Plow now or wait?

[oldpilot]

We often have this problem in coastal New Hampshire. I've done it both ways: get up at 2 a.m. and plow through the night to stay ahead of it, OR wait till next day so I can plow away the ice on top of the snow. The breakpoint for me is about six inches if it's dry, four inches if it's wet, because that overwhelms my tractor and if I let it go I have to call a plowman at $100 a sweep. (He generally plows twice, once in the night plus a cleanup next day.)

This time, however, I awoke to high winds and driving rain, so I'm snug inside unless the power goes out. Just ten miles to the west there's a blizzard. Twenty miles to the east, the surf is breaking over the top of Whaleback Lighthouse tower.

 

[ctgoldwing]

We aren't all that far from the CT coast and its often the snow / rain demarcation line. That said in years I was without a tractor I typically would end up paying between $1200 - $1800 a season for plowing. The deal with the plow guy was 2" triggered a plowing. There were times I thought he took a little advantage of that (it might have been 2" where he lives north of us).

So it really is a no brainer to do my own snow blowing with the tractor. A big plus is my driveway no longer shrinks in big snow years from the mountains of snow his plow produced.

When freezing rain made the gravel driveway really dangerous I can backblade with the toothbar to get down to some traction. The plowman used to come by and spread salted sand - even though I told him every year "no salt". Killed most of the plants along the driveway.

 

[CADplans]

THIS is what a REAL VIRGINIAN uses to move the snow we get,,,

 

[fruitcakesa]

1st pass this morning of the 4 inches of dry powder that has so far fallen.
Since it is still snowing steadily, I figure by the time the snow ends/wet stuff begins, there will be another absorbent layer to soak up the wet.
I will then do a final pass to clear off the mess.
Supposed to get colder again so everything will crunch up and provide some traction for the cars.

 

[liteship]

I have been dealing with snow and ice on my 500 foot gravel driveway for 30 years now here in Maine, and I have learned one thing about timing. It is a crapshoot. I have used everything from walk behind snow blowers to pickup mounted fisher plows. I currently have a snow plow, walk behind snow blower and a tractor with front mounted snow blower. When facing snow - rain - sleet- freeze conditions, my preference has always been allow the rain/sleet to fall on the snow (as long as it is not more than 6 inches) and hope for a quick freeze forming a crust on top. A plow or snow blower can usually handle that beautifully. The crapshoot part comes if the rain continues to the point where the quick freeze leaves nothing but ice. That's where my 12-5 gallon pails of sand come in handy. It seems like we are seeing more of the snow to rain patterns in Maine in recent years. Yuck!

 

[MossyDell]

I appreciate all the advice! I spent two hours plowing this morning. Got about six inches off the top of our asphalt drive, leaving packed snow I think we can drive on. Not sure if it's worth the work and time to get the asphalt bare now. Supposed to be 38 tomorrow and 46 Wednesday. The freezing rain I'd worried about was not much of a factor, maybe a light crust.

Using the blade is a learning curve. I'd only used it once before, for a very light snow, but that had probably eaten an inch off the rubber edge. Not sure but think gravel may be harder on it than asphalt. Anyway, I did more gravel, mostly neighbors', that time.

Today I tried to keep the rubber edge up on gravel and experimented with it dropped all the way down and in float on asphalt. The former made me think I wasn't moving enough snow, though vehicles seem fine getting traction in snow or crunching through to the gravel. On asphalt, I did reach the asphalt a little, though that's spotty for now.

I was feeling frozen and had to take a break. Plus I need to plow my daughter's steep gravel driveway next door. What really finished me off today was needing to go get fuel at the station on the corner. Driving there was straight into a strong north wind. And then I stood there freezing in a windswept parking lot while fueling.

A clump of snow somewhere above the nozzle fell off and into my tank! How bad is that? I am using Hot Shot's Secret Winter treatment. Should I go ahead and change the fuel filter? It is not officially due but maybe a new one will filter out the water better?

Headed down our drive plowing; a hill is on the left and a ravine is on the right below the pines:

Headed back up our drive, not plowing while climbing, only on the descent:

 

[CADplans]

I KNEW that if I plowed snow yesterday, we would get sleet/rain on the fallen snow,,
I had to find something to do,, to keep my mind off plowing the snow,,
So,, I had this brush pile, over 70 feet long, and over 10 feet high,,
2 minutes with the propane weed burner, and this was the result,,,

Those flames are over 20 feet high.

I sat in the truck, and watched it 'til dark,, just to make sure it did not spread.
The snow stopped it at the edges of the brush pile,,

 

[oosik]

I plowed last week. We were getting nice dry, powdery snow. Finally - around a foot. Then, over night, it turned warm and we got rain/snow mix.

My M6040 weighs 10,100#. There were a couple places on my mile long gravel driveway where I had to really work to keep the tractor going straight.

It's all rather moot now. We've had warm weather for the last four days and the prediction is for warm weather for the next two weeks.

 

[ismilelots]

We are getting heavy snow now in SW VA. Snow is really piling up.

Then we are supposed to get "heavy freezing rain" at 4 p.m., then back to snow.

What do you all think of this strategy: let it pile up and wait till 5 p.m. to plow?

