Snowblower question B3200

[jabloomf1230]

I've been through several winters in upstate NY, using my front snowblower on my 700 foot gravel private road and house loop. The rear tires are filled and I keep my backhoe on all winter for additional weight.

The road has various grades to it, so last year I added rear chains to my "arsenal" to get better traction on ice. My question is simple. I presently have a GS 1560 grader scraper that I use for maintaining the road. Does anybody have either experience or thoughts on using the GS instead of the backhoe for rear weight? It's obviously not as heavy an implement and it may have less ground clearance than the backhoe.

 

[Dave_eng]

Why not make a ballast block from concrete which weights 150# per cubic foot.

In this way you get the weight you want without the hoe being in the way as you maneuver around things.

Dave M7040

 

[skeets]

Like Dave said, a weight box will do more than either of those items. And you can build one out of plywood and ready mix, or even a chopped off 30 gallon drum with rock of gravel or cement. Also a weight box will take up a lot less room and make it easier to get around in tighter places. Just look around in here and you can find more ideas than you would think, also one member used old barbell weights and they worked pretty well

 

[jabloomf1230]

Thanks for those ideas.

 

[SteelonSteel]

Any relation to Frank Bloomfield who used to farm at the Normanskill Dairy Farm in Albany? I used to deliver their paper as a kid. The city of Albany took over the place years ago.

Anyways my thoughts on the matter. I don't have a back hoe on mine, I have a Woods 60" box blade for weight and I can back plow or break up compacted snow and ice with that too. The weight is a definite plus. I did the first winter with out anything other than loaded tires and I got stuck on the hills more than once with ice or compacted and glazed snow surface. Add in some heavy snowfalls and I had to resort to wooden handled shovel more than once top get unstuck. With your back hoe on the back you should always be able to drag your self out of a predicament. Unless you fear banging into stuff with the back hoe, I'd leave it on and an emergency unstucker device.

 

[Diydave]

Put your blade on it, and hang some suitcase weights, off it, or figger some other way to add weight to the blade...

 

[jabloomf1230]

Any relation to Frank Bloomfield who used to farm at the Normanskill Dairy Farm in Albany? I used to deliver their paper as a kid. The city of Albany took over the place years ago.



.

I've been asked that before. There are a lot of Bloomfields locally, but I'm not related to the owner of the farm. The farm now houses the Albany Police Department's horses for its mounted patrols.

Thanks for the advice on the snowblower, but I've decided to leave the backhoe on for now. I invested my funds in a pair of the Brotek wheel extenders on the rear, so that my chains don't tear up the fenders if they should come loose. That happened to me last year and between the noise from the tractor and wearing heavy winter clothes and hat, I didn't realize that one of the cables connections had come loose until it whacked the inside of the left fender and took some of the orange paint with it.

 

[jabloomf1230]

Just a quick update. So far, I haven't used the tractor's snowblower at all so far. The Albany Airport reported only 10" of snow for the whole season and I'm pretty sure we didn't even get that much.

Now the dilemma, that line of heavy thunderstorms that hit the East Coast last night made giant ruts in our private road. And I know if I take the snowblower /backhoe off and put the FEL and land plane back on, we will get a big noreaster.

 

[skeets]

Well one thing you dont have to plow rain,,,lol ,, Though you might want to put the blade back on,, you know just in case you have to put rock back in place

 

[jabloomf1230]

Hardly any snow all winter and now 3" on April 4th.

 

[Grouse Feathers]

I have a BX2370 with loaded tires and snowblower for 1/2 mile of driveway. There is one big 40' hill at 9% slope. I use my rear blade to help with snow removal around the house and garage, for areas I don't want to blow. The rear blade has always been enough rear weight. Late this winter I finally had to add chains when none of my vehicles could make it up the hill because of ice from freezing rain.

Back in the middle of March when we had bare ground in Northern Michigan there were several posts from Michigan about taking off snow blowers. I said there is still half of March, all of April, and a possibility of May. Since mid March we have had two 6" wet extremely heavy snows and another forecast for Wednesday. It's your guess to New York.

 

[ROHO555]

I've been through several winters in upstate NY, using my front snowblower on my 700 foot gravel private road and house loop. The rear tires are filled and I keep my backhoe on all winter for additional weight.

Another thought is to fill your backhoe bucket with 3/8" minus or sand for the extra weight and so if you get stuck you have a good medium to put down for traction. you could even leave the sand in the bag one gets from a box store so if you don't use it its still around for next year. Oregonian. wet ucky snow when we get it.

 

[jabloomf1230]

Yikes, now you got me thinking about winter!