Snow Equipment Buying/Pricing Rear blade vs. front mount snow blower

[dave1949]

Moosehaven -

The best way to get the snow off that driveway is to move it to Florida HAHAHA

But seriously, those 3' deep drainage ditches are your enemy. I had that situation on my driveway using just my FEL bucket. It's like trying to plow snow on a hogs back.

Over a couple years, I managed to fill in one side so it still has good slope off the drive, but gives me a place to push snow where I won't get stuck. You might not be able to do this the entire length of the drive, you could pick a series of snow piling spots about 200' apart and fill them in a bit.

Having shared your experience, I would vote for a blower.

Dave

 

[mtg65]

I have a rear snowblower and it works great. Wait for the storm to end and move the snow once. No snow banks..

If you have a choice between a blade and a blower go with the blower especially if it is front mounted.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

At 10'-15' wide that you need to clear, and if you could swing it and get both, then use the rear blade to quickly get the snow off the center and then use the blower to get rid of it.

Does that make sense to you guys?

 

[yooperdave]

The rear blade is ok (not great) to clear inches of snow.

The blade will deposit the snow right along side of your driveway.

Over the course of the winter, you will get more snow, and your deposited snow along side the driveway may have froze solid leaving you a challenging situation.

I would go B L O W E R in a minute.

Good Luck,

Yooper Dave

 

[AndyMA]

I had a blower and got rid of it, I either had to set it very high or it picked up way too much stones on my gravel driveway, A rear blade to me is a pain in the butt. Either you drive backwards or you drive over the snow making ice. I now use a 8 foot snow plow mounted in my bucket and it works great, a quick attach front blade would be even better,

Abdt

 

[nhkabotab7800]

i have been using a rear blade for several years now. the one thing that happened every year was a few storms when the drive is not fully frozen. blade would dig into the hard pack and make a mess of the driveway. this year i bought skid shoes for it. i'm looking forward to seeing how well they work.
my drive is not all that wide...two passes and the drive is esencially cleared, of course there is a lot of clean up in the widerer parking areas close to the house. snow blower is not an option for me right now so i make it work beyween the blade and the FEL. i do not mind, and in fact enjoy pushing the snow banks back generally on the weekends...extra seat time ya know
sort of cool to watch the snow curl from the blade now that i can see well in the back with the rear lights.
one thing i have learned about the blade is that it needs to be clean so that the snow will curl when the blade is angled. that reminds me i need to wax the blade before the first snow, have not done that yet last year i just melted the snow that was packed onto the blade with a hock heater. maybe the wax will help.

 

[LBrown59]

I have a smaller GC2300. I too have a crushed stone driveway. It's 400 feet with 2 curves and one side that is fairly step. I found the rear blade to be marginal at best. I thought the skid shoes would help, they didn't. The 5 foot woods RB will push the rear of my tractor sideways if I try and plow more than a few inches at a time. I'm in the proces of pricing a front mount blade. Budget doesn't support a front blower at present. When/if we pave the driveway I'll look at a front blower.

The only drawback I see is a face full of snow when you are blowing and the wind shifts. Not much fun without a cab

Gussing about $1900.

 

[LBrown59]

************I use this***********

 

[bill in ny]

i use these.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Bill, looks like you have a very nice rear blade there. So how do you like it when working in the dirt? I'm guessing that it's an 8 footer, how much does it weigh? A lot of people don't like them. I think that those people most likely have the cheap ones. I know that I sure do like mine.