Bucket snow removal fail

[MountainBuck]

The freak snowstorm left a few inches of snow on top of sleet on my gravel driveway.

Tried to use my 4500p with bucket to remove it and was very disappointed.

First put the bucket in float and with the bucket in several positions, mostly flat.

Some snow would ball up in front of the bucket but nothing really got inside.

Then I put some down pressure on the bucket but still nothing except lost steering traction.

Only thing I can think to blame it on other than operator error is that I have teeth on the bucket and at a high enough angle the teeth would keep the edge of the bucket from hitting the snow.

All I ended up doing was packing the snow down.

Any ideas?

 

[oosik]

I've found that using my bucket can be rather frustrating. The bucket has a semi-permanent Rankin tooth bar mounted on the lip. I've got a mile long gravel driveway. The bucket will bounce along the driveway but it doesn't really collect too much snow. Even when it's completely full - it's not really a whole lot of snow.

Also - if it's wet snow - - it's a tough job. Then - - My only vehicle is a 2018 Ram Power Wagon. Soo..... unless I have 8" on the ground and it's still snowing really hard - I don't worry about plowing. I plow with a very heavy Rhino 950 rear blade and my tractor weighs in at - 10,100#. Using my bucket with 8" of snow on my driveway would take all day. Actually - I'd push it around for an hour or so and then say - "To H*LL with it and go back in the house". View attachment 686879

 

[johara1]

All you do with a bucket is make more ice, you are SOL with ice on gravel.... I had it happen to me a long time ago and what ever you do you need to pile it where you can reclaim the gravel after it melts. run on the snow or you will just make mess. now if you had a set of chains on your tires that will ruff it ..... jim

 

[kenmbz]

use edge tamers on the bucket to at least get down to the last inch or so, tipping bucket front edge up might help too.

 

[johara1]

use edge tamers on the bucket to at least get down to the last inch or so, tipping bucket front edge up might help too.

I never heard of the term edge tamers, after running loader for over 50 years that term has me stumped..... jim

 

[MowMN]

use edge tamers on the bucket to at least get down to the last inch or so, tipping bucket front edge up might help too.

Edge Tamer - Move Snow With Your Tractor Loader Bucket – R2 Manufacturing

Agreed. I use them on my slip scoop to clear the driveway anytime we get more than 4+ inches at a time. Then go back over any remaining with the power broom. Works great and gets down to bare asphalt without any damage to the driveway.

 

[johara1]

never saw anything like that before, to stope the bucket from digging. That will sure make a lot of ice, sliding over the snow....but better than the whole bucket sliding over it..... jim

 

[johara1]

The freak snowstorm left a few inches of snow on top of sleet on my gravel driveway.

Tried to use my 4500p with bucket to remove it and was very disappointed.

First put the bucket in float and with the bucket in several positions, mostly flat.

Some snow would ball up in front of the bucket but nothing really got inside.

Then I put some down pressure on the bucket but still nothing except lost steering traction.

Only thing I can think to blame it on other than operator error is that I have teeth on the bucket and at a high enough angle the teeth would keep the edge of the bucket from hitting the snow.

All I ended up doing was packing the snow down.

Any ideas?

I have a set of those teeth from Ventrac and they are worthless at best till I welded on the tip of them and built it up to grind a sharp flat point on them and then they would dig. For what you want to do I would remove them. Then angle the bucket to kind of dig in to the sleet under the snow and Skid along not with the bottom down and making more ice.... jim

 

[North to Alaska]

use edge tamers on the bucket to at least get down to the last inch or so, tipping bucket front edge up might help too.

I have them and they work great. Keeps my bucket from scraping the gravel. We get about ten feet of snow each year here although this year has been an easy year for me.
I personally don’t see how they will work well on paved accept as someone else posted, they use a power broom afterwards. It will leave a little bit of snow behind.

 

[johara1]

I use a poly cutting edge on a blade and it doesn't mark it takes it right down to the asphalt. You don't need the feet like a steel cutting edge ...... jim