FEL plow vs. rear blade for 1 mile of infrequent chipseal road snow removal

[DK35vince]

8 foot ? How much snow before it bogs down?

Its a 9' plow.
I run chains on all 4 tires, we rarely get more than 12" snows at a time.
Handles any snows we ever get no problem at all.

 

[chim]

Tried front blade, rear blade, loader, rear blower and combinations of these. Front blade is my first choice. Our snowfalls are really inconsistent. Some Winters are real, and some tease us with a few light snows. Mounting the plow way out front is akin to having a front-mounted rudder with any significant snowfall. If you want a front blade, I'd suggest you look into what some here term "underslung" mounts. There have been a few threads on this and they're worth reading.

With my 8' tucked under the loader frame I can keep the tractor pointed where I want. I do have loaded rears and grooved tires. The blade is suspended with a chain, like it was on the donor truck. That allows the blade itself to float, rather than floating the FEL frame.

 

[ddbackhoe]

Its a 9' plow.
I run chains on all 4 tires, we rarely get more than 12" snows at a time.
Handles any snows we ever get no problem at all.

Wow, pretty impressive. Thanks

 

[DK35vince]

Tried front blade, rear blade, loader, rear blower and combinations of these. Front blade is my first choice.

+1
I have a bucket, a rear blade, rear mount snow blower.
I chose to use the front mount snow plow 99% of the time.

 

[Elviscaretaker]

Depends on the road and amount of snow. I use a 9' plow/dozer blade on the front of mine and I can change the angle from inside the cab. As far as pile up or being pushed around its never been a problem for me. I do .6 miles then our drive. I tend to run at about 20 mph while plowing to throw the snow far enough off the road to keep it from piling up when we get it heavy. I have an odd feature that when you flip a lever on the front hydraulics it allows it to "float" and take a shock to it, I've never jammed it though and the spring loaded blade while annoying works pretty well. Never tried it with a rear blade.....

 

[LouNY]

I have a FEL mounted blade, a couple of 3 pt back blades, and a pair of blowers one conventional and I inverted pull type.
The FEL mounted blade sticks out way to far in front of the tractor, it does do the job and I can make some impressive snow piles using it.
Much of the time my rear blades are my preferred tool. I can let them float on the ground and by changing my toplink length I can adjust how aggressive the cutting edge gets.

The FEL mounted blade;

and the back blade both in use, one pulling snow away from doors and such and the other pushing away

Here I am actually pushing snow in reverse with the blade acting as kind of a squeegee to move wet snow
from a soft driveway without moving a lot of gravel and dirt

pushing a good sized snowfall

The conventional when being prepped.

The inverted when being prepped,

snow piled with the front blade,

 

[beenthere]

I live at the end of a 1 mile private road, which is chip sealed. We get anywhere between 0-3 "problematic" storms per year, usually between 4-12" of snow at a time. This doesn't seem like a lot, but it's a nightmare every time. The road has some steep parts and camber to it, with deep ditches on the side, and folks with lesser vehicles or lesser judgement always get stuck. Sometimes very stuck. After a day, the snow turns into ice and then everyone gets stuck for days and days until it melts.

Last year was particularly bad, and I used my loader bucket to clear out the worst sections of the road where people were getting stuck. This was very time consuming, and not the right tool for the job. I had to scoop it up one bucket at a time and dump it over the edge of the road. I was unable to push it anywhere, because it all clumps together and often freezes onto the inside of the bucket. It would take me all day to do the whole road.

I'd like to set my L2501 up to be able to clear these occasional storms, and I'm torn between:

• 7' rear blade with adjustable angle. Replace metal cutting edge with polyurethane strip. Let the "tilt" link on the 3 point hitch float, either by removing the link entirely or adding hydraulic top/tilt and floating the tilt valve, so that it can follow the contour of the road. Easy to find a rear blade used for $500.
• 7' quick attach snowplow attachment for front end loader, with either hydraulic or manual angle adjustment (I do have the 3rd function hydraulics). Hard to find used around here, would likely buy new.

The rear blade is definitely a cheaper option, and I get to keep my loader bucket or grapple attached for other tasks. I'm worried though that by not having my backhoe or chipper on the rear of the tractor (both at least 1200lbs) I'll be losing a lot of ballast/traction. The rear blade also doesn't have the springs of a snow plow, to give it relief if I hit an obstacle. There aren't many potential obstacles on the road, but these things happen. I'm also a little skeptical of how well the tractor will steer when pushing snow with the loader. The front end of this tractor is not particularly heavy, and I've noticed that when I'm pushing things around with the loader (stumps, piles of dirt, big rocks) it doesn't steer very well. It seems like the loader has too much leverage on the tractor, being so far out in front of the steering axle.


Thoughts? Similar experience? Any input is appreciated.

Fabricate a quick hitch on the front of the tractor that will handle a 7' plow blade and toss in a wing blade for those times when the plowed snow gets too closed in to handle with the 7' plow.
Remove the FEL. Takes only at most 25 minutes to switch back and forth so no problem at all. Been using this setup for the last 25 years on my JD 4300

 

[Doz]

I live at the end of a 1 mile private road, which is chip sealed. We get anywhere between 0-3 "problematic" storms per year, usually between 4-12" of snow at a time. This doesn't seem like a lot, but it's a nightmare every time. The road has some steep parts and camber to it, with deep ditches on the side, and folks with lesser vehicles or lesser judgement always get stuck. Sometimes very stuck. After a day, the snow turns into ice and then everyone gets stuck for days and days until it melts.

Last year was particularly bad, and I used my loader bucket to clear out the worst sections of the road where people were getting stuck. This was very time consuming, and not the right tool for the job. I had to scoop it up one bucket at a time and dump it over the edge of the road. I was unable to push it anywhere, because it all clumps together and often freezes onto the inside of the bucket. It would take me all day to do the whole road.

I'd like to set my L2501 up to be able to clear these occasional storms, and I'm torn between:

• 7' rear blade with adjustable angle. Replace metal cutting edge with polyurethane strip. Let the "tilt" link on the 3 point hitch float, either by removing the link entirely or adding hydraulic top/tilt and floating the tilt valve, so that it can follow the contour of the road. Easy to find a rear blade used for $500.
• 7' quick attach snowplow attachment for front end loader, with either hydraulic or manual angle adjustment (I do have the 3rd function hydraulics). Hard to find used around here, would likely buy new.

The rear blade is definitely a cheaper option, and I get to keep my loader bucket or grapple attached for other tasks. I'm worried though that by not having my backhoe or chipper on the rear of the tractor (both at least 1200lbs) I'll be losing a lot of ballast/traction. The rear blade also doesn't have the springs of a snow plow, to give it relief if I hit an obstacle. There aren't many potential obstacles on the road, but these things happen. I'm also a little skeptical of how well the tractor will steer when pushing snow with the loader. The front end of this tractor is not particularly heavy, and I've noticed that when I'm pushing things around with the loader (stumps, piles of dirt, big rocks) it doesn't steer very well. It seems like the loader has too much leverage on the tractor, being so far out in front of the steering axle.


Thoughts? Similar experience? Any input is appreciated.

 

[Doz]

I would go with a inverted snowblower that way you are driving away for the snow you are blowing instead of into it especially if you don’t have a cab ! But even if you do it help keep windows clear depending on steepness of the hills set of chains great to have the best part of the blower is it gets the snow away from the driveway and you don’t get snow banks and drifting good luck you will never regret buying one

 

[HAR]

The road has some steep parts and camber to it, with deep ditches on the side,


Thoughts? Similar experience? Any input is appreciated.

Regardless, considering your road alone, start with aggressive chains front and rear.