How effective is a Box Blade for Snow Removal?

[Professor Marvel]

I think a box blade will work better than the bushog my city neighbor used a couple years ago but it would not be my choice.

 

[Mousefield]

It doesn't work that well. I tried it a couple of years ago and found the snow packed into the boxblade and I had to use a shovel to loosen it so I could dump it. I use my FEL but used the boxblade to clean up bits of snow left behind and to get a soother finish on the road. To me it was not worth the hassle to use the boxblade. Most of the time I have my backhoe on anyway as it has a lot more weight.

 

[K TWO]

Box blade works great for me. I have a 150 foot drive and a very large turn around area and probably average a foot of fresh a week with little or no wind. It allows me to pull snow cleanly away from around buildings, vehicles, etc. I just pull it away with box, then back though it and stack it with loader. In a perfect world, I'd have a front blower and a box blade but this set up is fine for me. I also like having my bucket to push / pull me out when I get stuck. (Often). If you regularly get more than a foot at a time or your drive is longer than 150 feet, I wouldn't recommend this set up though as it's a lot of back and forth on the big dumps.

 

[smilingreen]

Years ago, I had a landscape company here in middle Tennessee. I had a bunch of property maintenance contracts which included snow removal, in the rare event we got enough snow to matter. Wouldn't you know it, the first winter, we had several snow storms that dumped several inches of snow on us back to back. I had my JD 790 MFWD tractor, FEL and a box blade the first trip out. The box blade didn't work very well. Went back to the shop and put the rear grader blade on and was able to roll the snow in windrows very easily. I did cleanup with the FEL. I froze my butt off.

The second year, I found a used Myers poly plow and mounted it to my Dodge 3500 truck and stayed warm and toasty that year.

 

[jimmysisson]

I use a PA converted truck plow in place of the loader bucket, and a heavy Gannon box on back. Where my drive hits the street it's great to be able to push forward and reverse. Best though is pulling where the box will cut down to the pavement to scrape compacted snow off. Sure, the box fills up and stops cutting, but the plow will glide up over compacted snow and make things worse. It's almost the only time I use my box blade and it works well for me.
Jim

 

[john_bud]

I would stay away from a box blade for snow removal.

If it's too low, you can peel up the drive way (black top / gravel) or catch an edge and pop out a chunk of cement. Or you can go off the drive and find "brown snow" where you peeled up the lawn.

Plus, snow doesn't roll off the blade, so you there is a lot of back and forth to actually get it clean. A back blade that you can angle and adjust the tilt so it is less likely to harm the lawn. Used ones are just a couple hundred bucks.

 

[mfreund]

That and a loader is all I ever use. I do use the hydraulic top link to shake out the snow if it gets trapped in the box. That only happens if the snow is really wet. Is it the best tool?.....idk but it works fine for me

 

[MESSMAKER]

I use one. It works fine in reverse, but is tricky to use going forward because it loads up the snow rather than pushing it to one side. It can be done, but a grader blade is better.

 

[sandyc]

I would think that anything that you can make work should be OK. The trouble up here is that you run out of space to plow the snow. I use a front blade until the ground freezes and then switch to a blower. Saves me from having to push the snow banks back.

 

[pedalstomper78]

Box blade works great for me. I plow mine, and a number of my neighbors driveways in my neighborhood and have always had good luck. The biggest tips are to shorten the top link for hard surfaces such as concrete and asphalt. Lengthen it for gravel. I've found I can scrape a drive and leave about 1/2" of snow on top on gravel so I'm not having to rake the grass where I put the snow piles later in the year.