Grinding Iced Drive

scesnick · Jan 12, 2006

My drive looks the same way. Mine is up ( or down) a mountain though. It gets mighty slick at times and is 2.5 miles long. 1.2 miles of that is what I have to maintain.
I have found that when it looks like a sheet of glass the best thing for it, atleast the last 100' or so to the house is small gravel. Especially when it is 40 degrees or over. The gravel seems to melt down in it a tad and it works pretty good.

I hope it doesn't freeze until all this ice is melted and gone. Nothing worse than 2 inches of hard ice underneath 12 incehes of snow.

trlong · Jan 12, 2006

goaliedad,

I think I will "re-think" beating the tranny like that again. Worked today, seems no worse for the wear but, probably just lucky and the spirit of J.D. watching over...

It is clearing tonight but, heavy fog laying into the valleys. Hopefully some sun tomorrow. The ashes on the ice (what little I had) did nothing with no sun.

trlong · Jan 12, 2006

( Earlier this year (before our early spring) I put the chains on the tractor and left 'em on )

Same here. As soon as I had a sufficient frozen pack, I put on the chains. This #$%@$%!!! weather turned that pack into a very hard ice sheet. I started this morning just driving up and down. The chains hardly left a mark. That's when I got the hairbrained idea to spin them up.

I like the birdseed idea. Seems the birds and squirrels leave enough of the shells out on the lawn, from the feeders. Maybe I can train them to drop some on the driveway. At least that way they'd earn their keep /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

trlong · Jan 12, 2006

I'd love to see a picture of that. Sounds like a pretty handy project.

trlong · Jan 12, 2006

Sounds like an even better solution than sand/salt. My drive is 3/4" crushed slate (locally called "staymat"). A pile kept dry would be pretty handy as the drive can always use a little more, especially after early season snows when I always lose a little to either the RB or the blower. Since no one is building or surfacing drives this time of year I think I'll check to see if any of the construction companies have a dry pile I could get a few yards of....cheap /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

trlong · Jan 12, 2006

( 8 ton of salted sand delivered was 140 bucks )

Deerlope,

Thanks, gives me a comparison. No time to get firm prices on either sand/salt, or staymat, today. With more rain coming in before it turns back to snow, I'm going to see what I can get brought in tomorrow. We usually get a "January Thaw" but this is getting ridiculous. Everything is freezing up hard again tonight but it's supposed to be in the mid 40's tomorrow and rain before turning to snow this weekend /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif. Blowing snow is a lot more fun than dealing with this junk!

trlong · Jan 12, 2006

( I have found that when it looks like a sheet of glass the best thing for it, atleast the last 100' or so to the house is small gravel. ....Nothing worse than 2 inches of hard ice underneath 12 incehes of snow. )

Sounds like quite a challenge of a driveway. Seems those "City Folk" just don't get to have half the "fun" we do out in the country. My BIL lives in urban DE. Even with a decent walk-behind snowblower, he spends more time clearing his 20' drive from what the city plows into it, than I do clearing 600'....and I have a lot more fun. Ofcourse, his neighbors might think a tractor was a bit of overkill for a 1/4 acre lot. However, I keep telling him if he could keep it from being stolen, he could probably make $500 per snow storm with all those drives so close together.

Sorry I digress, good luck to all with this crazy weather. [And please excuse my self indulgence, getting from "Gold" to "Platinum" member... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif]

Tom

scesnick · Jan 13, 2006

he could make a small fortune. I know i could make out pretty well plowing locally if I wanted to during a storm. I also have a Yamaha Rhino with a 72" plow that i use for the powered snows. I usually keep going down the mountain to the little neighborhood and start helping them out. most of these people are in their 50's early 60's and have 200 ft + driveways and are using itty bitty snowblowers.
I hit it usually twice and I'm done. 5 minutes tops.
I don't ask for anything but usually they will offer to pay. I just tell them to keep their money, afterall, I might need some help with something someday. It pays off to be neighborly in the long run.
I built a 30x40 pole building this summer and I guess a couple of them saw the delivery truck coming up the mountain. Before I knew it a few guys were there to offer their help. So Instead of paying 20 an hour for labor, it cost me a couple of gallons of gas to plow their driveways.
Won't see that in the city !!!!

rambler · Jan 13, 2006

That's probably not the best thing you've done to the tranny. I'm sure it survived, but - long term........

10 years ago or so we had an inch of ice followed by below zero temps. For a week. Trees, power lines, all down. The main highways were skating ponds, and the solutions they use to thaw don't work below 5 degrees.

They ended up pulling a heavy duty, _large_ ag or construction disk (disk harrow to some) down the concrete state highways to make some groves, so the salt solution would at least stay there, and give a bit of a surface edge for the tires to hold onto.

That was different, to see a big heavy disk going down the road.

--->Paul

LarryRB · Jan 13, 2006

this may sound funny, but, I am serious.. if you have a wood burning stove, take the ashed to the ice.. works very well and quickly too, especially around noon time, daylight.. gives good traction and ice melts down quickly