Snow Need another snow plowing opinion.

[Steuny]

I know there's always lots of opinions on what the best way to get rid of that white stuff is. Here's my problem. I have a 20 HP JD 750 with a 7' rear blade on the back. I have a 359 snow blower on the front. My road which I plow (about 1 mile long) has lots of loose gravel and rocks in the beginning of the season so sometimes a lot of rocks being thrown. I want to keep the road fairly wide and the 7' blade at a good angle to push the snow doesn't move it far enough from the wheel track to prevent me from having to run over the windrow if I can call it that. I thought about getting a 8' blade. Will the tractor be too small for this. This should give me enough to allow me to push it at least a foot further then the wheel allowing me to widen it a foot at every pass. Has anyone else run into this problem. My tractor is 5' wide but when the rear blade is angled it reduces it's footprint quite a bit. Thanks for any feedback

 

[Karl2]

Does your tractor sometime have a hard time with the 7' blade? If not it should be able to handle an extra 12 inches although you may have to slow down at times, the usual tradeoff.

 

[mfreund]

I think I would build better shoes for the bottom of the snowblower to keep them up out of the gravel then make as many passes as you need to make it wide enough. The blowers work better after you get a base of frozen ice and snow to keep the rocks from being thrown. You also could pave the drive

 

[kennyd]

I would suggest skid shoes or even wheels for the blower to keep it from getting the rocks-you already have the best tool up front IMHO, so make it work for you.

 

[irvingj]

Check out amkfken's solution for gauge wheels under a blower in the "2650 Blower Mod For Gravel Drives" thread!

 

[KevPH1]

If the question is blade length, then why not add a section of blade to one or both end of the 7' blade you have now? You know, "extend-a-blade".

Drilled/bolted,ship lapped blade or welded works to!

 

[bam747]

You might consider getting a rear blade with offset capability. That allows you to shift the entire blade 24" to 30" to the left or right of center (depending in the offset design). I put together a simple drawing of how my blade offsets that will hopefully be worth the proverbial 1000 words.

In combination with the standard blade angle setting and assuming it will still let you angle the blade enough to let the snow flow off the outside end of the blade, you can push the snow banks back with ease while maintaining your existing 7' blade width.

I have this type of rear blade and it works well at pushing snow banks off the edge of the road while keeping the tractor tires inside the snow bank and on the road. Specifically, I have an 8' Land Pride RBT35 with 3-way hydraulic adjustments (angle, offset, tilt) on a JD 4720 CUT.

Be aware that rear blades with offset capabilities are more expensive and usually more heavy duty than a light weight rear blade that does not have offset capability.

 

[AKfish]

I have an older, 7' rear blade that I use behind my 110. It's got bolt holes all along the face of the blade that allows the blade to be moved "offset" from the center of the boom.

It's a PITA to adjust the offset, so I generally leave it set off to the side and only adjust the angle.

As well, I've found that I don't have to spend quite as much money every summer buying as many dumptruck loads of clean, 3/4 minus if I pack the first 3-4 snowfalls onto the road before I ever start blading it.

AKfish