Clumber
Gold Member
Hey Folks, new member here! In the near future I plan to buy either a Power Trac 425 or a Ventrac 4100 tractor. My question today is related to snow blowing on the Power Trac 425 with the 48 in snow blower attachment. Is it powerful enough to handle my situation described below?
We live on a 42 acre rural tract in Northern Virginia near Winchester. The areas that needs to be plowed is a mile long private gravel road (crusher run blue stone) and about half an acre of fenced grass and dirt where our show dogs need to go out several times a day. Several times during last 8 years there have been blizzards dumping 36-40 inches of snow in a 24 hour period. I have neighbors with large farm tractors that help us by plowing the areas using loader buckets and three point plows. The problem is that the grassy area get rutted by the weight of the tractors and the gravel has disappeared from the road due to all the scraping trying to break up the ice that eventually forms after plowing. Before putting more gravel down I need a better solution. Here is the plan:
1. Use a PT425 with 48" snowblower set at 1-2" above the gravel to remove most of the snow.
2. Before the remaining 1-2"s freezes up, use a leaf/debris blower attachment to blow off the remaining snow. Of course Power Trac does not have a debris blower attachment so I would have to rig a walk behind blower on pallet forks, etc... Ventrac has 2 debris blowers to choose from. Anyway, my thinking is that this plan will keep the road from freezing up without also losing the gravel.
3. Use the spreader attachment to lay sand down when there is ice.
4. A debris blower will also work on the remaining 2" on the grassy areas. A power brush might also work on the grassy area as well.
The more I think about it, it's doubtful that the PT425 will have enough power to handle 40" of snow. I'm not sure I want to shell out another $6,000 for the PT 1430. The Ventrac setup will also probably cost at least $7000 more with the debris blower. I am thinking about getting the PT425 and just trying to go easy when the heavy stuff comes down. Too bad Power Trac does not make a debris blower.
We live on a 42 acre rural tract in Northern Virginia near Winchester. The areas that needs to be plowed is a mile long private gravel road (crusher run blue stone) and about half an acre of fenced grass and dirt where our show dogs need to go out several times a day. Several times during last 8 years there have been blizzards dumping 36-40 inches of snow in a 24 hour period. I have neighbors with large farm tractors that help us by plowing the areas using loader buckets and three point plows. The problem is that the grassy area get rutted by the weight of the tractors and the gravel has disappeared from the road due to all the scraping trying to break up the ice that eventually forms after plowing. Before putting more gravel down I need a better solution. Here is the plan:
1. Use a PT425 with 48" snowblower set at 1-2" above the gravel to remove most of the snow.
2. Before the remaining 1-2"s freezes up, use a leaf/debris blower attachment to blow off the remaining snow. Of course Power Trac does not have a debris blower attachment so I would have to rig a walk behind blower on pallet forks, etc... Ventrac has 2 debris blowers to choose from. Anyway, my thinking is that this plan will keep the road from freezing up without also losing the gravel.
3. Use the spreader attachment to lay sand down when there is ice.
4. A debris blower will also work on the remaining 2" on the grassy areas. A power brush might also work on the grassy area as well.
The more I think about it, it's doubtful that the PT425 will have enough power to handle 40" of snow. I'm not sure I want to shell out another $6,000 for the PT 1430. The Ventrac setup will also probably cost at least $7000 more with the debris blower. I am thinking about getting the PT425 and just trying to go easy when the heavy stuff comes down. Too bad Power Trac does not make a debris blower.
