I have a 46" blade that attaches to my cub-cadet riding mower (without the mowing deck). I also have some old break rotors as weights and some rear tire chains. The set-up actually works pretty well. I have a gravel driveway with a turn-around and the driveway is about 100 ft long. I realized that I don't have much technique when driving this thing. I can angle it to a side, which is good so I do side pushing. Then I can shove snow into moderately sized piles. With snow blowers, there is a pattern to go down the middle of the drive, and then do concentric circles. Are there any similar plowing patterns that should be used for plowing?
Every property is a lil different as far as what works best (where you can pile snow) how much snow you are dealing with (and how heavy it is) changes things up a lot too... sometimes I start in the middle and work out, sometimes I go one side to the other...not much help I know...
My neighbor plows his drive side to side. Sounds like a good enough idea. He has a full size plow so it takes him fewer passes.
And yeah, my area gets an average of 110 inches every year. I guess I will figure it out one of these years... It seems anything over about 12 inches is better for the snow blower but it can take a lot longer. You're right, it depends on the conditions.
Of the three properties that I do all are different for different purposes. One I work from right of the drive to the left one swipe at a time. Its got a fence that I push into 2 foot off of driveway. My drive I have to back drag with my loader so I dont unload a ton of gravel across the road way. My driveway doesn't pack and it a pain, but this technic work. The other driveway I can set my loader level with tip just a bit up and it work rather well on there small gravel.
When we had a stone driveway I used a snow blade attached to a Wheel Horse garden tractor with modified chains. That was until we had the driveway paved. The tire chains left many deep scratches from pushing heavy deep snow. Went with a 3 stage snow blower and never looked back. No more trying to find places to pile those heavy snows.
Yup, we got about 10" of heavy snow from that last storm, and the township left me about 2' of it in the end of my drive...I piled it all in the rhododendron bush with the snow blower
Our county used to have one similar. It was an old Oshkosh that they only brought out when chit got real
Dad had (has?) one that mounts on the 3PH of the tractor...takes about 50HP to run it right...8' wide IIRC...if you get the right snow consistency it'll pile it 50' away!
There is an old ex airport snowblower for sale not to far from me. Have visions of creeping up on people at stoplights. Last year I tried bidding on a blower that mounted on a plow truck. Had a real sweet old IH diesel hydraulic power unit that got placed in the dump box. Someone else also thought it was sweet.
Bad azz. I prefer a blower over plowing. I currently have a 7' snow pusher on my Kubota but looking for a blower for the Deere. I'll use both.
I'm not saying you're wrong, just a little bit more than I was hoping to spend. Actually, the real issue would be storage. I already have to park my splitter outside. We will get a larger garage but that is a project for 5-6 years from now. I think we would pave the driveway then too.
