Re: Brush Brutes and snow plowing
Woodbeef - I agree! I cleared a little bit of the the area I really wanted to use the Brush Brute on and it's a hoss! I guess the decision of whether to get one as wide as the track of the machine or a narrower one is based on whether you're primarily going to clear everything or leave trees standing. I wanted it primarily to thin and get rid of selected brush/small trees, so I'm glad I got the narrower one. If you were going to use it almost exclusively for clearing everything in a given area, the wider one would probably be better.
I got to use the EF-5 to plow 8"-10" of snow from almost 2 miles of road today. I don't have a special-purpose snow blade - we just don't get enough to justify it - but I do have a 7' York Rake with a drop-down blade. After removing the right side end plate, dropping the blade down against the spring tines, and angling the blade, it worked quite well. Considering that I was using the blade for something it definitely wasn't designed to do, it worked great. The EF-5 certainly didn't have any problem pushing it, even when I tried it with both end plates on and the blade flat, and pushed up a pretty big mound of it, it pushed very well.
I have one hill that's quite steep, and on a bad double curve. Some friends had been sledding on the hill and had packed it down well, so I had a little trouble getting up the hill. I could see the limited-slip was working, but I sure did miss those Michelin radials. I need to check the pressure in the tires - I think it might be a bit high, but there's nothing like the Michelin's...
