Snow Attachments Rear blade for snow removal.

[Topkicker]

I moved to Indiana 4 months ago and have yet to spend a winter here. Would a FEL and a rear 3 point blade serve me well for snow removal on a paved drive?

 

[beenthere]

You can get by with that combination.
Go with it until you might look for something better. And that would only be if you feel like there is something better.
Many remove snow with the attachments you are asking about.

 

[wedge40]

Welcome back.
How long is your driveway? How big is the tractor? The paved driveway will help a lot. You did move to the snow belt of Indiana, so you should get lots of practice. After you find out how things work, you may think about chains if you have any slopes to deal with.

Wedge

 

[KU Gator]

We moved back to KS 3 years ago and for the 1st time to a house with a fairly long, 400+ ft drive which is gravel. I purchased a JD garden tractor from the previous home owner that came with a snow blade. Winter #1, that is what I used and frankly with chains, it didn't do that bad. Big pain though to remove the mower and put the blade on. By winter #2, I had the Kubota with FEL primarily for some other property we bought and had purchased a box blade to maintain the drive and other projects. Used it with the FEL and box blade for snow removal and fortunately we had a pretty light winter as the box blade worked but not that great. By last winter had a rear blade. That worked much better. It would clean the concrete in front of the house completely off. We had a heavier than normal snow this past winter with a lot of wind, so drifting back over was a problem, but I would call it an ok solution for this area. A rear blade is a lot less expensive for my tractor than a front blade or a snow blower and can be used for other purposes, but as beenthere implied, if you are in an area that gets a lot of snow, you may want to long term look for another solution.

If you use the rear blade and worry about the blade excessively wearing or damaging the concrete, you can try getting ABS plastic pipe (black pipe like PVC but doesn't shatter as easily in the cold). Cut a slot in it length wise and slip it over the edge of the blade so it will ride on the concrete instead of the sharp edge of your rear blade.

 

[Code54]

Should work just fine. If you have the loader already, a rear blade is cheap compared to a blower or front blade system and works fine. hardest part is having to turn around to see what is going on, shy of that they are very easy to use.
KU Gator makes a great point with the pipe on the blade to reduce wear on your driveway!

 

[rekees4300]

I moved to Indiana 4 months ago and have yet to spend a winter here. Would a FEL and a rear 3 point blade serve me well for snow removal on a paved drive?

Welcome fellow Hoosier. If you have a long drive you may want to invest in a snowblower. The FEL and blade will work. The blade will push the snow to the side of the drive but if it builds up and becomes packed you will need to use the FEL to make more room. If you have a long drive that can be a slow, cold process. And as the other posted said, a set of chains is recommended. They are necessary for ice.

 

[cspot]

You might want to look around and find an old snow plow from a truck and with a little welding and fabrication you can make it fit on your FEL. I made mine fit on the front of my McCormick. I bought the blade at an auction for $100 and it cost me $125 for the quick attach plate from EBAY to hook to the loader. With paint and a few misc I have a little less than $300 in it. I made mine permanently angled so I could get it closer to the tractor and then I use my box blade to pull snow from in front of the buildings. I had it so I could manually angle the front blade but it stuck out too far in front of the tractor for my liking. Rear blades work nice until you get alot of snow. The problem with them is that they aren't really made to push snow in that the blade is too short and the snow tends to build up and fall overtop of the blade. However they will work and alot of people use them with good success. The other problem with it being attached on the rear is that it is literally a pain in the neck to turn around and look at what you are doing.

 

[RoyJackson]

I moved to Indiana 4 months ago and have yet to spend a winter here. Would a FEL and a rear 3 point blade serve me well for snow removal on a paved drive?

When I was in Wisconsin last fall (Appleton area), I had to take do a supplier audit in Antigo (about 100 mile NNW of Appleton).
Seems like every truckstop, mini mall, gas station/convenience store on that trip had a smaller tractor (mostly old Fords like 8N's) with a rear blade hooked up.
Reckon if it works for them, a FEL and rear blade will work for you. Your M-F 1529 should be quite adequate for this task.

