Snow Attachments some thoughts on my snow removal options

[Reb954]

Not true. As pressure increases flow increases until you reach sonic velocity and the flow chokes. I don't think choked flow is in any way possible with a snowblower.

I know. I was trying to gently point out to atitus74 the fallacy of what he had typed. It doesn't appear it worked.

 

[atitus74]

I know. I was trying to gently point out to atitus74 the fallacy of what he had typed. It doesn't appear it worked.

It worked. I stand corrected. My apologies.

 

[js5020]

I've been looking into getting a 60" plow blade for the 1023E tractor in order to deal with very wet, heavy snow that won't go thru the 54" sno-blower.

The attraction for a plow blade is two-fold: 1) when the snow is too wet and heavy ; and 2) when the sno-blower ' breaks ' and I have nothing to move / remove snow with.
The snow blade I'm looking at, 60QH, mounts on the same tractor mount as the sno-blower, raises and lowers and swivels from left and right with the same hydraulics which raise/lower the sno-blower and rotates the chute. The blade has skids which can be adjusted and a spring-loaded ' trip ' feature if one encounters a large rock or something else frozen to the ground . . . all this just like a Fisher plow.

So far, so good . . . . but I have no place to store either if I'm using the other implement. And swapping these heavy gadgets in the snow ( if they can be located where they are hiding under the snow ) is something of a PITA . . . YEH, Yeh,yeh . . . I need a barn . . . but wife and I been thru all that and it just ain't going to happen.

The crazy thing is that having 2 tractors, each with dedicated implements would probably be about the same price as a barn, more than likely cheaper! Especially if I were to buy a second-hand 1023 . . . There are a LOT of em out there!

I sold the Fisher plow that I used with the P/U truck because 1) I got tired of removing great quantities of gravel from the lawn around the house, and 2) for whatever reason, the hydraulics got very grumpy and wouldn't operate the blade in sub-freezing temp ( even tho I had it serviced a couple years ago ). I still have the mount on the truck as well as the electricals . . . in the unlikely event that I decide to put a plow back on the truck . . .

I have several snow weapons to kick old man winter to the curb. My primary weapons are the kubota bx with a repurposed 6ft blade and an atv with a 4ft blade. Other weapons for the Kubota include the loader and a repurposed front mounted snow blower. I pretty much avoid anything rear mounted for snow removal. The blades are the primary tools as I have gravel and storm depths are generally less than 6" and yearly average of 36" . I run skid shoes on the 6ft blade unless we are frozen solid so as not to relocate gravel but you could also put a piece of pipe over the cutting edge to minimize gravel relocation. I don't break out the blower for anything less than 10" .

Storage for all these is pretty minimal, I do keep everything under roof, and if you didn't have a shed to store a blade I would even worry about it just keep the moldboard painted, blower on the other hand would be more concerning and I would not personally store a blower outside.

If your running oem equipment attachment swaps are pretty easy and take less than a few minutes, my repurposed less than fancy set ups aren't even difficult taking less than 5 minutes to swap, JD stuff probably takes seconds to swap with no tools. Take a look on YouTube for snow attachment swaps to see just how simple it is and skip the second machine.

 

[bironacad]

My cousin swears that spraying Pam on the chute does wonders, I never tried it as I haven't had the issues he had.

 

[shooterdon]

Regrettably, I am a Mechanical Engineer and I will tell you this....

The only difference between a Cowboy and an Engineer is that with a Cowboy, the bull **** is on the outside the boots.

 

[tcreeley]

When I got my 30hp TC30 I put a 7' plow blade on it mounted to the bucket. With chains it worked well. Then one winter I just never got to it and started just using the 5' bucket. That worked well too and I could really scrape the drive with the front wheels off the ground. This year, age caught up with me and I got a Fisher 8' HD plow mounted on my silverado. With the angling, heated cab- plowing is easier and faster. I do two drives and the barnyard in half the time. The tractor is still ready to come out and go to work - but the pickup is easier. - The paths - that's for the cub cadet snowblower.

 

[heavy hammer]

So what is the best option here? It seems like what is the most convenient for the one removing the snow is the best?

 

[radios1]

Oh, I can afford a barn or shed . . . no problem! It's the divorce I couldn't afford if I did build one. The wife is quite adamant about not having any ' outbuildings ' up here on our hill. And in truth, there really isn't any suitable site unless I could sorta cantilever it into the woods. I ' spect the leach field would be unsuitable . . . I'm not worried about my tractor rusting too much before I'm no longer able to play in the snow . . . I might have four or five years more before I'll be wearing diapers . . .

what I'd do is get rid of the tractor and snow equipment and buy the wife a good snow shovel!..

 

[bruceha2000]

Better get her a membership at the gym first if you expect her to shovel a 750' driveway!

Can a non angled bucket shove snow out of the way? I guess it would eventually fill and while some snow would fall off to the side, other snow would come over the top of the bucket toward the tractor. I do see that there are some blades that clamp onto the bucket.

 

[aczlan]

Better get her a membership at the gym first if you expect her to shovel a 750' driveway!

Can a non angled bucket shove snow out of the way? I guess it would eventually fill and while some snow would fall off to the side, other snow would come over the top of the bucket toward the tractor. I do see that there are some blades that clamp onto the bucket.

What we have seen, is that you end up with almost V plow effect on your first pass from the snow that piles up in front of the bucket. That doesn't help you on the subsequent passes where you have to push out in a herringbone fashion, but the first one works pretty well.

Aaron Z