Only the second time

[daytime dave]

It's only the second time I've needed to use the snow blower this season. We got snow yesterday, last night and today. The grand daughter had a date to see the Easter Bunny, so I snow blowed so Mary could go get her and went over and did their driveway too. About 6 - 8 inches all together.

[Hatchdog]

While I’m sure you’re not appreciating that white dirt it looks like you are well prepared to deal with it.

[JEBar]

good to hear that your planning paid off

[dave77]

I sure wish I had had that set up when I was working. For the last few years I at least had a decent tractor and blower but no cover. I'd be out moving snow at 5 in the morning and when it was really cold the snow would be dry and if there was the slightest breeze you would be covered with snow. I would have to start early enough to take a couple of warm-up breaks.

When I first started all I had was a small self propelled 2-cycle rubber flap type blower, it was worthless if there was more than a few inches of snow. Before they got me a rider I had a track drive 2-stage Honda, it would really move the snow but it worked you, difficult to maneuver and if the snow was packed at all you had to work at keeping it from creeping up on top of the packed snow. The city originally plowed the snow to the center of the street and picked it up later but then I guess they decided that was too much work so I had to blow the fresh snow off the sidewalk before school started and then go back out and blow all the snow from the street that they would come back and plow onto my sidewalk.

Some of the maintenance guys were nice and would help you out some with their plows but some others were jerks and would say they were only responsible for the snow in the parking lots. They were the ones who would sit around at their first break complaining about how tired they were because they had to get up a couple hours early.

[BrokenolMarine]

I'm sure you are loving that now... Here in Oklahoma we have a big tractor with a bucket and a really nice box blade, and rarely see snow that is more than a dusting.

I can remember the snow in VA when I had to be at work... essential personnel. I had an hour drive each way in GOOD weather. We had a 250 yard driveway and Miss T loved playing on her tractor with the 4wd and blade, she would be out clearing the drive for me to get to work, even though I had the 4wd Titan that would have made it anyway. BUT, we lived on a Tertiary Road and they rarely got around to plowing that, usually the snow just melted eventually to clear the road. If they did plow it, the ice dam it left at the bottom of the drive was terrible. We had to break that with the tractor and the blade to get out.

Usually a couple of the farmers with BIG tractors would make a few passes down the center of our road to clear it a bit for the poor folks with 2wd when the state didn't bother. Neighbors... we actually had them...

[Ernie]

Nice rig. I haven't pulled the blower from the tractor yet either. Snowed an inch or two the last two days but melted off. I don't think winter is done with us yet and I plan to stay ready.

[dave77]

I took the plow off and put the mower deck on my Cub so I could mow my pasture. I feel pretty confident I won't need the plow again this year although we did get around a foot of snow 2 years ago on April 14, previous record for the whole month of April was a ½ inch.

[BrokenolMarine]

Here is Miss T working the drive on her Simplicity Legacy. She loved this little tractor, and we had all the attachments except the front end loader. It was plumbed for it, plug and play. We just never got around to buying one when we first got it and they got WAY expensive later.

up the drive.jpg (313.87 KiB) Viewed 207 times

We sold the tractor and all the attachments with the farm, and bought a REAL tractor when we got to Oklahoma, and I made sure we got 4WD and a bucket. We use the new Kubota all the time, and it will do "nearly" all we ask of it.

tina tractor.jpg (186.5 KiB) Viewed 207 times

[rickhem]

Like Dave, I'm also in upstate NY, and we got 9 or 10 inches on Saturday. Saturday is my day to take our garbage to the transfer station, so I got out there at about 9:30 to clear off the truck and cars, and get rid of our garbage. We had about 5½ inches and it was changing over to sleet/rain then. I have a Deere 3520 with an 8 foot plow attachment that I put on the front instead of the bucket and use that for the driveway. Figured I'd get that done while it was changing to rain, and let the rain do the rest for me. Unfortunately the rain/sleet went back to snow and dropped another 4 inches. I went out Sunday morning and cleared off the truck and cars again, and ran the plow up and down the driveway a few more times, then cleared under the mailbox and where the county plows pushed stuff up at the entrance to our driveway.

Overall, not a big deal, but I'll admit that I just don't seem to have the hang of positioning that plow correctly. My driveway looks like Omaha Beach when I'm done plowing, and I always end up going off the sides a bit, ripping up the grass and dirt along the edges. Whenever I angle the plow to push to one side or the other, it's not quite level, and a corner digs in. Potholes in the driveway don't help either. I have this idea about sliding some schedule 80 PVC pipe over the cutting edge on the plow and just letting that ride along the ground. Maybe I'll leave a little more gravel on the driveway that way. Those first few mows in the spring along the edges of the driveway are quite exciting with all that displaced gravel getting flung all over by the mower.

[Hatchdog]

Like Dave, I'm also in upstate NY, and we got 9 or 10 inches on Saturday. Saturday is my day to take our garbage to the transfer station, so I got out there at about 9:30 to clear off the truck and cars, and get rid of our garbage. We had about 5½ inches and it was changing over to sleet/rain then. I have a Deere 3520 with an 8 foot plow attachment that I put on the front instead of the bucket and use that for the driveway. Figured I'd get that done while it was changing to rain, and let the rain do the rest for me. Unfortunately the rain/sleet went back to snow and dropped another 4 inches. I went out Sunday morning and cleared off the truck and cars again, and ran the plow up and down the driveway a few more times, then cleared under the mailbox and where the county plows pushed stuff up at the entrance to our driveway.

Overall, not a big deal, but I'll admit that I just don't seem to have the hang of positioning that plow correctly. My driveway looks like Omaha Beach when I'm done plowing, and I always end up going off the sides a bit, ripping up the grass and dirt along the edges. Whenever I angle the plow to push to one side or the other, it's not quite level, and a corner digs in. Potholes in the driveway don't help either. I have this idea about sliding some schedule 80 PVC pipe over the cutting edge on the plow and just letting that ride along the ground. Maybe I'll leave a little more gravel on the driveway that way. Those first few mows in the spring along the edges of the driveway are quite exciting with all that displaced gravel getting flung all over by the mower.

On my 6’ rear blade I have “shoes” that help keep the blade from digging into my gravel driveway. They help but I still get some gouging. I’ll take a picture later and come back and post it. I turn my blade backwards and drive in reverse to plow as snow pushes much better than it pulls. Hard on my neck but fortunately I only use this setup when either the snow is too deep-wet-heavy for my UTV front blade or I need to roll snow berms back.