srs
Veteran Member
Snow removal Friday night and Saturday morning and now it's 38º and rain.
JJZ 109, how did the skid steer work out with the snow removal?
Posible blizzard coming to Massachusetts and surrounding states
- Thread starter mpham
- Start date
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JJZ 109, how did the skid steer work out with the snow removal?
JJZ 109
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2009
- Messages
- 2,175
- Location
- Lake Ontario/St. Lawrence River
- Tractor
- Kubota BX2380/LA344 loader/60" MMM, Bobcat S185 skid steer, JD X394 4 wheel steer mower
So far, so good. The Erskine blower will move some snow. I've found that no matter where I adjust the shoes or adjust the tilt, I seem to still be getting into the gravel. I'm thinking it's more operator inexperience than anything else. So for now I'm just leaving the blower at a height where it barely skims the surface. I get the deeper snow moved that way and then drop the blower and grab the bucket. I put the bucket into float and then just adjust dump/curl on the fly to scrape a little further down while not disturbing the gravel. That gives me a little hard pack base. Of course now it's all melting.
The cab heat in that thing sure works!
grsthegreat
Super Star Member
Got about 26" here in south central CT. Worst storm I've seen in a lot of years. Many reports of 30" - 40" not far from here. Supposedly, Hamden CT was the big winner with 40". We had thunder snow about 8:00 Friday night. Sleet mixed in for an hour or so, so I think that's why the totals ended up below 30". Still a _____ load of snow to deal with.
Got caught with my pants down too. Don't know what I was thinking, but I had the plow on the tractor parked in the garage facing out. Went out Friday about 5:30 and cleared about 6" from my drive and two other neighbors. Come Saturday morning, I couldn't plow out my own drive. Keep getting stuck - just too much snow to push and really no where to push it. Me and the wife, bless here heart, shoveled about 120' out to the shed so I could put the front loader on. That took maybe two hours
There was at least 5' wide bank of snow from where the town plowed the road to our mailbox, and about 4' high. Spent 6 hours out Saturday and another 6 on Sunday. I ended up doing the drives of three single lady neighbors. One of them had a plow come on Sunday, but his GM 2500 HD diesel couldn't back up her driveway, so she called me for help. Went to her house thinking she needed me to dig out the plow with my loader, but the guy wanted a tow. My little BX had enough pull to get him moving and unstuck, but it was a case of rinse, repeat. After he got stuck for about the 6th time, we agreed I'd finish her drive with the loader. I think that was actually less wear and tare on my BX than pulling him out of the piles he was making.
I'm seriously thinking of selling my front plow and getting a three point blower for next year. I'm sure there's no chance of finding one locally now. Just too slow moving this much snow with a loader, and you still run out of room eventually. I really need the loader on in the winter anyway since i need to move firewood to the house now that we have a wood stove (loving that stove by the way - haven't seen the oil man since last summer :thumbsup
Anyway, here's a few pic's after I cleared my drive. Pic's just don't relate the fully story though.
i have plow and blower. there have been times when theres just too much snow for the plow to handle. I have also found that i can do 2 high speed plows on the road and then use the blower to clear the plow piles. it saves overall time on the 2-1/2 miles of association roads i take care of.
The Deerslayer
Platinum Member
Got about 26" here in south central CT. Worst storm I've seen in a lot of years. Many reports of 30" - 40" not far from here. Supposedly, Hamden CT was the big winner with 40". We had thunder snow about 8:00 Friday night. Sleet mixed in for an hour or so, so I think that's why the totals ended up below 30". Still a _____ load of snow to deal with.
Got caught with my pants down too. Don't know what I was thinking, but I had the plow on the tractor parked in the garage facing out. Went out Friday about 5:30 and cleared about 6" from my drive and two other neighbors. Come Saturday morning, I couldn't plow out my own drive. Keep getting stuck - just too much snow to push and really no where to push it. Me and the wife, bless here heart, shoveled about 120' out to the shed so I could put the front loader on. That took maybe two hours
There was at least 5' wide bank of snow from where the town plowed the road to our mailbox, and about 4' high. Spent 6 hours out Saturday and another 6 on Sunday. I ended up doing the drives of three single lady neighbors. One of them had a plow come on Sunday, but his GM 2500 HD diesel couldn't back up her driveway, so she called me for help. Went to her house thinking she needed me to dig out the plow with my loader, but the guy wanted a tow. My little BX had enough pull to get him moving and unstuck, but it was a case of rinse, repeat. After he got stuck for about the 6th time, we agreed I'd finish her drive with the loader. I think that was actually less wear and tare on my BX than pulling him out of the piles he was making.
