Snow Attachments some thoughts on my snow removal options

[leonz]

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

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The Toro 1432 OHXE commercial (14 horsepower with a 32 inch cut) would give you the most power for what you need and all you would need is snow chains for additional traction.

Your local toro dealer should have them in stock or can obtain one quickly if he is out of stock. They have been making snow throwers and snow blowers for almost 50 years so they know what they are doing when it comes to snow removal.

 

[tcreeley]

The past few years all I used was a 5' bucket. You push as far as your tractor allows and plan turnouts to shove the snow to the side into banks. You push it in deep as over the winter you have some high banks. - From a couple of winters ago -

 

[bruceha2000]

Does your tractor do the limbo under that wire in the second picture?

 

[tcreeley]

Does your tractor do the limbo under that wire in the second picture?

Keep the horses in - they love to go see what's new in the world! One tape wire, 1 steel wire.

 

[bruceha2000]

BTW @tcreeley that was useful information about just using the 5' bucket. I don't have a long road, in fact just a "circle" about 3 car widths wide and 7 or 8 "long" plus running down between the barns. I've been clearing it with the blower on the garden tractor but am getting 3 "Edge Tamers" for the real tractor's bucket to use at least in areas where the garden tractor just doesn't get good traction (like any sort of side slope or backing up any amount of slope). I'll see what combination of things works best.

 

[dnw64]

As he stated - you can throw a lot more snow with 50 PTO hp and the impeller rotating at 300 rpm than 25 PTO hp and the impeller rotating at 600 rpm.

Actually, ANY machine will be able to move MORE snow at 300 rpm than 600 rpm (all other factors being equal), because the 300 rpm machine will only be throwing it roughly half the distance.

In reality, a machine designed to run at 300 rpm will have a larger diameter impeller, as you WANT to be able to throw the snow the same distance regardless. Tip speed is the key ingredient.

 

[Jack Murdock]

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

I have plowed my 1100 foot gravel driveway for 28 years ( upstate NY in the Taconic range bordering Mass and close to VT ) with FEL and scraper blades then plow truck and now JD2520 with a front mounted snow blower and a scraper blade. This is my favorite method so far. The last storm we got 20" over 2 days and I only plowed once and left the gravel on the driveway instead of the lawn.....although I miss my FEL this system does a much cleaner nicer job because I dont have to push the snow way back.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

BTW @tcreeley that was useful information about just using the 5' bucket. I don't have a long road, in fact just a "circle" about 3 car widths wide and 7 or 8 "long" plus running down between the barns. I've been clearing it with the blower on the garden tractor but am getting 3 "Edge Tamers" for the real tractor's bucket to use at least in areas where the garden tractor just doesn't get good traction (like any sort of side slope or backing up any amount of slope). I'll see what combination of things works best.

I don't know if your ground freezes up hard, or you have a freeze-thaw cycle all winter. Our ground freezes hard, and stays frozen all winter. So the edge tamers are pretty useful for me until solid freeze up, then they don't really matter anymore. I use my box blade to scrape the driveway surface, and the front bucket on FEL, with edge tamers to remove the bulk of the snow. So once ground is frozen hard, it's push snow forward with the bucket/edge tamers, while dragging the box blade, scraping the surface clean behind me as I go.



This does work. It's not near as fast, or convenient as an angled snow blade, but it gets the job done. We get 5'-6' drifts pretty commonly. You do have to go back over the windrows left behind by the front bucket. Whereas if you had an angled blade, everything could get pushed off to one side as you make a pass.

My next snow weapon will be a rear 3pt snow blower and just keep the bucket on front. Back drag out the tight spots with the bucket, and blow everything off into the trees. Only have to move the snow once with a blower.

 

[bruceha2000]

Thanks for the input Slowpoke. I have very uneven surfaces so I suspect even if the ground is frozen the bucket would still dig in without the edge tamers. The blower does even with its side skid shoes set at 1/2", the leading edge gets to the humps first. And it spits gravel. For my areas I'm not sure an angled blade would work well, for instance there is only about 10' between the big and little barn, no place for snow coming off the side of a blade to go. At the moment I blow it in front of me until I get past the gate into the paddock behind the barns. Yes, I do end up blowing some of the same snow twice, the distance is 50'. If there isn't too much snow I might be able to start with an empty bucket without dumping snow out the side. Having it do that just before the gate would be unfortunate since the door to the lower part of the big barn, where the animals are, is right there. I would be making a big pile I would then have to shovel.

Just got the tractor this summer so I will have plenty of "try this, try that" to see what works best when we get snow this winter.