What machine is the smart choice to remove snow from a 400 ft long x 12 ft wide gravel driveway? Drive pad is 35 ft wide x 45 ft deep
Goal is to remove snow efficiently while not removing a lot of the 57 limestone.
I live on a 2 lane country rode, so when the town plow trucks come by they do leave a decent amount of snow at the end of my drive apron.
Options:
1. Pickup truck and plow
2. ATV with plow
3. UTV with plow
4. Wide width walk behind snowblower
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Welcome to my world,
1. Dealing with the END OF DRIVEWAY MONSTER and feeding the Moat Monsters with
its remains is usually the most time and energy consuming part of snow removal.
a. road salt is not your friend. You will want to wash the snow blower out every
time you use it unless you take your first pass and drive all the way to the end
of the driveway, and clear out the END OF DRIVEWAY MONSTER then feed the moat
monsters first and by doing this you will finish clearing the entire snowpack with clean
snow that has no salt in it.
b. If you have a quarried stone driveway with run of mine stone or smaller stone product
you need to have metal skis fabricated to mount on the skids of the snow blower whether its
a rear mounted, front mounted or walk behind snow blower.
c.The skids supplied with the snow blower will dig in and start spitting gravel and that is something
that is very undesirable especially when you are near the road.
Back to your options:
1. pickup with plow
a. a used P/U with plow is like playing poker or black jack with bad hands as all it will take is one
breakdown to cause you many problems and dollars.
b. plowing is fine until you run out of room or run out of traction and in either case its not good.
you start stacking snow and you will make it much easier for snow to be blown in the driveway
and pack very tightly.
Heavy packed snow is a no win situation and takes time, effort, horsepower and torque to get rid of it.
c. when you get stuck with a four wheel drive truck you really get stuck and a wrecker will cost you a small
fortune to get it unstuck as they will not come off a paved road unless its a blacktop driveway IF they can
get in there.
d. if you have a new plow truck the chance of having a break down is much less in general as long as the
plow truck is properly maintained and the oil in the hydraulic plow is changed every year before the
winter comes.
BUT a, b and c still apply no matter what.
As far as options 2 and 3 apply your going to be spending a lot of money when you could invest in a
sub compact tractor like the series one john deere with a snow blower and chains or a Kubota B3030
with a snow blower and chains.
Your driveway is unpaved and 4,800 square feet if your measurements are correct.
the issue is time and money whether you have enough time to clear it every morning
when the snow comes off Lake Erie and or Lake Michigan if they have not frozen over.
A lot of the members clear off the snow during the night or simply get up early to clear it.
If you have a storm issue you will have to decide whether to plow every couple of hours or
just wait.
If you have a cabbed tractor like a new john Deere series 1 or a Kubota 2370
with a rear mount snow blower you will have a very powerful snow clearing tool that is
going to last you for a long time. All you need to do is turn in the seat a little bit and
push down on the reverse pedal as you back up to clear the snow.
Some of the members have and use insulated coveralls, amber ski goggles and snow mobile
helmets or several warm winter caps with them when they clear snow in open station
tractors.
Options 2 and 3 bring you back to the same issue with a plow truck traction, adhesion and
power or the lack of it. Stacking snow only gives you so much room and if you get stuck
you need a winch to get unstuck. blowing snow will drift in the driveway and pack.
Any storm coming of Lake Erie if it is not frozen over will make your life difficult with heavy
wet snow.
Option four will only work well for you if you purchase and import a track drive snow blower
from a Japanese builder of heavy tracked snow blowers as they will have the power and
cutting width to work for you.
You can purchase a used tracked snow blower from Europe like the snow beast or snow bear
or a new snow beast or snow bear with a catalytic converter muffler.
A ride on track drive snow blower like the toro dingo or Vermeer track drive power units will have
hydraulic snow blowers and lack power.
I have to go and I can add more later.
