Snow Snow removal with a BX24

[easternhunter]

Any guidelines or experience as to how much snow can be plowed on a gravel driveway with little crown ... and the kind of plow used? Am thinkin' I need to have the capability.

 

[timswi]

If you don't have the attachments already, I'd look into a UTV or at least an ATV to plow with...Much faster and less painful...You can use the BX FEL to move piles if needed. Just my opinion after years of dealing with snow.

 

[Scooby074]

4 wheeler plow fast, probably 5x-10x faster than my snowblowers, plus youre going forward. That all changes if you get to any significant drifts. At about 20" the ATV loses out in drifts and becomes a PITA. Its quicker to get the walk behind blower than sit there ramming packed snow.

I dont have a blade on the bx, but I do plow with the bucket. You can plow pretty fast, but there is a lot of spillage so you have to go back over. You can only pile so high too. BX snowblower works to get the snow away, and if you have any accumulation, a blower is required. Blower is probably faster than the bucket because its single pass to clean 50" as opposed to multiple passes with the bucket.

Next year Im building a snow box for the front of the BX, if I get a QA geared up. That will help the spillage problem

 

[easternhunter]

We had about 22" this last fall in most places. Some deeper. Tried to move my Polaris 500 Sportsman and found it was planing on the snow and didn't get far. Don't see that much that often at once. Never thought of putting a blade on the little fella. Will have to look at that.

 

[check]

We had about 22" this last fall in most places. Some deeper. Tried to move my Polaris 500 Sportsman and found it was planing on the snow and didn't get far. Don't see that much that often at once. Never thought of putting a blade on the little fella. Will have to look at that.

You will be amazed at how effective a plow can be on the front of an ATV. They have an amazing amount of traction, and if you plow before you get too much build up, it is really, really fast. So, if you're expecting a lot of snow, go out and plow it every once in a while, and it will only take a few minutes. Just go out and do it after each 6 inches to 8 inches or so of snow.

 

[bellweather]

The guy owns a BX24 and wants to use it for snow removal...why are you suggesting an ATV?

 

[Shutesbury]

I used an ATV plow for years, but never again, after getting my BX24. Your body takes quite a pounding on an ATV in a full winter region, like Western Mass. You have to push back deep to start, and after awhile end up ramming banks for create room. Tough on the back and shoulders.

I use both the FEL and a backblade on my BX. Lighter storms, you can blade (angled) going forward quite comfortably. In deeper snow, I reverse the blade and back into it. As long as you're not ramming banks, or hitting trees or large rocks, you won't harm the 3pt arm assemblies pushing against them. I did swap out the OEM links for a pair of turnbuckles from TSC and they've held up really well.

For heavier storms, I did get a used 3pt blower, and that works best when you're up above ten inches or so. The FEL and blade work better on crowned gravel drives than the blower. I have several driveways with a high center and compressed wheel paths, where the blower will kick loose stones out, and break the shear pins.

 

[Concordriver]

Any guidelines or experience as to how much snow can be plowed on a gravel driveway with little crown ... and the kind of plow used? Am thinkin' I need to have the capability.

I have been successfully plowing with my BX24 for many years. I have a Curtis plow (which means that I remove the bucket for the winter) and chains on all four tires. There are no limitations...just plow more often if you get a big storm. My biggest suggestion would be to push the snow as far from the edges of the driveway as you can. Otherwise, the snow banks begin to build up and narrow the driveway. I leave the backhoe on all winter for weight and to help me get unstuck if I go off the driveway. The BX24 worked just fine last winter when I had over 4 feet of snow in one month!

 

[radair]

How long is the driveway? I plowed a 150' driveway for years using the bucket. I would do a full pass down the middle, then a series of diagonal passes off to the side. Don't keep emptying the bucket, use it like backfilling a ditch with the bucket in the level position and it goes much faster.

For a long driveway, a 3-point snowblower works great. I have a 1/4 mile long gravel drive and can clear it in one out & back lap. I used a 5' snowblower on my BX-23 and she handled it fine. Keep the rpms up and the travel speed down for really deep stuff.

 

[radair]

duplicate post... TBN has some issues with these

 

[Gcorron]

We got 28" last Saturday. I've got to say that it may be the most in a single fall, but we've had close before. There are 9 houses in our neighborhood, between myself and a neighbor with a Bobcat,mew always push the snow, and often the street as we are forgotten by the State.

Neither of us have anything but our front buckets for snow, never had a problem. Yep, it takes longer to move 28" than it does to move 10". That is simply a matter of mass.

If you haven't been around operators, or are new to it, you'll likely try to teaspoon it away, take a bucket, move it over, repeat 1,000 times. That will take you forever. Good advice above, plow through until your machine can take no more, back up, start pushing it off diagonally until you get to the first pile, move it, repeat, you'll find your done pretty quickly. I actually raise the bucket, cut the pile in half and start pushing it diagonally.

