Snow Attachments Moving snow with a backblade

[Anonymous Poster]

This was the first attempt to plow snow with my 7' backblade. Trying to find the right height to move the snow without scraping off all the gravel was difficult. I rotated the blade 180 degrees, and now the blade no longer cuts in, but I am able to move all the snow, and end up with a clean, smooth surface. Just thought I'd pass on the experience.

 

[bpence]

Yep....that's the way to move snow with a back blade. I'm sure you learned pretty quickly that using the front edge of the blade digs in real well and keeps trying to move the gravel in your driveway around.

Bob Pence

 

[M. Sullivan]

Brings to mind another related question: Any novel approaches to moving snow piled along the road further to the side of the road without pushing back or using the loader?

Specifically, I do a 1/2 mile+ road, and after last months seemingly never ending snow (20+") it looks like a 2 track instead of 2 lane. Have been chipping away at widening it, but looks like a never ending project. Manual says do not plow in high speed, so thought of throwing it farther by higher ground speed is out. Have tried to take a little at a time by raising and off-setting the blade, but digs in turns the tractor into the bank. Not much faster than pushing it back in my case. Want to avoid hiring larger equipment (ego thing!) if at all possible.

Appreciate any ideas.

 

[RobS]

M, that's the classic problem with a plow. If you don't plow wide enough to begin with, the road gets narrow. Up here the county has been using the road graders (with a big V-plow on the front) to push back the banks. They even have a snowblower-like machine on a big Osh-Kosh truck that deposits the snow a couple of feet to the right. They've been using it on a lot of the main roads that are starting to get narrow. Once that stuff starts to harden in the banks, you're only choices are probably your FEL or a bigger piece of equipment. Keep smiling though!

Rob

 

[DFB]

Speed is key to flinging snow far with a blade. Just watch those state highway guys. Of course its easier to go faster in a truck than on a tractor. You just have to push it back farther when you start or move it with a loader. Otherwise all you have is after a while is one narrow lane. Last year even with a truck blade it was impossible after awhile to get any more snow over the exisisting snowbanks. Glad I've got loader this year. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Thomas]

Don,
I never try plowing snow w/ a back blade,but I can say this much about a front plow.
As DFB said "fling it back" at higher speed,and w/ a front blade you have more reach in pushing the snow back w/ out getting stuck also piling the snow.

The ownly draw back getting a feel for the front plow the first year....watch out for the mail box and trees. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[markcg2000]

Yeah, plowing at high speed can be dangerous, but mainly when you haven't done the section before. Once you've done it and know where the problems are (bumps, mailboxes, potholes, etc /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif) then it can be done faster. A lot like mowing... I go really slow at first, but then learn the terrain and can pick up the pace. Just make darn sure you're wearing that seatbelt/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

<font color=green>mark</font color=green>

 

[Rowski]

A classic problem as mentioned. I've been dealing with this problem for a long time but on a commercial level (about 60 of our 100 drives we plow). The problem is as you mentioned with not being able to get the snow over the side bank along a road. With our plow trucks we can get the snow up and over the banks to a certian point. Once that snow has built up, almost as high as the plow guides, you can't get going fast enough to throw the snow or if the snow is really heavy and wet. At times we just have plow everything to the end of the drive and push it to the side. This works o.k. but takes a long time and on some drives impossible. Another problem is ditches. Some of the ditches are deep, so you can only go so wide. We run 7.5ft and 9ft plows. The 7.5ft is 26 inches tall and the 9ft is 30 inches tall. The 9ft being taller does a better job throwing and usually can get the side bank 1ft to 1.5ft higher than the 7.5ft can.

So a couple of years ago I/we made an adapter that bolts to the to outer ribs on the back side of the plow. This adapter has square tubing welded to it. The second part is the wing. A 3ft section (from a small 6ft plow cut in half) that has smaller square tubing that slides onto the square tubing on the adapter and put a pin in it. It is basically like a plow extension but the the wing is not as tall and is mounted level with the top of the 9ft blade. Being that it is not as tall as the plow it leaves a 6 to 8 inch shelf. which is nice for those ditches. This sytem works well for new snow. Once the snow has been through a thaw cycle it is more or less ice and is as hard as a rock. Also there is a lot of stress on the plow and plow frame on the truck. Usually I leave the plow about an inch or so from all the way angled so it I hit something the pressure relief valve will absorb some of the shock. This system works o.k. but is really putting a lot of extra wear on something that wasn't really ment to this.

Other options included a one ton truck 4wd with a true side wing setup like the highway plows have. Would be expensive and hard to see the wing and what is going on at the end of the wing (hitting things). So to my point. I have been toying with the idea of doing something with the tractor.
1) Using a large back blade 96" or large and off setting it and cutting the side banks down a little at a time.
2)I have mentioned this idea a while ago. mounting a plow off set in the bucket. Putting the plow in an angled position.
3)Using my wing from the plow setup and mount it with an adapter to the bucket.
4)An off set snowblower. I have not been able to find one that works offset.

I pesonally would like to have something in the front of the tractor in or on the bucket for better visablilty and not get a stiff neck and back.

These are just some ideas I have. If anybody has any opinions or other ideas please let them be heard. Up in these neck of the woods (and others too) there is a real need for something that can cut back those side banks.

Derek

 

[Thomas]

Derek,
That heavy wet snow always seem double the work just after it starts to setup, /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gifnot unless one can get his hands on a grader w/ a wing or good size payloader for those banks. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Looks like 3 to 5 inches coming our way. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[RobS]

Not that this will help any of us but it was kind of neat...

Last night on the news they showed some footage of the highway crews moving snow from the median of our bypass to the right shoulder. Used four 6X4 trucks with front blades all in a row. They moved pretty slow and had the highway closed during the work. There is a 10 mile stretch with just a concrete barrier for a median, thus not much room for the snow to accumulate. Definitely beyond the capabilities of my little 790!

Rob