loader snow blade on scut, yey or ney?

Katahdin · Dec 22, 2019

I clear a 400 foot gravel driveway and adapted a 7'6" Standard Duty Boss Truck Plow to the loader.

On the 7th year, no loader problems.
Full trip plow
Chain float, I think this is needed for gravel drives
I incorporated a crossover relief valve but I don't think this has ever vented
I usually plow in Medium HST gear at 2000 RPM (not fast)
I would not go larger then 7'6" for a 40hp CUT, heavy snow and curves will push the front end around, this is with Ag tires.
I'm on my second pipe edge, the first one lasted 5 years

polarred21 · Dec 22, 2019

^^^Nice video. Did you have trouble staying to the right or was that your intended path?

Katahdin · Dec 22, 2019

polarred21 said:
^^^Nice video. Did you have trouble staying to the right or was that your intended path?

Thanks! I checked my video clips from that storm....looks like I was windrowing it to the side so I could back up and get the rest with a new-to-me-then WoodMax 72" snowblower. Heavy snows can push you off track, but you can usually compensate by angling the plow more.

ovrszd · Dec 22, 2019

LouNY said:
I could plow faster but it would just tear things up. Our gravel/dirt field roads and driveways tend to thaw a bit between storms and then get ruts in them so your if your trying to clean most of the snow off so it doesn't pack and polish out to ice your blades are catching frozen dirt on the first passes. If you are in a low traffic area and can leave some snow pack to build up then you can safely plow faster the next storm if it hasn't thawed. Our towns don't plow much with the graders anymore, they used to but now it's mostly trucks with trip blades so then can slam and go digging and plowing dirt and filling the ditches. The last grader our town plowed with was just over 100 hp and with the belly blade and wing out she couldn't plow at much more then 8-10 mph. The old ones had some float and they did have shoes for it, does your newer one have shoes or are you having to maintain the blade height?

I carry the blade. I leave an inch or so of snow on the road so I don't push off all the loose gravel.

Early Fall I want my roads as smooth as possible for harvest. Then as areas complete harvest I go in behind them and smooth the roads again. I don't want any of the rutting issues you described. Makes pushing snow miserable. This Fall we have been wet. So the semis all had to load on the road, not in the field. So the tractors pulling the grain carts come out onto my roads carrying 50K lbs of grain. Duals on the tractors packed with mud. It's pretty ugly. I just finished the last area last week before we got 2" of snow. They were forecasting 6". I was frantic to get things cleaned up in case I had to push.

Some Township operators complain about the farmers. I never do. It's what keeps our economy going. I commonly work on field gateways and/or installing culverts for new gateways, sloping banks for them to build fence on. I know all of the rural residents and keep the driveways clear on those that are unable. Common for me to get a phone call prior to a pending snow saying they need to go to town the next day for a Doctor's appointment, or loading out cattle or delivering some hay they've sold. It's very rare for me to have any conflicts with the farmers. They need me, I need them. Win/win.

LouNY · Dec 22, 2019

Your doing an excellent job and your town is stepping up as they should.
Some of the towns up here do so also but we have lost our skilled equipment operators as the towns don't pay close to private contractors.
Ours will plow and sand for special reason if notified in advance which is good.
We have lost the majority of our smaller farmers the last few years and just have mostly large ones now with a few smaller ones hanging on.

ovrszd · Dec 22, 2019

LouNY said:
Your doing an excellent job and your town is stepping up as they should.
Some of the towns up here do so also but we have lost our skilled equipment operators as the towns don't pay close to private contractors.
Ours will plow and sand for special reason if notified in advance which is good.
We have lost the majority of our smaller farmers the last few years and just have mostly large ones now with a few smaller ones hanging on.

Thank you for the compliments.

In 2018 my Gross Income from the Township was $3,100. This year we got hit with disaster level rains twice. This year's income will be somewhere around $10,000.

No one can make a living doing this job. It's purely part time. And the work is very time specific. So it's difficult for someone with a full time job to also run a road grader for a Township. So you end up with retired guys such as I or various operators that will run a few hours when they've got time. So it's hard to find someone that takes personal pride in the work they do. Most times they are only running because the residents in the Township have complained loud enough about their roads.

Our "farmer" change is the same as you describe. As these farmsteads are bought up the buildings are dozed down. In the Southeast quarter of my Township there are 12 miles of gravel roads with 3 houses.