Snow removal advice

[whistlepig]

My snow removal story:

1) When we moved here 5 years ago my primary snow weapon was a Polaris 800 Sportsman with a 54' blade. Served me well for years.

2) It's flat as Kansas here. All cornfields. I can see for over a mile from my front porch.

3) 4" of snow is 4" of snow except when you live on pancake land. 4" of snow with 25MPH wind gusts is bare grass in the yard and 3 foot drifts in the driveway, around the house, and around the out buildings.

4) Blade on Polaris wouldn't handle three foot drifts. It would just ride up on top of them.

5) So out comes the 4WD tractor with a FEL. A little better than the ATV but not much.

6) Last fall I bought studded chains and a 600# ballast box. This is the perfect set up for me. I think a front mounted blade with down force would work very well also but I need the FEL to move snow in places that I can't push snow with a blade.

7) I don't like rear blades. After I push snow all day with them I walk around like the Hunch Back of Notre Dame the next day.

 

[jimdereynier]

Need some advice:
I just bought the attached snow plow that bolts on to the Front End Loader. The FEL rest on the angle iron and the two eye bolts go through the bottom of the FEL. That is all I learned when looking at a Kabota 7100. I have a JD 650- 4 wheel drive. where the bucket is 48" wide and this plow is 6 feet. Both the bucket and plow are made from 9 gage steel- .140"

I noticed some members have a BX expander plow. One picture had the top of the plow bracket chained to the top the bucket, I will try to do the same with the center bolt hole.

I am plowing a 500 ft gravel driveway- 12% slope.
Should I weld on adjustable skid pads? Hope not to dig up the driveway.
I follow some member and put a conduit pipe on the blade until the ground freezes ( maybe this was for rear mounted plow blades)

Plan to remove the back hoe during the winter and replace with a 300 pound cement block on the 3 point hitch ( came with the plow) I have turf tires with chains in the rear.

I still have to come up with a sanding/salt method- saw some pictures on the site- need to find them again.

Please comment- I am a new member

 

[leonz]

Need some advice:
I just bought the attached snow plow that bolts on to the Front End Loader. The FEL rest on the angle iron and the two eye bolts go through the bottom of the FEL. That is all I learned when looking at a Kabota 7100. I have a JD 650- 4 wheel drive. where the bucket is 48" wide and this plow is 6 feet. Both the bucket and plow are made from 9 gage steel- .140"

I noticed some members have a BX expander plow. One picture had the top of the plow bracket chained to the top the bucket, I will try to do the same with the center bolt hole.

I am plowing a 500 ft gravel driveway- 12% slope.
Should I weld on adjustable skid pads? Hope not to dig up the driveway.
I follow some member and put a conduit pipe on the blade until the ground freezes ( maybe this was for rear mounted plow blades)

Plan to remove the back hoe during the winter and replace with a 300 pound cement block on the 3 point hitch ( came with the plow) I have turf tires with chains in the rear.

I still have to come up with a sanding/salt method- saw some pictures on the site- need to find them again.

Please comment- I am a new member

Hello Jim,


Welcome to the forum, about your plow you can save a
lot grief avoiding digging in at the corners by attaching
a pair of Pneumatic caster wheels to both ends of your plow.

Please look at the www.McmasterCarr.com web site for good
pnuematic casters.

You will probably want to add a little slime to the tires to keep
them full of air as the tires are pretty cheap these days and
have weak sidewalls.

The other option is steel wheeled casters with lubed bearings
or a pair of adjustable plow feet with the round feet and the
mounting brackets.

 

[jimdereynier]

Thanks Leonz:

Maybe I can weld something that uses the York rake pneumatic caster. Otherwise I check out Macmaster Carr or Grainger. ( should have had this idea for my Gravely plow blade- I welded some steel skis but they were not adjustable)

Jim

 

[jmls1994]

Wow! A lot of great advice. Thanks everyone. I do have a 72" curtis snowplow that I was thinking of converting to fit the FEL of my BX. But the problem with that is, then I won't have it mounted to my Kawasaki Mule. I never had a back blade. After reading all the posts, maybe I will try a cheaper TSC model blade. If it's not what I want, I won't lose to much money.

 

[High Compression]

In my opinion the fastest way to clear snow from light to medium storms is a plow mounted to the frame of the tractor.

I agree.:thumbsup:

 

[Bigturk]

Pushing snow with FEL or plow requires tractor weight, power and traction. Even big tractors have problems with traction at times.

Plow is much quicker than blower.

Rear blower is much easier on equipment, slower, neater but can cut handle the biggest storms. If you can afford one buy it.

I use both a FEL mounted front blade and a rear mounted blower. Traction is sometimes a problem but chains would fix that.

I love the snow, bring her on.

Good luck with your setup.