to blow or to plow?

[easygo]

I went from plowing with the FEL and a rear blade to a snowblower. Very big difference. It cut the time it takes to clear the driveway after storms. All the reasons mentioned before are very valid. Around here too the annual snowfall is measure in feet. However if your largest storm is around 10-12" that happens every other year then you should be good with a plow.

 

[123rday]

I have a cousin that uses the blower on the back with the FEL up front. I use to use a quad with 4' blade. Took 3 hrs to do my H-shaped drive. When the winch quit working to raise and lower the blade on the quad, I called my cousin to ask to borrow his older tractor with a 7' rear blade. Cut my time down to just over an hr. But I would plow over into the yard but as i did would raise the rear blade just slightly to avoid damage to the lawn. Now that he sold me his older tractor, I had to give the blade back due to it being his fathers, I will probably be getting another rear blade for this winter. For me, the blade is cheaper, an in will accent my landscape rake.

 

[Doug in NNY]

Wedge40, you said it simply and well.

Last winter we had over two hundred and twenty inches. Eleven miles from here, on the leading edge of the Tug Hill Plateau, Barnes Corners NY measured over three hundred inches.

Forget walk-behind snow throwers. When you have to move real snow, you want a well-made blower. You do.

Doug

BX2350, Loftness 48" 3PH snow thrower. And other stuff.

 

[TUG HILL ADDICT]

the snow. Just confused. Have not understood the advantage of blowing the snow over plowing it. While we have a levelling blade which can be easily used for plowing the snow why pay for another item called snow blower?

If you have to ask the question you do not need a blower. If you live in a high snow area you know why a blower is needed.

 

[Lyrch75]

If they measure annual snow fall in inches, use a plow, if it's measured in feet, get a blower.

Wedge

Pretty much what I have heard as well.

Or if you get snow that starts to accumulate in Oct-Nov and stay until Apr-May you should get a blower as you will run out of paces to push it to.

Where I am at we get it fairly good, but it hardly ever stays around for more than 6 weeks. We get a warm spell and its down to 1" on the ground and hte piles are small enough to move with an FEL.

 

[nomad]

Seems that everybodys prefer to blow. But, it depends on your target.
You say if snow is too much, then, blow it. Then, why are not blowing heavy snow on the roads, highways? You are really blowing.

 

[RalphVa]

You blow when there's not enough space to put the stuff beside the roadway, or you blow when the plow won't touch it. I had to blow 7" of sleet one time with the old Gravely square chute because the plow wouldn't move it. Got a JD 4010 not with FEL and back blade. Its FEL will move the heavy stuff and allow me to toss it off to the side, but very slowly.

Ralph

 

[JDeerekid]

Seems that everybodys prefer to blow. But, it depends on your target.
You say if snow is too much, then, blow it. Then, why are not blowing heavy snow on the roads, highways? You are really blowing.

It really depends on where you are located and how much snow you get. Where I live it is not uncommon to get at least a foot or so a day sometimes more. So you run out of room quickly when you are plowing it so it requires you to either push it back with a loader or hire someone to blow it out of the way.
This is why most in my area have snowblowers which blows the snow away evenly instead up just piling it up on the edges of the driveway.

You don't see many snowblowers on the highways unless it is to blow back the banks on the side of the roads because it is a slow process. Plowing is much faster and town and highway plows start plowing when the snow starts so you are not plowing feet at a time, unlike many years ago when the plows didn't start plowing until it stopped snowing.

Yes snowblowers cost more but it is worth it to me.

 

[fish6942]

My options are: FEL on the BX, 60" blower on the 3PH and a 4' blade on the ATV. If the snow is less than 4"-5" then the blade, more than that and its the blower. With the ATV I can go 10-12 mph while the blower is maybe a few mph.

 

[4shorts]

I went with both blower and blade. Both are needed in differant areas and works great for me.