Hope this works!

[MtnViewRanch]

Brian,

You'll be glad to hear I repainted it yesterday for the winter season. It was worn off from a summer of moving rock and soil, and the first snow we had stuck pretty badly.

Oh, did I mention I found some more grey paint?

Sean

OK, so why did you paint your bucket orange when you have all this grey paint? :laughing: At least you keep yours painted, mine is bare shiny steel right now, probably be some rust on it by this weekend.

 

[Chilly807]

OK, so why did you paint your bucket orange when you have all this grey paint? :laughing: At least you keep yours painted, mine is bare shiny steel right now, probably be some rust on it by this weekend.

My bucket gets pretty ratty over the summer months, the bottom was the same as yours until last weekend.

We get road salt over the winter months, it's pretty hard on bare metal. I try to get at least the thin parts covered up before snow flies, and the snow slides off of paint better too.

Sean

 

[Craig Clayton]

I have been plowing about 500' to 700' of gravel for many years with a rear blade. My gravel bed is B grade meaning it is a little rougher than A gravel. I usually get a base coat of hard pack down at about 3/4" thick and frozen hard. I then plow this hard to keep it at that thickness by controlling the amount of position control on the blade. I can have the blade as light as a feather or drop the full weight ( not down pressure ) to scrap ice.
With the pipe on you might not be able to get through hard frozen ice or wet hard packed snow.
Now in the pipes defence, I do spend a FEW hours raking the drive in the spring relocating a bit of gravel out of the grass shoulers.

Craig Clayton

 

[GregbkH]

Thanks for the comments. I was thinking I might have to take the pipe off once everything was frozen. It comes off very easy.

I have one other question: My tractor has all 4 tires filled with rim guard. I believe that the weight of the tractor/loader/blade is around 7000 lbs. The blade with the cylinders is around 800 lbs.

Can I get by without chains? If I need them, do I get all 4?

 

[nybirdman]

Once everything is frozen;you probably can loose the pipe and skids.I use a front snow-plow and rear blade combo.Depends on the terrain;you may need chains with the R4's.Your tractor is heavy enough you may not have any problems without.My tractor weighs about 7,000 also but I have R1's.

 

[Chilly807]

Mine is about 4400 lbs with the loader and rear blade, loaded R1's. It will do the job without chains (plowing), but it's a lot easier with them particularly when it gets icy.

For working around the woods in winter there's no substitute for good ice chains IMO.

Sean