skent
Platinum Member
Last year's Presidents Day snow (22") did a number on us here on the east coast. I had just retrofitted my B7300 with a home-made "bucket extension" that allowed bigger bites of snow. Increased bucket volume from 6 cu ft to 16 cu ft.
It already had rear chains.
Our driveway is 1/2 mile long and has two areas that drift pretty bad. While clearing the first area (forward - scoop - lift - backup turn - forward - dump - repeat) I need to go down grade, scoop and then back up the grade in reverse. Even with a 3 pt scraper blade, and 200 pounds on the wheels, I was loosing traction when trying to back up the grade with a load of snow. I got stuck twice and needed to use the bucket roll method to get going again. I then installed the front chains and never had any other problems. Took 8 hours to clear the 1/2 mile driveway that time.
The main concern here is that you do not operate in 4WD with chains on all fours if you have good traction (Dry turf or gravel) , as the chains could cause gear binding. Whenever I have the chains on the front, I kick it out of 4WD when I don't need the extra help. Front chains have also helped me with steering control on ice patches.
It already had rear chains.
Our driveway is 1/2 mile long and has two areas that drift pretty bad. While clearing the first area (forward - scoop - lift - backup turn - forward - dump - repeat) I need to go down grade, scoop and then back up the grade in reverse. Even with a 3 pt scraper blade, and 200 pounds on the wheels, I was loosing traction when trying to back up the grade with a load of snow. I got stuck twice and needed to use the bucket roll method to get going again. I then installed the front chains and never had any other problems. Took 8 hours to clear the 1/2 mile driveway that time.
The main concern here is that you do not operate in 4WD with chains on all fours if you have good traction (Dry turf or gravel) , as the chains could cause gear binding. Whenever I have the chains on the front, I kick it out of 4WD when I don't need the extra help. Front chains have also helped me with steering control on ice patches.
