Loader Bucket Tooth Bar and Broken Hip Glare Ice...

[Wyobuckaroo]

Here in our part of the north, we are into our "broken hip slick ice" stage of winter..
This meaning too cold yet to thaw anything, but we get enough sun during some days to glaze the existing packed snow on the yard and driveway... Not enough heat to melt anything, but enough to glaze the cold surface... It can be as smooth as a hockey rink or rough as all get out and both are so slick you can't get anywhere without boot cleats.. There have been times there were patches I had to cross on my hands and knees to get to the tractor shed... Bummer...

So..... I have a Piranha tooth bar on my loader bucket.. I got it primaraly to keep ware from the front bucket edge.. It does work well moving packed snow.. I back drag it at about a 45 degree, or a bit less, angle to scrape the surface of the glare ice..

With no weight on the front wheels, depending on how rough the ice is, it will make the tractor steer where it wants to go, not the line you want it to follow.. If I run the loader in float it steers OK, but requires multiple passes to grind down rough spots or leave a good walking surface.. It works well enough...

At one time I had a homemade grader bar that bolted under the cutting edge of the back blade.. This with teeth about every 3" that would groove the ice.. Or level the gravel in the driveway.. It is way too early in winter yet to be taking off the 3 point snow blower, to put on the back blade..

I guess I could "invent" a clamp on for the loader bucket edge, over the tooth bar that would have a set of teeth on the under side, much like the lower teeth on a Ratche Rake for this job...

How do you handle glare ice ?? As for the clamp on teeth.....
Ideas, thoughts, experience.... ?? ??

 

[Torvy]

Growing up in South Dakota, we would often just use gravel (or even plain soil) atop the slick areas. The dirt provides a grippable surface and the darker color can enhance solar melting. A little goes a long way.

We are getting a dose of Texas winter today. Freezing rain....just a matter of time before they close schools and businesses.

 

[doneill127]

Couple years ago slipped carrying in basket of eggs and fractured my femur. What a mess with the eggs flew up in the air and splattered around me. Must have been quite the sight. Got up limped to the house and continued about daily life somewhat painfully for 2 months when I decided to see the doc after my entire side turned black and blue. Decided didn’t want to do that and bought these, they’re great

 

[5030]

Me, I run chains on my tractors all winter. Ice is never an issue. I wear ice creepers on my boots too. What ice fishermen wear so they don't bust their butts out on the ice.

 

[mikester]

Tis the season. I can't wait for spring to arrive.

I tried out these IceFX shoes this winter after seeing a review of "winter boots" on CBC. This was the only brand getting a passing grade for walking on wet glare ice.

Men's Rundle IceFX T-Max Heat Quad Comfort Winter Shoes - Brown

Make your outdoor winter adventures more enjoyable wearing our WindRiver Rundle shoes. They’re made with T-MAX HEAT® to keep your feet warmer, QUAD COMFORT® for

www.marks.com

I find the IceFX works pretty good. They have sand impregnated in the sole for extra traction. If you hang out in hockey arenas they might save you from a bad fall.

 

[5030]

Really has not been a terrible winter but I'm looking forward to spring myself. It's coming, my Australian Shepherd is starting to shed. Sure sign of spring, the hair clumps on the floor...

 

[JJT]

Same situation here, lots of ice. How do I handle it? Sand, chains and shoe spikes. I'm hoping for an early spring.....

 

[oosik]

Well - I put my trust in "Luck". Outside - I skip around from patch to patch of crusty snow. Avoiding slick, icy areas like the plague. Sometimes it's a rather long path to where I want to get - but nobody likes falling on slick ice.

The driveway develops an iced over section also. Coming up out of the valley. The field to the north drains down onto the driveway. It always clogs the roadside ditch with ice and then this mess is out on the driveway. If it get really bad - dirt or gravel or a bag of pellets from my pellet stove.

However - with the Taco Wagon in 4WD I've never had a problem. Right at this moment it's an area about 15 feet wide and 120 feet long. If it were to snow now - I would have to get the tractor up on the high side and plow down into that side of the valley. Right over the icy area.

Probably the saving grace - every time I drive out the driveway - I track mud/dirt back onto this icy area. There is a soft/wet stretch not far from the valley.

Life goes on ...........

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

Someone mentioned setting the bucket on an old section of diamond harrow and chain it down.. Good concept, kind of long teeth for this application..

From there my thinking has gone to a kind of slip on thing, like a boot cleat, or foot in an old slipper with 2-3 rows of teeth, knives on the bucket bottom.. Secured up the back of the bucket with a chain and load binder.. Kind of like a clip on guard on a home hair cut clippers... It may be push only, but you have float and bucket angle to make it work as you need... Will have to spend some time in my "good idea" sketch book with my crayon...

