to blow or to plow?

[easygo]

I went from plowing with the FEL and a rear blade to a snowblower. Very big difference. It cut the time it takes to clear the driveway after storms. All the reasons mentioned before are very valid. Around here too the annual snowfall is measure in feet. However if your largest storm is around 10-12" that happens every other year then you should be good with a plow.

 

[123rday]

I have a cousin that uses the blower on the back with the FEL up front. I use to use a quad with 4' blade. Took 3 hrs to do my H-shaped drive. When the winch quit working to raise and lower the blade on the quad, I called my cousin to ask to borrow his older tractor with a 7' rear blade. Cut my time down to just over an hr. But I would plow over into the yard but as i did would raise the rear blade just slightly to avoid damage to the lawn. Now that he sold me his older tractor, I had to give the blade back due to it being his fathers, I will probably be getting another rear blade for this winter. For me, the blade is cheaper, an in will accent my landscape rake.

 

[Doug in NNY]

Wedge40, you said it simply and well.

Last winter we had over two hundred and twenty inches. Eleven miles from here, on the leading edge of the Tug Hill Plateau, Barnes Corners NY measured over three hundred inches.

Forget walk-behind snow throwers. When you have to move real snow, you want a well-made blower. You do.

Doug

BX2350, Loftness 48" 3PH snow thrower. And other stuff.

 

[TUG HILL ADDICT]

the snow. Just confused. Have not understood the advantage of blowing the snow over plowing it. While we have a levelling blade which can be easily used for plowing the snow why pay for another item called snow blower?

If you have to ask the question you do not need a blower. If you live in a high snow area you know why a blower is needed.

 

[Lyrch75]

If they measure annual snow fall in inches, use a plow, if it's measured in feet, get a blower.

Wedge

Pretty much what I have heard as well.

Or if you get snow that starts to accumulate in Oct-Nov and stay until Apr-May you should get a blower as you will run out of paces to push it to.

Where I am at we get it fairly good, but it hardly ever stays around for more than 6 weeks. We get a warm spell and its down to 1" on the ground and hte piles are small enough to move with an FEL.

 

[nomad]

Seems that everybodys prefer to blow. But, it depends on your target.
You say if snow is too much, then, blow it. Then, why are not blowing heavy snow on the roads, highways? You are really blowing.

 

[RalphVa]

You blow when there's not enough space to put the stuff beside the roadway, or you blow when the plow won't touch it. I had to blow 7" of sleet one time with the old Gravely square chute because the plow wouldn't move it. Got a JD 4010 not with FEL and back blade. Its FEL will move the heavy stuff and allow me to toss it off to the side, but very slowly.

Ralph

 

[JDeerekid]

Seems that everybodys prefer to blow. But, it depends on your target.
You say if snow is too much, then, blow it. Then, why are not blowing heavy snow on the roads, highways? You are really blowing.

It really depends on where you are located and how much snow you get. Where I live it is not uncommon to get at least a foot or so a day sometimes more. So you run out of room quickly when you are plowing it so it requires you to either push it back with a loader or hire someone to blow it out of the way.
This is why most in my area have snowblowers which blows the snow away evenly instead up just piling it up on the edges of the driveway.

You don't see many snowblowers on the highways unless it is to blow back the banks on the side of the roads because it is a slow process. Plowing is much faster and town and highway plows start plowing when the snow starts so you are not plowing feet at a time, unlike many years ago when the plows didn't start plowing until it stopped snowing.

Yes snowblowers cost more but it is worth it to me.

 

[fish6942]

My options are: FEL on the BX, 60" blower on the 3PH and a 4' blade on the ATV. If the snow is less than 4"-5" then the blade, more than that and its the blower. With the ATV I can go 10-12 mph while the blower is maybe a few mph.

 

[4shorts]

I went with both blower and blade. Both are needed in differant areas and works great for me.

 

[gerard]

Everyones situations different. We get over 10 feet a year and if you look at my avatar you see my snowbucket. I use a 7 foot scraper blade on the back and use that for the paved areas which I can do faster than with a rear mounted snowblower. BUT I also do down to the horse pastures and run out of room to push the snow pretty quickly, so then I'll throw on the blower and get rid of the banks by blowing them up over the pasture fence. When the banks get to big on the paved portion I also use the blower to get rid of them. (I would do it differently if I had a front blower and hydro. Only having a rear blower with only two rear speeds limits me a little bit and is not an optimal set up since many times low gear is too slow but high gear is always too fast)

 

[jpm1]

I move snow in 3 driveways ranging from 100 feet to 1500 feet long every day in the winter. % foot blower on the back and 5 foot bucket on the front. The blower is much better at clearing snow cause you never really stop moving where as a blade or bucket your pushing to the side and backing up to push again. My opinion, Blower all the way!
P.S. Our snow is measured in feet every snow fall.

