Warning:
The information contained in these web pages has not been
verified for correctness. Some of the information contained herein is hearsay and may not
be correct. Use the information from these pages only at your own risk!
- Suggestion A: Look at something bigger than a lawn tractor. We have 1/4
mile of driveway with about a 6% slope. An Oliver OC-3 crawler tractor with blade is
working most nicely. It is however without a cab so operator comfort is marginal, however
traction is quite excellent.
- Suggestion B: Don't get a four-wheel drive pickup with a snowplow. The
snowplow on the front of the truck does nothing but move a bit of snow, sack the front
springs, require large outlays of cash for the hydraulics and tire chains and funky
lights, and finally requires you to get the kit for another truck in five years when you
trade in the old model.
- Suggestion C: An alternative is to acquire a small tractor (20 - 30 HP)
with a PTO and 3 pt. hitch, and attach a 3pth snowblower. The blower lets you throw the
snow (and avoid building banks that cause drifting). I use a FORD 2000 tractor with a 5.5
ft. snowblower to clear my driveway. Takes about 20 minutes to do 500 ft. plus the yard in
front of the workshop if the snow isn't higher than the snowblower. Just have to watch
turfing big rocks onto the roof of the house! Plowing is only useful if you can avoid
building banks that will drift in the next time the snow blows.
- Suggestion D: A 3-point grader blade behind a tractor works pretty
well, as long as the blade can be angled enough. With too many snowfalls, you can run out
of space to plow the snow to (due to the previously plowed snow), at which time you would
either need a snowblower or a loader to move the excess plowed snow further off of the
road
- A site visitor wrote: I
very much disagree with your conclusion in FAQ that a blade is superior to a loader for
moving snow. A blade may be adequate in South Texas, but in Iowa it only works on the
first snow and then only if it's a light snow. Once there's drifts, a blade can only push
snow until you run out of places to push snow. You can't drive a 20 hp tractor through a 3
foot deep drift, you have to bash it backwards with a blade (been there done that, sold
the tractor and blade years ago). After a snow or two, there's no place I can push snow,
without lifting it. I replaced the 8N and blade with a much smaller JD garden tractor and
snow blower. It's a single stage blower and worthless in wet snows. Then I got a tractor
with a full hydraulic loader so I would be able to LIFT the snow to the tops of previous
snow piles. But a blade just doesn't cut it.
- Suggestion A: Nail a rope to a couple of short 2X4's. Toss the rope/2X4
over the house and pull back. This will losen most (non-wet) snow enough to start an
avalanche. This isn't perfect but it is better than a roof cave-in.
- Suggestion B: Using pvc sprinkler tubing and connectors, make a long
rectangle maybe 2 feet wide and 20 feet or so long. Duct tape plastic sheeting over the
pvc frame. Use this to make verticle slices in the snow. Just slide the tubing into the
snow and the slickness of the plastic causes the snow to slide down off the roof.
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This page was last updated on
January 23, 2006