Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Snow sticking in loader bucket

[kozak]

If you want to put on some of the slipperiest stuff known to mankind, try some silicone lubricant. I would imagine any oil lubricant would work just about as well......will just slip in & out of that bucket like a slurpy !!


Vic

 

[RedDirt]

We get low elevation non-sticky snow (wet) so I haven't had this problem but what about paraffin wax? On small stuff like snow shovels we heat them up on the shop wood stove and melt the stuff on for a solid coating. Obviously you can't do that with a bucket but we'd put our cross country skis outside in the cold then just rub on a heavy coat of paraffin wax. Snow never sticks to either, even the skis up in the high country powder. We buy the paraffin blocks at the canning section of the market. Candle wax would work too.

 

[daTeacha]

John Bud -- Which ones? Dipole-dipole or London? Maybe cavitation between the dirt and the steel causing a pressure differential sufficient to press the dirt in place.

As of yesterday I had some dirt, fines, and gravel frozen in the thing from roughing up the drive when it was wet and then having it get cold again. I don't usually consider it a problem.

Tonight will probably see some used hay and sheep/donkey byproducts sticking in there after I clean out the barn, but I'll hose those out before the coming freeze hits. I hate it when I get manure stuck to the firewood that sits in the passthrough next to the living room.

 

[mjarrels]

Wax on... wax off!

mark

 

[itn]

i spray armor all or pledge before i start.

 

[Blackbird_BX]

I wonder if EZ-Slide Graphite-Based Coating Paint at Tractor Supply would do the trick. Tractor Supply Company - EZ-Slide Graphite-Based Coating Paint, 12.8 oz

 

[bjcsc]

I have some stuff I make for my old military long guns (M1, '03) for keeping the stocks as they should be and I think it would work great in this application. The only snow I ever see is in y'all's pictures, but I think it would work and it's simple and inexpensive to make. You need three ingredients: Beeswax, BLO (boiled linseed oil), and turpentine - 1:1:1. I buy empty paint cans from Lowes or whomever to keep it in. I use quart cans to keep it in and a gallon can to make it in. You melt a pound of beeswax in the can (on a stovetop), measure the volume afterwards and return it to the can. Add the exact same volume of turpentine and then of BLO, only heating it long enough so that everything mixes. Once it cools to room temperature it's ready to use. It sets up like soft shoe polish. It will waterproof wood and leaves a satin to flat satin finish.

 

[TheHammer]

I've never used it, but a lot of guys at a snow plowing site I visit use Eureka Fluid Film. They use it to keep snow from sticking on plow blades and as a rust/corrosion preventative. Supposedly, it works quite well.

Fluid Film: Corrosion Preventive, Lubricant and Rust Inhibitor

 

[Westendorf-RR]

Snow is sticking in your buckets because of how the bucket is designed. When it comes to selecting a good bucket, look at the relationship between the bucket's side panels and cutting edge/flat bottom . If you select a tapered bucket similar to the concept of an ice cube tray or sand mold - tapered in on the sides and front to back, the snow and dirt will release freely and not suction back into the bucket. Also look for a bucket that has the reinforcements on the outside (not inside). Any gussets or supports added to the inside the bucket will cause material to stick.

 

[RobJ]

Snow is sticking in your buckets because of how the bucket is designed. When it comes to selecting a good bucket, look at the relationship between the bucket's side panels and cutting edge/flat bottom . If you select a tapered bucket similar to the concept of an ice cube tray or sand mold - tapered in on the sides and front to back, the snow and dirt will release freely and not suction back into the bucket. Also look for a bucket that has the reinforcements on the outside (not inside). Any gussets or supports added to the inside the bucket will cause material to stick.

Good answer and I think this would cure the problem. Think about it, you hit the snow bank with a running start and pack the stuff into the bucket.

Folks with bigger equipment have been welding chains in the buckets to help loosen up the contents. Down here it's mostly for mud of course. But the weight of the chains and the way they move around keep it loose and gravity works on the chains when dumping. If you didn't want to weld you could always just bolt in the chains.

It might work for snow to.