Grading Snow removal- Curtis Blade?

[Anonymous Poster]

Living in the snow belt of upstate NY, I've been reading all of the postings re: snow removal w/ a lot of interest. I'm about to purchase my 1st tractor - closing in on either a 35D or 40D - but have not yet figured out which way to go for snow removal: fel+rear blade, fel+rear snow blower, or front-mounted curtis blade. I'll be clearing roughly 800' of gravel drive on a slope. The front-mounted blade w/ hydraulic angling seemed easier than using the rear-mount snow blower, but heck - I'm open to any and all advise!

ps- Buffalo NY is up to 48" of snowfall since xmas and its still coming down! Hasn't hit us yet here a bit east.

Boy would I appreciate

 

[Thomas]

Snow blades are alright if you have a place to push the white stuff,for one got to keep it push back just in case.
Blower on the other hand its a one shot clean up,also depending the size of the rocks in your driveway you may shear some pins often,also do a little extra racking in the spring.
If you can try out a blower first.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[DVerbarg]

Just to second Thomas' thoughts. The blade is fine for snow removal as long as you don't have more snow than area to push it to.

Regarding 3pt snow blowers, my experience is limited to only one season. Did not shear any pins (like many others talk about) despite having thrown many, many stones (some having left some dings and such/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif). The quality of the blower seems to have alot of influence in this area. The blower I have is made by Loftness, weighs 869lbs, and requires 35-80 hp. My TC40D is at the very bottom of this hp range and as a result may not have the power to readily shear pins.

Before the blower I was using a rear blade and it worked fine until last December when the snow kept dumping here in the midwest. Clearing the driveway required hours of time because there wasn't any room to push snow to the side. Ended up using the FEL for much of the work which took some time with over 1250 ft of driveway. The blower was much easier and faster, despite having to turn around to use the rear mounted 3pt attachment.

DaveV

 

[Anonymous Poster]

How about an FEL with a quick-tach so you can swap from the blade to the bucket ( if you need to stack the snow ). As far as the hydro turn, the easiest way to do it would be to run long hoses back to a rear remote. Other wise you would have to put stiff arms in place of the tilt cylinders and use the tilt function for the angle. But having to do all of that would make the point of the quick-tach moot. The other option would be to ommit the quick-tach, remove and install pins to swap between the bucket and the blade and use a hook and a chain like on a pick-up when using the blade so you could use the tilt hyd's for the angle. PS what part of upstate NY

 

[beenthere]

Did you see this pic of my setup? It works great, and converting quickly to the FEL is a five minute job. Both are quicktach.

 

[beenthere]

I will try that again.

 

[JimBinMI]

beenthere,

Is that a factory available snow blade hook-up or did you rig it up to your tractor yourself? There is somebody on the forum, with a TC33 I think it was, that rigged a snowblade like yours to the front of his tractor. I'm moving snow just fine with my rear blade, but it would be nice to plow with a front blade.

JimBinMI

 

[beenthere]

Jim That is a custom made design and fabrication that uses the belly mower plates. The quick hitch stays attached to the plow frame, and just hooks into the mower plates, tilts up and is bolted (two) to the front weight frame. Keeps the plow close to the front of the tractor for easy storage and control of the plow. Sww the pics of the hitch before painting, and with the lift bar attached.

 

[Kubbruce]

I have just installed a Curtis Blade on my L3010HST this year and love it. I did not get the hyd. angle but I plow about 1500' of driveway all most all down hill. I did it last year with a rear blade and got sick of looking over my shoulder, mush better going forward!

 

[Mark_in_NH]

I know this is an old post and winter is almost over. I am finally getting caught up on some way over due reading and also just now getting around to becoming a member on this board, been with CTB for about a year now. Have you considered attaching a regular type snow plow blade to your front loader. I am using an old 7' fisher blade (1st year) on my 1988 JD 950 T/L/B and it works GREAT. I do have to get off and manually change the angle, but I can live with that. There are a variety of ways to attach it and for next winter I will improve on my system, but for this winter I hooked my bucket cutting edge under the plow frame ears and held it all in place with a heavy chain and a good quality chain binder. I can install it or remove it in a matter of minutes. It does work extremely well and it sure is nice Not having to rely on somebody else to plow and push my driveway back the way I like it. attached is a picture of the set up my local New Holland sets up for those who want it. It is a standard Fisher truck plow with a bracket made of angle iron that they bolt into the bucket.