Snow Management

[ricky racer]

Today, after putting in 5 hours at work, I came home to clean out my 2 driveways. The snow keeps falling and the cold temps are keeping the snow from melting. Pushing snow seems to be an ever other day thing lately and the piles are getting higher and higher. It was time to start pushing the snow back further so if this keeps up I've got somewhere to put all the snow. I needed to start managing the snow instead of just plowing it. I spent a couple of hours moving snow mainly with my Cub but also I broke out my 1974 John Deere 112 garden tractor with its 37A blower as well. Some areas the snow was so heavy and deep that I had to put the 112 in granny gear so it didn't stall. Once I got done I used a roof rake to pull some of the snow off of the roof. The snow depth on the roof was between 24 & 30 inches. It's supposed to warm up for a few days next week and all that snow is going to get awful heavy. Anyway, I had some good seat time today even though the temps were only around 10 degrees.

[ajhbike]

Yeesh, I will quit complaining about our 14"...but ya, the cold isn't allowing it to melt like it usually does here. I did the lady neighbour's drive today and I had to fire up the SC to handle the drifts. This cold is getting old

[ShawnAgne]

We had about a week ago friday. Wasn't to hard to push. Pretty flat and windy out here so I opened up the county road I live on yesterday. Been cold but a blast. Finding out I'm better off keeping the 51 in 3rd gear going fast and only taking about 1/2 a blade width since I don't have weights or chains.

[meandmydeere]

Ricky Racer, keep that snow down there. Im here in Kent County and the storms are on both sides of us. We never saw a flake, until i went to WalMart.
Mark

[Jim Becker]

. . . We never saw a flake, until i went to WalMart.

Probably lots of them there.

[Dale Finch]

[muleboss]

. . . We never saw a flake, until i went to WalMart.

Probably lots of them there.

It snows everyday there!!!!!!

[BigBill]

We got around 16” my son used my old Willy’s jeep tractor. Yup with a plow we need to pile it up farther back to have room for more. One year we had record snowfall were I was piling it up running out of room. Finally the snowfall stopped. A two stage blower would be nice. One of the best snowblowers I ever had was a gravely model L8 with the older open sides blower. She would throw 4” of wet slush over the tops of the telephone poles. It never hesitated. The gravely are light farm equipment. It was the 1-4 ratio. Funny the dealer said I needed the 1-10 ratio. The 1-4 worked fine. The L8 has the 8 speed hi/lo differential. She’s a walk behind but don’t put your body between the handles. She will mule kick you in the ribs if the attachment hits something. Other than that it’s the best walk behind I ever owned.

[BigBill]

. . . We never saw a flake, until i went to WalMart.

Probably lots of them there.

Judging by the Wal-Mart pics on YouTube more than flakes go there. I didn’t know there’s a special way to dress for Wal-Mart. Lol

[k hutchins]

I've lived my whole life in mid Michigan. I learned to plow snow with my current Cub when l was 12 yrs old. My dad said, "you don't plow for Dec., you plow for March". So when ever l plow whether it be Dec. or Mar. I push the rows back a full blade width past the edge of the driveway. Then push the piles 6-8' back at the ends.
One trick l learned is when pushing into a pile, just as the snow you're pushing gets to the base of the pile raise your blade so it goes up the front and over the top. It helps that l have a handlift, it reacts faster than hydraulics. Once the piles freeze, the front tires also go up the pile which gives you more height. I've gotten my piles as high as 6' before using this method.
I should also note that after the first pass, l only use half a blade width on successive passes until l get the width l want. That keeps the snow from falling off the already cleared side.

Just my FWIW on plowing snow with a cub for 45 yrs
Good luck to all, hopefully some of my tips will help someone.

Hutch

[Jim in SC]

Ricky Racer, keep that snow down there. Im here in Kent County and the storms are on both sides of us. We never saw a flake, until i went to WalMart.
Mark

HAHAHAHA!

[Lt.Mike]

I learned to push way off the side on the first passes to and prep for snow no one ever seems to know is coming. A couple thaw and freeze cycles will turn it into a wall of ice that if you back the car into is as good as hitting brick.
This last one was about 16” but I’m out plowing if it’s only 2”. If you bank on it melting it won’t and it’ll be a skating rink for weeks.
As much of a pain it be on the ground you having 3’ on your roof scares me. I was on my roof shoveling last winter when a drift built up to 4’ . I was afraid it’d collapse. I’ve since bought a roof rake too.

[meandmydeere]

I heard that because of the extreme cold temps here in Michigan, they have advised WalMart shoppers to wear 2 pairs of pajamas.

[Slim140]

I heard that because of the extreme cold temps here in Michigan, they have advised WalMart shoppers to wear 2 pairs of pajamas.

I hope that’s to cover what the first pair doesn’t

[Jim Becker]

. . . I’m out plowing if it’s only 2”. If you bank on it melting it won’t and it’ll be a skating rink for weeks. . . .

So little snow and such odd temperatures here that I've been taking a different tack to the same goal. We had a couple inches of snow a couple weeks ago, which I have been ignoring and driving on. Been too cold to want to go plow it anyway. Today the temperature got into the high twenties and a couple days above freezing are forecast before we get more snow. I finally went out and scraped off as much of the packed snow as the blade would take off. If it starts to melt, I want the surface melted and dry before the next snow. I've only plowed 3 times so far this season. Each time was the same story, a couple inches and wait until there was a possibility of some melting. We are at least 15 inches behind on total snow.

Here is the set-up I am using right now. Cub-54A on the front and a 6' Fast-Hitch blade on the back. The F-H blade is offset to the right for more coverage. It doesn't look it in this picture, but the second blade does add considerable width. I can drop the F-H blade when I work near the garage (although I didn't bother today).

CUb-54A and Lone Star Fast-Hitch blades used together.