to blow or to plow?

[billsh96]

I agree with wedge40, once you have seen too much snow to push with a blade, you will know! Once while on a business trip when I lived in Michigan's upper penninsula, I called home and asked how the driveway looked. My wife said "fine, and by the way they get $65.00 an hour for a front end loader!!"
Bill

 

[wedge40]

I agree with wedge40, once you have seen too much snow to push with a blade, you will know! Once while on a business trip when I lived in Michigan's upper penninsula, I called home and asked how the driveway looked. My wife said "fine, and by the way they get $65.00 an hour for a front end loader!!"
Bill

I went to school in the U.P. There they measured snow in feet. My freshman year of college was 1978. We got over 32' of snow that year. I was fascinated watching them clean up down town Houghton with snow blowers and dump trucks.

Wedge

 

[claridon]

I used to plow snow with my backblade. I got pretty good at it but it was a lot of time consuming work.
I now have a blower on the front of my Cub Cadet. Less time clearing snow (about 1/2), less damage to the yard, no big piles to melt down before the next storm.
We get about 10 ft of snow a season. Driveway is about 250' x 12'.
IMO, a blower is a much better way to go.
-Len

 

[Opti-Mist]

I went to school in the U.P. There they measured snow in feet. My freshman year of college was 1978. We got over 32' of snow that year. I was fascinated watching them clean up down town Houghton with snow blowers and dump trucks.

Wedge

I was there about 15 years ahead of you - never had a snow day in my years of commuting there. Spent the first 22 years of my life there, but only the last few at "Ta Tech" Now that I'm retired I call home some 250 miles to the east where as much as 60" of snow has fallen over a weekend and lake effect snow gets plowed every other day at times.

I heartily agree with blowing vs plowing for not leaving banks for drifting snow to level up to and making things worse. That said, I generally plow but break the banks back as soon as the fluffy stuff sets up. So far I've not run out of places for the plowed snow to be stored until spring.

 

[AHNC]

Push snow into a big pile and let the wind come up in just the right way and you can have more deep drifting problems than you can believe. I will always vote for a snow blower. It's an expensive implement but it sure helps to get the snow away from the area you use every day.

 

[Barneyhunts]

I like to use the snowblower because, along with what others have mentioned, I think it is much easier on the tractor!

 

[Tig]

and of course the blower is way more fun!!

 

[Charles Billings]

Most all town roads in Vermont are plowed. In order to do that you need very large trucks with lots of horse power, and keep on plowing so the snow doesn't accumulate too much for even these large vehicles to handle. Same thing goes for tractors. If you have a large tractor and don't mind spending most of the storm out plowing, then maybe a plow is okay. When I first contemplated plow or blower I was persuaded to go with a blower for several reasons: 1. The Buhler Allied 74" PTO blower was less expensive than a plow. 2. I didn't want to stay up all night keeping ahead of the snow--with a blower I can wait until the storm stops, and then clear things out, even if it has accumulated 3 feet. 3. Having a blower on the rear means backing up to accomplish the work, but then you still have full use of your FEL which I find is still very important to clean up areas that would be difficult if you only had a snow plow or blower on the front. An FEL is very useful in keeping snow banks in bay and making sure that they don't become frozen barriers, and providing a bucket to deliver sand when the roadway gets icy. I would suggest that the smaller the tractor the more imporant it is to consider a snow blower.

 

[scuvnut]

blow is the best

 

[irvingj]

"Yee-Ha!"

Blower. No high banks, snow's gone away in one pass.