Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Plowin' snow with fel question.

[daTeacha]

You really can't beat a blower. For years we plowed the yard with a rear blade and by January there wasn't anywhere left to pile the snow. .

Where I used to live in Michigan, in the Muskegon Grand Rapids area but further north, the long time residents literally plowed the yard, not just the driveway. They did it so they had a place to push the snow into during a "good old fashioned Michigan winter". That area gets lake effect snow same as the Buffalo/western New York region.

 

[Henro]

Oscer,

Even on short distances, and tight quarters, the rear blade excells over the loader. The loader is great to have, no doubt about that. But more cumbersome if you have to get close to things in many cases. And the more distance you have to go, the less useful the loader is as compared to a blade that can be angled and causes the snow to be pushed to the side as you move forward.

And if you want to get close to something, like a garage door ro similar, with the rear blade you can set the angle to zero and back up close and drop the blade, and pull forward easily, all the time seeing with pretty good accuracy where the edge of the blade is with respect to the door. A bit harder to estimate with the loader, for the "normal" man anyway.

In my case, I have float on one of my tilt cylinders, and gage wheels on my rear blade. So the blade follows compond curves of the driveway that I plow. Try that with my loader? Maybe...but try is about all I can do. It will not follow the angles like my rear blade will.

In my case, for moving snow off the driveway/parking area, the rear blade beats my loader by a factor of about three. I would not want to be without either though...

 

[oscer]

Hinro,thanks for the advise. I don't have a rear blade but I've been using a front blade on my cub,it works alright except near the state road where the plow dumps all the wet slush.I need the fwd for that and to dig out my mailbox.

 

[Champy]

1*It wasn't iron; that would still tear up the drive same as the bucket edge does.
2*I'd just slit a piece of inch or inch & a quarter plastic water or gas pipe and slide it over the lip of the bucket. I think it would grip the bucket better than PVC and isn't as brittle.
3*What they bolted was a strip of a rubber horse stall matt.
~~~~~~~~~~A piece of a pick up bed mat would also work.
Your getting the methods of attaching Matting and plastic confused with each other.

Just trying to understand the attachment processes here.....

> Where / How are you bolting on the rubber mat - on the underside of the FEL cutting edge - or wrapped around the edge???


> If using the 1.25" hose approach - do you tie wrap in using the bolt holes or just wedge in on and hope it stays put?

Thanks

 

[broomjob]

Prior soft edge threads


http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/73958-snow-removal-fel.html

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/70596-help-soft-edge-loader-bucket.html

 

[Oleozz]

I plowed my blacktop driveway for the past 7 or 8 years with just a FEL on my JD 870, I had a rear blade on but found myself never using it. I put the FEL on the float position and never had and problems with digging in or scraping to deep. I plan to do the same with the Kioti 45, hopefully I won't need the plow for it either. I've been seeing loads of snowblowers for sale in the Mailbox Market of the Lancaster Farming magazine.

 

[thatguy]

I thought I read where someone used a metal pipe that was split all the way to mount over the cutting edge.. They then drilled a hole and welded a nut over the hole and positioned inside the bucket. Then a bolt was inserted thru the nut and tightened down so the pipe edge would not come off.. For some reason I was thinking the pipe was a corner post for a chain link fence, which i think is galvanized but im not sure if it is weldable..

good luck

b

 

[Glowplug]

I would think a loader arm mounted plow would be best for long straight-aways. A loader would be good in a small parking lot confined area. And a blower would be good for short driveways and around the house.

I personally have over a 300' paved driveway and about 3/4 mile of paved private road. I would like to eventually get a dedicated plow. I would love to get a Curtis tractor plow. With it being 30 degree angled it would roll and push the snow right off to the side of long straight stretches.

 

[oscer]

Thanks for the replies fellas, I decided not to use the fel except for moving the piles if needed .I bought a used snowblower for my cub had to do a little fab work on it but it's ready now,alas still no snow.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Hmmm, I've got about 20 hours in the last 8 days of doing this.
Wasn't a big deal (dirt road, dirt driveway, church parking lot is paved and sidewalks are concrete)
A plow would have been better for the road, but the first time the snow was 25" tall, you couldn't move it more than 25/30 feet or so, plow wouldn't have worked. The 2nd storm was only 8", a plow would have worked there.

Just set your FEL slightly above dig in depth (so it's curled up or almost straight) and set your float, and away you go. Leaves about an inch or so on the road/driveway, which will melt off (and is way better than 2 feet)
Then set it down a little on concrete/paved so it gets to the concrete.

But use the float is key, otherwise it digs in.

Next tractor though, I think I'll get quick release SS style buckets and then get a big flat blade for snow removal, you could push more and it would be faster because you wouldn't have to empty each time.