Bucket vs. Snow Pusher

[massey184ferguson]

Anyone have any pros or cons of using either a bucket or snow pusher? THanks

 

[PILOON]

Buckets tend to be narrower than the wheel track and that poses problems.
Snow packs up in bucket and emptying a pain.
With a pusher you can work wider and push off to the side, angle pusher curls snow to the side neatly and is fast. If you need to pile/stack snow with pusher you simply lift gently all while pushing ahead
My 2 cents, pusher for lighter events combined with rear blower to really get rid of the white stuff.
Pusher only will result in higher piles as winter progresses which in turn makes for deeper and deeper snow drifts.

 

[the old grind]

IMO, the surface being cleared means everything! Blades are great for pavement, but can leave you with 'curbs' in just a few seasons over gravel, etc, and water runoff patterns change all too quickly. That said, nuthin' like having a FEL as wide as you 'track'. (60" here)

My Box Blade is on when any other ATT is not, for ballast. Anything I can clear manually to a shovel-width can be easily approached/parallelled up to with the BB and pulled away to be scooped & deposited, paved or otherwise. (setting PTO drop to 'fast' lets me jiggle stuck snow loose) With the FEL I can quickly deposit snow where lingering Springtime 'leftovers' are the least nuisance. I get a nice hard-pack that can be slippery, but what's 5 mph on a fairly level driveway? YMMV, of course.

I clear 550' of gravel drive, ~30'x30' or so in front of the barn, plus parking for two and a two-car, paved approach to my garage. 4-6" of even heavy stuff is usually managed in an hour to 1 1/2. HST is handy for this task (30hp class here, not >50 ... got Synchro or S-Shuttle?) and the CUT's maneuverability outshines my older 6 cyl, 5 spd jeep with 7' 6-way blade o'all. ('poly' blade not awkwardly heavy, btw) I've had Turf Tires for 11 yrs and hope to find ballasted R-4s on the new CUT at least as good, come Winter.

btw: Somewhere between say 8" & 12" (200-300mm), and depending on density, sometime I work ares in 'layers'. Don't recall ever doing that with the Jeep anywhere, but the tractor/FEL handles it all with ease. I suppose if a guy had traction to match enough hp he could get about anything to work, but of course chains & pavement don't always get along. (Got gravel?)

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I agree a width that will clear the rear tire path before they get on the snow.

Bucket vs. front snow pusher depends on where one is plowing snow or doing snow removable. Plowing with the FEL on long runs did not work so well as a plow but it does not leave ridges that will refreeze and block drive ways. FEL was awesome at intersections as was noted to get it into a melt pile that is out of the way of traffic and control the direction of the melt run off.

 

[Dennisneri]

what about mounting a 7.5 truck plow to your bucket? has anyone done this? if so do you have photos

 

[Egon]

Depends on the amount and frequency of snow falls, wind drifting and size of equipment. All needed factors before a decision can be made.

In areas of New Brunswick the bucket would be best as snow may be wet, deep and drifted.

With a bucket you can load and move snow. A Plough may not be able to push through or move the windrows aside far enough for the next snowfall.

 

[flyingcow]

I am ordering a 8ft HLA pusher that i can back drag with. I should be able to clear my garage doors easier, plus other areas. Buckets ok but this will work better for me.

 

[RalphVa]

I had a pusher on the Gravely and have an FEL and back blade on the 4wd JDs. I liked the pusher on the Gravely but wonder how it would have been in our "snowmageddon" about 4 years ago. Best thing for that would have been the old square chute snow blower on the Gravely. Would have taken the snow and slung it way out of the way.

Ralph

 

[DKCDKC]

I've never used a pusher, but the pushers I've seen do a great job of pushing snow... Ahead, not to the side. My FEL fills quickly and mounds to force snow to the side. It's not as smooth as an angled snow blade, but it works. I put a regular angled rear blade on the back to clean up and sometimes push the snow a bit further to the side. A key for me is to only tackle 8 to 10 inches or so at a time, which means going out several times in a major snowstorm. If I get more than 18 inches on the ground without getting to it, I just call a pro to push the driveway.

