Rear blade or snowblower?

[FrozenOrange]

I am looking at ways to move my winter snow better. I've been using the 66" bucket on my FEL and a 60" box scraper (on L3901) and it works well. A friend has an agri-ease 60" pto snowblower for sale thats only one year old. He had neck surgery and can't use. Problem is I have a gravel road and driveway I plow. I've been looking at an LP RB1584 rear blade for about the same price.
On a gravel road will the blower work or will I just tear it up chucking rocks? I know I can adjust the shoes on the bottom and use/set my draft control height... Would it be wiser to just get the blade and angle it to roll the snow as I go down the road?
Less maintenance on a blade and I can use it for other things year round ++ The blower will get snow away from the road/house but requires more maintenance and I don't know how temperamental or fragile they are.
Anybody used both and have experience/comparison? I figure I'll do my buying now and be ready before winter.

 

[johnjk]

You could probably fabricate some side shoes for the blower to keep it up off the ground a set distance. This would then allow you to have the 3pt set all the way down and let the blower follow the contour of your drive and not leave deep gaps. Chucking rocks with a blower is pretty dangerous to property and other living things.

Not sure what size agg is on top of your road/drive. May be worth it to do a late summer/fall land plane to smooth it out before winter sets in.

 

[sheepfarmer]

The question is how much road and driveway do you have and how many inches of snow do you get at once, and does it stay all winter where you are? Do YOU like to back up for hours in your tractor?

You can do pretty much everything you would want with a bucket and an angleable back blade as long as you preplan where you want frozen snowbanks. I started out with that combination on my 3560, and the first winter we had a lot of snow and I ended up making a big pile of snow in the middle of my yard with the bucket to get it out of the way. I have added a little tractor with a front blower because i wanted a cab after 38 yrs of Michigan winters.. It is fine on gravel with caution. Where it saves me work is not having to bucket piles out of the way it has a hydraulically controlled chute to aim to snow out of the way..

 

[FrozenOrange]

Makes sense. This winter was a bugger. Record snowfall in interior Alaska. My snow piles were huge. I use a walk behind blower on the deck and around the house. The rest I do with a tractor. I like the idea of blowing it out and away but hate fixing broke stuff in the cold. The blade seems fairly bulletproof. Just didn't know if the blower would be worth the hassle. Driveway is 400 ft and the lane to the main road is 1200 ft. Long ways backing up. Good point sheep farmer.
Maybe novelty of a blower is outweighed by a good solid reliable blade.

 

[bucktail]

If you have plenty of room on both sides of the road the blade is the way to go. It's more efficient as long as there is room for the berms and as you stated has no moving parts. If trees or etc are in the way so that you need to drag the snow to either end the blower will work better

 

[David Page]

Looking behind isn't as easy as it used to be. Frozen my wife asked if you got that storm a few days ago. North of us got flurries recently. She asked how the weather is now. We arrive in Anchorage the 10th and are going to do a loop up to Fairbanks then down to Sewell then back up. Not going to use the L260 though.

 

[rjcorazza]

I have both, but rarely use the blower on gravel. I don’t get nearly the snow you get, but the kicker is I plow about a dozen residential drives and have to be able to clear a potential large snow quickly.
Were I getting a lot of snow and plowing a long gravel drive, I would still have a rear mount blower and move off the bulk of the snow with the blower raised. Follow with a blade as necessary.
Also, a 60” blower is not wide enough for a 3901. Start looking at 72” blowers (jmho).


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[jajiu]

I have a Quick Attach front plow blade and a rear blade that I use backwards on my gravel 1000' drive. I thought about getting a blower, but have been doing this for 20 years plus and just can't justify the added expense for a blower. Like you said, I use the blades for other things, the front one you can put pins in and it becomes a dozer blade for light material. I use the rear blade backwards when the gravel drive is thawed out, the first and last storms are the worse.

 

[prof.fate]

I've used snow blowers on gravel - yes, you will throw rocks. a blade will scrape them also..so eitehr way you'll have some clean up.

throwing can break things..i lost a window and a mirror on a car that way.

HOWEVER - if you get a lot of repeated snow falls, freezing/thawing it's handy - no 'ice curbs' along the edges of a driveway. I went to a blower for that reason - tires of breaking transmissons.

AND a blower will blow snow in your face - if it's windy it will get all over you (unless you have a cab).

OK, back blade - did that for the first time this past winter and hells no, I don't want to do that again. You are either in reverse all the time (sore neck) or the tractor is in fresh snow and the blade is behind you pulling snow. Then yo uhave to back up over the pile of snow at the end of the 'run'.

It works, but you can did a foundation with a sharp stick and a teaspoon if you really wanted to. Why you'd want to...i don't know.

I got a new tractor with a loader this month - it's gonna have a blade on the front for winter, one way or another!

 

[Stmar]

If you get a blade get one that will pivot 180 degrees, that way you use the blunt/back of the blade to plow snow and it will not dig into your driveway. When the other member said he used his backwards I did not know if his pivoted or if he actually ran his tractor in reverse. Blade would also be useful for dirt work in the summer. I also have a front snow blade so between the two I get some good results.

 

[RCW]

I’ve used a front mount snowblower on a stone driveway for 16 years.
I don’t have much room to push snow, so it’s better to throw it once.
You do need to pay attention to building a frozen base, but all is good after that.
I know you don’t have a front-mount option, but is the same.
We get occasional big snow here; 34” March of 2017. Would have been a long project with a FEL and blade.

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[FrozenOrange]

Thanks for all the perspectives. Thats why I love this site. Think I'm gonna pass on the blower. Nice to have. Dealer can have me a new 84" severe duty blade in two weeks. If I get a berm built up too big along the side of the road I'll move it with FEL.

I went out last night and brush hogged alongside the driveway and the lane. Made lots of room to put snow. Seems like a good time of year to do that.

David. It is 24 hour daylight up here. 70s in the day and 50s at night. Should be warmi g up even more. Usual July temps in 80s. Long days. Ive had my wife come down and wave me off the tractor to tell me its 2300. Well past my bedtime(god knows I need my beauty rest) I admit salmon fishing all night is fun though. Have a good trip up.
Thanks for all the inputs.

 

[skeets]

I admit salmon fishing all night is fun though.
I hope you know that remarks like will not win you many points with those of us that cant fish for salmon all night..

 

[torch]

I think plowing is harder on the equipment, and while plowing is faster initially, shoving or digging the banks back more that eats up the time savings in the long run. The only time a snowblower is at a disadvantage is when dealing with wet sticky snow that can freeze in the chute. This is especially true of a single stage snow thrower.

If you are in an area with small wet snowfalls that tend to melt away before the next hit, then a plow is OK. If you are in an area that gets hit with deep snows that stay around for the season, then IMHO a blower is the best way to go. As others have said, don't try to scrape right down to the gravel; build a base.

Finally: if you don't have a cab, wear a snowmobile helmet when it's windy.

 

[FrozenOrange]

I definitely have to keep my wife... I figured I had to make a choice between two implements. She came out and said "lets get them both so we can really move the snow" too cool. In a way it makes sense. Use the blade to roll it to the side and then hook up the blower and take that windrow and hurl it away. Let my grand experiments begin...

 

[Tughill Tom]

I get some BIG snow where I'm at. I have both front mounted blower on the B3200 and a 60" blade on the Can-Am 1000 Commander UTV with the Apache Track system, used on a paved drive. Both work great, I use the plow on anything under 4" or so and Blower on the piles and all LES events that need to be dealt with.