Glare Ice Solution

[ning]

Would a chain harrow help - at least before the ice forms?

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have one and as aggressive as it might be in the proper mode, I would say it just isn't heavy enough.

 

[Thomas]

Don't walk with your hands in your pockets on ice BELEIVE me. :confused2:

 

[Industrial Toys]

There was an ice storm in Rockville MD in the 80s. My friend slid down a hill in his Big Full size Caddy bounding off parked cars. A beautiful young woman boarding at his place smashed out her front teeth, walking with her hands in her pockets. When I catch myself with hands in pockets on slippery ground, I think of her fate.

 

[jbrumberg]

I have one pair of lightweight boots dedicated to my YakTrax. So I do not have to got through the hassle of taking them on and off. They definitely help walking on ice. They work very poorly indoors on hard surfaces.

At times I wish that my ~500# box scraper was heavier.

 

[cdaigle430]

Earlier this fall I got a Piranha tooth bar. There are 10,000 posts about them. About 60% of the reason I got it was to be sacrificial and not ware down the cutting edge on my FEL bucket moving snow on our long gravel drive. It works well moving snow AFTER you do some learning curve of how to set the working angle and remembering it is out in front of your usual bucket edge. It is easy to have it gouge the driveway until you learn to use it.

So now we have a good solid base of frozen ground and packed snow to work with for the rest of winter.. Problem is it went to glare ice on a bit warmer day a while back. A real broken hip type of dangerous.

With the tooth bar on the loader bucket, I tipped it at about a 45 degree angle and back drug it on the glare ice of packed snow on the driveway. It seemed to work well. It worked best to go 2 directions with this pattern at 90 degrees down and across the drive and yard.

Today I did this procedure again. This time I tipped the cutting edge about 60 or more degrees from flat. As I have a more solid base frozen down now this worked well. Again dragging both ways down the driveway and across the driveway making a checked pattern of grooves in the ice.

The secret to making this work is to not take too much weight off the front tractor wheels so you still have some steering control. Better to make multiple passes.

DO NOT, repeat DO NOT go fast. Take is slow and easy as a ridge in the ice or a low spot will make the tractor front end skate sideways. You don't want to be going fast if/when this happens.

Traction is not a problem as I have heavy duty V bar ladder chains on loaded turf tires.

I still plan next summer to build a clip on bucket attachment with more ice cutting edges than the 8 edges on the tooth bar. I'm thinking 24 - 25 or so edges 3/8 thick across the bucket front.

My 5 cents of experience.

I gave up on forcefully removing ice as last year I ended up pulling a huge chunk of asphalt with it Now I just buy bags of sand from Home Depot and spread it. I also wear cleats when I go out to feed the ducks and chickens.

 

[Industrial Toys]

ASHES work great, but are extremely messy! I worry more about others than me, so I have a sign proclaiming limited or no winter maintenance and basically stay the #$#$ out!

 

[oosik]

For the walkway to the house( poured in place paving stones ), the steps up to the entryway and the entry porch - I use sawdust from my workshop. A lot cleaner operation and much easier FOR ME to vacuum off the living room carpet. 'OL twinkle toes - my wife - never knew a day where she ever needed traction material. It simply could not be her that would track sawdust into the house - humph.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

I gave up on forcefully removing ice as last year I ended up pulling a huge chunk of asphalt with it Now I just buy bags of sand from Home Depot and spread it. I also wear cleats when I go out to feed the ducks and chickens.
====
My intention is not to remove the ice, but to make it safe to walk on. A certain amount of ice along with frozen ground and gravel surface is an OK base to work from when blowing snow and such for the bulk of winter. But not acceptable when dangerous to walk on. The combination of the cross hatch pattern, salt, sand, ashes all help to make the surface more manageable. We also use boot cleats and ski poles for stability.

Funny thing kinda sorta. Years and years ago I was the "crash test dummy" as it were for my big brothers karate classes. I learned to "fall down" without being hurt. Or at least minimal hurt. There actually is an art to that. It has helped many times over the years.

What ever it takes to keep safe.

 

[LouNY]

When we had a wood stove I tried ashes one year. Like jbrumberg said - effective but ugly. However - some slew footed individual managed to leave big nasty ash foot prints on our beige livingroom carpet. Not a winning day for the slew foot - me - or for my wife.

I use the ashes from the coal I burn, also I get a tri-axle load of winter mix sand every two or three years.
This unit does have a plow that very seldom gets used, I prefer the tractor mounted plow and or rear blade for snow.
I load the sand then dump on my ash, and sand in front of the house first save the ashes for further down the driveway.
Sand leaves foot prints that cleanup easier, or so I have been informed :confused3:

View attachment IMG_20180205_115802129.jpg View attachment IMG_20180205_123232794.jpg