New snow

[Yogi05]

Here is another, shorter, video of the inverted blower doing it's thing.

I'd love to be able to do snow driving forward. My poor ol' neck can't do the owl thing and
like others here I have to stand and turn in the seat. Not a big deal but it'd be more comfortable in the seat obviously.

There was a conversation here about leaving block heaters plugged in all the time.
I'm using one of those magnetic block heaters (300w) on the side of the oil pan (the bottom is uneven) and it has been plugged in for 2 weeks.
I tried starting it in -18c temps last week and it wanted to go but wouldn't quite start. The next day was -9c and it started.
I have since installed a battery heater (60w blanket) and turned it on at 5pm yesterday. At some point today I'll see if that makes the difference.
-16c right now at 9:30ish and going to -7c later today.
I already know it will start at -7c.
My neighbour did a quick clean up for me on Thursday - hump from the municipal plow at the end of the driveway.
I'll fire Tractor Power up today mostly just to run it, and do some better cleanup than my generous neighbour did.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I feel your pain Lou ! Nothing much worse than 0* road surface temperatures with warm air and rain/sleet then a slow change to snow.

gg

 

[GeneV]

I really like those side plates on your plows, guys. I'm thinking to weld on some wings on my little craftsman plow, serve double-duty to extend it's width and make it a bit more like a snow pusher.

Here's me last week, plowing with it as is. Yes, I realize it's baby snow compared to the ridiculous piles being posted here.

 

[Woodstock Walt]

We got about 14" out of this last storm. I took this picture plowing the driveway early the first morning, about 8" accumulation at that time.

 

[Iceen]

I need a higher lifiting blade , serioulsy most snow I ever seen in the years I lived here. If go of the road it reaches over the belly of the tractor

 

[RjCorazza]

I really like those side plates on your plows, guys. I'm thinking to weld on some wings on my little craftsman plow, serve double-duty to extend it's width and make it a bit more like a snow pusher.

Here's me last week, plowing with it as is. Yes, I realize it's baby snow compared to the ridiculous piles being posted here.

Nice video. I agree with your assessment of R4 tires, although there are just some times that any type of rubber is not going to cut it. I run grooved R4 tires, and have a set of unused chains because I have contractual obligations.
I'm definitely going to fab up some side plates (removable) like Hilbilly posted recently.

 

[Gordon Gould]

We got about 14" out of this last storm. I took this picture plowing the driveway early the first morning, about 8" accumulation at that time.

Very neat picture Walt. Is that your drive way or a woods road you are plowing ?

gg

 

[Woodstock Walt]

Thank you!

Yup, that's our driveway. It basically cuts across the side of a mountain to our house, climbs 200 vertical feet over 2300'. It can be a sketchy road for sure, it's got some tight corners and steep drop offs, and most of the elevation gains are in short, steep sections.

Nice views when you get there, though.

I most definitely depend on our Mahindra to be able to live here. Our first winter here I tried to maintain the road with a 3/4 ton GMC and 8' Fisher plow. Getting stuck, sliding off the road, and just not being able to handle the amount of snow we receive helped push us towards the decision to buy a tractor.

I grew up operating my dad's JD 4510, and felt pretty helpless up on this hill without one of my own. One of those things, once you've had a tractor it's pretty hard to live without one.

Once spring rolled around the frost went out of the road and I sunk my 1-ton Chevy to the frame trying to get to the house. Didn't have a piece of equipment big enough to pull it out. Called a friend, got it out, hauled our new 4540 home two days later.

That first summer I used it to regrade the road, layed out filter fabric, and spread over 400 cu. yd. of gravel.

Moved a ton of material to open up some flat space up by the house as well.

Sorry to get so far off topic, just thought I'd share some of my experiences. Really love our Mahindra, so far the thing has been bombproof tough and has moved mountians of earth and snow.

 

[sree251]

Sorry to get so far off topic, just thought I'd share some of my experiences. Really love our Mahindra, so far the thing has been bombproof tough and has moved mountians of earth and snow.

All that work to maintain that access road. You must love living there.

 

[fruitcakesa]

I ended up with maybe a 4-5" total accumulation. The only problem was that the rain fell first and froze on the ground
then we got sleet which accumulated and then more rain and then sleet and snow.
The bottom 2 1/2" is ice and frozen sleet that you can walk on and not even leave a track in, even
the truck didn't bust through it just ran on top..
To get the over head doors to come free I had to chop a swath all the way along the doors as they were froze to the ground.
When plowing the FEL blade had to have considerable down pressure on it and the trip springs were bouncing all the time,
the back blade was scouring a 1/2" or so off with each pass so multiple passes to scrape it off. Took several hours to do the
1/4 mile driveway and a couple of times the tractor was actually spinning the tires with the chains on, that almost never happens.
But minimal icing on the trees and power lines so minimal effect from the storm.

Sounds similar to what we got only we had less ice and more snow.
First pass I left a skim over the ice and waited till the next morning after the snowing had stopped and the temp dropped well below frost.
Now have a nice hard packed crunchy snow driveway, till it rains or.....