Personally, I used a same set up (FEL/blade) for about 6 years. I use the FEL more now (with a ballast box for traction). Since my drive is 120-150 feet long (and pretty level hard pack gravel), I could never see investing in any other implements. I still have the blade, if necessary to use it.

So, give the FEL/blade combo a try. If you determine it's not adequate, you can determine another method after the first winter.
One thing I do suggest is get out there for the first clean up after about 6"...no more then 6".
If your tractor has position control of some sort for your 3PH, keep the rear blade 1/2 inch of so above the surface or add the plastic pipe like KU Gator suggests.

 

[cspot]

When I was in Wisconsin last fall (Appleton area), I had to take do a supplier audit in Antigo (about 100 mile NNW of Appleton).
Seems like every truckstop, mini mall, gas station/convenience store on that trip had a smaller tractor (mostly old Fords like 8N's) with a rear blade hooked up.
Reckon if it works for them, a FEL and rear blade will work for you.

Personally, I used a same set up (FEL/blade) for about 6 years. I use the FEL more now (with a ballast box for traction). Since my drive is 120-150 feet long (and pretty level hard pack gravel), I could never see investing in any other implements. I still have the blade, if necessary to use it.

So, give the FEL/blade combo a try. If you determine it's not adequate, you can determine another method after the first winter.
One thing I do suggest is get out there for the first clean up after about 6"...no more then 6".
If your tractor has position control of some sort for your 3PH, keep the rear blade 1/2 inch of so above the surface.

Good point Roy about getting out their before you get a couple feet of snow. It is alot easier to move 6" of snow 4 times than it is to move 24" of snow one time. Another helpful hint is to move the first snows as far off the driveway as you can, so you have room to push as you get more snow.

 

[JCB]

I moved to Indiana 4 months ago and have yet to spend a winter here. Would a FEL and a rear 3 point blade serve me well for snow removal on a paved drive?

I used that combination for a couple years before investing in a front blower. I'm glad I still own the rear blade. It's a useful attachment and just about the cheapest option for moving snow. A rear blade will definitely get you by until you decide whether or not to invest in a blower or front blade.

 

[magicheater]

I have exclusively used a rear blade for snow removal. Now I want to do what cspot did with an old snow blade I have. That way I can work in both forward and reverse just like I do with Loader Buddy the other three seasons of the year.

 

[furnitureguy]

I found that on a dirt/gravel drive it is much easier to plow with either skid shoes or a pipe over the cutting edge. I tried the black abs pipe and it just wouldn't stay on so I fabbed up a 1 1/2" section of water pipe and attached it to the skid shoes, works great and is really fast. The only drawback is that since it doesn't cut removeing sections that have frozen solid isn't as easy.
I live on Northern California and most the snow tends to be wet and sticky so sometimes when plowing I just have to stop and raise the blade to get out of the giant pile I'm dragging, I can then either push it out of the way backwards or move it with the loader on my way back.
A couple of things to remember if you get lots of heavy snow tire chains are the way to go. We got a couple of late season snows after I had removed mine and depending on the snow I was sliding all over the place. Gravity is your friend, I have one grade on my drive that can be hard to plow going up so I try to do the bulk of it going down hill.
I think one last thing to remember is what quality of plowing do you want, does it have to be down to bare eart/asphalt or like us do you have 4wd vehicles so some snow isn't a problem.
With all this said I still want a front blade mounted to my loader I think it would save time, but a rear blade works fine also.
Tom

 

[c23380]

I do not get alot of snow but I do find that if I turn my SO6 rear blade around backwards and pull it the wrong way then I can scrape gravel and not really cut into the gravel so it will not move much of the gravel around. It does tend to leave the drive with a pack of about 1/2 inch which will usually melt in one day.

 

[RoyJackson]

I do not get alot of snow but I do find that if I turn my SO6 rear blade around backwards and pull it the wrong way then I can scrape gravel and not really cut into the gravel so it will not move much of the gravel around. It does tend to leave the drive with a pack of about 1/2 inch which will usually melt in one day.