The first of the monster snows here a few years ago I handled by frequent runs. The second I had cleared by a pro.

I have a mile long gravel drive that goes up and down hills and has curves on some of the hills. What I have works, but I will be adding some chains for those possible icy snows we get sometimes.

 

[buickanddeere]

Bucket and blade a waste of time the 2nd time it snows. The berms and heaps just cause extra drifting . The solution is moving snow out of the way and not creating "snow fences".

 

[DKCDKC]

Bucket and blade may be a waste of time for those in areas of heavy, winter-long snows. Here in Virginia snows usually come infrequent enough that the piles of snow melt to almost nothing before the next snow. On those occasions where we did have massive, close snows, I have still be able to usually push the snow back enough to allow drive room. For those in more temperate places like Virginia, I don't see that an expensive snow blade or blower makes economic sense. For the cost of one of those I could have my drive cleared by a pro many times - certainly more times in my life that I might have difficulty doing it myself with FEL and blade.

 

[flyingcow]

Bucket and blade may be a waste of time for those in areas of heavy, winter-long snows. Here in Virginia snows usually come infrequent enough that the piles of snow melt to almost nothing before the next snow. On those occasions where we did have massive, close snows, I have still be able to usually push the snow back enough to allow drive room. For those in more temperate places like Virginia, I don't see that an expensive snow blade or blower makes economic sense. For the cost of one of those I could have my drive cleared by a pro many times - certainly more times in my life that I might have difficulty doing it myself with FEL and blade.

very good point.

 

[flyingcow]

i got a crazy good deal on my tractor a few yrs ago. But if i was to dream, I might look at the biggest compact with a front mounted blower and put a back blade or a box blade to drag away from doors.

 

[toxic]

Remember that a bucket will be solid but a pusher will have a trip mechanism of some kind(at least most of them do). Not a huge factor if it's just for your own property as you'll know all the bumps and dips. However if it's for commercial use you never know what unmovable object is buried under the snow. It's not overly fun going across a parking lot at 8mph then catch that hidden manhole cover with the solid bucket, take a guess how I know. :duh:

 

[PANHAPP]

A snow pusher is mounted solid there is no trip mechanism. I just built a new set of skids that will lift the cutting edge about an inch for a lot I'll be doing that has a lot of tar repair lines.

 

[trwtow]

im trying a pusher this year

 

[jb62901]

I run a blade on the front and blower on the back. With a 900' drive I plow it to the middle on the way down and on the way up. Then blow it off the drive. Also have rear blade and FEL. Best of all heated cab.
.

 

[oldbones]

I've got both, and use both. That being said, I can move twice as much snow and 3x as fast with the pusher. When it builds a berm on the outside edge, I just take a smaller bite on the last pass to cut the berm away. JD 5303 mfwd (my little toy) using 6' FEL bucket, vs using 8' x 30" x 30" pusher. I do have a Cat II quickhitch with 700 lbs of suitcase weights hanging on the back, though.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

This is slightly beyond the scope of the question, but here's my 2 cents' worth: I clear only about 100 feet of paved drive way with an occasional need to do a bit more. I started with a cub and a plow. By the end of a bad winter, my driveway was down to 1/2 the original width. I went to a 15 horsepower Bolens diesel with a blower. That was great and cleared my driveway well except when we got rain into the snow before I could get to it and it became slush...that didn't work well at all. Now I have a FEL. In a deep snow, it takes a bit to make a first pass through; but once that is done, the job goes pretty smoothly and quickly.
Two days ago I had to clear the first snow of the year. It was heavy, wet and miserable. The FEL did the job that neither of the others would have done.

 

[pinetree10]

im trying a pusher this year View attachment 347122

That thing is cool. I have the same tractor and I'm surprised you can move that much snow with it all at once.