I'm seriously thinking of selling my front plow and getting a three point blower for next year. I'm sure there's no chance of finding one locally now. Just too slow moving this much snow with a loader, and you still run out of room eventually. I really need the loader on in the winter anyway since i need to move firewood to the house now that we have a wood stove (loving that stove by the way - haven't seen the oil man since last summer :thumbsup
Anyway, here's a few pic's after I cleared my drive. Pic's just don't relate the fully story though.
If you do go the 3pt blower route, you will not regret it. I labored over the decision thinking that being in CT there would be limited use for it. Clearly, one of the best decisions I have made. I still get the use of the loader and I kept the rear blade for lighter snow. That could be an option for you to consider. Good luck....and I couldn't agree more about the woodstove; we love it as much as the oil man hates it!!
Karl2
Gold Member
As it is here now. Up here a storm status requires enough wind to drive snow horizontally so it's not a storm. That said, I have seen some of those non-storms dump a lot of snow sometimes, big huge flakes falling for 12-20 hours. That's the best snow for skiing and snowmobiling or just enjoy the quietness because it muffles every sound... and then you jump in the tractor and make peace and quiet go away :fight:
CHDinCT
Veteran Member
In the little over two years I've had my BX25, we've had two winters (2011 and now 2013) where there was too much snow to use the plow. If I could know if this trend would continue, I would be on a rear blower like stink. 2012 was a bust with hardly any snow. Part of my rationale is that I clear 3-4 driveways each snowfall and it just takes too long using the FEL. Also, with a rear blower, I might offer my services for hire. Anyway, I priced out the Kubota 51" rear blower with manual rotation and chute and it prices out at almost $3K. Got to be some cheaper, yet quality, options. I think I will look for a used unit before next winter. Another alternative would be a maybe 30" walk behind unit for the really big storms. Would be cheaper but not much faster.
From the Kubota Pricing App:
1 51" 3-POINT REAR MOUNTED SNOWBLOWER.......................$2,497.00
1 MANUAL CHUTE ROTATION KIT FOR REAR SNOW BLOWER........$161.00
FACTORY ASSEMBLY...........................................................$250.00
The Deerslayer
Platinum Member
When I was looking to buy I could not find anything used, so I went the new route and bout a Pronovost 64 inch. I got what I believe was a good deal and paid 2k.
If you check on CL for Hartford area there are some that seem reasonable. Check it out. PS- If you end up buying the one you mentioned, you may consider dropping the factory assembly. You could save $250 by installing the chute and the pto shaft yourself. I did on mine and it was not that difficult.
And there are good snowblowers, and then there are all the rest. Pronovost is a good one; in all the research that I did before I bought it seemed that the quality increased as one moved geographically north in the point of manufacture. The actual technology does not change much, but the amount of steel (translated as weight) increased in the better builds.
JohninCT
Platinum Member
Ken Sweet is/was having a closeout sale on several remaining Farmking snowblowers at pretty good prices. His posting is in this thread
Snowblower Blowout Prices on all Buhler/Farmking Snowblowers (In Stock)
CHDinCT
Veteran Member
Well, I exchanged a few e-mails with Ken Sweet yesterday afternoon after looking at his post on the snowblower closeout, thanks to you John. He had one 50" unit left which he also had posted on e-bay. I expressed enough interest in it that he took it off e-bay to give me a chance to talk to my wife last night, which I did during dinner. To my surprise she gave me the go-ahead, but by then, Ken had e-mailed me back that the last 50" unit sold via his web site late afternoon to a guy in Woodbury CT. Must be another TBN'r that saw his post. His last 60" unit was just sold to somebody in North Franklin CT. Obviously I'm not alone here in CT thinking about getting a 3PH snowblower. I guess it was just not meant to be this go 'round.
I will price out new units when I can get to a few dealers just to see what's out there, and also keep my eye on CL and e-bay for used ones. Not likely we'll get another whopper storm this year, so I think I can take my time looking.
