Snowblowers and gravel driveways

[oldafretired]

Thanks again for all the great advice. Just had the delivery truck arrive today at 0700 with the Puma 84. Glad I already had the pallet forks on the tractor and my 1000lb wood chipper on the 3 point for ballast. That blower is pretty heavy. Got to go unwrap the thing.

 

[Fallon]

The strategy of packing down snow or waiting for things to freeze up is a fools errand here in Colorado. It's in the 70s this week. High of 34 & precipitation on Monday. Then probably back up into the 60s or 70s again before the end of the week. We have to deal with things melting off because of erratic weather & lots of UV melting things despite the tempature due to the altitude. We generally don't have to deal with snow walls or berms from plowing though, at least here in the Denver area.

Generally I don't bother clearing snow unless it's over 4" as there is a good chance it will be gone within 24 hours. If the ground is warm & we get a big snow (mud & water under snowl I drop the shoes on the plow down to minimize the mud & gravel I plow. I'll Cary the blower a bit off the ground as well if blowing rather than plowing. Leaves a poor finish with lots of snow. But that's better than piles of dirt & snow on the sides of the road to deal with later.

 

[hawkeye08]

On my small tractor with front blower 48", I widened the skids to keep it out of the gravel. I was planning on putting wheels on to carry the weight, but driveway is paved now and I use walk behind blower (only takes about 20 minutes and I need the exercise).

 

[PILOON]

My solution was simple enough.
I welded some 3" X 1/2" flat stock onto the existing factory skids.
Both ends were turned up sort of like ski tips.
I very rarely ingest any gravel and the blower weight is sufficient that the skids cut thru to the road surface but don't ingest gravel.
OK so by winter's end I might have 2-3" of hard packed icy base but that's good.

 

[Trails End]

The problem with letting snow pack down for a "nice frozen surface" is
at some point, we will get a storm with rain or freezing rain, and then
it turns cold again, leaving an icy surface which has zero traction for
walking or driving. Then, I have to have the driveway sanded to make
it possible to walk or drive on it at a cost of around $50 or more. Therefore,
I usually try to remove snow as close to the gravel surface as possible.

 

[pmsmechanic]

I too like to pack some snow down before snow blowing to keep the gravel on the driveway. I too have trouble with ice. What I do is take my diamond tooth harrows and skim over the ice in reverse. This lightly plows up ice shavings which gives enough traction to comfortably walk on the ice. My harrow setup is two 4' harrows welded together and mounted on the three point. With the hydraulic top link it can set the harrows to be as aggressive as I want.

 

[NBKubota]

The problem with letting snow pack down for a "nice frozen surface" is
at some point, we will get a storm with rain or freezing rain, and then
it turns cold again, leaving an icy surface which has zero traction for
walking or driving. Then, I have to have the driveway sanded to make
it possible to walk or drive on it at a cost of around $50 or more. Therefore,
I usually try to remove snow as close to the gravel surface as possible.

This.... it's what used to happen at our old place. It becomes quite a pain in the butt!

At our new place (1000' gravel drive and loads of parking areas) I plan on using the Polaris ranger with a plow on it to scrape the drive the fist few times. With the gravel exposed, it will freeze up much quicker than having a layer of insulating snow on it. Then using the tractor 3pt blower for heavier snows and clean up after using the Polaris.

This is my theory anyway , we'll see how it works out!

 

[jgayman]

The problem with letting snow pack down for a "nice frozen surface" is
at some point, we will get a storm with rain or freezing rain, and then
it turns cold again, leaving an icy surface which has zero traction for
walking or driving. Then, I have to have the driveway sanded to make
it possible to walk or drive on it at a cost of around $50 or more. Therefore,
I usually try to remove snow as close to the gravel surface as possible.

I'm in PA and this is the exact problem I have. The few times I didn't scrape it down to bare gravel so the Sun could melt it I ended up with over an inch of pure ice that was then impossible to drive over or walk on. It was way too much to melt with salt so I ended up buying bags of sand and spreading it around. It was a disaster.

I've been dealing with a gravel driveway for 45 years. I have a snow blower on the front of the tractor and I keep the skid shoes raised up about 1-2" to avoid ingesting gravel. I also have a rear blade that I use by pushing backwards so it doesn't dig into the gravel. This allows me to gently clean down to near bare gravel and then let the Sun do the rest. For most snow falls I only use the rear blade.

 

[ruffdog]

Some people may have a nice lawn next to the drive while others may just have a ditch or woods. This difference will factor into the decision to throw gravel there or not.

 

[Dave M7040]

I am part way along the path to modifying my snow blower to be like the one in the image where trailer wheels support the blower's weight when things underfoot are soft.
I bought a new trailer axle complete with tires and wheels and will soon be having a serious welder come and attach the axle stubs to the hydraulic rear blade on my inverted blower.

Dave M7040