Do homeowners buy snowplows to plow their own properties?

[MechanicalGuy]

I paid $4000 for a 6 way hydraulic scrape blade.

 

[hube2]

Even being one of those that spent a lot for snow removal equipment I would have to agree with some of the others. It really depends. How much snow do you get? How long is your driveway? How often do you need to move snow? Based on that what is the right equipment to do the job that needs to be done? How much would it cost to have someone else do it?

 

[mcfarmall]

Short answer, yes. I bought a $500 3PH scraper blade and use it more than my FEL for snow removal.

 

[ArlyA]

We get more snow than you,,, but i thought most trucks came standard with them.

 

[hube2]

We get more snow than you,,, but i thought most trucks came standard with them.

Actually, unless the frame of the truck is built to handle it adding a plow could be a bad idea. I knew a guy that bent the frame of his 1/4 ton pickup. It looked like an inverted V.

 

[Jchonline]

I have a V plow on my X1100C and about 1/4 mile of gravel drive to plow. One gnarly hill. I have studded chains on the X1100C and it does great. As long as I stay on top of it (plow every 6 inches or so) its fine. If I can't get it plowed low enough (to the gravel) I will wait until the sun comes out (usually only a day or so) and then go over it with the tractor rear blade.

 

[nybirdman]

In addition to my 8' FEl mounted snow plow,I have a 7' rear blade and have a 5' on my ATV for the light stuff.

 

[Yjmoose]

We don’t get enough snow, but we do get snow (I love snow, makes winter enjoyable). That being said I live in the southern most part of Wisconsin near the state line. My usual snow attack is done on an early 2000’s Yamaha kodiak 450 with a plow blade. It is almost always up to the task, cost me $400 for the 4 wheeler and $250 for the plow and $100 for the winch and mount, so $750 total. It takes care of 90% of the snow. When the big snow comes it’s time to fire up the tractor and use the fel. I can plow the drives with the 4wheeler in about an hour, the tractor takes twice as long, but there is twice as much snow when I use it. Once the snow piles get to narrowing the driveway from plowing with the 4 wheeler I push them back at my convince with the tractor. Don’t overlook a 4wheeler with a plow, especially if your average snow falls are 2-3”.

 

[PILOON]

Here we get about 20 snow events/year for usually about 200 inches total.
Last year a typical contract was in the $1000. range.

My CUT, blower and blade serves me just fine.
While I did contracts for some 12 years I now only do my own.
When I contracted I had a 3/4 ton 4 x 4 c/w 8 ft fisher plow.
Tractor was too slow for contracting due to distances between clients.

I've had my CUT for some 12 years, DIY'd my plow and cab and refurbed a 5 ft blower.
Got to say that has super paid off for me, not just for savings but also satisfaction of DIY if and when I want to.
Financially I'd claim an overall advantage as well.

LOL, my worst 'event' was a 36 inch snowfall when my blade was only 24 inches high and I had 20 drives to do. That took all day.
Heck I even made it as news on a local newspaper that time. (a client was a reporter for it)
I had to plow myself out going uphill that day but then I was chained on all 4's.

 

[Oaktree]

Actually, unless the frame of the truck is built to handle it adding a plow could be a bad idea. I knew a guy that bent the frame of his 1/4 ton pickup. It looked like an inverted V.

Yeah, a neighbor of mine thought he could plow with his tacoma...totally trashed a (fairly new) truck in one winter. I can only imagine what would happen with those plows Jstpssng mentioned that mount on a car or SUV, especially one with a unibody. A Suburu is not a plow truck!

Don’t overlook a 4wheeler with a plow, especially if your average snow falls are 2-3”.

I have a plow for my ATV that I used to use for those 3-4" snowfalls, and found it to be almost more trouble than it was worth, between the fact that the blade was only 40" wide and only lifted 6" or so and 4 wheelers' tendency to not shift well between fwd & reverse easily. I can't see an ATV standing up very well long term to that kind of use, especially if you have heavy wet snow.

I just use the FEL bucket to plow my driveway. It's only ~150' so it works out fine, if it was longer than that maybe not so great. It's also great to have the FEL to push back the snow piles mid-late season.