 

[smfcpacfp]

I would have to agree with Wedge40. I live in an area where we measure snow in feet.

When you get a blower, you want a front blower also, unless you don't mind looking over your shoulder and getting a stiff neck.

Where is TR anyway?

 

[JamieDD]

Well in our area (NE WA) we had the worst winter on record (08-09). We just have our Ford 1720 with a back blader and the JD loader. But we also have lots of room to push/dump the snow out of the way.

Here's what our winter looked like:

This was my doing...had to "rake" the roof and then I shoveled the sidewalk...I wanted Tom to be able get firewood in. Our low temps were in the -20's.

And towards the end of winter we could just climb up the snow berms to get on the roof.

JamieDD

 

[Sackett2]

I did the snow removal for the ICBM missile site for 6 years in North Dakota (along with other things)
Mostly, we had a big payloader and pushed the snow. By the end of the snow season we had mountains of snow in the yard around the site. Eventually, they tried the Bobcat with a blower. Both had there uses and I told the higher ups that BOTH are what you need to keep the site clean. On the access roads the blower was best as it took the snow 50' off the edge- it ground it up so the snow was 10% of its original bulk
At home I has a Sears Craftsman Blower attached to my tractor. It was great for plowing into the snow banks and eliminating them. During the winters, the snow would build up (Not to UP standards) and restrict the parking in my house. I'd take the craftsman and destroy the banks-eating up the snow and literally "cleaning" my front yard of almost all snow. Because it ground up the snow to less than it was, it almost erased all the snow in my yard. I'd do this for the neighbors too, they appreciated the extra parking and now having someplace to put the next snowfall.

My vote, Snowblower

 

[SideHillBill]

To plow any significant amount of snow requires good traction - either a good set of chains or 4wd with industrial or ag type tire tread. Plowing deep snow on blacktop can cause damage if you spin the wheels using chains. If you go with 4wd make sure you have weight enough and power enough for whatever is normal snowfalls in your area. I haven't used a mounted blower but I hear they work fine however they may be slower than a good plow setup. Front mounted equipment is easier on the operator but rear mounted stuff works just as well. We don't get as much snow in eastern NY as the western part and the deep snow guys seem to favor a blower. I'd go with whatever works for others in your area. Anyway, shopping now in the offseason should get you a discount from dealers. Good luck.

 

[36Tango]

I am going through the same quandry, blade or blower. I currently have a plow on my Ford Excursion, a plow on my quad, and a front end loader on my kubota b2400. The plow on my Ex I use at the office parking lot. It works at home, but pretty tight quarters. The quad does OK with the plow, but I need to stack the snow higher than what it allows. I am considering selling the quad and plow, and putting a front mount blower on my kubota (did I mention that it has a heated cab?). Most of our snows are 3"-6". Will a blower get down to the pavement? Any thoughts?

 

[studor]

36 Tango -- for your application I would get a rear mount pull forward blower and leave the fel in place. Compared to your current setups you will wonder why you used them While the blower might not always get down to pavement it will also not damage it and it will get off as much as a plow if you use it before the surface gets packed by driving on it. In this neck of the woods all the "pros" are using pull forward blowers on tractors -- plows went by the wayside quite some time ago for a reason -- snow placement and damage to the push vehicle and suroundings mostly-- JMHO
regards

 

[brandoro]

Our winters are all different, sometimes not too much snow sometimes lots of snow. One thing is we seldom get mid winter thaws so snow that falls in November is still there in March. I much prefer the snow blower, especially with hydrostatic. My first tractor was gear with the 3pt blower, usually either too fast or too slow, when the snow drifted even low range became too fast. The next tractor was hydrostatic so always had a good speed for the amount of snow.
This summer I bought a front mount blower for the current Kubota, they were on sale. I am actually looking forward to snow removal again, heated cab and front mount blower, can't be better than that.

 

[skidsteer.ca]

Pull forward or front mount seem to be the trend in blowers here too, though many still plow.
I run a 10' blade on my NH ls160, are snows are generally only 12" of less though, and I rarely plow during the storm. So I guess we don't have big snow. The blade has the advantage of quickly gathering the snow up because of a high travel speed (5 to 7 mph) and wide width.

Where blower must often travel slower (good thing because they have no trip on the cutting edge.) But a blower would be nice in the areas where there is no place to put the pile because it can blow the snow over things on the yards edge or into the trees, etc. 1 Pass and its done.
Depends on your situation as to which tool, but 1 thing for sure, forward travel is worth the price.
Ken