Snow Advice - Pushing Snow

psdx · Oct 30, 2008

I pushed snow last year with a B3030 using a Woods rear blade and a front loader if I needed to move any piles. That's not much of a consideration here in central Ohio however. I've pushed snow with a rear blade for 20+ years and somehow I don't enjoy it that much anymore - just hate looking backards that much...

I have 500 feet of driveway so I priced out the Kubota front blade in the spring and after the shock wore off and my heart re-started I put the quote in a pile of papers to be forgotten. Now that snow season is about here, I'm trying to decide on spending $2300 for the Kubota blade vs. $300 on a used blade for a 4wd King Quad ATV. The driveway is currently gravel so I only plow when there's drifts of 6" or more. I'm sure the tractor would be faster, but does anyone have any experience using both a tractor with front blade and an ATV? Trying to find out if using a 4wd ATV on a 500 foot driveway is just a pointless exercise, hence a waste of money, or if others have been satisfied with this set up. Thanks in advance.

Czbilly · Oct 30, 2008

Since you already have a loader, you have the necesarry valve. I bought the Kubota manual angle blade and mount for much less. In fact, as I recall it was about $1200 less for the manual angle. Like you I have a long drive so I only need to get off a few time to change the angle which I had done for a few years with a big Cub garden tractor and snow blade. Kubota's sales material doesn't really mention this in their ads but once an honest salesman mentioned this to me I couldn't justify spending the extra money to save few trips off the tractor. In fact it's usually about the time I need to stretch anyway. I've used my blade to push snow, dirt, gravel, sticks, and even a huge pile of leaves. I too used to plow with a back blade and it sucks.

LBrown59 · Oct 30, 2008

Czbilly said:
Since you already have a loader, you have the necesarry valve. I bought the Kubota manual angle blade and mount for much less. In fact, as I recall it was about $1200 less for the manual angle. Like you I have a long drive so I only need to get off a few time to change the angle which I had done for a few years with a big Cub garden tractor and snow blade. Kubota's sales material doesn't really mention this in their ads but once an honest salesman mentioned this to me I couldn't justify spending the extra money to save few trips off the tractor. In fact it's usually about the time I need to stretch anyway. I've used my blade to push snow, dirt, gravel, sticks, and even a huge pile of leaves. I too used to plow with a back blade and it sucks.

This is my BX1500 with the Hyd. angle blade.
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk286/lb59/100_2316.jpg

LBrown59 · Oct 30, 2008

psdx said:
I pushed snow last year with a B3030 using a Woods rear blade and a front loader if I needed to move any piles. That's not much of a consideration here in central Ohio however. I've pushed snow with a rear blade for 20+ years and somehow I don't enjoy it that much anymore - just hate looking backards that much...

I have 500 feet of driveway so I priced out the Kubota front blade in the spring and after the shock wore off and my heart re-started I put the quote in a pile of papers to be forgotten. Now that snow season is about here, I'm trying to decide on spending $2300 for the Kubota blade vs. $300 on a used blade for a 4wd King Quad ATV. The driveway is currently gravel so I only plow when there's drifts of 6" or more. I'm sure the tractor would be faster, but does anyone have any experience using both a tractor with front blade and an ATV? Trying to find out if using a 4wd ATV on a 500 foot driveway is just a pointless exercise, hence a waste of money, or if others have been satisfied with this set up. Thanks in advance.

I use a front blade and a front end loader both.
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk286/lb59/100_2316.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk286/lb59/100_2321.jpg

Dozernut · Oct 30, 2008

I push snow with My RTV with a Curtiss snow plow. Works very well and having a cab with a heater is just icing on the cake as the tractor does not have a cab. I keep our 660' drive and the elderly neighbors plowed out. The only complaint is the skid shoes don't sit high enough and need to be bigger for a gravel drive. I made my own skid shoes that work better. I don't have any experience with with a front blade on a compact tractor so I cannot offer a comparison on that.

amigauser · Oct 30, 2008

I have the Kubota 6' foot power angle blade and Kubota quick hitch on my B3030. It works very well. I don't recall the price being $2300 but I purchased mine over 2 years ago with the tractor so it may have gone up in price since then. It works very well, highly recommended. Also much cheaper and faster than the Kubota front blower for medium to small snow falls.

LBrown59 · Oct 30, 2008

amigauser said:
I have the Kubota 6' foot power angle blade and Kubota quick hitch on my B3030. It works very well. I don't recall the price being $2300 but I purchased mine over 2 years ago with the tractor so it may have gone up in price since then. It works very well, highly recommended. Also much cheaper and faster than the Kubota front blower for medium to small snow falls.

IF the blade is quicker and cheaper then why are people waisting time and money on blowers?

amigauser · Oct 30, 2008

LBrown59 said:
IF the blade is quicker and cheaper then why are people waisting time and money on blowers?

With a front or rear blade you need a place to push the snow. I have an area across from my driveway that is open town land that I can pile snow on. The snow in Connecticut also tends to melt somewhat between storms so snowbanks next to my driveway are not a problem. The snow storms here generally dump less than a foot at a time to. For the most common 6 - 8" storm the blade is very fast. For heavier amounts some of the snow tends to come over the top of the blade and more goes out the sides so you have to make more than one pass.

For areas that get large amounts of snow with little melting the benefit of a blower is it will blow the snow away from the area being cleared. You only make one pass and it does not create a bank next to the area being cleared like a blade will. If I was in a heavy snow belt area I would own a blower and not the blade.

CHDinCT · Oct 30, 2008

So, for the price difference between manual and hydraulic angle, how hard would it be to add the hydraulic angle aftermarket? If you have the loader valve, there would be an open circuit so I'd guess you'd only need the right size cylinder and hoses. I haven't seen their quick hitch so I'm not sure how practical it would be to mount the extra cylinder to the manual angle version.

4shorts · Oct 30, 2008

I just adapted my trucks poly angle blade to my new Grand L4240. The tractor has the skid steer adapter on it making the change over from blade to bucket fast. An angle blade on the front of a tractor is very fast and efficient for plowing snow and that will be the way I'll be plowing most of our snow this winter unless it gets to deep, then I'll use the rear blower.

If you want to see how I adapted the plow click the link.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/customization/131136-snow-plow-adapted-fel.html