Snow plow or blower?

ruffdog · Jul 4, 2017

Here are my shoes I made for the Rhino blade.

northcreek2624 · Jul 4, 2017

Neither, Removing snow with a tractor sucks, believe me I've done it. Buy an old beater 4x4 plow truck and plow in comfort. I've seen them around here for 1.5-2 k bucks with good plows (off season prices). I've advised friends about this and after spending a fortune adding features to their tractors they finally get it.
I realize that in a crowded residential area a tractor with a blower works well but, I'm addressing your 1500' driveway which is about the same as mine....fwiw...Mike.

PILOON · Jul 5, 2017

Whenever you are in a relatively heavy snowfall area the blower is your best friend as you get it totally 'out of the way'.
With a plow you are faced with later removal of the built up piles which generally are then frozen beyond pushing and often even blowing.

Also (properly adjusted) the blower removes less gravel than a plow will.

OK, the blower is slower than a plow but you only deal with the snowfall once while the plow needs you to come back later to push back the berms.

Even a truck has its problems as often you still need a blower to widen that drive as plowed drives get narrower and narrower as winter advances.

oosik · Jul 5, 2017

Very nice, Ruffdog. That's something like what I'm looking for. Very similar to what Rhino sells but yours is about 5X more HD.

And for what its worth - I've been maintaining my mile long gravel driveway since 1982. With both blower and rear blade. Both have their place. However, now that I have the bigger Kubota - I can "push back" any berms that will form with the rear blade. When I had the smaller tractor(Ford 1700 4WD) - I did need the blower to move the berms back.

Snow plowing with the heavier rear blade on the heavier tractor is a real pleasure now. I bundle up like an Eskimo and away we go............

Lockport · Jul 5, 2017

I like my front mount 72" blower. It's got to snow a lot to make a slow go of it. No cab, but I'm putting a small hydraulic cylinder 1.5X4 on the chute deflector this year to outsmart the "with the wind/against the wind" complex and attach it to the rear hydraulic where the grapple sits in summer.

chuck172 · Jul 5, 2017

I use the rear blade and the front 8' snowplow. I have ag tires and don't need chains. Works great. Can't wait for winter. Hate the heat.

ruffdog · Jul 5, 2017

My latest snow tool is this SnowSport plow. It fits in a 2 inch receiver and is 100% manual. Once it is down in the plow position, all you do is drive forward and back....the plow does the rest. It has a 1 inch thick rubber scraper so it is great for grass areas. First I made a receiver for the TC33D, then I made one for the RTV900. It is crazy fast (RTV) and easy for me to plow the area between the house and shed. There are many videos showing how these plows work.

hillwood · Jul 8, 2017

northcreek2624 said:
Neither, Removing snow with a tractor sucks, believe me I've done it. Buy an old beater 4x4 plow truck and plow in comfort. I've seen them around here for 1.5-2 k bucks with good plows (off season prices). I've advised friends about this and after spending a fortune adding features to their tractors they finally get it.
I realize that in a crowded residential area a tractor with a blower works well but, I'm addressing your 1500' driveway which is about the same as mine....fwiw...Mike.

I don't want another peace of iron to take up space and work on. I know people who have old plow trucks. They have a lot of down time and repairs because they are OLD.

northcreek2624 · Jul 9, 2017

hillwood said:
I don't want another peace of iron to take up space and work on. I know people who have old plow trucks. They have a lot of down time and repairs because they are OLD.

Bundle up and knock yourself out.....

Soldier415 · Jul 10, 2017

oosik said:
The blower worked great - its slow and means a lot of driving in reverse and will lead to a sore neck & sore shoulders.

Not if you add a cheap back up camera our mirrors

I have 1/4 mile of steep driveway with ditches and drop offs on either side so nowhere to really push snow with a plow.

Last year used a 68" PTO mounted blower and it was excellent. No raking road material back onto the road in the spring, and didn't take long at all. Didn't have to worry about pushing banks back.