Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Snow blowing set up for gravel road

[Blueskyranch]

I am new to a snow blower and in fact I don't have it yet due to the snow and ice back east.. Ironic that this Is holding up my blower.. Anyway my question is do you set up the top link to tilt the machine back a little so it wont scrape up grave.. Folks over here in western Montana say it wont work but I say it will if it is set up right.. Right now the two of us who plow the road use back blades and we try not to move the gravel off the road now so leaving an inch is ok.. The road has a surface of 3/4 minus so it is fairly small stuff. The blower I am getting is a 3pt rear mount so year I will be going backwards.. Also I was told that I might want to experiment with a backup camera to use so my neck is not permanently kinked.. :laughing:

 

[rekees4300]

Assuming your blower has adjustable shoes, set them as high as they will go. Then set your top link so the shoes are tilted up about 1/2 inch. This setup will reduce the amount of gravel scraped up. Also before the snow season starts, grade your road as flat as possible eliminating humps and dips. One other thing, if you have any gravel larger enough to damage the blower (> 2 inches) remove it with a rack before the season.

 

[Blueskyranch]

Thanks that is kind of what I figured for set up.. I get the chore of maintaining the road during the year since I have the attachments to do so.. I have to admit and so do a lot of other folks that our 1.5 mile gravel road is one of the best in Montana.. I scrape out all pot holes with box scraper, then I pull all the gravel back on the road that has been plowed off by some folks that don't know how to use a tractor and then I finish with a good raking that takes anything big and the weeds off the road.. Takes a full day and then folks feel they have to speed and tear it back up so I have to fix it once a month

 

[oldnslo]

Are you in an area where the ground stays frozen? If yes once the ground is frozen picking up gravel is not usually a problem. In areas where you have the freeze thaw cycles gravel is much more of a problem.

I find HST tractors much more difficult to back up with since your right foot is controlling the speed. To many years of looking over my right shoulder farming with the left foot on the clutch makes looking over my left shoulder even more difficult. I.e. darned hard to teach this old dog a new trick

 

[Blueskyranch]

The nice thing about my New tractor is it has the New Holland CVS transmission which is a step up from the HST and it has cruise control.. Yes cruise control so you set the speed to get 540 out of the PTO with the hand throttle and then you work the pedal till you get the movement to the right speed and hit cruise control set and then you can take you foot off the pedal.. If you need to disengage just hit brake or the rocker switch for cruise control.. So going in reverse once I have it set is just a matter of steering plus the seat swivels 20 degrees to the right.. The only bad thing is the cup holder is on the left!! lol

I will say the reason I got this tractor is because I am old too.. It has A/c and heat too

 

[Rustywreck]

Something I learned here: Replace the lift arms with pieces of chain to provide a true float to the snow blower. With the chain the snow blower can follow the contours of the driveway/road easier, allowing the shoes to move the blower up, down, even tilt left or right.
This set up helps cut down on the amount of gravel my snow blower spits up.

 

[Blueskyranch]

Do you by any chance have a picture of the chain set up.. I am not sure I follow

 

[Halftrack]

I bought this blower as an incomplete front mount and converted it to a 3 pt mount to use on my previous tractor. I put the wheels on it for my gravel driveway and they work very well for straight line work. I made them adjustable but it was much simpler to adjust the top link to vary the clearance. Would start out with about an inch and as the snow and ice built up, could make it about level. It is a 5 ft blower and these tires were rated 300 # apiece. Now, a different tractor (TC33D) and with a lot of cobbling, made the front mount work and the photo is the finished toy. I think the center of gravity changed because the wheels worked a little better with the 3 pt. setup- the hitch supported some of the weight. With the last month and a half of TRUE winter we have had here, I took the wheels off (via axle bolt) and put the original skids back on to cut almost level. I will leave the skids in place and start again next winter with the wheels. Give you some ideas to work with!!!

 

[Blueskyranch]

Nice set up.. I am getting ideas.. Keep them coming.. I will say the ground use to stay frozen once the snow starts falling but not anymore.. Strange weather anymore.. Up until two days ago we were in the -10 to 15 degree weather and now it is 40- 50 the last two days and it did this same thing about three weeks ago.. Very strange..

 

[Halftrack]

Another option to consider with a larger blower, is to put wings outside of the blower to gather a larger swath of snow. With the wings installed, that makes room behind the wings to attach a wheel on each side for the blower to ride on the gravel. The wheel would be centered over the cutting edge and again would work well in a straight line. I have seen this type of setup but I have no photos. A suggestion for the fastest neighbors, hand them a rake and ask them to rake the gravel out of the grass back into the drive, slowed my neighbors down.