Tractor Snow Plowing in Europe

[je1279]

I recently stumbled upon some videos of guys plowing snow with tractors in Europe. They use giant tractors and plows on extremely narrow roads so they typically have only inches on each side of them. Pretty amazing, but I couldn't imagine doing this.

 

[Lil Foot]

Wow! Like you said, not much room.
Amazing how the snow gets pushed onto/into some of the houses.
Wheeled plow is interesting also.
Thanks for posting.

 

[Hkb82]

Looks fun to me. I’m sure it’s got a bit of pucker factor to it but you’d get used to it I’m sure. Not sure I saw the wheeled plow your talking about but you would be crazy to run at this with a plow truck and not a tractor. Small roads plus mountainous looking. Tractor for the win. Now if we could do something about the colour.

 

[The Evil Twin]

I'm surprised they built so close to the roads.

 

[Trimley]

Reminds me of areas I was on a crew (solo dumptrucks) building logging roads at high elevations. I (like other drivers) white knuckled the steering wheel, always one hand on the door handle...ready to bail. On breaks, we all joked and poked fun about the conditions. And yes, I literally crapped myself on a few occasions. Over the years, a few trucks were lost due to failed brakes, where they catapulted over the edge. One driver never managed to get out. That was a sad day. It was also an eye opener...how aware of all your actions needed to be, in those driving conditions.

Pavement drivers don't have a ****ing clue.

 

[chim]

I'm surprised they built so close to the roads.

So was I. Then, I saw the backs of some of those houses looked to be at least 3 stories tall. To be another 20' away from the road with the slope there they'd have a skyscraper for a house

 

[rc51stierhoff]

Whoever is driving has some talent. I suspect they don’t text much while plowing in that stretch of road.

 

[chim]

Reminds me of areas I was on a crew (solo dumptrucks) building logging roads at high elevations. I (like other drivers) white knuckled the steering wheel, always one hand on the door handle...ready to bail. On breaks, we all joked and poked fun about the conditions. And yes, I literally crapped myself on a few occasions. Over the years, a few trucks were lost due to failed brakes, where they catapulted over the edge. One driver never managed to get out. That was a sad day. It was also an eye opener...how aware of all your actions needed to be, in those driving conditions.

Pavement drivers don't have a fucking clue.

When I was about 55 years younger a few of us buds worked together at a local quarry for a Summer. We were allowed/required? to do all sorts of stuff. It was always fun when they expanded the hole. As much of the topsoil and clay had to come off so the quarried stone was cleaner. After the pans cleaned off what overburden they could, track hoes came and dug out everything they could reach, working back from the edge of the quarry hole. That left what looked like a small mountain range.

Before the the wagon drills were called in to core for blasting we had to turn the mountain range into a "road" for the wagon drills. This was accomplished by hauling loads of crushed stone on our Euclids and dumping them where the road was to be built. Each load was dumped closer towards the quarry hole. When we got closer, the road was along the edge of the hole. They had an operator on a large wheeled loader to backdrag every couple loads.

This was in the warmer months. "Eucs" didn't have A/C, so we'd tie the driver's door full open. It was kind of a thrill to be backing up along the rim and being able to look out the door straight down into the hole. Today I'd pass on the opportunity

 

[chim]

Two that I don't get tired of seeing:

 

[DustyRusty]

When I first started plowing snow over 60 years ago, I was taught to push the snow from the high side to the low side, and then push the snow off the low side on the return pass. That way you always had room for the next big snowfall. We had a fixed V plow for opening the road if it was extremely heavy snow, but we would always push to the low side first, and then when we came back, the first plow would put the snow from the high side towards the middle of the road, and the second plow would push it away to the low side. If a third plow was available, that one would push the snow off of the shoulder into the lowest part of the road. We never had a time when we couldn't get rid of the snow before the next snowfall happened. We also opened areas where the water could run off so it eliminated puddling and the ice on the road when it froze overnight. I no longer do snow removal commercially and the equipment today is far better than what we had back then.
I once saw a giant snowblower mounted on the front of a Chevy pickup that was hydraulically driven by a monster diesel engine and hydraulic system on the back of the truck. Never saw it operational, but I am certain that it was for areas where there were no homes on the road.

 

[Lil Foot]

Not sure I saw the wheeled plow your talking about

At 1:29 the wheels are visible, and a couple other spots as well.

 

[Vlach7]

That first one looks total AI.