L6060- Half mile paved driveway

[Fallon]

Just called and inquired about Quickattach brand rear pull snowblower and the price is $5,700. Next I will reach out to find out how much the Normand 82 everyone here raves about is. I would imagine having the v-plow on the front and a rear pull on the back would be a serious snow machine.

Terra grip rubber tractor chains on Amazon look like they would work good for extra traction. My rear tires are loaded currently with beet juice.

If you are going to double up on impliments I'd go for the least overlap. If the snow is do deep or wet to plow through, chances are you are going to have problems driving through it. So if the plow is overwhelmed, a pull blower would be to. However a normal rear facing blower hits snow before the tractor. So you can let it chew it's way through obstacles & clear drifts the plow or pull blower couldn't.

Pull blowers can do a lot of production, especially in urban environments. But you have to stay ontop of the snowfall so it doesn't get to deep. Personally it may be a day or more before I can get to plowing my & my friends/neighbors out. With Colorado wind & that time it often results in gnarly drifts you can't drive though & occasionally are to dense to plow through.

 

[finn1]

My dealer swears by studs in the tires, particularly the front steers when a front mounted snow blower is used.

I think I will try them this season.

I also concur that the box blade makes for excellent ballast, with the bonus that it can also thin the mat buildup.

 

[shooterdon]

The other option is to buy a beater pickup with a plow...which is what I did before I had a tractor. Cost was $3500 complete. Most pickups already come with a heated cab!

I use the truck during the summer for hauling stuff and harvesting fire wood. Saves beating up the newer F150. The beater gets used a lot in the winter in addition to its plow duties. And another set of wheels can be handy at times. But then you need to plate and insure it.

I would never spend $6000+ On an implement to clear snow with a tractor. I get 135” or so a year and have over 1/2 acre area to clear between the pole barn and house, and about 1000 ft of drive. Never had too much snow for the pickup truck to handle.

When I got the tractor this year, I looked at adding a blower to it but cannot justify even the lower cost 3 pt hitch option...$2300 or so. Found a used front mount but it was going to cost over $5000 installed.

BTW, a lot of us rednecks have beater plow trucks. Not a fancy option but an option.

To add fuel to the fire....driving over snow to remove it is not a big deal. I back blade with the truck quite a bit around the house, pole barn, and wood storage area. I certainly would not dismiss the pull type blower if I had the change to justify it.

 

[Piston]

Just called and inquired about Quickattach brand rear pull snowblower and the price is $5,700. Next I will reach out to find out how much the Normand 82 everyone here raves about is. I would imagine having the v-plow on the front and a rear pull on the back would be a serious snow machine.

Terra grip rubber tractor chains on Amazon look like they would work good for extra traction. My rear tires are loaded currently with beet juice.

That would be the IDEAL setup! You could sit welcoming any blizzard Mother Nature could throw at you!

 

[Oldoak]

If you are going to double up on impliments I'd go for the least overlap. If the snow is do deep or wet to plow through, chances are you are going to have problems driving through it. So if the plow is overwhelmed, a pull blower would be to. However a normal rear facing blower hits snow before the tractor. So you can let it chew it's way through obstacles & clear drifts the plow or pull blower couldn't.

Pull blowers can do a lot of production, especially in urban environments. But you have to stay ontop of the snowfall so it doesn't get to deep. Personally it may be a day or more before I can get to plowing my & my friends/neighbors out. With Colorado wind & that time it often results in gnarly drifts you can't drive though & occasionally are to dense to plow through.

As you can see, I don't live in Colorado, but I certainly agree with what you have stated. Here in PA the amount of snow fall each Winter is very questionable from year to year and can vary greatly in different areas around the state.

To sum it all up, what really matters most is what equipment suits us as individuals best and what we are happy with.

 

[yanmars]

If my math is close a 20 acre parcel could be 1/2 mile long (2640 feet) by 330 feet. Long and narrow but it would support a long and narrow lane.

 

[aesmith]

I don't see the relationship between acreage and length of driveway. Our last place we had 10 acres and maybe 20' of driveway as we were right on the public road. Here we've only 6 acres, but the driveway is either around 900 yards if I head South, or more like 1100 yards to the North.

Anyway my real reason for posting is that there's an aspect of the "blower vs plough" debate that I don't see mentioned. Round here we frequently get snow blowing after the main snowfall has stopped, either because the wind changes and picks up lying snow, or because it's a new lot of snowfall. Where I've seen lanes ploughed it always builds up banks at the side which are deeper than the original snow, and what this means is that the next lot of blowing snow builds up deeper drifts between those banks. Do other people not find that, and if so I wonder why not.

 

[RjCorazza]

A blower doesn’t really help with preventing snow drifting, and can actually make it worse. It is a whole lot easier to run a blower through the lane without having to push snow banks back though.
A short section of the county road in front of my property drifts in deep and fast, and I usually clear it out when passing through.

 

[majorwager]

My conception of Maryland snowfall is different than is being reported. Lived in southern PA for 4 years of school and snow accumulation was minor discounting a rare blizzard.

 

[RidgeHiker]

People talk a lot about how good chains are for traction and I agree. What they do not seem to talk as much about is what a hassle they can be to deal with. My last tractor was a 32 hp m/l and I bought chains for the 11.2 24 rears which are nowhere near as large as the OP's tires. Chains were great but VERY heavy and awkward to deal with. Having large lug R1's did not make it easier. Everyone has their own techniques for putting them on, some better than others, but chains are chains. If you can put them on once and leave them on all winter not that big a deal. If they interfere with other uses and need to go on and off less fun. Personally would consider lots of weight and trying without chains before buying them. So much depends on type of tires, nature of terrain, depth of snow, moisture content of snow, how long it sits before plowing, time considerations, surface of road, quality of road surface, etc. If snow gets hard compacted or icy studs would certainly help. If snow is deeper and softer they will not make as much difference.

Current tractor with 750+ lb snowblower in rear, loader, and filled rears is in the upper 5,000 lbs range. Am highly impressed with how much snow I can push with the loader without chains or studs.