dealing with snow??

[inthetrees]

I'm curious what everyone does with snow? Do you have your own plow? 2 stage snowblower? plow plade for lawn tractor?

We've recently moved a few hundred miles from the city, out to a place with about 2 acres. The driveway isnt horribly long, however its longer than I will want to shovel. I dunno if a snowblower is even an option? The driveway is mostly dirt/earth, with some rocks. Will a 2 stage throw the rocks?

The driveway itself is probably about 100' and i would be doing a space wide enough for 1 car.

I've been looking at plow trucks on craigslist and there are a bunch for less than a $1000... most are not inspectable for some reason or another, but seem like perfect trucks for just plowing.

I prefer to just get a snowblower used if it will work and won't throw rocks everywhere. First snow normally comes here in October, so I got a few months to figure it out.

Is there some other option? I'm at 44*N in New England.

[highlands]

We're in the mountains of northern central Vermont near Montpelier. We have a 48 hp small farm tractor with a bucket loader. I plow with that if for no other reason than that is what I have. It is 4wd with logging chains and fluid in the rear wheels for weight. I use the 7' bucket for the winter for plowing. It has chain grab hooks on it to grab bales of hay so no implement change. Here are pictures:

http://sugarmtnfarmblog.blogspot.com...ering-hay.html

Our driveway is gravel and roughly 500' long with some side spurs and turn-arounds to take care of. I like the tractor because I can lift the snow and it will drive through anything. Times when we've gotten so much snow that plow trucks can't operate I simply drive forward and the snow moves off to the side and ahead of me. I have to keep our driveway clear for daily milk deliveries for the farm and sometimes I have to clear log landings since winter is an ideal logging time. That is more challenging if the crust has set hard. A truck couldn't do it but the tractor does, slowly. For shear speed a truck would beat the tractor.

Tip #1: Let some hard pack of snow build up on the driveway early in the winter. We actually plow and drive about 6" above the earth, not right down to the ground. This makes plowing better and our vehicles all get better traction driving on the snow pack.

Tip #2: Get a pile of dry sand ready in the fall. I use about 8 cubic-yards a year - varies greatly. I set in 20 cu-yds to be sure.

My father and my brother both have snow blowers and like those for their smaller driveway. A lot of it has to do with what you have available. I suspect that for your situation a truck will plow fastest. The tractor would be faster than a snow blower but the snow blower is cheaper unless you have a tractor. I prefer not maintaining more vehicles than necessary.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

[inthetrees]

Originally Posted by Wind in Her Hair

a lot depends on your vehicles and how often you have to get out and how much of a hurry you are in when you have to leave.

We normally just drive over the first several snowfalls (with our 4-wheel drive vehicles) and pack it down for a base. We have a gravel/dirt driveway thats 800' long and a
30'x30' garage pad and we don't want to scrape that down to dirt/gravel with our plow or snowblower. Then we shovel to cleanup the edges.

Once we have a reasonable base packed down - THEN we use the 9 horse snowblower on the pad and up over the grass /walkway to the porch. And we use our Western plow mounted on our "retired" '99 K1500 4wd Chevy to plow out to the road.

The snowblower WILL throw rocks but not if you have a pad of packed snow. You can also adjust the height of the clearance of the snowblower to minimize this. (And I LOVE my electric ignition)

Our first winter here we did not have a plow - and we managed - we borrowed a friend's tractor with a front end loader. That did alright in a pinch but when we had ice we needed tire chains for traction.

I wouldn't want to face a winter without our plow, our snowblower AND our shovels.

Thanks for the reply.

I should have mentioned the vehicles, right now we just have a 2004 Chevy Cavalier. Had a SUV but sold it before the move. Plan to get a 4wd truck or suv in the fall.

Although we really don't ever have to leave the house in a hurry right after a snow storm. good to know a snowblower will work on gravel driveways.

[whatrset]

Hmmmmm, We usually look at it, call all of the nieghbors and drag old and young alike outside to look at the mystery white stuff that is falling. Oh, and then we take lots of pictures so we can tell stories about that time ten years ago, when it snowed a 1/2 inch....

