Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Pictures of your snow weapons

[DK35vince]

I been running 4 link chains on all 4 for years. No problems

We recently got 5-6" of powder snow.
Hadn't put my chains on yet.
Thought with this easy snow go ahead and plow without the chains.
Horrible. HORRIBLE. I don't know how anyone can plow snow with a tractor without chains. R-4's with loaded rears couldn't get out of its own way let alone push.
With chains on all 4 my 35 HP tractor pushes a 9' (108) power angle snow plow really well. And pushes it back as far as I want
Without chains it was a battle to push 5" of powder snow any where.

 

[LouNY]

Chains are amazing and good chains are unbelievable, you can actually get better traction with chains then on dry gravel in the summer and fall.

 

[Wild and Free]

I read a ton of the posts and look at all your snow weapons in the snow forum and am in amazement at how so many can get buy with just a blade. The snow must be very different in other areas. Here on the Northern plains blades are for very small driveways for the most part and even there they are no good for most of the snow we get as it blows in so hard it gets drifted in very deep and hard as concrete most of the time where a loader and or snowblower are the only option for moving it. Man I wish I could get by that easy lol.

 

[Creamer]

We recently got 5-6" of powder snow.
Hadn't put my chains on yet.
Thought with this easy snow go ahead and plow without the chains.
Horrible. HORRIBLE. I don't know how anyone can plow snow with a tractor without chains. R-4's with loaded rears couldn't get out of its own way let alone push.
With chains on all 4 my 35 HP tractor pushes a 9' (108) power angle snow plow really well. And pushes it back as far as I want
Without chains it was a battle to push 5" of powder snow any where.

It comes down to technique. I have diamond tread rears and no weight with R4 fronts. I do a lot of spinning but I can push a lot but I typically plow fast. I also have a lot of fun plowing snow as to turn a 180 I just turn the wheel and step on a rear brake and in less than a second I am going the other way. It is just a lot more fun.

 

[LouNY]

I read a ton of the posts and look at all your snow weapons in the snow forum and am in amazement at how so many can get buy with just a blade. The snow must be very different in other areas. Here on the Northern plains blades are for very small driveways for the most part and even there they are no good for most of the snow we get as it blows in so hard it gets drifted in very deep and hard as concrete most of the time where a loader and or snowblower are the only option for moving it. Man I wish I could get by that easy lol.

That's because we have more then a single strand of barbed wire every hundred miles.:laughing: In some places we do get drifting and it requires pushing snow a long ways back.
Or as in my case I push it over the back on the low side which varies from 3 feet to 15 feet, towards the spring time I can be pushing snow 10 or 15 feet past where the dirt ends on snow pack.

 

[DK35vince]

It comes down to technique. I have diamond tread rears and no weight with R4 fronts. I do a lot of spinning but I can push a lot but I typically plow fast. I also have a lot of fun plowing snow as to turn a 180 I just turn the wheel and step on a rear brake and in less than a second I am going the other way. It is just a lot more fun.

You find it fun, I find it frustrating.
My parking area is on a slight side hill. With chains on all 4 I plow right across that hill a push as much snow as I want, without chains I couldn't even get to the snow pile to push, simply slide sideways down the hill into the grass.
Useless.
I know I've done my driveway with chains and without and there is no comparison. Not even close.

 

[rekees4300]

We recently got 5-6" of powder snow.
Hadn't put my chains on yet.
Thought with this easy snow go ahead and plow without the chains.
Horrible. HORRIBLE. I don't know how anyone can plow snow with a tractor without chains. R-4's with loaded rears couldn't get out of its own way let alone push.
With chains on all 4 my 35 HP tractor pushes a 9' (108) power angle snow plow really well. And pushes it back as far as I want
Without chains it was a battle to push 5" of powder snow any where.

Learned the chain lesson the hard way. Struggled 5 years without chains on R4s then saw the light and invested in front & rear chains. Those converted my JD 32HP from a CUT into a mini bulldozer! That was 10 years ago and since then no more spinning on ice covered hills while pushing snow with front blade.

 

[DK35vince]

Learned the chain lesson the hard way. Struggled 5 years without chains on R4s then saw the light and invested in front & rear chains. Those converted my JD 32HP from a CUT into a mini bulldozer! That was 10 years ago and since then no more spinning on ice covered hills while pushing snow with front blade.

I struggled for years without chains too.
I've been running chains on all 4 probably for the last 10 or 12 years.
I just forgot how pathetic they are without chains till I tried to plow without them. And this snow was as easy as it gets, 5" of fluff.

 

[beenthere]

Chains or not on my R4's depends on if the ground is frozen or not. I get by easily without chains, but have them when needed. Sometimes just chain up the front wheels. Keep the smooth ride without chains on the rears. Helps when moving a pallet of firewood on the 3 ph forks into the garage once a week.

Each has to figure out what works best for them.. their drive, their snow, their 'everything'.

 

[VroomVroom]

Sorry to post this here. I've been on this sight for a few years and have always "replied" to threads. How do I start a new thread ?