Snow Attachments Reality Check before I get a snow blower

[colestin]

I read all the snow blower posts I could find. Typical: I have 1000 feet of driveway, I'm in Northern Wisconsin. I prefer a 3ph blower so I can keep the FEL on... You get the picture?

Well, I have 6000 feet of "Driveway". It's pretty steep in spots, a little rough at times (I'll try to improve it some within 3 years). Lots of side hill, which means a rise on one sid and a drop on the other. I may want to help out some others as well. I gather that a 700 foot drive would take 30 minutes or so with a decent tractor, so my oversized driveway should take maybe 4 hours? It does not snow constantly, in fact some fools sold their blowers because of a string of mild winters which may have ended.

A front snow blower seems to make sense because of the long drive and treacherous conditions. I'd match it with a blade on the back, since loss of FEL seems to be a major downside with a front mounted blower.

I don't even have the tractor yet, but will have funds for one very soon. I understand that PTO ponies are paramount. Hope to get something like a New Holland TC30. Am I thinking okay or am I confused? Straighten me out, boys!

Mark LaCoste,
Ashland, Oregon
No tractor yet, feeling quite inadequate.

 

[RoyJackson]

What other tasks do you have planned for this tractor?

Front snowblowers are really nice but quite expensive. With over a mile of drive, I'd sure want a front blower...but, would a plow on a truck make more sense? Especially if you get out there frequently enough to keep the snow cleared? A one ton or ton and a half dump truck with chains might be an answer for your plowing. I'm talking about a used vehicle you wouldn't have to license.

Also, since you mentioned the drive is "rough" in some areas...does that mean rocks...dirt...something that could damage the blower or result in shearing the shear pin? I wonder how easy it is to change a shear pin on a front blower PTO shaft?

Several hours on a tractor with the snow blowing all around can be pretty miserable (I love plowing, but I don't have near the drive you have and I take frequent breaks. With over a mile of drive, breaks may not be an option for you. So now, you may be looking at adding a cab to that tractor.

With a front blower, you're looking at an expensive piece of equipment that will set idle the great majority of the time. Just think about that and your other options.

Now, that said...a buddy of mine has a blower on the front of his Deere 4310. He has about 1200' of drive that is fairly steep. The drive is paved, so stones and other debris aren't too much of a concern. He loves it (no more neck pain from looking over his shoulder when using the back blade), although he does get a blast of snow when the wind changes direction abruptly! His tractor and blower are actually owned by a corporation (tree farm) so it was tax deductable.

Another guy I know got a great deal on a rear blower at an auction. He runs it on a Deere 790. He likes it a lot, but does say that reverse low (on the Deere 790) is too slow, but reverse high range is too fast. I'd agree with him on that when using a blower at PTO RPM. So, you might think about the TC 30 with hydrostatic transmission rather then gears.

Good luck on your decision!

 

[slowzuki]

Get a plow man! Blowing that much driveway will take forever. A plow only runs into trouble in confined spaces where there is nowhere to put snow. Thats where a loader helps.

Maybe look at getting a quick attach bucket on your loader and buy a power angle plow like Curtis makes for QA mount.

 

[brad_oatley]

A mile of road is for a plow and a class 3 TC. look at a 35 or 40 with a 7 or 8 foot plow.

 

[colestin]

I'm seeing a trend here. For longer distance, use a plow. I have also heard that the plow will just pile snow on the roadside where it will melt and wash out the road, thus the reason for a blower. Guess I'll find some pictures of plows.

The road isn't so rough that I'd be picking up rocks - but rough enough that I'd want adjustable shoes under the blower.

Now, tell me how I might use this plow. I need to get the snow all piled on the downhill side of the road. So I would make two or three passes in the same direction? Makes sense to me, but I have no experience! I also assume that the plow is less expensive than a front blower.

 

[Bob_Young]

6000 ft? Hoo-Boy Colestin, I don't envy you. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

I spent the first two months of this year keeping the runway, taxiways and ramp at the county airport clear of snow. The runway is 4000' long paved. One of my tools was a NH TV140 (105 pto HP) bi-directional with a Woods SS108 (I believe...could have that wrong) snow blower on engine end and a pusher on cab end. The other tool was a 10 ton Chevy dump truck with a 10' Western plow.

The best choice for clearing the runway by far was the Chevy. Being new at it, I tried the TV140 with the blower a few times. It was soooo sloooow it drove me nuts. Anything over a few inches slowed me down to 1mph or less. Trying to move a 14" shoulder pile (and taking only 2 ft. of it) I was down to 0.6mph as I recall. The TV140 has a digital panel that gives ground speed, engine RPM, PTO RPM and half a dozen other things. At .6mph, I had plenty of time to play with the panel.

