1000ft long, 100ft elevation, twisty, gravel- front or rear mount?

[LouNY]

Lou you must be in the running here for hills and switchbacks!
It's nice to finally hear a friends voice in a nerdy internet way.

It sounds strange to me.
It is a challenging driveway at times, takes a lot of maintenance.
Especially as I try and keep it so two vehicles can meet and get by.
I've gone through a lot of equipment learning what I need.
Had several dedicated plow vehicles for many years and sanded with a shovel out of the back of a pickup,
with one of my kids driving, that was always fun
Then I bought an old well used sander that was a wakeup call for me, when it got to the point of needed quite a bit of work again,
I bought a new one.

 

[beenthere]

Have similar driveway with elevation change, and over the 50+ years here have learned a lot. From day one have conjured up a front mount blade, beginning with a JD LA with hand lever to lift the blade, to a Ferg TO-30 with front blade lifted through set of cables connected to the 3pt lift, JD 420 with front blade off a Jeep, to now with a JD 4300 and 7' Western plow blade and a wing plow for when snow needs pushing back into the ditch away from the drive (not often tho). Never wanted anything to do with a rear blade or rear snowblower.

 

[Rustyiron]

It sounds strange to me.

Lou I meant as the winner of difficulties (grade and switchbacks).

 

[LouNY]

Lou I meant as the winner of difficulties (grade and switchbacks).

I was saying that my voice sounds strange to me when I hear it on a recording.
It doesn't sound like I hear myself when I'm talking.

 

[LouNY]

Have similar driveway with elevation change, and over the 50+ years here have learned a lot. From day one have conjured up a front mount blade, beginning with a JD LA with hand lever to lift the blade, to a Ferg TO-30 with front blade lifted through set of cables connected to the 3pt lift, JD 420 with front blade off a Jeep, to now with a JD 4300 and 7' Western plow blade and a wing plow for when snow needs pushing back into the ditch away from the drive (not often tho). Never wanted anything to do with a rear blade or rear snowblower.

I like your wing.
I use my backblade to wing banks over the edge if needed, I'll offset and angle it then drive forward or reverse to wing it over and out of the way.
I'll also use the front SSGA blade to get snow right to the edge of the drop offs, then angle in and knock them over at times. The corners are were my largest snow piles will accumulate but I can use the loader or blade to push them clear over the banks, at times I'm pushing snow 10 feet of the driveway and driving on 6-8 feet of packed snow with the front tires.

 

[Lena]

I retired from West Virginia highways. Don’t put salt on gravel roads! Salt will melt through ice and snow, then continue to melt frozen ground which makes mud.

 

[thclimer]

That is a very steep driveway with sharp turns as well and I can see how over the years you have perfected your methods for maintaining it.

 

[oosik]

My only similarity to your condition - we both get snow. You will get more than I ever do. My driveway is long( 5000 feet) and basically flat. I've never got so much in one occurrence that I have to plow DURING the storm. I always plow AFTER the storm.

In your situation - 4WD tractor, 35 to 45 hp, RimGuard in the rear tires-for weight, aggressive chains on a four wheels, cabbed would be nice, rear mounted snow blower, FEL with bucket for those really tight places.

AND - welcome to TBN and the forum.

 

[LouNY]

I retired from West Virginia highways. Don’t put salt on gravel roads! Salt will melt through ice and snow, then continue to melt frozen ground which makes mud.

It would be nice to not get salt on gravel roads in the winter as it does thaw the road surface at times which makes a muddy sloppy mess.
However, Unless you have access to very heavy equipment and a huge mountain of sand so you can break out the frozen sand and set it aside you need to have enough salt mixed into the sand to prevent it from freezing up in your pile or to at least keep the frost level down to just a few inches.
So while I will agree that salting gravel/dirt roads is not a desirably thing to do at times a bit of salt is required.
The sand that I buy and stockpile under a tarp is a sand salt mix, it does still freeze at times. Often I'll have a pile of frozen chunks up to 6 inches thick that I have had to dump off to the side.

 

[LouNY]

To the Original Poster while a tractor with a loader, pto and blades or blowers may well be the best way to take care of your driveway it will not be cheap or even inexpensive.

I plowed snow on my driveway the first few years with a yard truck (unlicensed rust bucket not even street legal) chained up all the way around with heavy v-bar reinforced tire chains and weight in the back. They will do the job, it will be a learning curve for sure and you will want to have a solution in mind for when you get stuck.
Because even chained up all the way around if a front tire drops over the bank or into a low spot you will find times that you can't reverse back up hill and keep working, or the plow frame gets hung up on a frozen snow bank.

After a few years I ended up with a 55 HP 2wd Oliver with a loader. That tractor went through several sets of chains and even chained up and with an empty bucket at times she wouldn't stop just using the brakes. It would take down pressure from the loader onto the cutting edge of the bucket on hard ice to get stopped going down hill.
A 4wd drive truck chained up is safer and easier to use then a chained up 2wd tractor.

On a steep driveway with a tractor there is only one kind of chain to buy and use and that is the studded Euro style such as the Aquiliane Talon,
TRYGG, or OFA's. They are expensive but there grip and performance is so superior to any other type of tractor chain it is unbelievable.

Also all of my vehicles have a set of mounted and ready to go studded snow tires for the winter season.

Good luck with your driveway