Snow Removal

[halftrack78]

All right guys, point me in the right direction. I have a new bx2660 with the frontend loader and a Land Pride 60" rear blade for snow removal. Have a good size cement driveway to clear and about 200' of gravel road.

My little Cub managed 1 winter with a 46" snowblower!

What have ya'll seen in the ways of trial and error with this set of circumstances? ...and yes it relatively flat.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Kubota_Man]

I would use your rear blade to do most of the clearing (if you don't already have the skid shoes I would get them). Then when the berms start to close in use you FEL to stack the snow to widen the area.

 

[halftrack78]

I understand that MY paticual Land Pride blade does not that the OPTIONAL skid shoes available. Any thoughts on a retro fit? Other note of interest...the "skid shoe kits" are damn near half the the cost of the entire blade!!!!

 

[skeets]

Watch this I'm sure it will help you as much as it did me

http://www.everythingattachments.co...-Blade-72-p/lb-scrape-blade-swing-72-mso6.htm

 

[Eric McCarthy]

Are you useing turf tires or ags? If you have turfs buy a set of tire chains, if you have ags ballast the tires for better traction. Also some sorta added weight to the snow plow makes a huge difference in removing snow also.

 

[Davemerq73]

Congrats to halftrack78 on the new machine!

Eric - I would agree that traction needs to be improved on the BX. I personally have turfs, with liquid ballast in the tires. I dont use chains, and have no problems pushing snow with a 60" rear blade. Im sure chains will help, but it is perfectly functional, and may be better on the concrete. When you need more traction, just load the bucket with some snow, and pick up the rear blade a bit.

I would agree with KubotaMan, the rear blade is the quickest for general clearing, but limited to how high to stack, or in deep/wet snow. Hopefully your gravel is not too wide, and you have a few places to put the snow.

I dont know if anyone else has tried, but I replaced one of my Side links with a chain so that the blade can float a bit. Last year it worked out well. Also, with my toplink as short as it would get, blade facing rear, the sidelink had to be adjusted every time I changed the angle from left to right. With one side link floating, the blade always seemed to ride the contour better. - no adjusting -

BTW - I would not suggest extending the toplink with a chain for a sidelink - Lesson learned... when backing the blade can push the 3PH up too high, now I have a new tail lamp.

 

[halftrack78]

Thanks guys. so far I have no complaints on the tractor, some minor mowing issues, but will save them til spring. I have the R4 tires and a FEL. I get very bad drifts here and was wondering if I would need ballast in the tires or not. Kinda hope I don't need it so I won't rut my lawn in the summer, but I don't wanna figure that our mid Dec either.

 

[Orange Tractors]

I clear my gravel driveway with the snap coupler rear blade on my WD. The key is to have some place where you can raise the blade while moving forward to get rid of the snow. My garden works for me, I drag the snow out and make a loop after getting rid of the load, then go back to make another pass.

Snow usully isn't heavy enough to drag the tractor down, so this year I have fabricated some extensions for the end of my 6' blade. Much cheaper than trying to find genuine Allis Chalmers extensions. I will find out how they work after our first snowfall.

Anybody else ever notice that snow is a four letter word???

Robert

 

[Kubota_Man]

I get very bad drifts here and was wondering if I would need ballast in the tires or not. Kinda hope I don't need it so I won't rut my lawn in the summer, but I don't wanna figure that our mid Dec either.

I have beat juice as ballast in my BX24. I don't rut up my lawn. I would get your tires loaded as with "very bad drifts" I am going to assume you will be doing a bit of loader work and the extra weight will help.

 

[CBMAMF5]

Hi!
Plowing vs blowing snow is a whole nother animal. I plowed a 80 yard driveway with a Polaris ATV that had a 60" blade for 7 long years. Lessons learned: plow the snow as far away from your driveway as you can stand...when it snows and snows you need room to pile it. If it looks like a big melt is coming, use your blower to get it further into your yard. Nothing like a 4 foot tall wall of cement snow to make life fun. Plow it to the South side if you can. If you put it on the North side, when the big one hits, however tall you have piled it is how deep the snow will be across your driveway. Your from WI so you know what I mean. My driveway was recycled concrete...every spring was misery picking that stuff out of the yard. My driveway is now paved and I sit on my B2630 with front mount blower and smile (well, at 5a.m. it still sucks !) Good Luck!