Snow plowing on soft ground

[dae06]

First off, I've searched and didn't find what I was looking for, so I apologize if this has been posted before. I know it drives some people crazy to have repeated subjects posted.

That being said:

I have a FEL mounted 73" front blade with hydraulic angle and tilt functions. This is on on a New Kubota B2650 and used on a new gravel driveway. I live in Minnesota.

Issues:

The first few snowfalls so far this year have been wet, heavy snow and the ground being very soft. Using float is definitely not an option on soft gravel. I dug up soooo much gravel my first time out and would like to hear what I am doing wrong and what I need to do to make this work. I have a 300' driveway with a 10 degree slope and with slightly sloped (side to side) curves and a 20' drop off on the sides along with another 300' of level gravel roads to clear.

I've tried manually controlling the front blade with some success, but I would dig in sometimes and lift the blade too high other times, so it looked like a child plowed my road. I've tried tilting my blade forward and backwards, using the skid shoes and taking them off. I just can't seem to find the best scenario. Once things freeze up here, I think things will go much better, but I would really like to hear what others do in the soft ground situation.

To be honest, I have a rear box blade and ended up using that, but this is much more time consuming with all of the going forward and backing up involved. If the front blade would have worked like I thought it should, it would have gone much faster.

All suggestions and ideas are appreciated.

Thanks

 

[jbrumberg]

dae06- Welcome to TBN.

I do not know your level of experience with tractor operation, but you addressed your snow management challenges logically and pretty thoroughly. It seems that you need a little more practice and need to find the mix of settings that works for you. Once those high and low points form on the plowed surface one is basically screwed until some degree of level is re-achieved on the area being plowed by backdragging the bucket/plow and/or using the box blade.

I've been there years ago with my old Ford 1100 and a dual hydraulic plow that worked best tilted backward and not angled on the initial pass as the edges would tend to dig in. Now I use the FEL and box blade to manage my snow. Float position with the FEL angled slightly up works for me with the box blade essentially level. I made plenty of mistakes in +30 years of "learning curve" experiences. Moving snow on soft surfaces still requires focus.

I am sure there are other owner operators here who can offer their experiences which are different than mine.

Good luck.

 

[Deerherd]

Going through freeze and thaw cycles make it tough on plowing a gravel drive. Today it’s 26 degrees and my driveway is frozen solid, tomorrow it’s going over 50 degrees and lots of rain moving in.

For me and my driveway, preparation is the key. I get it as smooth and compacted before the first snow hits. Due to the width of the drive and the width of my plow, maintaining a crown is a fools errand. Even with lateral float on the plow, the first time down has a real leveling effect.

Additionally after the first plowable snow, I now have created a bank that holds back water during those freeze thaw cycles, crown or not.

What works best for me during the early season and less than 3” of snow is to plow the paved portion of the driveway by the house and just drive on the snow on the 1/4 mile gravel portion and pack it down. If I get more snow than that and I have to plow I lower the plow just until the shoes barely touch. Additionally, I tilt the blade back so it’s at least 2” above the gravel and go at it. The majority of the weight of the plow is on the FEL arms so even on a soft drive you don’t get very much digging in or movement of gravel.

Once it freezes and stays cold it get pretty easy, but until then it can be problematic. Good luck!

 

[RNeumann]

I have the same scenario at my place. I either use the box blade or drag the snow blade backwards. I don’t try to remove the snow as much as just pack it down.
Once it’s frozen the setup works great.

 

[George2615]

I have the same setup. PA blade w/ hyd. angle on my tractor. First few snows with soft gravel I lower the blade and pick it back up about an inch or so. Can't put it down all the way because even the shoes will dig up gravel. Even now the gravel drive is not frozen so have to be careful.

I have a blower on the 3 pt. but if I didn't I have used a back blade turned around 180 degrees to plow without pulling up the gravel.

 

[RNeumann]

I have the same scenario at my place. I either use the box blade or drag the snow blade backwards. I don’t try to remove the snow as much as just pack it down.
Once it’s frozen the setup works great.

 

[Thomas]

Do you have adjustable shoes/slides for the plow?

 

[Dutch445]

one idea that works well is to add on some additional surface area to the skid shoes, sometimes you can
find existing steel laying around or just make them, but a large skid shoe of say 12" square may help keep the blade
in a better position.. it would also help to bevel the front and back edges of the shoe up so they don't dig
in. all depends on what you have for shoes now and how much room you have to work with. we have
done it on snowblowers with good success

 

[RjCorazza]

When my drive was gravel I used a rear blade spun around 180 degrees also.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Any amount of moving snow will result in damage in my experience. Conditions are just too variable. Really, my own solution. Move snow as little as possible. Have a 4WD vehicle and I put a sign up warning people of limited winter maintenance. It makes for so much less work in the spring.

 

[zzvyb6]

Skid shoes won't work very well on soft ground. You need a couple of very wide garden trailer or golf cart tires to support the plow at a workable snow depth. If that's too much to get done, pack it down with a car or truck for a while and then run the skid shoes on the frozen snow. The problem with a loader frame mounted plow is the pitch angle induced by the road and the tractor. It either digs or it misses the snow. By any means, keep the angle as high as possible (45 deg). Add a slit plastic tube to the blade to try keeping the blade from digging in. I just ran 800' of concrete on my driveway which will insure that we will NEVER, EVER have a deep snow here again.