[Murray in ME]

It might depend a little on the terrain your driveway is on. Is it fairly flat? Is it on a steep hill? I use a snowblower on my dirt driveway. My driveway is about the same size as yours, maybe a little over 100 feet and on flat ground. It takes me an hour or a bit more to clean out after a good snow. But, I clear it out a lot more than I really need to. If I need to get out quickly, I can clear enough to get out in probably 10 minutes or so. I like my snowblower more than I did using a plow truck. It doesn't dig up the edge of the lawn like a plow can. Especially with early or late snow storms where the ground is not frozen hard. As the others have mentioned, it's a good idea to have a packed base and not clear to the ground.

[RonM]

For 32 years I have use a JD 950 with a rear blade ,pushing it off to the side for storage, the worst time was last winter we had a total accumulation of over 6 ft and was starting to run out of storage room. With the tractor I am able to use it for other chores, mowing, discing, trail grooming, etc.

[Callieslamb]

Our driveway is gravel and we use a snowblower. I don't know if it is stage 2 or stage 6. The less I know about the snow blower the better as far as I am concerned. DH also takes it across the lawn and part of a pasture to cut me a path to the barn. He neither dug up the grass or threw rocks around.

[littlebitfarm]

When I first moved here, young and in one piece, if the drive (500') was drifted bad, I parked at the road and walked in. When I got an old ford tractor I added a blade to it. As long as I parked it in the garage, so my first pass was downhill, it did ok. Replaced it with a bigger tractor and discovered it didn't have enough weight in the rear to begin to move snow, much less drive uphill. By then I had had a hip replaced with nerve damage and it was important not to fall or freeze an already numb foot.

I bought a 4 X 4 ATV and put a front blade on it. Boy, is that SWEET!!! 20 minutes and my drive and the neighbor's drive are clear! So much easier to plow when you can see what you are doing instead of looking behind. Wasn't cheap, but sure makes the job fun! And much cheaper than a bad fall!

Kathie

[Wolf mom]

You can get up a few times in the night & drive over the snow to pack it down. Or you can get a blade that attached to your new truck or SUV. Or you can get a tractor.....

I think getting "snowed in" is a great excuse to curl up in front of the fire with a good book for a day.

[CIW]

I've been playing with the idea of getting an aircraft tug to mount a blade onto. They are geared very low, have a dual range transmission, a diesel engine and weigh about 24,000 lbs. They are all-wheel drive, four wheel steering and also come with hydraulics.
They also have luggage mules that weigh about 8,000, an automatic transmission and come in both diesel and gasoline motors.
A person could mount a plow on the front and lift it with an electric to hydraulic system. These units can turn around in less than 25 feet. In a pinch they also push smaller, regional aircraft with these. If you were to chain one of these units up I think that you would have a hard time getting it stuck.
Right now we have a team of Belgian mares that we pull a 60" loader tire up and down the lane. It pushes the snow off to the sides as well as pack it down. I think this works really well. It also works well if the neighbor needs a place plowed out in his pastures to start feeding cattle on.
As a kid in the sandhills (late 60's) the county had big rollers that they used to pack the snow. Most everyone fed using teams and bobs so the roads (dirt) needed to have snow left on them. By spring they were a couple of feet deep in packed snow.
They would use dynamite to blow through the drifts because it would crust over so thick that it would hold a vehicle till it got up on top then it would break through. It could close the road for anywhere from a couple of days to a week. While they dug it out.
By the way. The horses always start. And they replace themselves.

[haypoint]

What is your annual snowfall total? How far is "not too far" for a driveway? How much time do you want to spend clearing your drive? I had a 8 foot wide snowblower hooked to a 70 horse 4 wheel drive tractor for a driveway that was about 100 feet long. But I get way over 100 inches of snow and plenty of blowing and drifting.
Lots of folks pay a guy with a snow plow on his truck. Every few days, he'll clear your driveway. You'll need places to push the snow.

Your FWD car will need a better driveway than a 4WD truck.

Do you have more time than money? A walk behind snow blower is a big step better than a shovel, but they are slower than a truck and plow or a tractor and a blower.

[haypoint]

I know of a guy that used a roller to pack the snow all winter. He had it so well packed he could drive a semi on top of that packed snow. Was easier than plowing.
When the spring thaw came, the drive was a total mess. All that ice would form a foot of slush and it took until June before the ice had melted and the frost came out of the ground and it dried all that mud. He only did that one time.

