How do you plow snow?

[nknelsen]

How do y'all remove snow? Plow truck, snowblower, 3-point back blade, etc.
Our primary snow mover is the 1989 Jeep Cherokee XJ with a 6'6" Western snowplow. It does a real good job with a front diff lock, 5 speed with the 4.0L. It's nice to have a heated cab. Traction becomes an issue in wet, sloppy spring snows though. View attachment 4419913

I find a good side by side ATV the most versatile, other than the open cab issue. I have a small driveway now but I used to plow a 500 meter driveway with a 60" plow on a 500 Honda Pioneer. It was good up to about 12" of fresh heavy snow. Any more than that and id need to use the tractor.

 

[veedub]

Old Case 1845c with a sno-way plow off an old plow jeep that rotted out. Can’t find a more recent picture. I no longer run these over tire tracks they kept breaking links and I got tired of fixing them they were also skis on a side slope. I run 4 tire chains now and it does just fine. I am in Vermont and we get a lot of snow. I also added extenders to the plow edges to curl the snow in a little more and widen my path. I love plowing with the skid steer. Nothing is more maneuverable. I can turn 90 degrees mid driveway and push off to the side if I need to. I can also raise the loader arms as I push and push a pile up 12’ high. I used to have a soft cab and a can heater. The cab ripped and the heater fan broke and I have yet to fix either but they did make the entire experience more pleasurable.

 

[veedub]

Here’s a more recent pic of the snoway plow with the added wings and all the jeep hydraulics and stuff removed. It’s simple, ugly, and it works. Forgot to give an honorable mention to my backup plow rig. 1985 Toyota pickup. It’s much quieter it’s warm and it’s got a radio. It’s also got no power steering so that’s fun. I don’t use it unless the skid steer is down for some reason because from a moving snow perspective the skid steer is better in every way even though the truck is much more comfortable.

 

[Cub 7275]

Fisher plows are made in Maine and are popular here. I've used the old straight permanently mounted blade, a Minute Mount straight blade, an Extreme V, and an XLS - my favorite. The XLS is a straight 8' blade with two hydraulically driven 1' extensions, so an 8' becomes a 10'. What's more, the ends can fold forward creating sort of a scoop for clearing larger areas like small parking lots without losing much of the captured snow on the way to the bank. V plows are great for breaking through deeper snow or banks left by town/state plows, but I've found they leave a windrow where the two moldboards hinge from. The XLS is a heavier plow and cleans right down to the pavement.

Adding angled wings was a huge improvement to my ancient Meyer straight blade.

Caught by the neighbors security camera:

Before widening to 8'6", the wings and the 42" tires:

 

[Hoho223]

Observe my avatar. 50 inch front mount blower.

 

[Rockbadchild]

At my in town property (3 cars driveway) its a quad with a plow and a small snow blower, I use both and works well... plow to the road and blow to the side...

At the property I have a older canyon truck with a plow and a quick attach articulated snow blade... mostly use the truck but will use the tractor for heavy snow or to push the bank further.

 

[brutus54]

I have a 4wd Ford 1720 tractor with a front end loader and a back blade. We are at 1700 ft elevation and seem to have our own weather. We can have a blizzard outside and drive 7 miles down into town and the sun is shining.

 

[High Compression]

airbiscuit asked me to post some pictures of my wing that I made years ago. A constriction that I had at the time, was that it needed to fit on a trailer. I had a niche plowing sidewalks for retail stores all over. So that is why when the wing is picked up all the way, it folds up vertically. The drawing is how I figured out the geometry.​

 

[tjandrews]

Rear blower, front loader on a JD 4600, though we haven't had REAL Central NY snow in a few years. Back in the day, for the Blizzard of '93(The so-called "Storm of the Century) and the Blizzard of '66 (The storm by which all others are measured by those who lived through it.) we used a homemade front blade on my grandfather's Case SC. Our present equipment is infinitely superior.

 

[walnutman]

My 04 Dodge I bought brand new. Now sporting 600hp/1200tq.
This is an old picture. We moved from SE PA to East Texas so good bye snow.

 

[ArlyA]

Gee, many of you folks are pushing snow, we'd leave.

 

[FarmHack]

I use my grandfather's old 3010 with an 8' Woods blade on back. Cab is ... not heated

 

[Fxfymn413]

Kubota L4060HSTC with a 9 foot Meyers I bought for $450.00 from a guy that picked it up at a MD state equipment auction. I fabbed up the mount for the tractor and I use the loader valve to angle and raise the blade. The drive in mount is raised with the rear remote I normally use for controlling the grapple.
I keep the box blade on which is handy for cleaning up while backing.

We get a lot of heavy wet stuff here and I found that a loader mounted blade tended to push the tractor around dues to the "lever" effect of the loader's length.

 

[dnw64]

B3030 Hydro/Cab with 63" front mount snowblower. I will never* plow a driveway that butts up to nice lawn/gardens - too much damage repair required to offset the time savings (JMO).

*Unless I absolutely have to for some reason...

 

[Gordon Gould]

I have over a mile of gravel road and a couple of driveways to plow. When the ground is frozen and I have a hard packed snow road established I use my 2001 Ram 3500 with a 9' Fisher straight plow. It is fast, warm, and can throw snow over the banks.

When things are soft or I want to push back banks or at the end of the season when the banks are too high and the road too narrow for the 9' straight truck plow I use my M5640 with a 7.5' Fisher.

ReHabbed and SetBack 7.5' Fisher on M5640

gg

 

[lostkayaker]

We have an 800' driveway in the woods with no place to heap the snow so a 3 pt blower on a Cub Cadet SC2400 (subcompact). Oh yeah, we are on the south shore of Lake Superior with its lake effect snow.

 

[Cycledude]

 

[Bad Boy Biker]

Neighbor asked, "Why do you used a skid steer to clear your driveway?" Because I have one.

 

[TugHillDog]

3rd tractor [Mahindra 2645], 2nd blower [LandPride 60some" wth hydraulic chute rotation. All I need yet to do is put on the rear chains. Just east of the last big lake, we typically get 120" over the winter [sometimes from both Erie and Ontario at the same time!] You oughta hear the neighbors cheer when I bring this puppy out to play in the neighborhood.

 

[John_Mc]

We used a Moose and bent it. We found all atv blades to be on the lighter side.

Not surprising, given what you are pushing it with.