Snow removal advice for a newbie

[bdog]

I live in Texas and have never had to remove snow in my 40 years on this planet.

We are in the middle of "Goliath" and already have about a foot on the ground and drifts five feet tall.

It is snowing now, supposed to snow all night and some tomorrow as well.

I have my full size 4WD backhoe with cab, heat and a big 1.3yd bucket. This is what I plan to use. I also have a skid steer but it has no cab and I don't like the cold.

I have a 600' concrete drive and then my mom lives in a rural subdivision about a mile or two down the road and they are likely snowed in as well. Her neighborhood is mostly seniors so once I extract myself from my place I plan on going down there and clear hers as well. Our small county road will likely need work until where it meets the main road which hopefully the county will have cleared.

Looking for any advice or tips on doing this. Is it best to get the blade all the way to ground and push as far as I can and scoop up the pile and move it to the side or is it better to to take small bites and go over the same area taking a little more depth each time?

I have moved thousands of yards of dirt but snow is a new animal to me.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Best thing to do is stay on solid ground and work your way to where ever you can, best thing to do with a bucket is push until you get some area cleared then swerve to a side and dump it there, , back up and start again. If you have something to big to plow through, use thr bucket and carry it to the closest place to dump it, remember it will melt and you will likely be picking up stones. If you have moved that much dirt you should be a natural at moving snow.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Just saw you have a concrete driveway, try and get your bucket level or slightly tipped up. With fresh snow tou should have no problems going through a foot with a full size hoe, just take care not to damage stuff underneath.

 

[RoyJackson]

Drop the bucket and curl it slightly so the cutting edge isn't touching the concrete. Hitting a slightly raised section of broken concrete or a curb is tough on the loader.
After that, I'd suggest just pushing the snow as far as you can before you run out of traction. Then dump any snow in the bucket off to the side and start pushing again. If you get stuck, you can use the bucket curl function to "walk" yourself back out.
I'm assuming you have industrial tires on your backhoe. They aren't great in slick conditions so take it easy when you get on the road to your Mom's place. I hope you have plenty of lighting on your machine and definitely watch out for others...Texans aren't used to snow, as you know.
Good luck and, most importantly, be safe!

 

[robstaples]

Your first idea. Push until you can't push any more, then pick up and clean your pile off to the side. Push again and repeat as necessary. If you scrap to the concrete,you get better traction. Snow doesn't weigh much ( well, sometimes it doesn't ), you'll be surprised at how much you can push.
We love it, enjoy!!��

 

[bdog]

Thanks guys.

I will give it a go in the morning. The backhoe has plenty of lights and flashing hazards so that is good. Everywhere I will be clearing is concrete or asphalt. The hoe does have industrial tires which I figured were not the best but maybe it's weight of about 19,000lb will help.

 

[Citydude]

I live in Texas and have never had to remove snow in my 40 years on this planet. We are in the middle of "Goliath" and already have about a foot on the ground and drifts five feet tall. It is snowing now, supposed to snow all night and some tomorrow as well. I have my full size 4WD backhoe with cab, heat and a big 1.3yd bucket. This is what I plan to use. I also have a skid steer but it has no cab and I don't like the cold. I have a 600' concrete drive and then my mom lives in a rural subdivision about a mile or two down the road and they are likely snowed in as well. Her neighborhood is mostly seniors so once I extract myself from my place I plan on going down there and clear hers as well. Our small county road will likely need work until where it meets the main road which hopefully the county will have cleared. Looking for any advice or tips on doing this. Is it best to get the blade all the way to ground and push as far as I can and scoop up the pile and move it to the side or is it better to to take small bites and go over the same area taking a little more depth each time? I have moved thousands of yards of dirt but snow is a new animal to me.

Put your bucket edge to the ground and push using it as a dozer blade. The only time you dump the bucket is the point you want to create your pile to push/ dig off the road. You can turn around and push to where you started and push that off the road. The point is, the less you dump the bucket, the faster you can move the snow. So, your first idea is the best way.

I wish you and yours the best. Be safe.

 

[bdog]

Thanks. I decided to go out and at least clear our driveway. I am real familiar with the surroundings there and wasn't worried about doing it in the dark. The backhoe did surprisingly well but the hardest part was knowing where I was. The snow is deep enough it was hard to tell exactly where the edge of the concrete driveway was. It had no problems pushing or with traction. When I got out to the county road I could see some huge drifts but I will wait until daylight to tackle that.

