Will a Kubota B2650 cab make it up this hill in snow

   / Will a Kubota B2650 cab make it up this hill in snow
  • Thread Starter
#51  
Thank you all for the continued insight. Im happy I now realize I need the weight and muscle of a Grand L with chains to get the job done. I am leaning towards getting a pronovost 74" rear inverted snowblower for $5,300.

I wonder how much damage an L series machine, 4500 Lbs, would have on the edges of the driveway when the wheels go over the shoulder. I wanted to put shoulders on both sides of the drive but at 1 mile of edges the cost is crazy. I wonder if is will be OK if i leave them how they are, which has a 3 to 5" tamped angled edge on both sides. Would be great to not have to bring in god knows how much material to put a proper shoulder on.
 
   / Will a Kubota B2650 cab make it up this hill in snow #52  
Thank you all for the continued insight. Im happy I now realize I need the weight and muscle of a Grand L with chains to get the job done. I am leaning towards getting a pronovost 74" rear inverted snowblower for $5,300.

I wonder how much damage an L series machine, 4500 Lbs, would have on the edges of the driveway when the wheels go over the shoulder. I wanted to put shoulders on both sides of the drive but at 1 mile of edges the cost is crazy. I wonder if is will be OK if i leave them how they are, which has a 3 to 5" tamped angled edge on both sides. Would be great to not have to bring in god knows how much material to put a proper shoulder on.

With having to drive over the snow first you will need more tractor! You were fine with your first option as far as my concern with doing a driveway that is steeper with a north facing slope! This is not my hobbie but my job! Your choice!
 
   / Will a Kubota B2650 cab make it up this hill in snow #53  
I wonder how much damage an L series machine, 4500 Lbs, would have on the edges of the driveway when the wheels go over the shoulder. I wanted to put shoulders on both sides of the drive but at 1 mile of edges the cost is crazy.

Your "edges" will be fine in the winter, but in the spring use your new machine to put some crushed stone (with dust) along the edges flush with the driving surface. You can also do this with dirt & grass seed for a finished look. The idea is to carry a vehicles weight onto the shoulder, (grass or gravel) without an unsupported pavement "edge" to concentrate the wheel's load on, particularly in warm temps.
 
   / Will a Kubota B2650 cab make it up this hill in snow #54  
On steep driveways plowing down wasn't a major problem, directional control and stopping could be.

I can only think of one or two times I had to apply power to push snow, my pickups and tractors with the blade down and working would plow with the clutch in and you had to use brakes or gearing to keep the speed down.

I hope that if you do try it without chains that you have a good runout area.

I don't as a normal course even attempt to plow up my hill.
It is to hard on the equipment and the driveway.

Good luck this winter.
 
   / Will a Kubota B2650 cab make it up this hill in snow #55  
Interesting thread...
My take is that chains will at some point be necessary on a long grade like the op has. Some pavement marking will occur regardless of chain type. My preference is the Duo Grip style or 2 link ladder. The Duo Grip gives a smoother ride and is less prone to slipping when ground contact is between links like on the ladder style. There are lots of snow / ice conditions and chains.

I strongly agree that he is going to need chains at some point on that long driveway, especially with a north facing slope. Since he is planning on blowing snow, rather than plowing, he can probably get away without them in some conditions, but don't expect to have reliably good results through the whole winter.

My experience with DuoGrip chains has been the opposite of RjCorrazza. I'm running chains on my rear tires only: filled R4 tires. I work on gravel roads and off road quite a bit. The only time I'm on paved roads I'm strictly in "transport mode" (not plowing or snowblowing). I suspect the filled tires contribute to making the ride a bit harsher, and styles other than R4 will have different traction results. (Turf tires tend to do better with Ladder style chains than R4 or R1 tires, since a good bit of the cross links tend to fall between the treads of an R4 or R1 tire.)

I originally had 4 link ladder chains with v-bars. They worked fairly well getting up and down my gravel driveway. The ride was tolerable on hard surfaces, even at high speed. A 2 link spacing ladder chain would have provided a bit smoother ride, but I could deal with it with the 4 link spacing. Traction-wise, if all I were doing was going straight up and down my driveway (or other hills), these would have been fine. However, I was not happy with the poor lateral traction, which quickly became a factor when working in my woods.

I switched to DuoGrip with V-bars. This improved the lateral traction quite a bit, but the ride was incredibly rough on hard surfaces, even at moderate speeds. I thought I was going to shake my tractor or myself to pieces. If all of my work was off-road in the woods (slower speeds and/or softer surfaces), they'd have worked out very well. Running up and down my gravel driveway at anything more than walking speed was too rough. Since I have to run my tractor over the road several miles to another property fairly regularly, they were out of the question for me. I used them for less than 1/2 a winter season and took them off.