[michiganfarmer]

Originally Posted by haypoint

I know of a guy that used a roller to pack the snow all winter. He had it so well packed he could drive a semi on top of that packed snow. Was easier than plowing.
When the spring thaw came, the drive was a total mess. All that ice would form a foot of slush and it took until June before the ice had melted and the frost came out of the ground and it dried all that mud. He only did that one time.

My moms great great grandparents homesteaded 160 acres near Traverse city around 1860 something. She grew up on that homestead. Mom talked about how the county used rollers instead of plows during the 40s, 50s, and 60s.

To the OP... I wouldnt want rocks ran through my snow blower. It damages them. I have heard of many people using a 1 ton 2 wheel drive pick up truck to plow snow. They put tire chains on the rear, and a ton of weight in the box. Its much cheaper than buying a 4x4. Another thing... If you buy a plow truck, buy something that you are going to drive once a week or so during the summer. Sitting for long periods ruins ignitions, rusts breaks, and generaly is very bad for any vehicle.

[cfabe]

We have about 200 feet of gravel driveway and a parking area that I plow. The truck is a 95 chevy 2500 4x4 and the plow is a used meyer that I picked up for $150, just had to fabricate a mount for it. the truck is road worthy and registered and we use it for other things as well as plow. I've used snowblowers beore and like the plow much better. We don't usually get so much snow that we can't walk through it, usually our walking paths stay packed down just from using them once a day. Occasionally we have to break out the shovel for them.

[ronbre]

a well packed frozen gravel driveway will not have loose rocks, so it should be fine, if not add some clay before winter and get it packed down really well..we have both a snowblower and a tractor with bucket and backblade.

we used to have a longer driveway but we built our garage over it closer to the raod so our drive is only about 65 feet long now, and we have a drive around the garage and through the property to the back of the property where we have wood delivered..but the CAR only has to go 65 feet to the garage door.

[HermitJohn]

What I like about Arkansas Ozarks. Yep we get dumped on every once in a while, but I have luxury of just waiting for mother nature to melt it off. Usually melts within week or so. I only go out once a month for supplies anyway and keep enough stuff I can get by an extra 2 to 4 weeks if necessity demanded it. And usually if it were an emergency, probably get out with 4wd and tire chains on all 4 wheels....

Now when I lived in UP, different story. Young and poor, you can shovel, but good snow blower or plow truck better way. I always thought one of those 3pt hitch large snowblowers that mounted on farm tractor would be the ultimate though. If I were living up there now, thats what I would be searching for. Either that or an old dump truck filled with gravel/scrap iron and one of those big V-plows on front that can bust through darn near anything.

[anniew]

My driveway is a little less than 100 feet, but it slopes down from the road, so it is too slippery to get out with the car...the four wheel drive small pickup can usually get out...nevertheless, it's hard to get someone to plow around here, so...I park both vehicles facing out right at the edge of the road. I end up having to shovel only about 10 feet of snow/snowplow stuff dumped in front of the vehicles by the road crew.
Depending on money and if you can hire someone or not, it is probably cheaper to hire it done and/or just shovel if you are in decent health. We'd all love a tractor, but with your two acres I don't know if it is reasonable...depends on your specific location and the amount of snow you get...and if you are good at mechanical stuff. It's usually not the initial cost that kills you, but the maintenance.

[michiganfarmer]

Originally Posted by HermitJohn

I only go out once a month for supplies anyway and keep enough stuff I can get by an extra 2 to 4 weeks if necessity demanded it. .

do you have no debt? do you not need to "go to work" every day? What do you do for income? How do you live? Im curious

[Kris in MI]

My parents have used a lawn mower with a front blade attached to plow snow for over 20 years. Their driveway is about 70' long and was gravel until about 10 years ago. Theirs doesn't drift too often or very deep.

Me, I use a tractor w/either a rear blade or a loader bucket, depending on how deep the snow is (and if the rear blade is all ready hooked up or not ). Then again, mine is over 400' long and we get some nasty drifts. I only live about 25 miles from my parents, but I'm in "farm country" with lots of open fields and they are in a more developed area.

[Macybaby]

We use a skidsteer - usually too much snow to blade, you need to pick it up in the bucket and move it. Sometimes the only way we can get inside the buildings is to move the 5' drifts away from the doors.

09-10 was a very bad winter season - missed 9 days of work due to weather. But half of them the Interstate got closed and authorities advised No Travel, and I work 84 miles from home. It's not the snow coming down that is the problem, it's the stuff blowing sideways.

Cathy