Plow now or wait?

[Bobrown14]

We got hit pretty hard last night and its still snowing in Finger Lakes region upstate NY. About a foot or more of powder. Man I love my heated cab. Even hadda open a widow I got too hot and needed to vent some moisture.

I waited till early AM 7ish got out there and started plowing got it all done 1/3 mile drive and parking lot and hadda do it again for a brush up.

I use a snow pusher - with that much snow all at once its back and forth and have to figure out where to put the snow.

 

[Jstpssng]

We got hit pretty hard last night and its still snowing in Finger Lakes region upstate NY.

I'm moving to New York!! I worked for a few years a bit east of you, from Boonesville all of the way up to Potsdam and it wouldn't have taken much to make me stay. It's a nice area, and you get more snow than we see. It just started snowing a couple of hours ago, it's about 20 degrees out and we've got about 2 inches of nice powder on the ground. Too bad that it's going to warm and turn to rain. I can do without that... along with the 40mph winds they are saying we'll get.

The last time that I was in NY we were staying just outside of Buffalo and got done just in time to get chased out by snow. If we'd had to work one more day we'd have been stuck there for a week or so.

 

[Djwshady]

We are getting heavy snow now in SW VA. Snow is really piling up.

Then we are supposed to get "heavy freezing rain" at 4 p.m., then back to snow.

What do you all think of this strategy: let it pile up and wait till 5 p.m. to plow?

Hard to see it keep piling up, but if I go out and plow before the ice, I fear it will be harder to get rid of ice than if I can push most of it as snow.

I let the ice accumulate on top of the snow and then push it. Otherwise you're trying to push snow from on top of ice.

 

[crashz]

We got hit pretty hard last night and its still snowing in Finger Lakes region upstate NY. About a foot or more of powder. Man I love my heated cab. Even hadda open a widow I got too hot and needed to vent some moisture.

I waited till early AM 7ish got out there and started plowing got it all done 1/3 mile drive and parking lot and hadda do it again for a brush up.

I use a snow pusher - with that much snow all at once its back and forth and have to figure out where to put the snow.

Rub it in! I plowed at 7 this morning and it was just changing over to rain. Yuck! 20 minutes and I had it opened up and cars cleared off, but I was soaked and freezing! Was about 4-6inches of wet heavy snow.

OP - rubber edges are nice to prevent damage (great on decorative pavers or stamp-crete, but as you are finding out, they wear quickly. For regular pavement and gravel I like steel edges that best. But steel is unforgiving.

One other thing and this is just a preference: When possible, angle your blade to deposit the snow on the downhill side. This allows for a couple of things:
- Builds a berm on the dangerous side of a driveway.
- Allows melting snow to drain without crossing the road.
- If the plow catches something or you push too much, the tractor will slide to the uphill side, not down.

 

[MossyDell]

“Plow With The Storm”, as we say at the east end of Lake Ontario.

So plow as it's hitting, don't wait till it's all down?

 

[MossyDell]

We got hit pretty hard last night and its still snowing in Finger Lakes region upstate NY. About a foot or more of powder. Man I love my heated cab. Even hadda open a widow I got too hot and needed to vent some moisture.

I waited till early AM 7ish got out there and started plowing got it all done 1/3 mile drive and parking lot and hadda do it again for a brush up.

I use a snow pusher - with that much snow all at once its back and forth and have to figure out where to put the snow.

Bob, what is the advantage of a pusher over a front blade?

 

[crashz]

Plow with the storm, unless ice and freezing rain are in the forecast. I think you did the right thing.

 

[TheMan419]

Depends on how much snow you are supposed to get bewteen now and when the freezing rain starts. Generally I would want the freezing rain to land on top of the snow so you can just push it out of the way. Around here "piling up" means an inch an hour and several hours of it to come. So in that scenario you could plow now and have several inches of accumulation before the freezing rain.

 

[Tony H]

Not sure what your snow weapon is. I have kicked myself many times when keeping car windows an d driveway clean. Then the snow gets freezing rainy and encapsulates everything. Meanwhile my 'lazy' neighbor waited it out and the crusted top layer of snow lifted off the car and driveway because of the fluffy snow underneath. With a tractor, bigger then garden tractor, you can wait. Push behind snowblower, I'd get rid of smell now and hope you get enough cushion before it gets wet

 

[panamaguy]

We are getting heavy snow now in SW VA. Snow is really piling up.

Then we are supposed to get "heavy freezing rain" at 4 p.m., then back to snow.

What do you all think of this strategy: let it pile up and wait till 5 p.m. to plow?

Hard to see it keep piling up, but if I go out and plow before the ice, I fear it will be harder to get rid of ice than if I can push most of it as snow.

The best way I found to handle this was 15 years ago when I made sale and moved from Canada to Panama. Have not had one day where I needed to plow my driveway. Ok ok I know the words your thinking. I also think plow before the rain