Snow chains for plowing with a rear blade

[nyone]

On my tractor I have VERY limited fender clearance, I bought these Aquiline MPC (Multi Purpose Chains)
View attachment 1702154

I have used these on limited clearance machines too. They are about 1/2 the price of the tallons. They grip really well in all seasons. There hardened links also. If I remember they where about 15-20% more than the cheap chinese 4 link ladder style chains.

If I had to buy new chains again I would buy theses. My tc40 tractor was so popular I was able to find a hardly used front and rear 4link ladder set for really cheap.

 

[fishhead]

FWIW I got a full set of OFA EKO chains from Windy Ridge and found them (Windy Ridge) very easy to work with. These Scandinavian chains were not noticably more expensive than the China-made ones.
No review yet; haven't really needed them so far.

I also got some OFA's from windy ridge and have been quite happy - good grip, great ride, longer lasting than ladders

 

[fishhead]

And it’s the method recommended by the manufacturer of my chains.

mine as well

 

[In.the.Piñons]

We had our first big dump of the season. About 12" over 24 hours and I plowed twice.

The tractor with rear chains did great, though it wasn't very icy. No issues on the steep hill.

But I don't think the ground around here freezes enough to float the rear blade. Even with my oversized skid shoes, it just wanted to sink into the soft ground. I ended up having to use the 3pt position control lever to set the blade height. It achieved a good result, but I had to adjust it a lot, given my hilly terrain. It took me 4 hours to plow about 2 miles. But that included dealing with a downed tree. I'm sure with a bit more practice I could get it done in under 3 hours or less. I'm thinking about covering the blade with plastic pipe so I can maybe use the float that way?

 

[nyone]

Generaly I dont let the plow touch the stone on the driveway until its packed down. Unless you have big hills or like moving all the gravel back into the road in the spring.

 

[LouNY]

I use my back blade often, if the snow is shallow on a non frozen driveway often I'll spin the blade around and with it angle pull it backwards through the snow ---( it will act much like a squeegee and move most of the snow without digging in.
Otherwise going slow and tweaking the position control can do it.
At times I've been able to float the loader keep the bucket curled back just the tiniest bit from level and push quite a bit, it does seem to dig in all of a sudden just as soon as I quit watching like a hawk.

 

[Runner]

We had our first big dump of the season. About 12" over 24 hours and I plowed twice.

The tractor with rear chains did great, though it wasn't very icy. No issues on the steep hill.

But I don't think the ground around here freezes enough to float the rear blade. Even with my oversized skid shoes, it just wanted to sink into the soft ground. I ended up having to use the 3pt position control lever to set the blade height. It achieved a good result, but I had to adjust it a lot, given my hilly terrain. It took me 4 hours to plow about 2 miles. But that included dealing with a downed tree. I'm sure with a bit more practice I could get it done in under 3 hours or less. I'm thinking about covering the blade with plastic pipe so I can maybe use the float that way?View attachment 1931372

One way to prevent the rear blade from digging into the gravel is to put gauge wheels on it. Should be quite a few posts on TBN showing different designs people have come up with. One popular method is to use trailer jacks because they are easily adjustable. That is how I did mine many years ago.

They don't look great because I sort of threw them together as an experiment, but they worked so well, I just started using them and never bothered to paint them up nice. May have to run them through the sandblaster some day...

 

[In.the.Piñons]

Generaly I dont let the plow touch the stone on the driveway until its packed down. Unless you have big hills or like moving all the gravel back into the road in the spring.

Our daytime high temps average above freezing and we also get a lot of sun. So the snow never really gets a chance to form a base over the duration of winter. Instead we get a cold spell where it snows and then it slowly melts over the next 3-4 weeks.

 

[In.the.Piñons]

I use my back blade often, if the snow is shallow on a non frozen driveway often I'll spin the blade around and with it angle pull it backwards through the snow ---( it will act much like a squeegee and move most of the snow without digging in.
Otherwise going slow and tweaking the position control can do it.
At times I've been able to float the loader keep the bucket curled back just the tiniest bit from level and push quite a bit, it does seem to dig in all of a sudden just as soon as I quit watching like a hawk.

I did try swinging the bade around 180 deg. That did work well for scraping off the snow, but the back of my blade is not smooth and it just collected a huge pile of snow.

 

[In.the.Piñons]

One way to prevent the rear blade from digging into the gravel is to put gauge wheels on it. Should be quite a few posts on TBN showing different designs people have come up with. One popular method is to use trailer jacks because they are easily adjustable. That is how I did mine many years ago.

They don't look great because I sort of threw them together as an experiment, but they worked so well, I just started using them and never bothered to paint them up nice. May have to run them through the sandblaster some day...

View attachment 1932867

That does look like an interesting solution. My blade did come with a gauge wheel, but I took it off. It's only one wheel and it's not directly behind the blade like you have, but maybe I should try it in the snow? Trouble is I only have two rear remotes and would need to install a diverter.