Well, it's not really the "wrong" way. It's just the convex side rather then the concave (working) side. Using the convex side to move snow does eliminate or at least reduce digging in and pushing gravel off the drive on to your lawn.
Which brings up another point about using a rear blade. The 3PH is made to pull (tractor going forward), rather then push. I did push snow both moving forward and in reverse. You won't damage your 3PH if you use some common sense. Remember, 3PH's don't have down pressure, so the blade can ride up over hard packed snow.

 

[Topkicker]

Thanks to everyone for the helpfull advice. My concrete drive is around 200 ft and is level except for the last 20 feet which slopes down to meet the road. I was worried about damaging the drive with the blade so I'll definately do the black pipe deal. Hopefully I want have any trouble getting it to stay on the blade. I love your setup Cspot. I've welded since I was 15 so this is something I could do with some coaching and some detailed pics. I'll go with the rear blade this season and see how well this works for me. I didn't think about tire chains. I guess I'll invest in a set of them also. My daily driver is a lifted Jeep Wrangler 4 door and it is amazing in 8in snow.(That's the most snow I've ever seen.) From talking to all the good local folks, I know I'm in for alot more snow than that. I'm a Georgia native but have lived in Texas, Missouri, and now here in NE Indiana. This winter is going to be a new experience for me.

 

[Storm56]

I moved to Indiana 4 months ago and have yet to spend a winter here. Would a FEL and a rear 3 point blade serve me well for snow removal on a paved drive?

I have been doing it with this combination for about 20 years now. Just recently had a snowplow from a truck given to me so when I get some time I am going to build a setup to put it on the loader. Hope to pave the driveway next year so the front blade should be an advantage. As I have stated in previous posts, on my gravel drive I used the blade backwards and had very little stone to rake from my yard in the spring.

 

[djradz]

Here in south-central MI we've been using the rear blade on our blacktop and concrete (near the garage) drive for over 25 years. Other than worrying about catching one of the seams in the concrete, it works beautifully. With a slight angling of the blade, even that worry pretty much goes away.

I've never used the pipe-technique, but I know with my drive, if the snow is packing or driven on much before clearing, I need all the pressure and a SHARP edge to get back to the hard surface. In soft loose snow, it wouldn't be a problem, but I only see that about 1/4 of the time. I've even gone so far as to resharpen the edge just so it cuts better. We also have a short gravel drive, and there, a little bit of snow left acutally makes the clearing for the next time easier as a packed surface results, and stones no longer get picked up.

Good luck and have fun! I've always found snow clearing as a great excuse to get out and enjoy the winter as well as some time playing on the tractor.

 

[magicheater]

I found that on a dirt/gravel drive it is much easier to plow with either skid shoes or a pipe over the cutting edge.
With all this said I still want a front blade mounted to my loader I think it would save time, but a rear blade works fine also.Tom

I have skid shoes on my back blade and use the hydraulic top link to engage them (top link retracted) or the cutting edge (top link extended). Kind of the best of both worlds for my gravel drive. Gotta get that front blade done......

 

[bp fick]

You'll find these topics comes up all the time around here because new folks join as older members stop being so active.

Snow. Well, it's got to be removed. FELs, front blade, back blade, snow blowers front or rear. Big swing in cost and quite a bit of difference in effectiveness of the various choices and combinations.

Bottom line? If the snow gets moved, the system works.
If the snow isn't getting move? System needs adjusting.

The "system" is not merely the attachment itself, but timing, traction, skill, edges, and all the small things that add up to a workable system. Throw in differences in frequency, types of snow, operator experience, terrain, ditches, elevation changes, places to put snow, etc and the variables grow exponentially. FWIW.

 

[Baby Grand]

If you decide to go with the rear blade you will want one large enough to cover your rear tire tracks with the blade angled 30 or 45 degrees.
To figure the length you need for 30 degrees, multiply your rear tire track width by 1.15 To figure the length you need for 45 degrees, multiply your rear tire track width by 1.4.