As usual though it is always something. My backhoe has never had problems starting but then again I have never started it when it was this cold. I have never got done to the batteries on it before as I have only had this backhoe for a few months so I had to find them and then unbolt the cover and get to them in the dark and freezing cold. Finally got to them and my portable booster pack was enough to get her fired up. I let it idle at about 1200 rpm for about ten minutes before I moved just to let the fluids get warmed up a bit. Hopefully I ran long enough to charge the batteries but as a safe measure I parked it right by the shop and hooked up the charger so the batteries will be fresh in the morning.

This snow is miserable. I had to fight just to get the door to my house open and opening any gates is out of the question. I don't see how you northerners deal with it on a regular basis but then again I bet you wouldn't like our 115 degree days in the summer either. Hard to believe it was 70 degrees here on Christmas day.

 

[Garandman]

The basics: put FEL in folat mode, tip bucket up just enough so it doesn't catch, unload when it starts coming over the top.

 

[oosik]

I watched the Sun Bowl - played in El Paso, Texas on Sat. I'm a Cougar fan. Couldn't believe they were playing in Texas. At points during the 3rd & 4th quarters the snow fall almost obscured the view.

I've got 16" on the ground now and we are expecting more today and the remainder of the week. Enjoy your "white gifts" before it all melts.

And yes, you are dead on - any time the temps go over 95 we do suffer here.

Be careful if you do any hand shoveling - it can easily overtax you and lead to a heart attack.

 

[RoyJackson]

This snow is miserable. I had to fight just to get the door to my house open and opening any gates is out of the question. I don't see how you northerners deal with it on a regular basis but then again I bet you wouldn't like our 115 degree days in the summer either. Hard to believe it was 70 degrees here on Christmas day.

You made a smart decision to wait until it's light to hit the roads....be more traffic, but I'd wager most folks are staying home today. Guess you never thought you'd need a block heater on your backhoe, did you?

5 or 6 inches of snow is fun to clear...when it gets much more than that, it's a PITA, especially if you have to shovel it too...but it looks pretty before it gets all dirty and such.

As far as high temperatures...yeah...anything above about 80 is tough on us up north.

 

[jgayman]

Be careful if you do any hand shoveling - it can easily overtax you and lead to a heart attack.

Hand shoveling? Isn't that an Oxymoron?

 

[chim]

Hand shoveling? Isn't that an Oxymoron?

Hand Shovels

 

[suzy]

If they aren't used to snow...make sure all their wells are marked with upright reflectors. I have a couple of tires and tall reflectors on mine. I know where they are but you never know who will pop in while you are out and have a go at plowing you out!

 

[powerscol]

Before you start spray your bucket down with cooking spray or som sort of oil. It will help keep the snow from sticking. Go slow and always have a place to back into and put the snow down wind, so it wound drift back On my concrete drive after going forward with the bucket tip up, I will back drag for the final cleaning to get down to the concrete using the bucket tip down acting as a scraper in reverse. Good luck

 

[Looking4new]

When you roll over the bucket to dump it, rattle it against the stops a couple of times to get ALL the snow out.

 

[mccash40]

Sorry to hear of your snow problems down there in Texas. We are used to it up here in the 'Dacks, but it's still a pain, even with a tractor and FEL doing most of the work. I usually push everything to the road first, then I bucket the piles away from the driveway. I may spring for that BXexpanded plow in the near future.
At least it will eventually melt for you. Good luck.

 

[Looking4new]

When you pile your snow at the road, do it on the side AFTER the driveway. The plow will come from the left as you are facing out and you want the snow on the right in the ditch if any. That way he wont be winging the snow right back into the mouth of your driveway.

 

[RoyJackson]

Haven't had any responses from bdog (the OP) since he first posted...hope everything went OK

 

[bdog]

Thanks guys. It went well. The backhoe was a beast and could push an unbelievable amount but was big and clumsy in tight areas. I did the brunt of the work with it and then used the tracked skid steer for cleanup. I got my place all dry concrete now and the same with my moms driveway. I cleared about 1/4 mile of road by my moms as well.

Along the way I pulled out some stuck people and helped two neighbors who didn't have any type of machinery. My next door neighbor was snowed in bad. Spent about two hours at his place.

It is rather amusing out here in the country we have all the roads clear and the work was done by the residents. I saw wheel loaders, farm tractors, backhoes, skid steers, etc and the county road out front you can run 70 down now but In town is chaos. It has t snowed since Sunday night and they don't even have the main streets cleared off. I went to town today and people still getting stuck everywhere and snow all in the roads. Our city is over 200,000 people and covers 120 square miles and the whole city has two plows.