 

[Reb954]

First off, I've searched and didn't find what I was looking for, so I apologize if this has been posted before. I know it drives some people crazy to have repeated subjects posted.

That being said:

I have a FEL mounted 73" front blade with hydraulic angle and tilt functions. This is on on a New Kubota B2650 and used on a new gravel driveway. I live in Minnesota.

Issues:

The first few snowfalls so far this year have been wet, heavy snow and the ground being very soft. Using float is definitely not an option on soft gravel. I dug up soooo much gravel my first time out and would like to hear what I am doing wrong and what I need to do to make this work. I have a 300' driveway with a 10 degree slope and with slightly sloped (side to side) curves and a 20' drop off on the sides along with another 300' of level gravel roads to clear.

I've tried manually controlling the front blade with some success, but I would dig in sometimes and lift the blade too high other times, so it looked like a child plowed my road. I've tried tilting my blade forward and backwards, using the skid shoes and taking them off. I just can't seem to find the best scenario. Once things freeze up here, I think things will go much better, but I would really like to hear what others do in the soft ground situation.

To be honest, I have a rear box blade and ended up using that, but this is much more time consuming with all of the going forward and backing up involved. If the front blade would have worked like I thought it should, it would have gone much faster.

All suggestions and ideas are appreciated.

Thanks

No matter what you do there will be problems until the ground/gravel is frozen. The best thing I have found is cutting a slot into small heavy wall pipe, slipping that over the cutting edge of the blade and fastening it to the bucket. Once I did that on both my bucket and snow blower cutting edge it eliminated almost all the problems. But you will still need to hold the cutting edge up a bit until the ground is frozen.

 

[pmsmechanic]

I don't remove snow from my driveway until it has 4" or more of snow on it. The first passes are with a rear blade that I built for landscaping. It doesn't angle but has an 8" roller in the back behind the blade. I use my hydraulic top link to adjust the depth of snow cut by the blade. I use the blade to move snow around till I have an even covering on the driveway. The roller packs the snow down. Once I have an acceptable hard pack on the driveway then I use the snow blower. If we have a melt and the driveway gets icy I just pull about a 1/4 - 1/2 " of new snow on top of the ice. When that freezes down overnight the icy problems are gone.

 

[ruffdog]

New gravel is a tough one. EVERYTHING is going to allow the plow to dig gravel. With this weather we are having (50 and rain here), just shove off the deep snow and pack what is left.

 

[otlski]

Same issues here. I have the plow mounted into the tractor's bucket. When the ground is soft I will lift the loader lift arms maybe 9-12 inches more than usual, then tilt the bucket forward. Doing so effectively lowers the plow blade back down compensating for the the loader arm lift. The result is that the blade is back into contact with the ground but no longer is perpendicular to the ground. Instead, it is at a 45 degree angle making it be non-cutting or non-aggressive. The blade now tends to plane up over the ground but still bites enough into the snow to move it along.

I have always wanted to try the slit pipe method mentioned above. TBN users report good results with it.

 

[oosik]

Front blade or rear blade - if the gravel driveway is still soft it can be a real bugger. I will try to wait until I get, at least, eight inches of snow. That gives the weather a fighting chance to have the driveway frozen hard. I'm 100% rear blade. I will reverse the rear blade if I MUST plow early. Otherwise, to H**L with it. All my vehicles are 4WD, if I need it. Because I get anxious and don't wait - coming spring I get to bring all the gravel back up out of the ditches.

 

[dae06]

Thomas- yes I have adjustable shoes, I’m guessing 1/4” increments.

All- thanks for all the replies, good to know I’m not alone on this and that soft ground is difficult and not just me doing it all wrong. I’m new to the front blade, but have been using a rear blade since I was 14 years old at my parents home.

 

[hillwood]

I removed the metal edge and bolted on a 1×6 piece of polyurethane... 1500 feet of gravel driveway.. it skips over the rocks and does not cut in.
I wanted a front mount blade, but the back blade was all I could afford right now. I gets the job done.

 

[rfc143]

After trying most all the suggestions here I gave up and put my landscape rake back on the tractor. It works brilliantly! Not only can you move wet heavy snow to the side by angling the rake and going fast, but finish passes with the rake straight, mixes up remaining snow with the loose gravel, making it like a heavily sanded drive.
Then when it freezes like that traction is even better! No better way to deal with wet snow on an unfrozen gravel drive.

 

[dsb5610]

My driveway is gravel. I have edge tamers on the bucket and a steel pipe on the cutting edge of the 3pt blade. The 3pt blade has wings.

I pile snow on gravel until the ground is froze. Spread any gravel that was in the piles after the spring melt. Once the ground is froze I pile the snow in the yard.

Before adding the edge tamers and pipe I used to spend hours cleaning up gravel in the yard every spring. Now it is minimal.

dsb