My First Tractor will be a Ventrac 4500Y.

[murphy1244]

How you like them arm rest thingys? Oh yes 44 and so much more.

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

How you like them arm rest thingys? Oh yes 44 and so much more.

I like them a lot, Murph. Arm rests, cup holder... what creature comforts! Almost decadent.

In this weather, a heated cab would also be nice, but a cab raises other issues.

Best,

John

 

[murphy1244]

Yea you can throw a top on there but you would have to do something with that light.

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

Yea you can throw a top on there but you would have to do something with that light.

Yes. If it comes down to sacrificing the safety beacon or being a bit more comfortable, I'll keep the beacon and put on another layer of clothes. Some people really come flying down the road, even though it is a winding, two-lane country road out here. In Baltimore City, it is a major North-South road with up to six lanes (three in each direction).

 

[murphy1244]

I stay out of my road as they fly by at 50mph, they would never see me till it was too late.

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

I try to stay out, but having a wall of snow at the driveway apron can require some incursion.

 

[murphy1244]

That's where the snow blower is better after awhile. I throw it across the street or far far away. No walls to build.

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

That's where the snow blower is better after awhile. I throw it across the street or far far away. No walls to build.

Good point, Murph.

If it were at my discretion, every snowfall would be of sufficient depth to warrant the attachment of the snowblower.

Best,

John

 

[murphy1244]

Good point, Murph.

If it were at my discretion, every snowfall would be of sufficient depth to warrant the attachment of the snowblower.

Best,

John

How deep do you need to warrant a SB? I was not aware of this depth chart.

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

How deep do you need to warrant a SB? I was not aware of this depth chart.

My own personal rule of thumb:

More than six inches get treated the blower, with the blower set to remove all but the bottom inch, followed by a clean-up with the broom. Six inches or less get one pass with the broom only.

On the S-curved hill, the pavement is a bit uneven, mainly due to local high points caused by tree roots. My experience with my Honda HS724 walk-behind snow blower was that it was very difficult to get a clean scrape on that portion. Because I now have the broom, I'm not going to even attempt to scrape down to the pavement. Yes, it requires extra seat time to run the blower first and then the broom, but more seat time is not necessarily a bad thing. ;-)

Best,

John

 

[murphy1244]

I would not have spent the money on a blower then and those darn thingys are costly. We rarely get more than 6 inches at a time. How about you?

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

I would not have spent the money on a blower then and those darn thingys are costly. We rarely get more than 6 inches at a time. How about you?

It depends upon the year. In the eight years that we have lived here in the woods, two have had little snow. Other years, we have gotten walloped. The Winter of 2009-2010 was particularly memorable.

At our previous home, in a "planned community" suburb closer to Washington, D.C., some years, we would also get whacked. There, however, our driveway was about 50 feet long, not 1600 feet long. I remember skating on the lawn around the time of the shutdown of the Federal Government in 1995/1996. There was a thick crust of ice with about 18 inches of snow below that.

Maryland Winters.

February 5-6, 2010.

February 9-10, 2010.

The next season also started off with a bang.

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

I would not have spent the money on a blower then and those darn thingys are costly. We rarely get more than 6 inches at a time. How about you?

There's also the risk of getting walled in if a series of snowstorms hit in quick succession. If the walls get too tall, I can give them a haircut with the blower.

 

[Raw Dodge]

You can always do what I did and buy a decent used Steiner snow blower.The 2 stage Steiner SB348 is a rugged unit, and it was in production almost 20 years, I'd look for a serial number over 1500, just because they have some upgrades, but they work good and will do the job, mine was 1200.00 and let me tell you it rocks and really throws the snow.

 

[Raw Dodge]

I sped mine up quite a bit, in fact too much , went from an 8 inch snowblower pulley to a 5 inch mower deck pulley. .It really throws the snow now, it outperforms anything else I've ever seen...I ordered a 6 inch pulley I believe it will be the perfect size for my machine. Did this at my ventrac dealers suggestion...he says these steiner blowers are great units..all I know is with the little pulley throwing 30-50 ft is pretty easy even when it bogs down to 2500rpm, it is still throwing it far....

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

We Finally Got Too Much Snow for Broomhilda to handle. So John Z. got a chance to show his stuff. The snow started out light and fluffy Saturday morning. By 11 PM that same day, the snow had gotten much denser, and was starting to change into sleep. I adjusted the skid shoes on Sunday morning to bring the scraper bar a bit closer to the pavement. I may bring it a bit closer still.

I did our driveway, and that of our elderly neighbors next up the road.

Yesterday, the sun was out, and in the afternoon, the temperature reached 38ｰ. I used Broomhilda to do a final clean-up.

It was all downhill, temperature-wise, from there.

The sun is out again today, but the wind is brisk, and the temperatures are chilly, and headed to get even chillier... single digits the next two nights. Our radon-remediation pipes are humming (resonating, and setting up acoustic oscillations). Similar to what happns if one blows across the top of a partially full soda bottle.

I hit 50.1 hours on the hour meter Saturday night, so I changed the motor oil.

 

[murphy1244]

How did you get your tractor to stay sideways like that? Any problem with slipping?

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

How did you get your tractor to stay sideways like that? Any problem with slipping?

That shot was taken on relatively level ground.

I did have a bit of slipping when trying to simultaneously climb and blow snow off of the 14° S-Curved Hill. Nothing that I could not deal with fairly easily. Blowing while heading downhill is obviously a less demanding strategy.

Best,

John

 

[murphy1244]

That shot was taken on relatively level ground.

I did have a bit of slipping when trying to simultaneously climb and blow snow off of the 14° S-Curved Hill. Nothing that I could not deal with fairly easily. Blowing while heading downhill is obviously a less demanding strategy.

Best,

Kohn

What oil you using?

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

What oil you using?

This time, I used Shell Rotella T6 5W-40. Which oil do you use?