 

[crashz]

I too have a Piranha bar and it worked OK on peeling up ice and asphalt this year.. Definitely didn't cut it like I thought it would. And it either felt like I was going to bend something on the tractor or dig up my driveway. I quit using that pretty quickly.

My landscape rake worked pretty good though. I turned it backwards and just let it scarify the ice, roughening it up. Light ice would peel right up, heavy stuff would scar. Backing up would peel the ice or bend the rake. I stopped backing up to peel the ice when I put a nice twist in the main beam.

 

[canadianstrom]

I have chains on my rear tires and use a quick pump of a brake pedal to manage direction when on ice

 

[oosik]

I've used a little bit of everything to navigate my yard( ice skating rink). Sand, gravel, wood stove pellets. Sand seems to work the best for me. Little sandy paths over and across the yard.

 

[shooterdon]

I have thought about putting snowmobile track ice studs on a piece of Uni-strut or U channel that would slip over the lip of the bucket and using a couple of binders to chain it on....maybe a couple of ratchet straps would work too...like on a Ratchet Rake.

 

[oosik]

I have thought about putting snowmobile track ice studs on a piece of Uni-strut or U channel that would slip over the lip of the bucket and using a couple of binders to chain it on....maybe a couple of ratchet straps would work too...like on a Ratchet Rake.

If you are talking about the ice studs we had on our Arctic Cat snowmobiles. They would, most likely, work like a CHAMP. The ones we had looked like a very aggressive pop bottle cap. Out on a frozen lake - they would tear the carp out of the ice surface. With HardOX runners on our ski and ice studs - we could almost control our snow mobiles.

 

[Bronco82]

On the driveway to the pole barn, I spread ashes out of the fireplace on it. Provides enough grip for the next trip up in the tractor. I want to do it on the walkway in front of the house, but can't because then it will get tracked into the house on boots and I won't hear the end of it.

We may get one mild day of freezing rain, followed by a cold night and the next morning, everything is all ice. I would like to see the other people's ideas of what to do on walkways and driveways to maximize traction on the ice, aside from the cleats on boots and chains on tires, but something rigged up on the tractor to at least scratch/gouge it so it's not skating rink smooth.

 

[oosik]

If the idea is - "I don't want to fall" - then scratching the ice MAY help a little. I would not put a whole lot of hope in that though. Use pea gravel - provides traction and should not track into the house too bad.

When my Mucks get muddy - take them off out on the porch. Into the house in my bare feet. Hose the Mucks off in the sink. Along the way - slip into my house slippers.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

Growing up in South Dakota,

We are getting a dose of Texas winter today. Freezing rain....just a matter of time before they close schools and businesses.
=== ===
East river ??
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So we are in a phase of early morning skiff of snow in the first light of morning.. Compacted by temps and any amount of sun by last light of day.. Scraping ice surface is really important now..

No.. Scraping will not absolutely prevent a fall, but helps a lot..
All keep safe..

 

[Jstpssng]

I have thought about putting snowmobile track ice studs on a piece of Uni-strut or U channel that would slip over the lip of the bucket and using a couple of binders to chain it on....maybe a couple of ratchet straps would work too...like on a Ratchet Rake.

That would work well, as long as none of them break off or at least you pick them up if they do. They really do a number on a tire.
One year I ran my picked sled up and down the icy hills on my road but that didn't work so well as the sled is designed to distribute the weight.

The problem I have with scarifying ice is that this time of year there's enough flow during the day to recoat it, like a natural zamboni. Even today, when temps never got to 20 degrees there is still water seeping from last week's warm spell.

One thought I've had is to convert a box blade so that I can slide my pallet forks into it, and use the scarifiers on the ice. That would prevent the need of taking your rear implement off.

 

[civilian]

I have a BX2230 for snowblowing. Most of the time I drag the rear blade behind me. When thspring comes and the drive turns to ice, I take the blade off and install a set of Cat 0 discs. They don't cover my tracks but the do scratch the ice surface. I alo don't drive straight up and down the drive. It is constantly turning in half circles. It leaves a bit of loose ice in the grooves for the car tires. My walks aren't long enough to draag the disc on. Jon

 

[bdhsfz6]

Most of the time, I spread cinders on slick spots as in my avatar picture. When it becomes necessary, I use the scarifier teeth on my York rake to score ice. If I have the blower or spreader mounted on the rear, I use this SSQA to 3pt adapter and mount the rake on the FEL:

Skid Steer 3 Point Attachment Adapter

The Skid Steer Style 3 Point Attachment Pate provides an easy three-point attachment to Category 1 implements.

www.palletforks.com

If you drag the rake with the FEL, do it perpendicular to the direction of travel. Doing so at an angle can cause FEL damage if the rake snags on something.