Snow Equipment Buying/Pricing Rear blade vs. front mount snow blower

[moosehaven]

Hi,

I live in central NH and would like to get your opinion on the best way to get the snow off our driveway. The drive is hard packed gravel, 2000 feet long, varies between 10 and 15 feet wide, has 2 decent hills and drops off 3 feet to drainage ditches on both sides for most of its length.

I have a MF1533 and am torn between a 7' rear blade or a front mounted snow blower.

Thanks!!
Ed

 

[Johndeere3720]

I guess it depends on the amount of snow. I use my rear blade to remove snow around here. I cant wait to use it on my yanmar!

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Hi,

I live in central NH and would like to get your opinion on the best way to get the snow off our driveway. The drive is hard packed gravel, 2000 feet long, varies between 10 and 15 feet wide, has 2 decent hills and drops off 3 feet to drainage ditches on both sides for most of its length.

I have a MF1533 and am torn between a 7' rear blade or a front mounted snow blower.

Thanks!!
Ed

Ed, any way that you can get both? If you get a rear blade, get a good one and get some skid shoes for it, they will help a lot. Sorry that I can't really help, we don't get all that much snow here.

 

[Harvey9]

Both are ok but if you have alot of snow go with the blower, it'll send the snow 30 feet from your driveway, with the back blade you will create banks after a while ( unless you move it) the driveway gets narrow. As in the previous post, use both if possible

Harvey

 

[Deerlope]

What you need is a front mounted snow blade and a rear snowblower. The blower will give you extra rear weigh and can be used if the snow gets really deep. When you really learn how to use that snow blade you can scrape it down just like a road grader.

 

[moosehaven]

We get about 100 - 130" of snow each winter with a handful of storms that drop 12+ inches but the majority are 4-8 inches.

What sort of problems are you likely to encounter if the blade does not have skid shoes?

 

[75H2]

I have a smaller GC2300. I too have a crushed stone driveway. It's 400 feet with 2 curves and one side that is fairly step. I found the rear blade to be marginal at best. I thought the skid shoes would help, they didn't. The 5 foot woods RB will push the rear of my tractor sideways if I try and plow more than a few inches at a time. I'm in the proces of pricing a front mount blade. Budget doesn't support a front blower at present. When/if we pave the driveway I'll look at a front blower.

The only drawback I see is a face full of snow when you are blowing and the wind shifts. Not much fun without a cab

 

[bpattie]

rear blade works great for up to about 8 -10 inches of snow after that it takes several passes. I like running it backward facing early in the year when the drive is not yet really frozen. after it freezes good I can drag the blade front facing. even in bigger storms if you can keep up with it the rear blade works out ok. I have to plow and scoop with front bucket if I get a lot of snow and didn't get a chance to keep up as it accumulated. also blade works better for dry snow, wet heavy snow is a little harder to do. Snow blower is the way to go and I agree if you had both it would be pretty good setup, however I do like having the front bucket to move snow around if it stays around to long and perhaps clear ridges on the side as someone else mentioned. I made my driveway a little wider for that reason. I have read posts in the past about the discomfort of driving backwards with the rear blower if you have to go very far. I know I feel it just backing all the way down the drive and mine is only about 400 feet per side, it is a horseshoe shape and around 900 feet in total. so it seems it is up to you and really how much snow you get per storm. There are lots of post here about the subject of which attachment works best f you do search. hope this helps.

 

[Ductape]

Really it might be a good idea to have both..... even if the blade is an inexpensive used one. I'm a huge fan of the front blowers, but small storms (only a few inches) are not their forte. We certainly get enough snow around here for a front blower for most storms though..... i couldn't go back to not having one.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

We get about 100 - 130" of snow each winter with a handful of storms that drop 12+ inches but the majority are 4-8 inches.

What sort of problems are you likely to encounter if the blade does not have skid shoes?

Without the skid shoes, you will be more likely to tear up your road/driveway.
I have found that they stop the blade from gouging the road, but again we don't get all that much snow. Very seldom do we get more than 12" at a time and that usually melts before it snows again.

 

[dave1949]

Moosehaven -

The best way to get the snow off that driveway is to move it to Florida HAHAHA

But seriously, those 3' deep drainage ditches are your enemy. I had that situation on my driveway using just my FEL bucket. It's like trying to plow snow on a hogs back.

Over a couple years, I managed to fill in one side so it still has good slope off the drive, but gives me a place to push snow where I won't get stuck. You might not be able to do this the entire length of the drive, you could pick a series of snow piling spots about 200' apart and fill them in a bit.

Having shared your experience, I would vote for a blower.

Dave

 

[mtg65]

I have a rear snowblower and it works great. Wait for the storm to end and move the snow once. No snow banks..

If you have a choice between a blade and a blower go with the blower especially if it is front mounted.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

At 10'-15' wide that you need to clear, and if you could swing it and get both, then use the rear blade to quickly get the snow off the center and then use the blower to get rid of it.

Does that make sense to you guys?

 

[yooperdave]

The rear blade is ok (not great) to clear inches of snow.

The blade will deposit the snow right along side of your driveway.

Over the course of the winter, you will get more snow, and your deposited snow along side the driveway may have froze solid leaving you a challenging situation.

I would go B L O W E R in a minute.

Good Luck,

Yooper Dave

 

[AndyMA]

I had a blower and got rid of it, I either had to set it very high or it picked up way too much stones on my gravel driveway, A rear blade to me is a pain in the butt. Either you drive backwards or you drive over the snow making ice. I now use a 8 foot snow plow mounted in my bucket and it works great, a quick attach front blade would be even better,

Abdt

 

[nhkabotab7800]

i have been using a rear blade for several years now. the one thing that happened every year was a few storms when the drive is not fully frozen. blade would dig into the hard pack and make a mess of the driveway. this year i bought skid shoes for it. i'm looking forward to seeing how well they work.
my drive is not all that wide...two passes and the drive is esencially cleared, of course there is a lot of clean up in the widerer parking areas close to the house. snow blower is not an option for me right now so i make it work beyween the blade and the FEL. i do not mind, and in fact enjoy pushing the snow banks back generally on the weekends...extra seat time ya know
sort of cool to watch the snow curl from the blade now that i can see well in the back with the rear lights.
one thing i have learned about the blade is that it needs to be clean so that the snow will curl when the blade is angled. that reminds me i need to wax the blade before the first snow, have not done that yet last year i just melted the snow that was packed onto the blade with a hock heater. maybe the wax will help.

 

[LBrown59]

I have a smaller GC2300. I too have a crushed stone driveway. It's 400 feet with 2 curves and one side that is fairly step. I found the rear blade to be marginal at best. I thought the skid shoes would help, they didn't. The 5 foot woods RB will push the rear of my tractor sideways if I try and plow more than a few inches at a time. I'm in the proces of pricing a front mount blade. Budget doesn't support a front blower at present. When/if we pave the driveway I'll look at a front blower.

The only drawback I see is a face full of snow when you are blowing and the wind shifts. Not much fun without a cab

Gussing about $1900.

 

[LBrown59]

************I use this***********

 

[bill in ny]

i use these.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Bill, looks like you have a very nice rear blade there. So how do you like it when working in the dirt? I'm guessing that it's an 8 footer, how much does it weigh? A lot of people don't like them. I think that those people most likely have the cheap ones. I know that I sure do like mine.