Snow Too much snow! Help!

[jimmer2880]

I have a front mounted plow, but couldn't use it until after I busted through with the loader. Even then, only if the snow was 2' or less.

Unfortunately, because of drifting, I had several hundred feet of 3+ feet snow to push. I just tried to make the longest pushes (at an angle) possible with my little 48" bucket.

close to 11 hours on the 'bota today.

 

[ccsial]

This snow is HEAVY, and dense, so it just builds up into even heavier piles, 4-5' high, and then I can't budge it with the blade- I just get the tractor stuck on packed, dense wet snow.

A snow blower may plug on that stuff. In December we had 14" of heavy snow. It snapped off about a dozen trees. We never had anything that heavy before. I have an L3400 with a 60" rear blower. I got about 10 feet and it plugged and almost stalled the engine. I ended up cleaning it with my Ford 1910 with an end loader. It has gearbox too and was a pain. It took me all day to get the mess cleaned. I feel for you. This has been a nasty winter.

 

[Chris86314]

I love to push snow as much as the next guy, but I woke up this morning to 23" of heavy, wet snow, with more coming down, and my B8200, with turf tires, doesn't have what it takes to push it aside.

Sounds like a lot of that Global Warming going on back east, especially in Washington DC today.. huh..

 

[montelatici]

Well, I spent 2 hours getting my BX24 using the FEL to lift and move the snow to make a path, from the barn to the driveway parking area. It is now stuck just before the pavement. I will dig it out tomorrow and begin clearing the parking area and about 200 yards of driveway. It will take most of the day I figure. My fairly large Ariens snow blower did ok with 15 inches in the last storm in December but it is wetter snow and 21 inches this time and I didn't even try using it. Interesting that the taller Bs are having problems as well, I would not have thought they would.

 

[newbury]

This is a rare event.
You should have planned for it, and be able to go to the "larder" and easily survive for several days.
If you want to spend $2K to $3K for a blower, fine. But other than last Dec 20th how many times would it have been used in recent years?
I've lived just south of DC since 1975. It don't happen often.

 

[montelatici]

Yeah, I recall a big one in the late 70s and a few big ones as a kid in Glen Burnie, but you are right, it is unusual and we have plenty (too much) food in the larder. Plus, being a sailor, I keep UHT milk in the house so I can go weeks without going to the store. Clearing the driveway is basically a keeping up with the Jones's thing. My neighbors hire people to do it and I do it myself. It is a little competition to see who gets their cars out first!

 

[AceDeuce]

26" of heavy wet stuff is WAY beyond a BX with a rear blade. I spent hours with the FEL today building piles as high as I could push them (about 6') but eventually got the job done. A blower would have been easier but not necessarily faster due to clogging

 

[traildust]

26" of heavy wet stuff is WAY beyond a BX with a rear blade. I spent hours with the FEL today building piles as high as I could push them (about 6') but eventually got the job done. A blower would have been easier but not necessarily faster due to clogging

Great job there AceDeuce! Probably the best thing about winter tractor work is the wonderful pictures everybody is posting, they look like post cards.

 

[number two]

I remember not all that many years ago people would park their car at the end of their driveway and walk(or snowmobile)to the house.Ever notice those old little garages only 20 feet off the road?

 

[taborekle]

Varmint, don't feel bad. I couldn't make a lot of head way either. At some point, we have to realize that chains or a front blade are just not a substitute for a MUCH larger tractor. I live in southern Maryland and you're experience mirrors mine. I got between 18 and 24 inches of just really heavy sticky snow. I'd back out of my garage with my blade and FEL up and almost immediately have to have to shift into 4WD. That has never happened before with the previous snows, and I knew right away that I was in trouble with this snow.

I tried clearing my parking area with the blade, but it would load up and then the tractor would bog down. I'd have to dump the blade to get free. Time and time again the blade would either have to little snow or it would bite in and completely bog down. I also before I started set the top link of my blade all the way in, so that the blade would not have a aggressive bite, and it all made no difference.

I had to clear my parking area with my FEL. I have to say that I've never used the float position of the FEL until today, and it was really usefull to have it. Being able to use float and still curl the bucket in float mode was very handy to adjust the bite of the bucket over a single pass. I easily piled up 5 foot high berm of very heavy snow, but it was very slow going.

I could also see where having the hydrostatic transmission was really useful. Lots of moving from forward to reverse, on and off the peddals during the FEL clearing operation. I really appreciated not having to handle a shift in the middle of my bucket work.

Tomorrow I'll be out there again, but I think it's going to be lots of hours to open up my Lane.

I feel like I live in a a scene from Dr. Zhivago.