 

[John_Mc]

That does look like an interesting solution. My blade did come with a gauge wheel, but I took it off. It's only one wheel and it's not directly behind the blade like you have, but maybe I should try it in the snow? Trouble is I only have two rear remotes and would need to install a diverter.

A lot of folks just use manually set gauge wheels. If they are positioned correctly in relation to the blade, once you find a good spot, they don't tend to need to be adjusted very often.

 

[Runner]

A lot of folks just use manually set gauge wheels. If they are positioned correctly in relation to the blade, once you find a good spot, they don't tend to need to be adjusted very often.

That is what I do. I just lower the blade while I'm still in the garage on the concrete and set the wheels so I have 1 1/2" or so, then go plow.

Gauge wheels are also good for grading the gravel, you can just lower the outside wheel so the blade digs in and keep the inner side up so it moves the gravel toward the center of the drive.

One other note about plowing snow off gravel - if you want to keep the gravel out of your grass (and you have a wide enough drive) don't plow all the way to the edge. I try to leave about a foot on each side so any gravel that gets picked up by the blade (and there will ALWAYS be some) stays on the drive.

Obviously if you have huge amounts of snow this won't work because you have to push it farther back. But where I live, we don't often get more than 6" or 8".

 

[jyoutz]

We had our first big dump of the season. About 12" over 24 hours and I plowed twice.

The tractor with rear chains did great, though it wasn't very icy. No issues on the steep hill.

But I don't think the ground around here freezes enough to float the rear blade. Even with my oversized skid shoes, it just wanted to sink into the soft ground. I ended up having to use the 3pt position control lever to set the blade height. It achieved a good result, but I had to adjust it a lot, given my hilly terrain. It took me 4 hours to plow about 2 miles. But that included dealing with a downed tree. I'm sure with a bit more practice I could get it done in under 3 hours or less. I'm thinking about covering the blade with plastic pipe so I can maybe use the float that way?View attachment 1931372

Just remove the worthless skidshoes and reverse the blade around so the cutting edge is facing the rear. Then float the blade. The weight of the blade will remove the snow while the rear facing cutting edge will glide over the gravel without disturbing it. Been doing this since 2000. You don’t need skidshoes or gauge wheels.

 

[In.the.Piñons]

Just remove the worthless skidshoes and reverse the blade around so the cutting edge is facing the rear. Then float the blade. The weight of the blade will remove the snow while the rear facing cutting edge will glide over the gravel without disturbing it. Been doing this since 2000. You don’t need skidshoes or gauge wheels.

I did try that, but my blade has a bunch of re-reinforcements and a pivot bearing box on the rear, so it just collects snow, even though I have the blade at an angle.

 

[jyoutz]

I did try that, but my blade has a bunch of re-reinforcements and a pivot bearing box on the rear, so it just collects snow, even though I have the blade at an angle.

Hmm. I’ve never used a blade where reversing doesn’t work well for this purpose. Any rear blade is going to collect snow to some extent. But it will clear the road down to where there’s just a few inches on the road.

 

[Williy]

If you can't use tire chains maybe something like
this would work?? amazon

willy

 

[LouNY]

If you can't use tire chains maybe something like
this would work?? amazon

View attachment 1942103

willy

As long as you don't spin your tires, one good throttle goose and every one will be broken.

 

[Williy]

pickup tire chains are a lot less that chains for a tractor
so why not get two sets of truck tire chains and put them
to gether on a tractor tire??? Guys would purchase a 3/4
ton pickup and they had a 1/2 ton they traded with 15 inch
tires and the 3/4 had 16 inch they would just add some more
chain to fit. I have a set of chains that fit a 975x16.5 tire haven't tried to see if they will fit out tractor and a set of VW
chains I'll just add more chain to fit. If I remember correctly
the Fleet Farm stores in Fond du Lac WI sold the chain so you
could add chain and they carried the links to hook them to
gether

willy

 

[Runner]

Just remove the worthless skidshoes and reverse the blade around so the cutting edge is facing the rear. Then float the blade. The weight of the blade will remove the snow while the rear facing cutting edge will glide over the gravel without disturbing it. Been doing this since 2000. You don’t need skidshoes or gauge wheels.

I would like to try this, but my goofy Frontier blade has less adjustment holes on the back side than on the front. So I can't get enough angle to push snow off effectively with it facing backwards.

I could drill a couple more holes, but it's a 1/2" plate and I just don't want it bad enough to go to the trouble. I have no idea why they built it that way. I've never seen a rear blade with less adjusting holes when facing forward than backwards.

 

[RjCorazza]

Maybe not on 2 mile gravel driveways, but a great tool for the toolbox would be a set of Edge Tamer bucket skid shoes. They are great on gravel.