 3 tenths of a mile of blacktop and parking area. If gravity had not been with me, it would have taken much longer.

PS: I actually considered buying the snow blower with my new Ventrac last spring. Oh, well.

prs

 

[paulfun9]

Where? On the east coast where everything is crazy priced? You cannot look at just the expenditure. It took him "all day" just to go 50'. He'll have to do that 26.4 more times. Even if it costs him a thousand bucks, it's money well spent. As far as your assertion of "nothing else to do", that is assuming he has enough fuel on hand to work his machine another hundred hours. If he fries something on his little tractor trying to do a job way bigger than it was designed for, that might cost more to fix than the plow out job.

I would guess that if it took him all day to go 50' he was doing something wrong! Even with a shovel I think I could have done better than 50' in a day and think that giving him advise on how best to work the machine would be the best.

As for paying someone to clear that much snow when you already have a tractor? Absolutely not! Fight your way threw it and take the savings and buy a decent snow blower. He might not even use it for a year or two but when the next storm comes he will be able to dig himself out and not have to spend the money again.

Normal regular customers get a fair price! Everyone who calls and needs squeezed in are at risk to many factors that will be so varied it would take a hole page to explain. But the bottom line is if your not prepared to cover your own butt, then be prepared to pay someone extra to get the job done!

His tractor will handle the job fine but it will take time and patience. I have dug out with small equipment before and even yesterday had my small JD working.

 

[arrow]

I would guess that if it took him all day to go 50' he was doing something wrong! Even with a shovel I think I could have done better than 50' in a day and think that giving him advise on how best to work the machine would be the best.

As for paying someone to clear that much snow when you already have a tractor? Absolutely not! Fight your way threw it and take the savings and buy a decent snow blower. He might not even use it for a year or two but when the next storm comes he will be able to dig himself out and not have to spend the money again.

Normal regular customers get a fair price! Everyone who calls and needs squeezed in are at risk to many factors that will be so varied it would take a hole page to explain. But the bottom line is if your not prepared to cover your own butt, then be prepared to pay someone extra to get the job done!

His tractor will handle the job fine but it will take time and patience. I have dug out with small equipment before and even yesterday had my small JD working.

Ok, so let's say he improves his technique and goes triple that amount "all day", he'll still be at it after a week if he has the fuel and if his tractor doesn't bust something. Have you tried 39" deep for a quarter mile? My old JD 750 cleared a 27" snowfall once off of a 150' drive. It took a while. When you add another foot to that amount, it changes the story completely. When you have to do this for a quarter mile, your "absolutely not" may alter it's stance.

 

[dodge man]

I dealt with around 24" of snow about 4 years ago with a BX. Some of the drifts were deeper. I couldn't really push the snow, I had to scoop it up, back up a little drive off to the side a little and dump. In the deeper drifts I would have to back up further maybe for a place to dump. The one good thing, the wind blew the snow around a lot so there were some deeper drifts but there were also some fairly open places to dump the snow. My rear blade was useless. Its easy to say "stay ahead of it" but for me I went out the night before and tried to stay ahead of it but that was a waste of time, the wind and the snow had just filled it back in. I spent maybe as long as 8 hours on my BX doing 600 feet of my driveway, the neighbors short driveway, and maybe around a 1000 feet of the township road.

 

[arrow]

No sarcasm intended at all.....

If he's snowed in, what else does he have to do??? Might as well get at it. Hiring it done would be totally out of the question to me.

I can understand your point owning an M9540 and not having to clear a 3' snowfall. His tractor fits in your wheel well. Hiring someone may very well be his best bet especially if he is running low on fuel or an emergency arises.

 

[ovrszd]

I can understand your point owning an M9540. His tractor fits in your wheel well. Hiring someone may very well be his best bet especially if he is running low on fuel or an emergency arises.

I started with a Kubota B2910. I know exactly what he's dealing with. Only condition to hiring for me would be if I didn't have enough fuel. Even then, I'd go as far as I could before calling. As someone just mentioned, he'll buy a decent snow blower for what he's going to pay someone to take care of this.

 

[arrow]

I started with a Kubota B2910. I know exactly what he's dealing with. Only condition to hiring for me would be if I didn't have enough fuel. Even then, I'd go as far as I could before calling. As someone just mentioned, he'll buy a decent snow blower for what he's going to pay someone to take care of this.

Just go's to show the varied mindsets on this board. It always comes down to experience being the best teacher pertinent to the situation and individual. I am curious as to which advice the op is dealing with presently.