Not enough tractor or bad strategy?

[Jaylegger]

For the lowest expense/effective ratio a front blower with your existing tractor and a snow fence to mitigate the drifting in the area depicted would work well, would easily cut the time to clear in half (I just finished a little more than half mile lane with a GC2600 and front blower albeit less snow 8 inches in 1.5 hours with a lot of jiggin around in a few places including my own good size car park area) and might actually turn that work into good fun.

 

[adjusterr]

As you can see by the pic, I have a Kubota L2250 with a bucket and hoe. My driveway or lane is .2 miles. Last year we had one snow that exceeded 30 inches. Although it took a long time to do it, I simply moved the snow a bucket at a time, load the bucket, backup, turn toward the wind and dump the bucket. I also have a 1010 JD with a front blade, that does a good job but with no power steering, it wears you out. If I'm home when the snow starts, my favorite snow plow is a Suzuki 500 with a blade. I plow wide and often to keep it open but it's so fast and easy to maneuver, you make a few passes then back to the house and sit by the woodstove.

 

[RoyJackson]

I'd suggest a bigger tractor. That SubCUT is OK for mowing an acre or so and other small tasks, but your drive is quite an undertaking.

 

[gladehound]

For the lowest expense/effective ratio a front blower with your existing tractor and a snow fence to mitigate the drifting in the area depicted would work well, would easily cut the time to clear in half (I just finished a little more than half mile lane with a GC2600 and front blower albeit less snow 8 inches in 1.5 hours with a lot of jiggin around in a few places including my own good size car park area) and might actually turn that work into good fun.

That seems like a lot of time. A front blade would do that in a few minutes if you have enough weight to push it. A sub-CUT may be able to be set up with enough weight with chains to do a good job with a front blade. My 19 hp CUT does great with a 6 foot blade without chains but it is quite a bit heavier (5000 pounds when plowing).

 

[20 20]

Not sure if this was mentioned, next year I'd start by adding a snow fence, cheap and easy to put up. That will help with snow drifts you can also angle the blade to push the snow to the side away from the drift. You also should plow extra wide and push the white stuff as far back as possible. I NEVER plow out for the storm that just hit I always plow out for the storm that will be on its way, in other words make LOTS of room for the snow. The size of the machine can make a difference but don't forget yesteryear folks plowed with horse or used shovels.

 

[nuffer460]

Snow removal is a science. The answer is all of the above. I have an interesting issue. First off, I live on the shore of Lake Ontario. I have a 4 acre front lawn. We can get snow from the West,North West, North, North East, and East. The Nor Easterns can burry us for a couple of days. I've put up two snow fences. Four snow fences. 60 hp 2wd loader tractor. Honda Fourtrax with snowblade. Now, I have added a 25 hp 4wd with FEL. I still have them all. The 4wheeler worked faster and better than the 2wd tractor. The 25 hp tractor works faster than the 4wheeler,but they work great together. My tractor has a 5' boxblade and really works well for the final cleanup. The next option for next year will be a snow blower. I find that for me every storm changes how I have to clean out. I've lived here for 15 years and still haven't figured out my driveway.:confused2: As you have found out the wind rows of the past snows, just fill in the driveway deeper. Sometimes, I think God must just be laughing his butt off watching us deal with a little snow.:laughing::laughing:

 

[radioman]

I think you really need more weight. get the rears filled and add chains to your tires. You also should grab any towing chains you got and wrap on the frame of the rear blade for more weight. Since its only a 4 ft blade, I would push rearward pushing snow to direction of snow it blows so it doesn't pile up again. Dont tackle all the snow at once. If the snow us deep, turn it backwards and angle it as much as possible. Keep the rear blade an inch off the ground so the weight is on the rear tires for better traction. Once the major amount of snow is moved out of the way, you can drive forward with blade turned so it scrapes the most scraping snow off the driveway. On the side where wind starts blowing, I would clear an extra width away from driveway if it possible without getting stuck. This way the blowing snow will not fill up the driveway as much.
I have to do the same at my place.

 

[PointyHairedBoss]

... Even better would be two rows of asparagus ...

mmmmmm ...
asparagus

 

[RalphVa]

I had a similar problem last winter here with our record 56" of snowfall for the winter. A couple were 2 feet to 30". Took a while with the FEL filling and then turning sideways to dump on the first fall. On the next, I didn't let it pile up but got to it with the 5' back blade on my 4010 (about the size of your tractor). With the blade pushing backwards and going sideways a little bit to push it up over a bank (raising it as I got to the bank, of course), the blade worked great.

If we got these snowfalls very often, I'd get a rear snow blower. A friend in NW Va (I'm in central) has a rear snow blower for his longer driveway.

I had a Gravely before the JD that had both a 4' snowplow and a snow blower. It would have handled the big snow pretty well, too.

My 4010 has turfs. No problem pushing the snow with either the FEL or back blade.

Ralph

 

[Kal130]

Had my first real snow and I failed to get out of my 1/4 mile lane. We had about 8 inches come down, I cleared that ok..then the wind came in. Overnight some parts of my lane piled up to 20-25 inches. I worked at it for about 4 hours and by time i got one spot clear the wind would cover it back up in a few hours. I had a hard time getting up my hill to try blading on the way down. After the wind died down I went back out and had a heck of a time. In the end I was bailed out by my neighbor with his Deere 8300 and massive rear bucket. It was very emasculating. Sitting there on my GC I felt like I just walked out of an NFL locker room shower.

I have a Massey GC2400 with an FEL and 4ft rear blade. The Blade would load up with snow and stop the tractor, the FEL was ok but I had nowhere to pivot and dump. I admit it, I am a city boy who just moved to the country and i have no idea what i am doing but I am willing to learn.

What am i doing wrong? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Should I switch to a blower set up? Should I get a bigger tractor? Should I bribe my Neighbor with my excellent cooking?

HELP!!

How about this, have some fun this summer and do away with snow removal all together. Rework the elevation of your drive so it is the highest relative point to the surrounding area or at least level. Hard to tell from the picture, but I'll bet your drive is below grade to the surrounding fields. There in lies your problem.