Help me make snow removal better

I used to have a Merkur XR4Ti with a set of blizaks. I can remember getting in the left lane (usually unplowed) on the highway (I-94) going to work in the morning and doing 70-75mph like it was nothing. The low center of gravity and those tires were an awesome combo!

 

Exactly. Winter tires are amazing. They are nothing like the hard snow tires of old.

 

They drive on glare/black ice like other tires drive on snow.

 

Yep. And they have gotten better since the days you had them.

 

Thanks for the comments. This isn’t an issue for me or my family. We all have 4x4 or AWD so it’s a piece of cake for us. I’ll never own a vehicle without it unless it’s a fun summer kind of car. The dilemma comes for the Amazon drivers, FedEx and UPS (which I get a lot of deliveries for my job) and whoever else might visit. Maybe the solution is just to make one of those delivery box things at the end of the driveway.

 

I wonder if dragging them would work or a way to watch to the rear blade vs the plow. I like the tire idea

 

Truth...its like 4x4 for your 4x2! Not kidding!

 

Something like this could work and then that solves 90% of the people that have to get up the driveway. I have a cherry stump near the bottom of the drive I could sink some lag bolts in to secure it for a few years before it rots. Or make a mini cement slab

 

The big snow boxes they use in parking lots usually have some sort of rubber on them. Check one out it may give you an idea of two.

 

I've seen where farmers take big ole offroad truck/loader tires and cut them in half to bolt to a scraper blade for pushing cow poo down the alley and into the manure pit...I bet something like that would work here...the tire sidewall could either be cut to somewhat match the wheel tracks in the driveway, or if you found a tire of the correct OD, the ends might just end up right in the wheel tracks, which might work out quite well! (adjust the top link so the outer edges tip down into the "ruts")
Here's a pic of one, just so everyone is on the same page...there are many variations of this too.


Also, they make PTO driven brooms, so your tractor would be able to run one of those, regardless of the hydraulic system. Plus you could use a PTO driven pump on a hydro driven broom too...or get a gearbox and convert a hydro broom to PTO power.
Here is a link, I'm sure there are may others out there...surely used ones too, which would be more budget friendly. (I just looked on FBMP, there are some for as low as $250...if ya wanna travel a bit)
Compact Tractor 3 Point Hitch PTO driven Manual Angle Sweepster Broom, 5', Reversible Rotation
Edit: They make walk behind "snowblower" type brooms too...

 

I remember the fun of leaving 4x4 trucks spinning away at stop lights with our front drive 4 bangers running winter boots.

 

My town has free sand/salt at the dpw. I find that once a first coat is put down, ice and snow continues to melt even into the next storm.

 

I have an 8 foot pickup plow on my Kioti tractor Quick Attach that power angles. I have a rubber edge sandwiched between the steel edge and the moldboard. It's a piece of a 3/4" horse stall mat. I added it mainly due to a neighbor who complained that the steel edge "marked up" the common paved driveway. It's a 900 foot or so driveway that I plow the entirety of. I'm debating removing the edge. It doesn't scrape like a steel edge, and that neighbor has since moved.

I don't think you'll see any noticeable advantage for your situation with a rubber edge. If anything, it'd probably make it worse as it wont scrape like a steel edge. If you want a budget friendly solution, I'd recommend filling in the low spots with millings in the warmer weather and compacting it the best you can. Then maybe, add a rubber edge next winter to avoid pulling those millings out of the ruts.

 

Ours too but my driveway takes a lot. I’m already ⅓ into a 55 gal drum I filled

 

My last house was set up in much the same way except is was a crowned gravel driveway. ATV snowplow was the main thing I used but eventually it would build up and turn to packed snow/ice. Luckily the town garage was 1 mile down the road and allowed residents to fill a 5 gal bucket from their sand pile when needed. It actually worked out good but needed to be attended to often. For deliveries we had a "bus house" for the kids to wait for the bus at the bottom when they were younger and left it for package deliveries at the discretion of the delivery driver.

 

If mine was only one mile I’d be driving the tractor over with the bucket