Snow Edge for FEL

[gladehound]

Which edge tamers did you get the 3 in or 4 in? I am going to get some before the snow flies here. I just take care of my own driveway. Gravel (well really limestone) and I ended up with a lot of it in the yard last year. I will also have to plow a path to the new barn for SWMBO. That will be over grass/weeds. I don't care terribly about the underlying plant life right now as that will be replanted in the spring regardless, but I do not want to tear up the ground.

The Edge Tamers seems like the solution I need. You give them 4 stars?

The Edge Tamers are the best solution I've used for snow removal with a bucket on loose gravel and grass. Previously I tried PVC pipes, steel pipes, and just angling the bucket and being careful. I didn't find any of these other approaches satisfactory.

I give the edge Tamers 5 stars once you figure out how many you need on your bucket. I have a 45hp tractor pushing a 6' ~1yard snow bucket that can actually hold about 3 yards of stacked snow. The bucked itself is 500 pounds and with 3 yards of snow in it is very heavy. I started with a 3" Edge tamer on each end and found that this was not enough to always float the bucked over the gravel especially near the end of my drive when the bucked was stacked up with snow. So I bought a 4" Edge Tamer and put it right in the middle of the bucket and kept the 3" Edge Tames on the outsides. This has been nearly perfect. However, if the corner of the bucked rides up an uneven portion of ground and lifts the rest of the bucked putting the weight only on one skid it digs into unfrozen ground. If I did all over again, I'd go with three 4" Edge tamers. You may have to experiment based on the weight / capacity of your bucket and softness of your ground.

The Edge Tamers work so well that I plowed our entire back yard last year so that my young soccer stars could practice all winter outside. As long as the ground is flat, they ride right over the grass.

Here's a picture of how I have it set up. The area that is plowed in the picture is all grass underneath. Another benefit of the Edge Tamers is that I think they let you push a lot more snow. Because they are like a ski, you bucket has almost no friction against the ground and you can push a ton of snow. In last years 30+" storm, I could go straight and push the pile as long as I wanted to and sometimes would go over 100ft at a time. At this point the pile would start coming over the bucket and falling all over the front of the tractor so it didn't make sense to go further. I want to make a mesh extension on the back of the bucket and see how far I can really go.

 

[TheMan419]

Nice! Thanks for the reply. I have a 24 HP New Holland. My longest straight push would be about 100 feet. So I am thinking 2 of the 4 inchers would suffice for me. I was wondering if 3 of them would be better, but I can always order a 3rd if needed.

 

[gladehound]

I think two 4" skids will be plenty assuming it's a 5 foot or less standard bucket. And like you said, you can always order more. If I ever need more I'll get another 4", put both 4" skids on the outside and evenly space the 3" skids on the inside.

The skids are fairly tough as well. I accidentally ran one into a boulder under the snow at ~3 mph. Hard enough to lift my front wheels off the ground. The bracket that holds the bolt deformed slightly but still works fine, just have to tighten the bolt a little further now. I was very please with this considering the magnitude of my blunder.