Snow removal options with BX2200

[John_Mc]

Bill - You can sort of "plow" the snow with the FEL, if it's not too deep. The deeper & wetter it is, the more often you'll have to stop and push it off to the side. A relatively cheap addition to your set up would be a rear blade. I believe you can get a good one for a few hundred $$. This works like a regular plow, except you have to drive backwards.

If the rear blade ends up not being enough for your situation, you can always try the blower later. If high winds & drifting are a real problem in your area, you may need to eventually go to a blower (unless you don't mind spending the time to break down the banks of snow with your FEL).

 

[Timd]

Bill -

I'm over in Atkinson (other side of Salem), and just bought
a 2910 with loader, R4's, chains, and FEL cutting edge
which I will use this winter for snow work. I have 1100'
of steep icy driveway to clear in the winter.

My primary plow rig is a CJ7 with Meyers plow, which is
chained up and ready all winter. I also have a Fisher
Minute Mount plow which can go on either my Blazer
or pickup.

What put me over the top to buy a tractor was that
storm we had late last winter which dumped 30" of snow
in the Merrimack valley in one day. First rule of plowing
is "plow with the storm", so I go out and plow every time
the accumulated snow gets close to 6". In that storm
I plowed after work, again at 11 PM, then got up at 6 AM
to "clean up". Unfortunately we had gotten 16" of new
snow overnight, and I just couldn't move it. I shoveled
as much as I could, then gave up and borrowed my
neighbor's snowblower. Took all day to get out.

When you get one of those storms, only a loader or
snowblower can hack it. If the snow's too heavy for
the loader, just take smaller bites.

For your situation, 300' flat driveway, I'd go with BX2200,
turfs, no chains, rear blade, FEL, and bolt on cutting edge
(this will reduce wear on the bucket when clearing the
mess the plow truck leaves at the end of the drive).

Timd

 

[wdn]

Thanks for the reply Tim. The same exact thing happened to me in that big storm, but at that time I was trying to plow the driveway of my old house with a 15 hp Craftsman 6 speed lawn tractor with a 48" blade. It had gone OK the night before but like you I woke up the next morning and was completely snowbound, bent the plow and got nowhere with it.

I can get a guy to plow the new house for 40 bucks but the problem is (as you know) in the big storm you get stranded while waiting for the plow guy to show up.

The craftsman crapped out completely a week ago in the new house (I went from 4/10ac to 2.2ac), the thing only mowed the new lawn four times and then the transmission was completely totally shot (every gear stripped and the teeth rattling around in the transaxle) and just not cost effective to repair. Plowing the old driveway had a lot to do with it and a few times I still had to give up and hire a truck to plow it anyway. The plow blade could now handle wet heavy snow.

So I have gone the cheap route but I do not want to buy a new tractor every 5 years again. Now I want to go the quality route.

Thanks again to all who replied.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Does anyone have anything to say about a front blade for either the BX2200 or the B7500?

 

[frank_f15]

u don't tell us what u want to do with it? so hard to make any comments.

 

[foz]

Just my 2 cents:

I used to own a JD445 (similar to 455 except w/ Kawasaki gas instead of diesel) with fromt mount blower. Now currently own BX2200 & L48.

The BX has it hands down, I have used the front blower to clear +/- 20" of snow from customer's driveways with no trouble at all. The four wheel drive works great as compared to the JD w/ chains & 2wd.

I have a loader on my L48 but do NOT use it for snow removal, the loader works well for moving back snow banks, but not too great for actually plowing snow.

As far as the hitch, there is no comparison between teh JD 400 series Cat 0 and the BX Cat 1