Enjoying my Pusher

[shooterdon]

A few days ago used my new pusher for the first time. We only had 6-8” of snow but it did a very good job. Definitely something for others to consider when evaluating what to use for dealing with snow

I have had two truck plows and I an inverted blower. Love the simplicity of the pusher and NO maintenance.

If we dumped on with 18” it may be a different story but time will tell.

Note, I have flat ground and places to push snow.

 

[oakhilltop]

I am considering a pusher, but it would have to push for 300 feet down a steep paved driveway. No place to push it to until I get to the road. I would push it across a lightly traveled road with a 10ish foot drop into the woods on the other side of the road.

How deep do you think the snow could be for a 5 foot pusher to handle pushing 300 feet? I could start on one side and if there is overflow towards the middle of the driveway, pick that overflow up on the next pass. And work my way across. Maybe 3 passes with the overflows.

Another possibility is to use my rear mount 64" snowblower to go down the middle of the driveway for deeper snow. Then use the pusher to push roughly 2.5 feet wide passes on each side.

Are any of these scenarios feasible? Or am I in la la land? I'd like to minimize my time in reverse, and we do get a lot of 3 or 4 inch storms where I think a pusher would be great and could handle the snow by itself.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Is your drive paved? I've always been curious about how they perform on a gravel or gravel-ish driveway.

 

[shooterdon]

My drive is gravel and I moved far less gravel than I did with either the blower or Western truck plow. As the drive freezes, it should be better and easier.

I have over 100 yards to push snow and it handled it well. If I had had a problem, I was going to drive over the first 50 yards, push out the end of the drive, then go back and pick up the first 50 yards. That would have cut the amount to push in half. There is no reason you have to push the snow the full 100 yards.

The other option is to take the first 4” of snow off the top and then the rest on the second pass.

 

[tacticalturnip]

That's really good to hear, one day I'll upgrade from EdgeTamers and I think a pusher is where I'll land.

 

[oakhilltop]

I don't think that driving over the first half is an option for me. Same goes for taking a few inches off of the top.

1. It's so steep that I don't like packing the snow with my tires. Plus it is on the north side of a hill, so it doesn't get much sun until the middle of February.
2. It's so steep (did I already mention that?) I'm not sure that I would be able to drive up over the first half of the snowfall and would be stuck on the downside.

I think that I would use the rear snowblower to remove 64" down the middle, then use the pusher to make a pass on the right side and another on the left side. The pavement is 10 feet wide most of the way. There is a bend where I think they made it 12 feet to give truck tires room to turn. Going down the middle in reverse is not as difficult since I don't have to be concerned about going off the pavement.

 

[oldnslo]

Pushing down hill will obviously help until the snow rolls over the top. Agree on blower is best option to open a path in heavier snow fall.

 

[Rustyiron]

In my experience, just like any kind of plow or blower the snow consistency matters. I've had deep "light" snow pile up in a V shape in front of it (my pusher) and it behaved like a V plow for a 1/4 mile. It didn't matter how long your push was.
Then the opposite type of snow that nothing likes - wet. It'll build up a cement wall in front of it and you'll be switching out to your bucket to get through it unless you have enough room to "chisel" at the edges until you get thru it with your pusher.
It gets expensive having just the right tool for every type and depth of snow, but a pusher will not disappoint you and there are work arounds. Plowing a wet snow every X inches for instance.
The old saying - "Plow with the storm" will always hold true.

 

[shooterdon]

Like I said in my first post….i have flat ground and places to push snow. Not everyone’s situation is the same.

What I did not mention is this was light snow. The wet heavy stuff may be a challenge

I agree there is no perfect solution. I have used a SxS plow, straight truck plow, Western V plow on an F250, a back blade, a pull blower and now a pusher. None are perfect.

And what works for someone who gets 50” of snow a year may not handle 150” of snow a year.

 

[jonsstihl]

not sure how big your tractor is but my approx 6500Lb L4740 with studded industrial tires runs out of traction pushing heavy wet snow even with a 1200Lbs blower on the back. I find it is easier to wait out the storm and clear it once at the end with the blower. leaves the edges really nice and saves fuel. This is all on flat ground and a small driveway by rural standard, U shaped probably 400 ft total. only the rear tires are studded but it wouldn't really matter because when you drop the loader into float you lose alot of the weight on the front tires anyways. when I get stuck it does help to lift the loader just up off the pavement to put some weight on the front tires.

