How do you plow snow?

[lman]

I use a blade on the front of my tractor but we haven't been getting enough to keep my dog happy lately.

 

[grsthegreat]

Well…sunshine is overrated.

I LOVE the snow. Gives me more excuses to rest and relax. Wife doesnt bug me…..its a nice day outside, you should go out and mow the lawn, than clean up the trails, than i need a new fence by the garden, then……

Did i tell you i love the snow.

 

[John_Mc]

I have about 1100 feet of driveway plus about 450 ft of unmaintained town road to plow (so about 1/4 mile total). About half of the driveway is shared with a good friend/neighbor. He has a snowplow set up on his 50 HP John Deere tractor and often beats me to the common areas.

For years, I never had my NH TC33D tractor set up for good snow removal. When needed, I'd use the loader bucket on the front and a boxblade on the rear. It was a pain to do snow removal with, but it worked. (The scarifiers on the boxblade also came in handy when the steep, east-facing part of our driveway iced up.)

We added a 42" snowblower on our Craftsman GT5000 garden tractor. It was slow, but surprisingly effective. We used it on the area up near the house and garage, and occasionally on the whole driveway or to push back the snowbanks. We also used it to snowblow our 1/4 acre pond for ice skating in the winter.

Shown here shortly after emerging from its swimming lesson back in 2013. (I forgot I had just turned off the bubbler in the middle of the pond a couple of weeks earlier. The edge was solid. When I got to the center where the bubbler was, it broke through.)

Fortunately the snow blower caught on some of the solid ice, preventing it from sinking all the way to the bottom (probably close to 15 ft deep at that point). It was about 10˚F outside at the time.

The GT5000 got retired from snow duty and passed on to the in-laws when I bought a 64" Provnost Puma 3 point hitch snowblower from a friend who was moving across the country. Got quite a deal: he owed me a couple of favors, so would not accept more than $500 for it. It works really well, but is still slower than a good plow set-up, and turning around backwards to do the whole driveway gets old after a while. It is a whole lot more useful for snow removal on the back end of the TC33D than the box blade.
(for some reason, I have no pictures of the snow blower on the tractor.)

After tiring of going backwards slowly on the tractor, I bought a Honda Pioneer 520 SxS and added a 66" KFI poly snow blade. I figured I'd take care of the lighter snows quickly with that, and use the snowblower on the tractor for the big stuff. I was debating between 60" and 66", worried that 66 would be too much for the little SxS. Turns out the 66" is a perfect match. With diamond-pattern chains and some weight in the back, it easily handles 8" snow storms (the largest I've tried it on so far).

The snow was coming down so hard in this picture that it messed up the auto-focus on the camera.

 

[John_Mc]

Well…sunshine is overrated.

I LOVE the snow. Gives me more excuses to rest and relax. Wife doesnt bug me…..its a nice day outside, you should go out and mow the lawn, than clean up the trails, than i need a new fence by the garden, then……

Did i tell you i love the snow.

I would NEVER live in a place without a real Winter.

 

[ArlyA]

We're with you guys who like da snow. We moved here for it. Switched to the 6x6 since this photo was taken. Stay LOTS drier that way.

 

[JRH02]

We have a private road via easements through unoccupied private parcels. That's about 1.5 miles after 1/4 mile of our driveway. IF I move snow, and that's a big 'if,' its with the big loader and the 8' bucket is set around 12" above the trail or the bucket might hook a boulder. And that's not good. The loader then mashes tire tracks though the snow under the bucket.

The biggest problem we have is, several times each year, people think they will take a joy ride up the canyon since the road has been 'opened' even though there is lots of signage saying private road, no trespassing and land owner access only. There is no cell service. They get stuck. So they walk the trail right to our house. I keep thinking of a sign that says "Do Not Pass This Point If You Are Stuck And Don't Have $300 Cash." If I let them use our WiFi a tow will cost them at least $500 if they can find a service that will even show up. And there's about no way I could get around them to pull backwards down the hill. And I'm not going to do any of this in the dark.

But I might be compelled to do something because if we have to get out the trail is blocked. The 410j would easily push their vehicle off the road into the trees but that might cause some other problems....

