Ratchet Rake Snow Edge on stone or lawn?

[hube2]

Has anyone here tried the Ratchet Rake Snow Edge on a stone driveway and on lawn?

I have a set of edge tamers but these leave too much snow for my liking and they cause the bucket to ride up and over extremely wet heavy snow.

It's been a really wet and sloppy winter so far far for me and the only solution I have right now it to back drag everything to get the slush cleaned off so I don't end up with a 2 inch layer of glare ice when it freezes up.

I'm also pushing with the bucket without the edge tamers but it's too easy to take out chunks of driveway and lawn if I don't get the bucket edge it exactly the right angle.

I need something that will dig into the snow better with the FEL in float without scraping off the stone and lawn.

Looking for ideas, but anything with a rounded edge will just ride over the crap I've been seeing.

Would be great if someone else has tried the Ratchet Rake edge on the same type of surfaces can give me a review before I spend almost $500 and find out it's no better that what I'm doing.

 

[RjCorazza]

@hube2
I used the snow edge for a little while, and really liked it on paved surfaces. imho, it does not work very well on gravel or grass, because of the very blunt edge. If you are floating the fel, I can see it very easily riding up.

 

[GeneV]

Hey. Well I posted that vid for you in the Massey thread, but that was on asphalt. As for stone, yeh I dunno how the snow edge will do on YOUR particular brick driveway, it's all a matter of how tight/level the bricks are. I did my neighbor's brick drive once with it, had no problems.

 

[nyone]

Are you plowing a hill? If so theres really no choice but to scrape to gravel. This means moving stone back into the driveway in the spring.

If you dont plow a hill my go to practice has been to not plow until you have a packed snow driveway. Typicaly I dont see my driveway until spring..and dont have to rake stone in the spring either. No special attachments, it's just timing. This year I prob wont plow at all.

 

[GeneV]

Oh wait, it's a gravel drive? I understood that wrong, I thought he had a brick driveway.

 

[hube2]

Yeah, I have a pretty steep driveway. I can leave some, but the wet snows this year are leaving way too much. I'm looking for a better way to scrape it. I can backblade the entire things, this seems to work and does not dig up as much stone but it is a PITA and I'm worried about catching something and bending hydraulic cylinders.

 

[LD48750]

I have found that angle iron bolted in place of the cutting edge works good on gravel drive & grass paths I have to do.

 

[hube2]

Since I originally posted this I have actually become quite adept and scraping off the snow/slush/ice without also scraping off stone using just the bucket edge. It's amazing what a little time, patience and practice can do.

Something else that I do now is that when it's really mucky I back drag with bucket/FEL in float at a significant angle while I'm already backing up to blow the snow. This is not as risky as many seem to think as long as you go slow. There's nothing I really need to worry about catching on and I just keep a close eye on it. This has the effect of making 2 nice berms of snow on either side of the bucket that is easy to either blow off or scoop up. This is very effective when the snow is so hard the the blower is riding over the stuff at the bottom.