Preparing for a big storm here

maple1 said:

What are the alternatives?

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Faced with that situation I'm not sure what I would do. I guess you'd have to pull a bunch down from the top corner into the garage to try to create a window to start throwing. Or attack with a shovel from the outside until you could get the blower outside. But man that would stink!

Got a boring 10 inches or so......but thats enough for a bit of O/T

I have a front-end loader and a snowblower on the same tractor. Blower is only good up to about 2 feet, and then the tractor doesn't have enough traction to push it straight thru anymore. I can muscle thru about 3 feet by raising the blower and doing two passes, or going fwd/rev to take stabs at it, but that's about the limit.

The FEL is good for 6 feet deep snow, or as high as it can teach and dump. So, I'm with jatoxico on this one. The snowblower is the fast tool for moderate snow, But give me the FEL when it gets real deep.

Not me - although it does depend on the snow and how much snow has come down over the course of the winter so far.

We've got a 100hp tractor here. And km's of woods roads to plow along with yard & driveways. The snow moving goes in stages as the winter goes on. Early it's use the bucket, for the first couple of snows. Then add a backblade on the back end so you can wing it back a bit. We just switched in the angle blade on the front last week, snow's a little deeper & banks get built up more. Things are sitting pretty now, nice wide roads. We can go another dump or two maybe like that, depending how deep they get. Maybe a lot more. But if we get too much, the banks build up and the roads start getting narrower and then it's time to put the big blower on the back and the bucket back on the front. The blower will deposit the snow into the woods, with a blade or bucket you can run out of room for the snow to go. The bigger stuff we don't put on until we have to, because it makes the tractor awkward & harder to use for other stuff you want to use it for.

Have never had any issues with trying to move the blower through the snow - it gets it out of the way as you go. Tire chains would likely help - everyone should have a set of those.When it's real bad, you have to slow way down & then it gets hard on clutches when low low gear is too fast. It is way harder trying to push through with a bucket or blade if snow is building up in front of it - downright impossible if you've got 2 feet of a fresh dump on top of the 6' of snow you got before that that already got plowed into snowbanks that now resemble something like cement or a rock wall.

Last year was a nightmare here, I hope we don't go through that again. So far so good knock knock knock on wood.

I almost resorted to chains yesterday, but heavy duty 5/16" chains are hell on asphalt, even using 2-link sets. Your 100 hp tractor puts you in a whole different class, than most of us with CUTs and even garden tractors.

I was so fed up last year I didn't even bother trying to take pictures. I likely should have, looking back, but anyway. This is the only one I got showing moving snow, so it's not good. I'm not sure, but I don't think we got any after this - this was March 20. We got 3 blizzards in that one week. We didn't need in that door until then so it only got done this once the whole winter.

I'm amazed at the less amount of firewood I used this round, as opposed to many others.

I used a bit more in the 13 than I thought I would, but I'm attributing that to the smaller fire box, and more of a reload to get it back to cruising. The PE purred like a princess. Even early Saturday evening while the wind was still blowing 30 and gusting to 50.





I still have firewood on the landing ... about 2 days worth, and have the "stash" ( 1 1/2 cords of well seasoned oak, cherry, maple, & pine) almost uncovered. Tomorrows warmer temps will help a lot.. I did not shovel out to the farther away stacks for the first time in a few years, which was nice, I have another cord + tucked back my the basement door, under an eave.and tarped. Plus 3/4 of a cord tucked under an eave on the opposite side of the house, right out side the door near the 13.

Aside from the shoveling, my biggest blow out was losing cable Saturday night.

OK, it's Wednesday and after two warm days we have maybe 2" of snow in the areas that still have snow. Best of all, that packed snow that became ice is now melted. I'd rather get a lot of snow than 2-3" of heavy, wet, "mashed potatoes" snow.

Used to live in a village on a busy state road. Main thoroughfare with sidewalks in both sides. That photo was me, after every storm.

I lived in N.Conway, NH for several years and I was routinely awakened by the massive snow munching machine that passed by in the wee hours of a new day. NO ONE ever made a basic effort to clean the sidewalks... . My contempt lingers to this day. What ever happened to clearing side walks in front of your home/business? W/regard to No.Co.: you fancy yourself a first class vacation resort but no one can safely use the (maybe) one mile of side walks after a snow fall? who the hell are you kidding??

Around here, we have 24 hours from the last falling flakes of a storm, to get the walks clear. Penalty is a fine, although it seems they've gone slack on enforcing that, in recent years.