 

[Elviscaretaker]

I use a 9' "snow plow" blade on my larger tractor. .7 miles to do and it takes 3 passes to clear the road. I'm in the mountain desert plains so our snow is hit and miss, but if I leave anything on the dirt road it becomes a muck mess and either people get stuck or it gets torn up bad. Takes about 1/2 hour and I can go fast enough to throw the snow well off the road. Those wing ideas are intriguing though. Then I use my little guy to bucket the snow out of the cattle/horse pens in the areas they have shelters, water and where I feed them. That can be fun as my bulls do not like tractors and can spin my little tc-30 at will.

 

[jjeff]

used to use ATVs with plows, chains, receiver weight boxes even spent/;wasted time and money on a self-contained underpowered made in China atv snowblower.. I use my old l l2850 with loader to push banks back down state, however this year I think I've got it, down state and up north come on snow I dare you .

 

[dnw64]

used to use ATVs with plows, chains, receiver weight boxes even spent/;wasted time and money on a self-contained underpowered made in China atv snowblower.. I use my old l l2850 with loader to push banks back down state, however this year I think I've got it, down state and up north come on snow I dare you .

Now just hope that Chevy (oops, GMC) holds up...

 

[JRH02]

Now just hope that Chevy (oops, GMC) holds up...

You read my mind. But I wasn't gonna say it.

 

[jjeff]

That truck is solid if for some reason it does fail, back to ATVs lol.

 

[jjeff]

You read my mind. But I wasn't gonna say it.

That's a 3/4 ton with an Alison and lots of bullet proof upgrades including to fuel pump and front end . I think I've got it.

 

[BX23S-1]

Can someone show us “fake” snow as opposed to “real” snow?

Well, you asked for it.... here`s how fake snow is made!

 

[CalG]

Well, you asked for it.... here`s how fake snow is made!


View attachment 4430595

Yup, they are blasting away at the local ski bump.
Opening for ski&ride the 22nd, I was up there today, there are going to be TWO "ribbons of death" for the earlybirds.

Myself, I'm not much for early season snow skiing.

Give me a day of deep and light in Feb, ;-)

 

[Aquabird]

I have an F-250 with a Boss V blade, I scoop with my FEL on my tractor and I have the scraper blade on the back of my tractor. I ALSO have 2 snow blowers and Dr. Walk behind with a scraper blade. Normally use Boss V and tractor.

 

[Hay Dude]

Well, you asked for it.... here`s how fake snow is made!


View attachment 4430595

Yeah, haha soo funny LOL you’re a regular Geoge Carlin aren’t ya. LOL

The whole thing that’s flown over your heads is the reference to “real” snow as if his snow was more “real” than anyone else's snow.
But y’all missed that.
Is his snow any more “real” to plow, shovel, salt, etc than anyone else's?

Is 10” of his snow any more “real” than 10” of snow where I live?

I could argue mine’s more “real” because I live in a climate where people aren’t as accustomed to heavy snow as where he lives and it places a more “real” burden on us.

Now maybe you now understand what I meant by “real” versus “fake”

 

[D'oh]

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[BX23S-1]

Yeah, haha soo funny LOL you’re a regular Geoge Carlin aren’t ya. LOL

The whole thing that’s flown over your heads is the reference to “real” snow as if his snow was more “real” than anyone else's snow.
But y’all missed that.
Is his snow any more “real” to plow, shovel, salt, etc than anyone else's?

Is 10” of his snow any more “real” than 10” of snow where I live?

I could argue mine’s more “real” because I live in a climate where people aren’t as accustomed to heavy snow as where he lives and it places a more “real” burden on us.

Now maybe you now understand what I meant by “real” versus “fake”

LOL......... well, you kinda left yourself wide open for that one! hehehehe

 

[DK35vince]

For years I plowed with my tractor (Kioti DK 35) with a 9' Western snow plow and rear mounted snow blower.
The past several years we have not had large enough snowfall I can't handle with my side by side (Polaris RZR 900s) with
72" plow. RZR has enclosed cab with heat.

 

[Hay Dude]

Here’s my 10’ Western Heavyweight, for when we get “real” snow. Hooked to 200HP Massey Ferguson 7495.