Snow Attachments Plowing snow with rear blade going forward

Gavman · Dec 15, 2005

ford850

I have an idea for making even quicker work of your long driveway. I'd think it would be worth a try, but I have never attempted it seeing as how I don't have the same equipment.
What if you off set your rear blade towards the side you are pushing the snow to, and then angled it the same way as your front blade. It seems to me that you could take out a much larger swath. Just thought it would be worth a try. I have no idea if it would work.

Trev · Dec 15, 2005

I'll have to talk to a friend from work who has an old Ford 8N he rebuilt. He says with his rear blade, he does his 1/4 mile driveway in two passes.. one down, and one back. End of story. Never been on an 8N.. perhaps it's a much bigger tractor.. I don't know.. but he seems to have no problems no matter how much snow we get. And we're in the snow belt between Rochester and Buffalo NY.

Bob

zuiko · Dec 15, 2005

I do the driveway in two passes too... but there are a few shortcomings.

1) The driveway gets narrower as the year goes on
2) The piles along side the driveway drift back into the road due to the wind
3) When dealing with drifted snow where you can drive up on them without sinking all the way to the ground, it is hard to remove the drifts with the rear blade. When your rear wheels go over the drift, the blade shoots up into the air.
4) Intersections and open areas are a pain to clear

I've never had a problem with getting stuck or having to take multiple passes because of power or traction. I have R1s without chains and drive forward with the blade flipped backwards so I can just drop it all the way down and let it float. I can be plowing up to the top of the blade in a medium gear and still have no issue.

From my experience most snow storms the rear blade is fine but we just got a storm that yielded 2+ foot well packed together drifts all over the place. This was a real challenge with the rear blade and I had to use the FEL for some of it. With the blade I would have to go over it many times and from different angles to try to eliminate the drifts.

cwarrix · Dec 15, 2005

Duhh, I never even thought of that. Makes perfect sense now. Hmmm, maybe I need to turn my tires around /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Or better yet, maybe just turn one tire around so at least one tire will have traction in either direction /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Seriously, thanks for pointing that out. That fact completely slipped my mind. I'm not sure what these tires are exactly, I've heard them called rice tires since they were used in the rice fields of Japan I guess. But they are definitely set up for traction in one direction.

Thanks!
Chuck

beenthere · Dec 15, 2005

Trev
Your 'friend' is pulling your leg a bit. Probably true under just the right snow conditions, and depending on how he wants to leave his drive. But it's probably good enough to get the cars in and out without much time invested plowing. The 8N Fords do have good pulling power and traction, and good weight to them. But they are not 'magical' or 'super' in handling a rear blade. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Trev · Dec 16, 2005

Chuck, I've heard of people who reverse both of their front tires for loader work in sand/dirt.. and for the same reason. Not having a FEL, I've never had to do things like that. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Bob

Trev · Dec 16, 2005

( Hi Trev, no spring trip of any kind, wish I did. This is my first year with the tractor and blade, I might try to build a better solution this summer. I pull most of the time with the blade backwards, so it will roll over most anything you could find in my driveway. Then I just push the pile off into the grass. Most of the time the blade is up and inch or so when I hit the pile which might help. And I usually know whats under the pile as well. Also, when I talk about speed, I don't mean 20MPH /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif but you are right, fast enough that I don't want to come to a dead stop, or break something on the tractor. I was dragging some dirt around over the summer and hit a small stump, man, I hit the steering wheel so hard it rattled my teeth /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif I'm just glad nobody saw it /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

BTW - did your blade come with a spring trip, or did you add it? Thanks! Chuck )

Chuck,

Pulling the blade backwards should definately help if you did hit something. My blade came with the springs, and with a couple of holes in which you can put a bolt if you want to disable the spring action (for moving dirt and rocks at low speed.) The springs have adjustments nuts on top of them so you can customize the point at which they will begin to "kick in." This is a *front* blade.. I don't know if they make a rear blade with a spring setup.. although I would be surprised if they didn't.

Your story of hitting the stump reminded me of a funny "out take" scene from some Mel Gibson movie. He flips over a car in the middle of NYC, it burst into flames, and Mel crawls out of the car, looks around, and says "Geez, I hope nobody saw that!"

HTH,
Bob /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Trev · Dec 16, 2005

( Trev
Your 'friend' is pulling your leg a bit. Probably true under just the right snow conditions, and depending on how he wants to leave his drive. But it's probably good enough to get the cars in and out without much time invested plowing. The 8N Fords do have good pulling power and traction, and good weight to them. But they are not 'magical' or 'super' in handling a rear blade. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif )

My friend pulling my leg? Utterly impossible! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif But yeah, you guys are right.. It sure doesn't work that way for me. I always take many passes to get things just the way I want.. with piles pushed back, the area in front of the mailbox cleaned out for the "mail lady", and so on.

Sounds like you've "beenthere" and "donethat." /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Bob

Youare · Dec 16, 2005

I owned an 8N for more than 20 years and used it to plow the driveway and then some. I had a 6 1/2' Meyers plow mounted to the FEL. however, I never had a rear blade on it.

That tractor with 2wd with chains did really well in the snow and ice. They weigh more than tractors of the same horsepower today and the weight was more on the rear wheels.

Moving snow with a front plow allows you to go a little faster than you can with a rear blade. Speed is your friend most of the time when moving snow. Also front mounted snow plows tend to be higher than rear blades and will carry more snow and roll it better.

4wd makes getting through the snow and up hills much easier.

Randy

Ford850 · Dec 16, 2005

Gavman,
My rear blade does not adjust out to the side, or I would try it. I originally thought I would build an extension for the blade to do as you suggested and double plow in one pass, but I would never be able to do it in the deep or heavy snow. The tractor tracks pretty good with one blade, but sometimes the blade angle wants to pull it off track. I'm sure in those times the double blade pass would spin me. And my tractor sits outside, so I like to be able to jump on it and plow without having to break the ice and snow off pins to adjust angles. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif But for lighter snows, it would work great.