 

[shooterdon]

not sure how big your tractor is but my approx 6500Lb L4740 with studded industrial tires runs out of traction pushing heavy wet snow even with a 1200Lbs blower on the back. I find it is easier to wait out the storm and clear it once at the end with the blower. leaves the edges really nice and saves fuel. This is all on flat ground and a small driveway by rural standard, U shaped probably 400 ft total. only the rear tires are studded but it wouldn't really matter because when you drop the loader into float you lose alot of the weight on the front tires anyways. when I get stuck it does help to lift the loader just up off the pavement to put some weight on the front tires.

My tractor is about 5500 lbs. I have oversize loaded turf tires.

I had a blower for five years and used it less than 25 times because we do not get the amount of snow we used to get years ago. Saving fuel is not on my list of things that matter. Another 15 gallons of diesel beats the pita of hooking up a blower, lubing chains, and replacing shear pins on a blower. I spent $200 getting the V plow serviced last year. A pusher is zero maintenance and easy on/off.

I expect to deal with snow 12 times a year. I don’t do anything if we get less than 4”.

The first time using the pusher I did not use the float function. I wonder if that was why the tractor did not get pushed around?

 

[Harrygoodwrench]

I am considering a pusher, but it would have to push for 300 feet down a steep paved driveway. No place to push it to until I get to the road. I would push it across a lightly traveled road with a 10ish foot drop into the woods on the other side of the road.

How deep do you think the snow could be for a 5 foot pusher to handle pushing 300 feet? I could start on one side and if there is overflow towards the middle of the driveway, pick that overflow up on the next pass. And work my way across. Maybe 3 passes with the overflows.

Another possibility is to use my rear mount 64" snowblower to go down the middle of the driveway for deeper snow. Then use the pusher to push roughly 2.5 feet wide passes on each side.

Are any of these scenarios feasible? Or am I in la la land? I'd like to minimize my time in reverse, and we do get a lot of 3 or 4 inch storms where I think a pusher would be great and could handle the snow by itself.

I have a 66" snow pusher and a rear PTO snowbower.
In your instance I'd use the snowblower to make a starter path then use the pusher to push the rest of the snow.

 

[Devildog 1]

I also have a 7’ pusher on my 3540 grand L , have about 8000 square foot of black top to plow, just love the pusher vs the 2000 HLA snow plow that I had first. The HLA was heavy and pushed the front of the tractor around while the pusher doesn’t. All tires are loaded and are industrial tires. I do have a 7’ rear snow blower if snow load is over 12”.

 

[Rainbow5]

Got a new pusher this year. Good decision. New favorite way to move snow.

Large parking area and long driveway. All gravel. Fastest way to clear parking, does medium on long driveway.

First snow was fairly big 8-10”. Mounted shoes approximately 1” below blade, did a very good job leaving gravel in place.

Parking area backdrag and clean up where needed. Fast.

Driveway, we pushed and unloaded into ditch a couple times along the way. Not ideal but still fast. Cleaned up nice.

Pusher preferred to rear blade. Pusher preferred to front blade. Pusher preferred to smaller tractor front blower, which WAS preferred for big snows.

Blade might be better if only concerned with driveway. But currently only using counterweight in rear and preferring the speed/mobility of pusher only versus length/utility of added rear attachment.

 

[Herzog]

Cleared this last week with a new-to-me 8' pusher. It was roughly 8-10" deep. Definitely pushes better on the downslope, but chains could certainly help with the other direction. Decided to groove the a bit to see if it will grab better when I get a full box. Definitely moves the snow faster than my plow truck with a straight blade (parked on the left there)

 

[Notforhire]

Just like a snow plow I think your pusher would work best if it was "hung" by a chain rather than relying on the float function of the loader. A big plus to the pusher IMO is there isn't the side thrust on your loader arms that you get with an angled plow.

 

[tlampros]

That's really good to hear, one day I'll upgrade from EdgeTamers and I think a pusher is where I'll land.

What do the edgetamers do for you? Looks like they lift the bucket slightly so it's not riding directly on the roadway. Does that save gravel?

 

[TractorTYMe]

I just sold my TMG 86'' Dozer blade I've used to plow with the last 5 years, we have so much mild winter anymore that the ground never freezes. So I was tired of curling turf and snagging on things, sold my blade for $1800 and bought a WR Long 6' snowpusher, best thing I ever did. MUCH more efficient with it, much less dribble om the sides as I can move snowpiles and contain them better.

 

[tacticalturnip]

What do the edgetamers do for you? Looks like they lift the bucket slightly so it's not riding directly on the roadway. Does that save gravel?

That's exactly what it does. It allows me to use the float position without tearing the gravel and dirt up.

I absolutely love them.

 

[simplemike]

Is your drive paved? I've always been curious about how they perform on a gravel or gravel-ish driveway.

The HLA pushers make a special skid shoe for gravel driveway.