How's everyone doing with the SNOW

[skyhook]

LOL, good one, don't go toooo close to that fuel tank.

 

[Jeff F.]

Thanks Maine Mark for the laugh. A great way to start my day! Let us know when the forecast calls for a warm stretch. I'm sure some of us will show up to watch the fireworks when your wife sees it. I'll bring the beer

 

[vtsnowedin]

Heck I'll bring the steaks. The show should last all afternoon.:laughing:
Remember now the rule is no pictures it nevah happened.

 

[check]

Gotta say, hope he doesn't have a dog! :laughing:

Or a cat! And keep the wife and kids inside!

 

[Garandman]

Apparently winter is not done after all.

 

[k0ua]

I bought a tractor 3 weeks ago because of all this snow. Also because the fuel guy refused to deliver because he couldn稚 get through the 6-8 foot drifts on the north side of my house where the fuel tank is located. And because my plow guy quit because there was nowhere else to stack the snow He quit AFTER he built mini-Mount Washington blocking my third garage stall. And he blocked access to my wood shed, so I couldn稚 get any more wood into the house. It was either buy a tractor or hire one. And I have wanted one for years.

So I bought a new Kubota B2620 HST 3 weeks ago with FEL and rear-mount Blizzard 54 blower. The tractor is awesome, so is the blower and FEL. The blower is unbelievable. It痴 way tougher than any building. I know this because I致e had a few 訴ncidents where I致e come a little too close to one of my buildings and the snow blower has won every battle. Barely touch the corner of the garage, next thing I know the metal cladding is ripped off and the corner board is torn all the way through. The Blizzard? A little scratched paint. It痴 OK though, I hid the damage from the wife by stacking snow up in front of the torn trim. A little later I came just a little too close the side of my garage and next thing you know, vinyl siding pieces are flying through the air. No problem there either, I just stacked snow up front of the damage. The worst potential disaster was when I had a close encounter with the 6X6 main roof beam on my wood shed. Jeez, it seemed like it barely touched the auger, and suddenly the beam snaps. There痴 a pretty good bow in the roof now. I covered the stump of the beam up with a snow-boulder. Not much I can do about the bow Blizzard 3, buildings 0.

I don稚 know what痴 going to happen when things finally thaw

The fuel guy wanted a �ath to my tank. Thanks to the Blizzard blower I have an interstate extension to it now. And the Blizzard completely consumed little Mount Washington in front of my garage and blew it into the next county I think.

My only suggestion to the Blizzard 54 designers is that the DANGER label over the auger should be a LOT bigger. If a human gets caught by the auger theyæ±*e going to get ripped to shreds, beat to death and spit out as bloody little chunks. That thing is TOUGH!

All in all I致e been tickled pink with the tractor and attachments. I wish I had gotten one years ago. It shares pride of place in my heated garage with my C3 Corvette.

I just hope my house survives my learning curve.

-Mark

Mark, I sure hope you stick around the forum, you have a great sense of humor:thumbsup:.. I am sorry about the house and shed, but hey, you will learn. Hang in there.

 

[MaineMark]

Thanks for all the nice comments. For those of you concerned for my pets safety, I have two dogs – an old slow lab and a psychotic husky/golden mix who’s scared of her own shadow. They’re safe – they must remember my adventures learning to drive a zero-turn mower. When they see me get on my Kubota they head for the hills. Smart dogs.

Somebody mentioned propane… Boy let me tell you about learning to use a FEL. As I was making my final approach on the propane tank with ‘big red’ the monster Blizzard 54” blower, the darn thing starts jumping up and down and shaking the whole tractor. Then pieces of plastic, ground up dirt and concrete chunks start flying out of the chute. I’m thinking WTF?!? Then I remember my wife’s little landscaping plot behind the house. A few large potted plants and a concrete bird feeder. There’s one less potted plant now and the birds are going to have to find somewhere else to get a drink. Notch up another victory in battle for the Blizzard. The **** thing even eats concrete.

Once my heart rate slows down, I decide to finish the ‘path’ to the propane tank with the FEL. That turned out not to be such a great decision as I’m worse with the FEL than I am with the snow blower. I get so wrapped up in the ‘push forward, roll back, lift boom’ process that I've ~just~ learned, I forget to note just how close I’m getting to the propane tank. Please understand, the tank is drifted in to the top, and it’s a big tank (100 gal.) So the bucket is completely buried in the snow I’m moving. I’m not 100% sure exactly where the front of the bucket is – after all it’s buried in snow… Wouldn't you know it, on my last scoop, the entire tank starts lifting up – and tilting to the left A LOT. Seems I got the bucket under the bottom of the tank on the right side – and neatly flipped it over before I could do anything. Man that bucket loader is STRONG…and fast too. As the tank fell sideways, I heard something snap, thinking ‘that’s not good’. Then I froze. I didn't know what to do, so I turned off the tractor. In the silence, all I could hear was a hissing sound from near the tank. Anyway, to make a long story short, the loader came in real handy setting the tank upright and clearing snow to get to the propane line. But I did take out an outside faucet doing it. Isn't it amazing how pressurized water flashes to vapor in extreme cold? Who knew? I plugged the water line and replaced the propane line to my house with only minimal issues (the new dryer vent should be in any day). I've got my wife convinced I’m a tractor genius because it turns out that tipping a propane tank over is a great way to completely clear it of snow. She doesn't understand why I won’t smoke out back anymore.

I’m beginning to worry about my house: I’m not sure it’s going to survive the Kubota experience.

-Mark

 

[Gcorron]

ROFLMAO!!

Look here, "Danger Dan", from someone who learned the hard way as well, you just cannot move to slowly in a close situation!! I got a job long ago, and one of the duties was to take an old Case 650 and push coal into a boiler house, now, up to that point, I had parked heavy equipment, and driven tractors (once right through a fence because I was moving too danged quick), but I was hardly an operator. The coal is about 40 feet high over the chute, and they just opened and fed as necessary.

You wouldn't think coal would BE that slippery, and yet.....it is! Trying to look like I knew what I was doing caused me to slide sideways down the whole pile several times, never did find the BVD's. This was in the days before ROPs BTW!

Finally, a REAL operator took me aside and asked me if I had ever operated anything! And I had worked so hard to make sure they couldn't tell! He gave me the best advice I ever had, SLOW DOWN. Speed comes with practice.

For the love of Mike, SLOW DOWN before you render your family homeless!! And do keep posting, you've got the best stories on the site!!!

Pictures would be even more gooder. If you can get the missus involved, get her to video your adventures. Like myself, it could be that your contribution to humanity is to serve as a horrible example!

Thanks much, Mark, and keep 'EM coming.

George AF4JH

 

[AStanton]

We've had so much snow that I'm beginning to think some of us around here may lose our dogs in the snow.

 

[RaydaKub]

We got a 14 last year, wet, heavy, Southern snow. The BX-25 didn't really have any trouble, of course I did have to make a few more piles than today's 8-10".

I'd love a good heavy one again. I kept at it with the FEL. As I'd push it, it was so wet it turned blue. Never seen that before. I could push about 40 feet and would lift the front wheels, then chirp the loaded rears on my pavement. Good times.