Unless you're plowing state roads, or receive more than 30" of snow on a regular basis, you already have all the snow moving equipment that is necessary.

That said, I will likely get a snow blower for mine, because he who dies with the most toys wins!!

George

 

[davesl708]

I use my FEL on my BX to clear 250' of drive. Works great as a plow on snow 6" or less. I have used it on 10"s of snow without difficulty. Came in handy to pile snow in the ditch for the melt off. If a big snow you will need the FEL to lift and move the snow to the side and dig through drifts.

 

[czechsonofagun]

I stopped plowing on Friday night at 10PM and was too lazy to get out at 2AM - hence 3 hours from 6-9 to clean in the morning. It was possibly the hardest work for the 20hp Kubota. I have 5 feet 3pt blade and turf tires. I ended up pushing backwards to be off the deep snow with my tires and making a zigzag path to deposit snow piles along the way.

Mightly impressed with Kubota again.

 

[dsmiley]

Being from West Virginia I think it would be hard to justify the purchase of a 50" front-mounted blower like I have for my BX25. We sometimes get some pretty deep snow here. However, I start the snow season using my bucket with a 1.5" diameter steel pipe on the cutting edge. This keeps it from digging in if the ground isn't frozen yet. Once it freezes solid the pipe can be removed. I clear about 300' of driveways and have done several 8-10" storms this way. I use this until we have a major nor'easter predicted and then install the blower. This has been a mild year so far so I'm still using the bucket. There is another advantage to this. The first few storms of the year allow the plow trucks to pick up rocks and deposit them in the windrows. These cause broken shear bolt headaches. There are no concerns of this happening using the bucket and the bucket does a better cleanup job. Of course, you need a place to put the snow and that is not a problem with the blower.
As one poster put it, you already have what you need, IMHO. Good luck with your decision.

 

[uglyboywith11fingers]

Look for a used 3 pt pto driven snowblower... half the price or less of a front mount, and virtually any make will work.
I use a 52 inch pto blower on my BX24, and when the snow is too wet/heavy and clogs up the chute, I take 15 minutes to swap the blower for my back blade and push the snow off the driveway.
I got my BX24 used, it came with the blower & blade, so I have not tried clearing snow with the FEL.

Pete

 

[Jj1479]

4 wheeler plow fast, probably 5x-10x faster than my snowblowers, plus youre going forward. That all changes if you get to any significant drifts. At about 20" the ATV loses out in drifts and becomes a PITA. Its quicker to get the walk behind blower than sit there ramming packed snow. I dont have a blade on the bx, but I do plow with the bucket. You can plow pretty fast, but there is a lot of spillage so you have to go back over. You can only pile so high too. BX snowblower works to get the snow away, and if you have any accumulation, a blower is required. Blower is probably faster than the bucket because its single pass to clean 50" as opposed to multiple passes with the bucket. Next year Im building a snow box for the front of the BX, if I get a QA geared up. That will help the spillage problem

I built mine couple years back an love it.

 

[easternhunter]

Given the cost and the relatively few really heavy snow fall we have, I went with the ATV plow. Ordered a KFI 54" on 1/27. Delivered 1/29. Installed today 1/30. Cleared the remaining crud on my 200 yard driveway today. Works REALLY well in comparison with the Power King I once used. Am tickled!

 

[check]

The guy owns a BX24 and wants to use it for snow removal...why are you suggesting an ATV?

He's already got an ATV, so he just needs a plow attachment ($500 or so), and with a 500 cc engine, he will have plenty enough power. As easternhunter says, he rarely gets as much as 22", so almost all of the time he can plow with the ATV, and then switch to the tractor, either when the drifts at the side build up as time goes on, or when he gets a really big dump. In those rare cases, he could use the FEL (VERY time consuming) or get a blower for the BX24, depending upon how much he wants to spend. (Front blower was $4,000, so I bought the rear B2789 blower for about $1,700 for my BX25.) BTW, if you are going to leave the FEL on, make sure you get the bxpanded.com bucket expander, because it DOUBLES the heaped capacity of the FEL, and of course snow is so light that you will not overload the lift capacity of the loader. Works great for me!

 

[Gcorron]

"And of course, snow is so light..." Aye, there's the rub. Maybe where you live snow is light!

The blizzard of 96 I was working at a large prison. I got called in when it began for a major utility outage. There was a guy in my crew from Elmira, NY. Great guy, one you could count on in the middle of a fire without fail.

He gets to work on Wednesday, I'm near half shot because I had pretty much been in there for 5 days nearly non-stop. I had to rag him about not being there because of a little snow (34"), and he quickly shoots back, "no, we get snow in Elmira, it's light, fluffy and half the time you can just drive through it, down here, we get little tiny white ice pellets, and NOBODY drives on ice!"

Snow personality down this way tends to be wet, and very heavy. Bummer, but luck of the draw.

George