What is the most efficient snow removal machine?

[Mechanized ME]

A Front mount snowblower because of the option of using down pressure to rip up the pack snow left from vehicles. And believe it or not after the December Ice Storm I used the Tractor Shovel locked in ground engagement to rip up the ice from my paved driveway, it was about 10 degrees outside when I cleaned up the ice and boy did it come up hard! Wish I had pictures of that process! If anyone out there is thinking about purchasing a JD Tractor Shovel for their X700 Series, I am very happy with the unit I have and wouldn't be without it....

 

[vtsnowedin]

As you can see I have tried a box blade. OK for parking areas but long drives a pain in the A#@. Thinking ahead I had the third function come set up on the tractor and added a 8 ft. plow with a JD universal carrier plate. I can plow right along looking ahead. adjust the push beam height to get the plow to scrape clean or slide over grass lawns as needed. I can even hold the whole plow a foot off the ground and wing back a snow bank four feet at a time anywhere there is not a drop off. When needed I can pop the plow off and the bucket on if I need to pile snow or do other work. Takes less then ten minutes to make the switch. The plow was used so with the plate and hoses I have less then a $1000 in it plus $350 for the ice chains. Any time you can just keep going along rather then shuttleing back and forth with the loader or blower you are saving fuel and your neck.

 

[batwing]

As you can see I have tried a box blade. OK for parking areas but long drives a pain in the A#@. Thinking ahead I had the third function come set up on the tractor and added a 8 ft. plow with a JD universal carrier plate. I can plow right along looking ahead. adjust the push beam height to get the plow to scrape clean or slide over grass lawns as needed. I can even hold the whole plow a foot off the ground and wing back a snow bank four feet at a time anywhere there is not a drop off. When needed I can pop the plow off and the bucket on if I need to pile snow or do other work. Takes less then ten minutes to make the switch. The plow was used so with the plate and hoses I have less then a $1000 in it plus $350 for the ice chains. Any time you can just keep going along rather then shuttleing back and forth with the loader or blower you are saving fuel and your neck.

I had a blade on back of my 165 Massey when I first plowed our 1/4 mile drive and it was fast and worked good, after a few times we got some heavy snow and road was getting very narrow, I put our 7' blower on it was slow but no banks. We got a good couple of foot of snow last night the back blade would have been next to worthless. The new t353 with the FEL and the blower on back was great!!
Ron

 

[vtsnowedin]

If you want to get down to "Cost effectiveness" you have to do a little math. For example my tractor plow combination works comfortably at 4.75 mph(B2 or B3 gears depending on rpm) and clears a seven foot wide path with the wings on it's eight foot blade and allowing for some overlap. Hence the math is 4.75*5280*7/9=19,507 S.Y. per hour. If you cost the tractor out at $85 per hour that comes out to just 0.435 cents per square yard cleared Or $21 to clear an acre of snow and you can clear four acres an hour. A pickup truck can do it faster of course but he'll be drifted in and stuck if he gets four feet of snow and some wind and need something with a loader on it to buck it back.

 

[locknut]

Around here we don't normally get continuous big snows so a power angle V works really nice.Here's mine.

 

[Coyote machine]

A Front mount snowblower because of the option of using down pressure to rip up the pack snow left from vehicles. And believe it or not after the December Ice Storm I used the Tractor Shovel locked in ground engagement to rip up the ice from my paved driveway, it was about 10 degrees outside when I cleaned up the ice and boy did it come up hard! Wish I had pictures of that process! If anyone out there is thinking about purchasing a JD Tractor Shovel for their X700 Series, I am very happy with the unit I have and wouldn't be without it....

You've got air in the first pic- wheels up in front! How much weight on back, 250#?

 

[Mechanized ME]

You've got air in the first pic- wheels up in front! How much weight on back, 250#?

I have 6 weights that I think are 42 lbs. each and with down pressure it does a really good job scraping up tire tracks. I wish the tractor had separate bakes for each wheel like the big tractors!

 

[boroxc]

How's this for snow removal equipment?

View attachment 357003

 

[WilliamTO-35]

It occurs to me that it wouldn't take too much effort to convert a front mounted snow blower into a front mounted blade , using a simple flip down blade attached to the snow blower. You might have to reinforce the snow blower frame, but you could have both snow removal devices on the front of one tractor.
On another subject, in 2009 we had two heavy snowfalls within a week. There was about 20 inches of snow on my 400 foot long dirt and gravel driveway, more than my equipment could handle. I hired a guy with a 4 wheel drive Kubota tractor , with a bucket on the FEL. It wasn't an especially large tractor; about 30 to 35 hp. I'd guess. I was amazed how easily he blasted down my driveway ,using the bucket as a plow, and finishing the job in about 15 or 20 minutes. I think that 4 wheel drive made the difference. Sadly, the next year I had the same amount of snow to remove, and the guy with the Kubota subcontracted the job to two drunk guys with a Bobcat with a front mounted bucket. Yes, they cleared the snow in about an hour , but tore up my driveway and surrounding lawn badly in the process. I'm still repairing the damage 3 years later.

 

[vtsnowedin]

It occurs to me that it wouldn't take too much effort to convert a front mounted snow blower into a front mounted blade , using a simple flip down blade attached to the snow blower. You might have to reinforce the snow blower frame, but you could have both snow removal devices on the front of one tractor.
On another subject, in 2009 we had two heavy snowfalls within a week. There was about 20 inches of snow on my 400 foot long dirt and gravel driveway, more than my equipment could handle. I hired a guy with a 4 wheel drive Kubota tractor , with a bucket on the FEL. It wasn't an especially large tractor; about 30 to 35 hp. I'd guess. I was amazed how easily he blasted down my driveway ,using the bucket as a plow, and finishing the job in about 15 or 20 minutes. I think that 4 wheel drive made the difference. Sadly, the next year I had the same amount of snow to remove, and the guy with the Kubota subcontracted the job to two drunk guys with a Bobcat with a front mounted bucket. Yes, they cleared the snow in about an hour , but tore up my driveway and surrounding lawn badly in the process. I'm still repairing the damage 3 years later.

I think you need another tractor.:tractor:You can never have too much ability in the garage.