Ok. Confused. Plow snow or blow that stuff.

[MadReferee]

I have a 200' gravel driveway with a 75' x 75' gravel parking area. I have a 64" Puma on my B2710. Some years we get lots of snow, other years we get very little. Before I got the Puma I had my area plowed. If we got a lot of snow it just piled up and we eventually lost over 50% of the parking area and couldn't get into one side of the garage.

The snowblower allows the snow to be thrown away from the drive and into the woods. This past year I kept the entire driveway (10' wide) and the parking area clear all winter.

If you have a hydraulic top link you can adjust it so that the front lip of the snowblower is raised slightly. I do this until the driveway freezes and I get almost no gravel thrown.

 

[B7500]

"If you have a hydraulic top link you can adjust it so that the front lip of the snowblower is raised slightly. I do this until the driveway freezes and I get almost no gravel thrown. "

Why could I not do this without a hydraulic top link which I don't have?

-Terry

 

[shvl73]

You could, just not as quick & easy to change.
I have the skid shoes raised to the maximum setting, keeps the cutting edge about 1" off the drive. I have not had any problem picking up stones on my gravel drive. Keep the chute angled away from the house, cars, etc. to be safe. A downward angle on the chute prevents anything from being thrown further than you'd want it to as well.

 

[44trxfun]

I think pros and cons have been covered pretty well here. Personally, I love my front-mount blower once the base layer of snow is down. Only thing I would add that might influence your decision is drifting snow can be like getting a whole 'nother XX inches in addition to what actually falls. Can make your snowfall amounts seem like a lot more when push comes to shove. Good luck with your decision.

 

[hazmat]

<font color="blue">Why could I not do this without a hydraulic top link which I don't have? </font>

You can - simply adjust your toplink. The hydraulic top link is just easier to do on the fly /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif and faster /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif and more expensive /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Still wish I had one.

To answer the posters question.

My garden tractor (JD 300) had a front blade. MY TC18 has a rear blade, FEL & Rear blower (Front blade is still under construcion). So I've tried everything short of a front blower or truck plow.

Observations.

Above 6" of light snow or even 4" of heavy wet snow, smaller Cuts don't have enough weight to cascade the snow to the side. My tractor ends up moving sideways. For smaller snowfalls, plowing may be faster (depends on how far you have to plow it off a parking area for instance)

The FEL is nice for stacking snow at the end of the driveway. Otherwise I find it the slowest method. Need to be carefull not to dig up the gravel.

The blower is KING of snow removal. You only have to handle the snow once. I've found that with carefull adjustment of top link and skid shoes, I don't send too much gravel into the yard. Less than I used to plow into the yard.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

hazmat, I think you covered the entire topic in one post and you did a great job of it. Front mount blowers are the most convenient but the most costly. Rear mount blowers get the job done with nearly the same speed and all the same quality as the front blowers. Plowing with a small tractor in MANY types of snow conditions is futile.

As for gravel & asphalt, my drive is paved, I have my skid shoes all the way down and I have the leading edge of the blower set to skim the surface of the drive. My neighbor works nights at the hospital and has a young child at home so I often do a couple passes on his driveway to help him out. His drive is rutted gravel (and I'm being polite to just call them ruts) so I simply tip the blower back a bit so the leading edge is elevated and find that I don't have any problems with throwing rocks.

By the way, I like the FEL off the tractor, others like the combination of the snow blower and the FEL. I prefer the added manuverability to get up closer to the garage doors, house, etc that I have when I don't have 3+ extra feet of tractor sticking out front. I do have front weights to hold the tractor down when I have the snowblower on the tractor as it is heavy enough to lighten the steering considerably.

 

[B7500]

Hazmat,
Do you use chains? Will I need them with my B7500 and rear snowblower?
Thanks,
-Terry

 

[rbarker]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Above 6" of light snow or even 4" of heavy wet snow, smaller Cuts don't have enough weight to cascade the snow to the side. My tractor ends up moving sideways.
)</font>

Here's another vote for not trying to plow too much snow with a CUT. I plow with a back blade on my BX2200 and after the first couple of passes the windrow just pushes the tractor to one side. I also wind up going back a day or so later and knocking down all the banks at the edge with the loader to make more room for the next storm. And my driveway is not 1100 feet and is nice smooth pavement. My vote would be to blow it, or plow it with your truck.

 

[hazmat]

I have chains. I needed them for plowing. Don't really need them for blowing, but since I've got them, I use them.

 

[Junkman]

Wayne..... I have a similar problem. Long paved driveway and the road coming into the place is gravel. Total distance is about 3/4 mile. I use a truck with a 8' plow to keep everything open during the storms and clean up afterward. I just purchased a snow blower, because I can't keep the sides of the drive from building up so high that there is no place left to put the snow. I had been pushing it back with the plow, but many times it damages the lawn and then I have to repair that in the spring. I have decided that the snowblower will do the "push back" of the sides along the edges of the drive. If you have to do like I did 20 years ago and pick which one to go with, then go with the plow. You will not regret it in the least bit. Just try to stay off the grass until the ground is frozen. I suggest that you use wooden driveway markers so you know where the edges are. I used to have the whole driveway marked, but through the years, they broke, got lost, or just disappeared and never got replaced. This year, I have 150 on order at a local sawmill. Use the oak sticks if you can find them....