Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Tips on using FEL to remove snow

[JD Greg]

Take your time and learn how to use the bucket.
Watch your bucket level indicator. The first winter
is really a learning winter of moving snow with the FEL.
After you have learned some skills with it, you will like it.

Do you also have a rear blade? If so, use it.
Angle the rear blade and windrow the snow. Move the
windrow with the FEL.

Be careful where you have uneven concrete seams.
I have been moving snow on this same parking lot for the
past 3 years. Seems like every year, I either forget where
there is an uneven concrete seam, or a new one developed.
I never move fast, but even when going slow, when the uneven
seams catches the cutting edge of your bucket, you will stop
the tractor in its place. It is a very sudden stop.

Like others have said:
On concrete, I like to keep the cutting edge scraping the concrete.
It cleans up the area real nice. On rock/gravel, keep the cutting
edge tipped up so as not to dig into the rock. Sometimes this is easier
said than done. I dug into my own rock driveway that goes to my shop.
And, use the float mode.

Greg

 

[RoyJackson]

Since I have a hard packed gravel drive (has asphalt spoils to bind it together), I keep the bucket lip just above the surface for the majority of the snow removal.
After most is gone (say 1/2-1 inch still on the drive), I'll use a combination of back dragging and forward movement to remove as much as I can. I'll have some lighly covered spots and some bare areas when I'm done.
I alway end up with some gravel on the lawn, but that's cleaned up in the Spring.

 

[rus_geek]

I saw a mention or two of the PVC pipe on the bucket edge. If you search a little bit, you'll find some debate from last winter about using PVC, ABS, HMWP? (some fancy plastic) pipes to keep the edge of the bucket from digging. I messed around for part of a winter trying to keep my bucket edge tilted up, but I would forget, or tilt it too high and ride up on the snow, etc. My solution was a steel pipe bolted to the cutting edge.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...nother-pipe-front-end-loader.html#post1835128

We just had about 12" of snow with 40mph winds for three days, so I got to spend a fair amount of time clearing the drive. With some of the drifts deeper than my rear tires, I didn't stand a chance of moving any snow with the rear blade. I do use the rear blade for final cleanup, though.

-rus-

 

[Rayrla]

Lots of good tips. I like to spray my bucket and backblade prior to winter use with WD40. Snow then doesn't stick to the either.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Lots of good tips. I like to spray my bucket and backblade prior to winter use with WD40. Snow then doesn't stick to the either.

Yeah, I heard you can do that with shovels and plows too.

 

[corey9212]

Yeah, I heard you can do that with shovels and plows too.

Even snow blowers, I had a stage 1 snow blower and the chute would always clog up and a good shot of either WD-40 or Pam in the chute and on the blades and everything went smoothly

 

[VirginiaGuy]

A friend up north in NY referred me to these guys:

Tractor Loader Bucket Attachment | The Edge Tamer

They have a product called the Edge Tamer on their site, which took all the thought out of the whole thing. His JD has a 6' bucket, my Kubota's only 5, and they worked great on both our gravel driveways. He has a barn out back and he even used them on the grass to clear a path, and it left the lawn untouched. I found that before I'd get my bucket corners caught, and now that's not a problem at all.

 

[johnk]

I usually set my bucket down and curl it just a few degrees upwards so it doesn't bite into the ground. You can use down pressure or float. Practice makes perfect. I wouldn't bother buying those things. Rolling the bucket a few degrees does the same thing.

 

[hhsco]

fishyfishy

 

[VirginiaGuy]

fishyfishy

?? not sure what that means

All I'm saying is that in years past (VA hasn't had snow the last couple years) I'd goof around with the angle and still dig the heck out of my driveway, maybe it's because there's a lot of elevation changes or maybe it's because it's just a small BX, but too shallow an angle and I'm digging the sod or the stone, or too much angle and I'd just be compressing the stuff and practically riding on top of it, but with these I just slapped them on, dropped the bucket, and as long as the bucket was level that was that. My recollection was it used to take me 2 hours, now it takes me 45 minutes (long driveway, thank god it doesn't snow much) and I wasn't cursing myself out. Maybe if we got 8 or 12 inches of snow every week I'd do something else, but I'm just saying for 2-3 times a year this was all I needed.