Snow Removal Equipment

[grahamuc27]

Greetings fron Sunny South Africa. My name is Graham and own an Earthmoving Equipment Supply Co. in Port Elizabeth.

Yeh, believe it or not, we do have a few areas in South Africa where reasonably heavy snowfalls are experienced in our winter and early spring months. No problem with that though, problem is, sourcing the right tooling, namely "blades" that one could use on a Grader/Tractor to clear the ice from tar roads without damaging the tar surface and cats-eye's in the middle of the road. Any ideas out there?

 

[Muhammad]

Welcome to TBN.

 

[creekbend]

Welcome. There is a specific Snow Removal forum here on TBN. Perhaps you will find some info there. Good Luck.:tractor:

 

[Briana03]

Hello Graham, WELCOME to TBN

I moved your thread to the Snow Removal Forum.

P.S. Great name.

 

[flyingcow]

Whats a "Cats eye in the middle of the road"? Reflector?

Welcome

 

[leonz]

YUP, its a reflector Flyingcow.

Hello Graham,

the only way to save a cats eye is to either use a full tripping blade edge or have a specific cutting height for the blade by using adjustable skid shoes on the blade which would be less cost effective on a graders 12 foot/3+ plus meter belly blade.

Another option is the urethane plow blade edges.

If you wander over to to www.plowsite.com you will find plenty of information
on plow blades and cutting edges too.

The problem is one of control and scrape, a small 8 foot/2 meter plus urethane blade mounted on a pickup would be a fast answer for you but this would depend totally in the lane miles for the cats eye imbedded road bed and would reduce the damage to the reflectors as the height adjustable skidding feet would prevent damaging the cats eyes.

You would need three passes in lane miles to protect the cats eyes with a pick up truck cutting the center and one grader cutting the edges to clear the 2 lane roadway.

 

[aczlan]

Greetings fron Sunny South Africa. My name is Graham and own an Earthmoving Equipment Supply Co. in Port Elizabeth.

Welcome to TBN. I have a brother going to Durban in January for 2 years.

No problem with that though, problem is, sourcing the right tooling, namely "blades" that one could use on a Grader/Tractor to clear the ice from tar roads without damaging the tar surface and cats-eye's in the middle of the road. Any ideas out there?

Are these like the "Raised pavement markers" shown at: Raised pavement marker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia? They are not common here in the snow belt, but they were common in Atlanta when I was down there.
If so, as I see it, you have 2 options if you want to completely clear the road:
1. Use rubber edged blades (or rubber edges where the catseyes will bee)
2. Use a sweeper rather than a blade

Your other options would be:
1. Use wheels on the blade to set it above the height of the catseyes, but then you will leave snow on the road
2. Run a sweeper or small rubber edged blade down the middle of the road to clear the catseyes and then a steel blade to clear the rest of the road.

Aaron Z

 

[grahamuc27]

Wow! thank you all for the quick response to what I thought may end up being a long drawn out search. Definitely ended up in the right place thanks to TractorByNet!! There are number of good suggestions which all make a load of sense.....will need to try all the options available to see which suites the application best.

Thanks Briana for your foresight and hey, snap!! (He,he,he).

Thank you Muhammad, more to TBN than "just" a monthly newsletter!

Will give feedback as we progress.

Graham