Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Plowing snow with a FEL

[canoetrpr]

For those of you using a rear blade to clear snow - do you back up to clear the snow (like you would with a 3PT snowblower) or do you drive forwards?

Maybe a silly question but bear with me

 

[RoyJackson]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( For those of you using a rear blade to clear snow - do you back up to clear the snow (like you would with a 3PT snowblower) or do you drive forwards?

Maybe a silly question but bear with me )</font>


First couple years, I drove in reverse...my blade won't turn 180°, so that's the only way I could use the convex side of the blade.

Last year, I drove forward...just left the blade ½" or so above the gravel. The last pass might be in reverse though.

 

[johnbilt]

Hi

My FEL works fine for plowing. Use the level indicator to raise the blade slightly. I apply a little downpressure and away I go. I adjust the pressure up a bit if I lose steering. I don't dump any snow until the end of my run, about 200 feet. The snow generally packs in and some does run over the top, but I get it on another pass. A rear blade would make a neater job.

I haven't had any luck with the float mode going forward. It works great for backblading.

John

 

[Toolguy]

The answer to your silly question. Yes. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif



Seriously, it depends on the type of snow and how much. Small amount and soft, pull forward and angle to the side. Heavy, wet, deep or, hard, dry drifted stuff will work better if blade is turned around and pushed. That way you aren't trying to drive through the snow first.

Just try different methods and find out what works best for you. There is no one right way.

 

[ttowne66]

Hey Guys

Having used FEL and Snowblower and although I have never seen one in use, I believe that this would be the way to go.

http://www.plowsunlimited.com/boxplow.htm

I am going to look into making one for FEL and using the snowblower for the real heavy snowfalls. Let me know what you think!

Tom

 

[ByronBob]

I've used my FEL for over 3 years now to clean the driveway. Granted it's not the easiest thing to use by over time you will learn how to find the sweet spot for clearing snow.
I don't have the cash for a RSB yet but a blade I imagine would work nice also. I end up after a while asking the neighbor to run the blade down the driveway after the ground has frozen. Normally this lasts a while so I don't need to bother him all the time. So for the multiple uses a FEL gives you I still think it's ok.

 

[Jrrcorp]

For 25 years I used a 5' blower on the rear and a 5' FEL bucket on the front. 20 years were on gravel. You have to establish a base if you have a gravel driveway no matter what you use to clear it. I would just tilt the blower back a little to avoid picking up all the gravel, but you always pick up some no matter what. Same with the blower. With wet heavy snow, the gravel just sticks to the snow (or vice versa) so it's impossible to avoid not picking up some gavel with the snow. Here in Western NY snow belt (sky resort country) we get a lot of snow. Now that I have a blacktop driveway, the blower works great for a lot of snow but for a few inches the FEL works great. I don't understand why so many of you are having a problem using your FEL for snow removal. Maybe a rear blade is easier to use but the FEL works great. You just have to get use to it.

 

[thcri]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( There are two issuse with using a fel for snow;

1 ever 10' you will have to dump

2 the angle of the fel wants to cut in unless your back draging.
)</font>

I have been using my loader for 5 years now with no troubles. When I had the gravel I just waited for a layer of snow to build up. I would keep the bucket level and use the float position. Long driveways the loader is not so good. But in my case my driveway is only about 150 feet and I just push it down and across the road to the other side. Yep I have to make a few trips because of overflow but it works ok for me. Now my driveway is concrete so I tip the bucket down a bit and use float. Keeps it pretty good.

The problem that I have seen with a blade is the blade pushes snow to one side and with time the embankment built up on the sides tend to push your tractor to one side and you end up with a narrower driveway unless you have a pretty heavy tractor.

I personally think the snow blower is the best, just pick it up and throw it as far as you can.

murph

 

[MetalChicken]

Here in the UK everything seems to grind to a halt whenever we get a couple of flakes of snow - that's how much we get /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
Anyway, the area I live in is limited to a few inches of snow at most so there really is no reason for us to have any form of snow removal equipment.
As it happens though I bought the attached road brush on eBay at the weekend. It's about 5' wide and powered by the PTO. The brush is a nylon/wire mix and by my reckoning could do a really good job of clearing a couple of inches of snow from our tarmac driveway and parking areas.
As you can see it need a fairly major amount of tidying (next spring I think), but it works fine.

 

[George2615]

At the start of this snow season I have a 64" PUMA snowblower on the 3PH mainly for weight. I only use the blower for steep driveways during heavy / deep snowfalls that I can't plow or drive through. I plow about a dozen drives each year. For lighter snows I use the loader bucket mostly on gravel driveways. I run in float mode with the bucket curled up about 3/4" and just push. I don't dump the bucket till I'm done, just raise and lower it each pass. Once the ground freezes I pull 4 pins to take the bucket off and put on an old 7 1/2' plow blade I adapted to fit the loader arms. I have a Mahindra 2615HST and plow in mid range of the L/M/H selector at 1800-2000 RPM and control speed with the HST pedal. Been plowing almost 40years with everything from walkbehinds, 4 wheelers, various tractors, and trucks all the way up to an Oshkosh w/wing plow so I'm used to what I need to do. It does take practice. Also have a Chevy 2500HD w/ Duramax and plow. One neighbor I've plowed for 15 yrs. said not to plow him this year since he retired and was buying a new tractor to do it himself. He bought a MF GC2300 sub compact w/ loader and proceeded to tear up his gravel driveway. Then he came over and asked how I was able to plow it for 15 yrs. and he tore the h&#@ out of it. I gave him some pointers and said at least he can use his new toy to redo his drive in the spring.