Snow Attachments add wheels to rear blade for snow???

[Sammyh]

I'm starting to think about snow....

I'm afraid a rear blade will dig into my stone driveway. Does putting wheels on the blade to keep it from penetrating the driveway make sense?

In SE Michigan we get a little bit of every kind of snow.

I think if I can keep a crown on the driveway, ice shouldn't form, and a thin layer of snow shouldn't hurt traction on the stone.

Does this make sense? I don't want to spend the $$ on a blower attachment and don't want to spend the time using the loader.

 

[TCowner]

I'm not sure adding wheels would help much. What has been discussed here before was adding a hard rubber "squeegee" to the blade. A couple of posters have taken the rubber mats sold at Tractor Supply that are used in horse stalls an cut a 6" wide piece that is attached to the blade. It scrapes the snow pretty well but seems to keep the gravel on the driveway.

 

[Spencer]

I sure did do some damage to my dirt driveway the first few times I tried polowing snow with my rear blade. I had just gotten my tractor in late December '01. Finally on January 20th '02 I swallowed my pride and asked the fine folks here at TBN how to plow snow without tearing up my driveway.

Just turning the blade around and using the convex side is a big help. There is some other good advice in my thread listed below.

Advice Needed Before I Destroy My Driveway

 

[Dave___in___CT]

Hi...


I've had no/minimal issues with using a front and rear mounted blade for snow plowing on a dirt/gravel driveway...
...once it's frozen anyway...

The tilt vertical angle of the rear blade does make a difference...


Dave...

 

[RobS]

Hi Sammy, and welcome from SW Michigan. We too get every kind of snow on our gravel drive. I got a bit overzellous last winter and really tore things up with the first snow. Nothing was frozen yet so all the stone moved with the snow. After that I just kept the blade up an inch or so and developed a nice, well packed and frozen base. Once things were good and frozen I could go back to letting the blade float. Same for the spring thaw.

Fortunately for us, there are no hills to worry about so I can get away with the layer of snow/ice buildup /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[RoyJackson]

Using the convex side of the blade (either by rotating the blade 180° if you can, or by driving in reverse) works very well for me on a hard packed gravel and chip drive. You'll move a fairly small amount of stones, but you won't dig in.

 

[RCannon]

I have another question to add here...
I have a pretty good crown on my gravel driveway. Should I knock it down before the snow flies? Or should I ask Do I NEED to? Will it help in snow removal?

 

[theonlybull]

the best thing to do, is go look at what comercial snow plows use, fisher, myer, boss, etc.. they all have some kinda of shoe the slides along the driveway, this prevents the blade from digging into the dirt (within reason). a simple metal shoe that can be adjust up and down is the best, this will let you plow soft ground, then adjust it up when things freeze, and you want to scrap the driveway down good.

as for the crown, it would take alot to keep you from being able to use the drive, I'd leave it there, it'll help keep the water off when it rains, and it will aid you in scraping it clean when it's frozen.

 

[Sammyh]

From what I'm seeing, the best bet would be a blade that has a tilting pin, pull that pin so the tilt "floats" and put a shoe on each side. That would make the blade ride whatever contour the driveway makes, even if the tractor hits a bump. The shoes would need to be large enough and have lips to keep from digging themselves in.

 

[RobS]

<font color="blue"> the best bet would be a blade that has a tilting pin </font>

You can also accomplish this with "lateral float" in the tractor three point. On my tractor the lower links can be set to move a bit relative to each other. It does help when plowing snow /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif