Better to plow or blow snow???
 

Hi all. I've got a question that is probably pretty basic and I don't know if there's one best answer, but your opinions are needed. I live in northern Minnesota where we get 6 months of winter. I usually plow snow with an old truck with power angle plow, but the rust has just about consumed the truck. I've got a chance to get my son-in-laws Cub Super Garden Tractor 1872 with both a two stage snowblower and a 54" hydraulic turn plow. He used the blower but never used the plow, so he doesn't have experience with it. My driveway is all gravel. It's about 100+ feet from the main road to my house garage, then y's off to a narrower driveway for another 150 feet serving the back garage and pole building. In the back there's a big turn around area, maybe 75 feet square, between the two buildings that I need to keep open. I've got room in all directions to push or blow snow. Time to complete the job isn't as much of an issue as taking it easy on the old body. Any opinions from those of you with experience?

I would personally use the plow, considering your driveway is gravel. Not sayaing the blower wont do a great job. I have used both on my gravel dirveway with my 1211, and my thrower ended up getting all dented inside from the gravel being tossed around in there. I adjusted the shoes down, but then it left a lot of snow behind, not to mention I ended up having gravel strewn all over my yard. I switched over to my IH 54" blade, and it too does a great job, and seems to pick up less gravel than the thrower did. I would have a small ammount to rake back into the drive come spring, but no big deal. The only consideration would be to plan ahead while plowing....make sure you start piling it up pretty far back from where you would normally with your truck, so you have enough room for the whole season. The 2 stage blower might work better than my single stage QA42A, but the impeller spins pretty fast, and I'd be worried about damaging it by picking up some big stones....

I just think its fun to plow!! :beerchug:

Hopefully you'll get some other opinions....

Jeff (teet)

My experience with snow blowers on gravel driveways is horrible. You have to watch what and who is near you at all times ,because you never know when a rock is gonna come flying out of it. Well if youre lucky it will come flying out ,most of time they jam up the auger and it is a pain to free up.

joe

I use both a snowblade and snow blower on my gravel driveway.

Early in the season I use the blade until the drive freazzes hard, locking in any loose stones than I use the snowblower.
My drive is 110 foot long and 20 foot wide
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...e/DSC01393.jpg

I also keep a path cleaned out to my storage area in the winter, another 300 feet of snow removel
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...e/DSC01372.jpg

every once in a while I have to get out the FEL and pile snow
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...e/DSC01380.jpg

It in nice to have a selection of equipment to use for snowremoval depending on the need.

lonnyb,

You're ain't foolin anybody, you just like gettin to go out and play in the snow!!!

About how much weight do you have on the back of your loader?

It depends on what you like.

I was always a plow guy and swore I would never get a blower, until a smoking deal arrived and I had a blower.

Then, the blower broke and I went back to the blade to finish the year (once a year is enough for me to try and put a blower back on). I sure missed it once I went back to a blade.

The blade takes twice as long to do the job as the blower.

This gravel drive/snowblower thing is something that I'm a little concerned about too.

I personally have never used a snowblower so I could probably write a book about what I don't know about one.

I picked one up last year and intend to "try" to use it this year.

It is my thought however that if you are going to use a blower on gravel that the stop on the tractor should be adjusted so that the cutting edge on the blower doesnt get too close to the ground (maybe 1.5") and the shoes on the blower do not touch the ground when the blower is in the lowered position. It is my feeling that if you're trying to scrape up every little bit of snow, then you're gonna get rocks, it is also my feeling that the shoes dragging on the gravel all the time will "disturb" the gravel enough or make a gravel wind row of sorts, and in your next pass you're are gonna pick up all the gravel that the shoe piled up from the pass before.

I do understand that when you come to a low spot or hole in the drive, when the front tires go down, the blower is going to REALLY go down, and you can/will get into the gravel with the cutting edge and start picking up rocks that way. I'm thinking that a case like this is when you DO want the shoes to hit the ground, just enough to keep the cutting edge out of the gravel. I also know that no plan is fool-proof and that there are situations that will come up that will throw a wrench in your works. I figure the whole thing is pretty-much just another learning game, and once you figure out what goes wrong and why then you have to figure out how to correct it.

SO, my question is: Am I thinking about this the right way or am I just way screwed up with the way I'm looking at the whole thing? Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you everyone for your input. As I said in my original post, there's probably no one best answer. I'm used to plowing with a truck and the gravel problem is somewhat the same as blowing snow; you are going to get some gravel on the first pass of the year until you form a base and lock the gravel in. My concern is for the overall size of the area I need to remove snow in, but with the truck plow I had to push it back quite a ways to make room for future snows. With the blower, it'll be slower but since I don't have to move it back so far it might even out. Besides my neighbor just bought a new Chevy 3/4 ton with a plow, and he will help me out if need be. So, I'm going to try to get by the entire year with the 1872 and blower attachment. I also have a Cub 149 with a small blower, but that one doesn't start the best in the winter so I don't rely on it. Thanks again for your comments, and lets all hope for a mild winter.

I normaly run with 8 40lbs weights hanging off the back.

I have a 500' gravel driveway and prefer the snowthrower....you don't run out of places to put the snow like you do with a blade. You just have to be careful until all the gravel is frozen in.

I use the blower on our gravel drive and the small private road we live on, it is about 600' long and have very little trouble with the gravel. I use a method my grandpa tought me, let the snow pack down the first few times and run the shoes a little high. We did this on the drive at our farm that was a 1/2 mile, grandpa would back blade with the tractor and he hated for the gravel to get plowed off the drive. The only down side is when it warms up you have a couple inches of slush for a few days, but the upside is more seat time with the blade on to clean this away.