I ended up getting what I should have started with all along: the "Euro Style" OFA EKO 8 studded chains (other manufacturers make similar styles). These provide excellent traction, both straight ahead and lateral. They work great in the woods in logging applications, on my gravel drives, and I can run high speeds and still have a very smooth ride on that 5-mile run to the other property. For my purposes, they are the ultimate in tire chains. I'm extremely happy with them.

In the OP's situation, If the chains are primarily going to be used on his driveway, or off road on minimal side hills, 2 or 4 link ladder chains would probably get the job done - especially if he is running turf tires, since this style performs better on turfs than on R1 or R4 tires. If he wants a more versatile chain that works well across a wider variety of conditions and gives a smoother ride, go with the Euro-Style (aka "diamond pattern". This is also the style that is called "studded high strength alloy" or "reinforced net" on the comparison table that someone linked earlier. In general you are concerned about marking pavement, you may want to go with the non-studded/non-Vbar versions: Studded are less likely to spin, but more likely to gouge if they do spin. Non-studded are less likely to damage, but the trade-off is not as good performance on glare ice: it will take a bit more finesse if you are working on those conditions without studded chains.

Plowing is much faster than snowblowing. However, plowing is also much more likely to cause you to spin tires. (you'll likely want front chains as well, if you are plowing.)

I assume you are looking at a front-mount snowblower. Snowblowing a 1/2 mile driveway with a rear mount gets to be a real pain-in-the-neck (literally). Plan on becoming good friends with your chiropractor if you are doing the drive with a rear-mount blower. When using a front-mount snowblower, it's important to have enough weight on the rear end to get good traction with your rear tires. Filled rear tires are a big help. An implement like a box blade or rear blade also helps ballast the tractor and gives you another tool if you need to scrape a stubborn area (they can be very handy to remove ice, once the sun has loosened the ice's bond with your pavement.)
 
   / Will a Kubota B2650 cab make it up this hill in snow #56  
Another view on chains.

I have a steep driveway, sometimes called a sledding hill that ends in traffic.

For just snow my BX with filled rears and front snow blower has no problem. With an ice base the R4s alone don't have the traction to climb the hill.

I have 4 link chains for the rear. These drop in between the R4 lugs. Provide enough grip to push the snow blower uphill on ice. With chains between the lugs the ride is decent and get minimal marking on the driveway.

For plowing probably would need chains that ride on top of the lugs. But that would have rougher ride and more marking on the driveway.
 
   / Will a Kubota B2650 cab make it up this hill in snow #57  
sounds like your main concern is snow plowing. You can pick up a used tracked skid steer in pretty good shape (for a lot less than 60k) with a rubber/plactic/synthetic/non steel edge on your plow so it won't hurt your driveway and then get whatever you may need for yardwork.
Endless choices of tractors etc. Really depends on what is most important to you. To me as I say it sounds like snow removal first.
 
   / Will a Kubota B2650 cab make it up this hill in snow #58  
I have 4 link chains for the rear. These drop in between the R4 lugs. Provide enough grip to push the snow blower uphill on ice. With chains between the lugs the ride is decent and get minimal marking on the driveway.

For plowing probably would need chains that ride on top of the lugs. But that would have rougher ride and more marking on the driveway.

Actually, the Euro-style chains are designed not to fall between the lugs, and have a couple of circumferential chains so that the wheel is always riding on the chains, rather than bouncing on and off them as happens with ladder style chains. The ride is significantly better than a 4 link ladder chain (especially if you have filled rear tires, which tend to stiffen the ride up a bit). The ride is only a little bit better than 2-link ladder chains. The chance of marking with non-studded Euro-style chains is about the same as for non-V-bar/non studded 2 link ladder style (from all the reading I've done, 2 link ladder may have a slight advantage for not marking). Both of those are less likely to mark a driveway than 4 link ladder chains.

All of this makes me glad I have a gravel driveway. Well ... at least until the next gully washing storm comes through.
 
   / Will a Kubota B2650 cab make it up this hill in snow #59  
sounds like your main concern is snow plowing. You can pick up a used tracked skid steer in pretty good shape (for a lot less than 60k) with a rubber/plactic/synthetic/non steel edge on your plow so it won't hurt your driveway and then get whatever you may need for yardwork.
Endless choices of tractors etc. Really depends on what is most important to you. To me as I say it sounds like snow removal first.

Tracked skids are the worse thing he could buy with out studding the tracks. Better with a tired machine.
 
   / Will a Kubota B2650 cab make it up this hill in snow #60  
Tracked skids are the worse thing he could buy with out studding the tracks. Better with a tired machine.

Never used a skid steer, tracked or otherwise. I handle renting equipment our company needs. A couple Winters ago we needed a skid steel to use inside a building where we were doing demolition work. Our Bestline rep for that area said he could fix me up with a tracked SS, but all his wheeled units were rented from something like October through March by contractors doing snow removal. Those contractors refused tracked machines.
 

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