Rear blade for snow on gravel, pipe or rubber mat?

[windcatcher]

A long time ago, Farmall/International Cubs had front and some had rear (1pt hitch style) blades. They also had "feet" that could be set at different heights due to holes drilled in the long side of the feet. I used those ideas and made a set of snow feet for my back blade. It worked very well. I set the feet height so I'm scraping the amount of snow needed to clear my driveway and the gravel stays where it's supposed to be. You might consider that idea too. Here you go: TM Tractor Parts for McCormick Farmall Cub, International Cub, and International Lo-Boy Good luck with your endeavor. With the right tools, any job is easy.

 

[clewis]

This is a new construction house/driveway as of last November, so there wasn't a lot of pack-down before winter. After this spring of hours of raking and collecting gravel out of the grass, I'm not doing that again!

We have a "new gravel driveway" too (after 30 on the old one), and didn't have problems. Here, invariably by the second snowfall, the ground is frozen, and plows or blowers will pick up very little gravel, and nobody uses "soft blades" - by which I mean snow removal companies, farmers, and home owners.

It depends on where you are as to how much you can rely on this.

 

[Tony H]

I would think the matting, since it still follows the forward angle would not work well. The pipe would work better... The angle iron, as mentioned has always been a thought of mine for my small 42" garden tractor blade. For rear angle blades, I was wondering how well they would clear yet leave the stones if you turned the blade 180 degrees. If it's angled, it will let snow run off, and with the edge angled away from driving direction, it shouldn't 'dig'. That is the idea of the pipe, to cut down on the cutting of the blade. Many of us can get a snow pack base and it stays frozen all season, but some areas warm, melt and snows again. So you need to find a way to cause minimum damage.

 

[mike02557a]

This will be our 2nd winter at our new place, I have about 100yd gravel driveway. I have a 6' box blade that I pushed snow backwards, that worked 'good enough' after trial/error with getting the right angle so as not to scrape a bunch of gravel. Obviously no angle to divert snow to the side with the box blade.

I recently found a great deal on a rear blade with offset and angle adjustments. I got it wide enough to cover my tire tracks when angled too. Now my question is about modifying it so that it doesn't scrape gravel with the snow. I've see two popular methods of putting a slit pipe over the cutting edge of the blade, and also sandwiching thick horse stall mat with some material protruding below the blade to act as a wiper or squegee.

I'm wondering if the horse stall mat would be more for concrete/asphalt use? Would the best method for me be to use the pipe on the blade? I'm thinking metal pipe instead of the PVC or ABS due to cold and brittle of the plastic.

Anybody use the horse mat method on gravel? ...I'd like to use the best method for my application the first attempt, so that's why I'm looking for input.

 

[DaveMueller]

I had good luck with 2" ABS pipe on my front bucket. Made a big difference. Cut the slit on a table saw. You can't use PVC, it gets brittle and shatters below 32 degrees.

 

[Tbone07]

If you don't have fabricating skills, I would get some drawings and pictures together of what you think you want. And go to a local fabricator to weld up some adjustable skids on each end of the blade.

 

[jeffscap]

Thanks for the input, I like the angle iron idea as well. I realize there will always be some gravel that gets into the grass, but with fresh driveway that was not packed at all, I had piles of it in the grass this spring. A lot of that was due to me not having the angle on the box blade right after the first big snowfall.

I know I can keep the blade up 1.5" or so, but I'd rather have the blade "ride over" the gravel best I can. Thanks for the ideas.

Im a landscape contractor,just swing your backblade around 180° wont dig in,do it all the time.,instead of cupped its bellied out.

 

[HEC]

I use the pipe method on both front end loader and rear blade and they work very well for my needs . Even with the pipe on it can pick up some gravel if the ground is still soft from wet snow etc., especially with the bucket . I have some paved areas but mostly gravel , about 600 ft. of gravel . With the bucket or rear blade it will scuff the paved surface with or without the pipe on . It does it enough that I recoat with sealer every spring as soon as it is warm enough . Turning the blade around also works quite well as already mentioned , in light snow amounts , I have and do that also . Skids will dig into or sink into soft gravel some and are of no use for me especially when my driveway isn't perfectly flat in places like the crown . They may work on frozen ground but then I don't need them .

 

[JLSMED]

This will be our 2nd winter at our new place, I have about 100yd gravel driveway. I have a 6' box blade that I pushed snow backwards, that worked 'good enough' after trial/error with getting the right angle so as not to scrape a bunch of gravel. Obviously no angle to divert snow to the side with the box blade.

I recently found a great deal on a rear blade with offset and angle adjustments. I got it wide enough to cover my tire tracks when angled too. Now my question is about modifying it so that it doesn't scrape gravel with the snow. I've see two popular methods of putting a slit pipe over the cutting edge of the blade, and also sandwiching thick horse stall mat with some material protruding below the blade to act as a wiper or squegee.

I'm wondering if the horse stall mat would be more for concrete/asphalt use? Would the best method for me be to use the pipe on the blade? I'm thinking metal pipe instead of the PVC or ABS due to cold and brittle of the plastic.

Anybody use the horse mat method on gravel? ...I'd like to use the best method for my application the first attempt, so that's why I'm looking for input.

I’ve been using 2” schedule 40 black pipe with my front plow and it works really well. You can’t just “slit” the pipe, you have to cut the width of the wear edge on the plow. Tried PVC pipe first; it lasted about 10 seconds lol. In a perfect world I’d put schedule 80 pipe on there because I’m pretty sure the pipe I have now will wear through this winter, or 4 seasons of being relatively careful with it. Btw My drive is 275’ long with about a 4-car width near the garage and northern Illinois winters.

 

[rutty creek]

I live in central CT and have about 300 feet of hilly driveway. I have a 25 hp DF 254 tractor (4 wheel drive) I have had good luck with using a 6 foot landscape ( york ) rake on 3 pt. in reverse and clean up with fel . always some contraption/ configuration ,,,,