Without a heated cab it would've been hopeless, I'd have frozen to death before finishing 1 pass. Even with the cab, wind direction was critical. If I tried to throw into any kind of breeze, the cab would get plastered and I'd be on instruments with no idea where the tractor was heading.

By the end of January I'd noticed that I was wasting a lot of time trying to do something useful with the blower and decided to stop using it. By the 2nd week of February it was off the tractor and I was much happier without it. The TV140 was a mite unwieldy with both pusher and blower attached.

Only problem with the Chevy was that when the snow on the shoulders built up above the top of the blade, it wouldn't move snow anymore. The result was the 50' wide runway started getting narrower. My solution was to push back the shoulders past the edge of the runway using the TV140's pusher. It took all morning to go the length of the runway on the upwind side seesawing back and forth with the pusher, but it got done. The blower wasn't even considered for this because the choices were blow the snow upwind and get plastered with it, or blow it downwind which required it to travel all the way across the runway....which it a) wouldn't do and even if it could with the help of a 30K wind b) would mess up the cleared runway. Of course on a driveway, you won't have this problem.

Don't even think of tackling that job with a TC30. If your winters are anything like ours, they'll hafta send someone out to retrieve your body. An old dumptruck with a Western plow with about 7 tons of crushed stone in the back is your best bet. Get one with good tires, a good heater, a serious defroster, and windows that close.

 

[KennyV]

If you don’t get a small dump truck with a blade, like RoyJackson recommended you might look for a motor grader… I bought an older Cat motor grader to do about a mile of driveway/roadway… I didn’t do that until I froze several years with an OLD Adams Road Patrol hooked to the back of a MF65 /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif. Ouch, those were young & foolish days.

The Cat blade, with heated cab was heaven /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif. Seems like after the change in machines we quit having snows that needed serious equipment to remove…
Ah Kansas, if you prepared for the weather it will change. In Northern Wisconsin, I think you can always count on snow to move.

Anyhoo that motor grader was also very handy when it came time to rebuild that same long drive, and regular maintenance became a snap, compared to the Adams road patrol. Took the work out of work.
A motor grader or truck/blade is tuff to beat on a long road/drive. KennyV.

 

[boustany]

I'm the typical snowblower poster you mentioned. I moved to a front mount blower because I get serious back spasms using a rear blower (I suspect due to having to twist my body while keeping my right foot on the HST pedal.

So I wouldn't think of doing over a mile in reverse.

One question is how much snow do you expect? A blower moves snow much farther than a plow can. If a plow will push snow over a hill, for example, this is a much better situation than ending up with 5' banks on the side of the road and the road geting narrower and noarrower by the day.

Also, is the snow fluffy? Which way does the wind blow? With a blower you can fling the snow in the direction the wind will take it, with a plow you may find that what you plow is blown back onto the roadway.

In most heavy snow areas, they use plows extensively, so, thats a clue, except they also get to design the roads to accomodate the snow and blow, and so on.

 

[Bob_Young]

Colestin wrote: "...need to get the snow all piled on the downhill side of the road. So would I make two or three passes in the same direction?"

You could Colestin but you'd be accomplishing nothing on the ride back. If you can set the plow angle from the cab like you can on a Western you could easily switch plow angle from 'right side discharge' to 'left side discharge' (for example) at the end of your outbound run and then push the snow back further as you head back inbound.

The secret with a plow is to keep the shoulders pushed well back from the roadway. Then when a heavy fall comes the shoulder piles won't impede your getting the fresh stuff out of the roadway. If your downhill shoulder gets too high in late winter you may have to think about discharging the plow to the uphill side. It's not the best but if you've got some room on the uphill side it might buy you a little time while you wait for a thaw.

 

[Bob_Young]

Pardon me for occupying so much space here, but I recalled something that might help you.

An outfit called Horst Welding (you can Google it up) manufactures skid-steer implement adapters for FELs. They also manufacture skid-steer implements. Some of the most interesting are the snowplow blades.

These come in several sizes and three grades: light (for CUTs), regular and heavy duty. They include angle hydraulics and, from their Web information, look alot like a regular Western plow.

On a heavily weighted 4WD tractor of 50 to 70hp you might have something that could do as good a job as a small dumptruck. It might be work better than anything else at trimming a high shoulder pile and you'd have the off-season utility of the tractor and FEL. Just a thought, I've never seen anything like this in use.