Hard to see it keep piling up, but if I go out and plow before the ice, I fear it will be harder to get rid of ice than if I can push most of it as snow.

With that kind of forecast, I normally set the plow a little higher to leave an inch or 2 of snow before the freezing rain. It's easier getting the ice off with some snow under it.

 

[STAYSAFE]

“Plow With The Storm”, as we say at the east end of Lake Ontario.

 

[Bobrown14]

We got hit pretty hard last night and its still snowing in Finger Lakes region upstate NY. About a foot or more of powder. Man I love my heated cab. Even hadda open a widow I got too hot and needed to vent some moisture.

I waited till early AM 7ish got out there and started plowing got it all done 1/3 mile drive and parking lot and hadda do it again for a brush up.

I use a snow pusher - with that much snow all at once its back and forth and have to figure out where to put the snow.

 

[Jstpssng]

We got hit pretty hard last night and its still snowing in Finger Lakes region upstate NY.

I'm moving to New York!! I worked for a few years a bit east of you, from Boonesville all of the way up to Potsdam and it wouldn't have taken much to make me stay. It's a nice area, and you get more snow than we see. It just started snowing a couple of hours ago, it's about 20 degrees out and we've got about 2 inches of nice powder on the ground. Too bad that it's going to warm and turn to rain. I can do without that... along with the 40mph winds they are saying we'll get.

The last time that I was in NY we were staying just outside of Buffalo and got done just in time to get chased out by snow. If we'd had to work one more day we'd have been stuck there for a week or so.

 

[Djwshady]

We are getting heavy snow now in SW VA. Snow is really piling up.

Then we are supposed to get "heavy freezing rain" at 4 p.m., then back to snow.

What do you all think of this strategy: let it pile up and wait till 5 p.m. to plow?

Hard to see it keep piling up, but if I go out and plow before the ice, I fear it will be harder to get rid of ice than if I can push most of it as snow.

I let the ice accumulate on top of the snow and then push it. Otherwise you're trying to push snow from on top of ice.

 

[crashz]

We got hit pretty hard last night and its still snowing in Finger Lakes region upstate NY. About a foot or more of powder. Man I love my heated cab. Even hadda open a widow I got too hot and needed to vent some moisture.

I waited till early AM 7ish got out there and started plowing got it all done 1/3 mile drive and parking lot and hadda do it again for a brush up.

I use a snow pusher - with that much snow all at once its back and forth and have to figure out where to put the snow.

Rub it in! I plowed at 7 this morning and it was just changing over to rain. Yuck! 20 minutes and I had it opened up and cars cleared off, but I was soaked and freezing! Was about 4-6inches of wet heavy snow.

OP - rubber edges are nice to prevent damage (great on decorative pavers or stamp-crete, but as you are finding out, they wear quickly. For regular pavement and gravel I like steel edges that best. But steel is unforgiving.

One other thing and this is just a preference: When possible, angle your blade to deposit the snow on the downhill side. This allows for a couple of things:
- Builds a berm on the dangerous side of a driveway.
- Allows melting snow to drain without crossing the road.
- If the plow catches something or you push too much, the tractor will slide to the uphill side, not down.

 

[MossyDell]

“Plow With The Storm”, as we say at the east end of Lake Ontario.

So plow as it's hitting, don't wait till it's all down?

 

[MossyDell]

We got hit pretty hard last night and its still snowing in Finger Lakes region upstate NY. About a foot or more of powder. Man I love my heated cab. Even hadda open a widow I got too hot and needed to vent some moisture.

I waited till early AM 7ish got out there and started plowing got it all done 1/3 mile drive and parking lot and hadda do it again for a brush up.

I use a snow pusher - with that much snow all at once its back and forth and have to figure out where to put the snow.

Bob, what is the advantage of a pusher over a front blade?

 

[crashz]

Plow with the storm, unless ice and freezing rain are in the forecast. I think you did the right thing.

 

[TheMan419]

Depends on how much snow you are supposed to get bewteen now and when the freezing rain starts. Generally I would want the freezing rain to land on top of the snow so you can just push it out of the way. Around here "piling up" means an inch an hour and several hours of it to come. So in that scenario you could plow now and have several inches of accumulation before the freezing rain.

 

[Tony H]

Not sure what your snow weapon is. I have kicked myself many times when keeping car windows an d driveway clean. Then the snow gets freezing rainy and encapsulates everything. Meanwhile my 'lazy' neighbor waited it out and the crusted top layer of snow lifted off the car and driveway because of the fluffy snow underneath. With a tractor, bigger then garden tractor, you can wait. Push behind snowblower, I'd get rid of smell now and hope you get enough cushion before it gets wet

 

[panamaguy]

We are getting heavy snow now in SW VA. Snow is really piling up.

Then we are supposed to get "heavy freezing rain" at 4 p.m., then back to snow.

What do you all think of this strategy: let it pile up and wait till 5 p.m. to plow?

Hard to see it keep piling up, but if I go out and plow before the ice, I fear it will be harder to get rid of ice than if I can push most of it as snow.

The best way I found to handle this was 15 years ago when I made sale and moved from Canada to Panama. Have not had one day where I needed to plow my driveway. Ok ok I know the words your thinking. I also think plow before the rain