Snow removal.

[First-light]

So I have a quad 400 King Quad it's 14 years old. I would rather now push snow with it but is an option. I have a Massey 1835M 

That will move a house! lol Those with experience with a bigger tractor what options do you like that won't break the bank. Right now I have two small steel skis bolted onto the bucket. Its ok. Im finding dragging the bucket backwards works good. With that thought what about a blade? Thoughts? 

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, First-light said:

So I have a quad 400 King Quad it's 14 years old. I would rather now push snow with it but is an option. I have a Massey 1835M 

That will move a house! lol Those with experience with a bigger tractor what options do you like that won't break the bank. Right now I have two small steel skis bolted onto the bucket. Its ok. Im finding dragging the bucket backwards works good. With that thought what about a blade? Thoughts? 

I like a back blade facing backwards.  Mine has shoes on it and doesn’t dig into the stone driveways too bad.  I have a rear light on the tractor, in addition to the headlights, because most of my plowing is done in the dark.  I move most of the snow with that and use the front loader bucket, mostly just for pushing up the banks at the ends of the driveways.  

The front loader pushes snow the best, in the “float” position, which is accessed by pushing the hydraulic control lever all the way forward until the bucket lowers all the way and trips the internal hydraulic detent switch.  That allows the leveled bucket to ”float” over uneven surfaces.  

I can’t stand any type of snowblower.  They are only good with light fluffy snow and when you have very limited space for storing it.  I’ve got plenty of that.  I’ll be heading out after lunch, to bucket the big snowbanks that have built up at the ends of the driveways, into the middle of our front yard.  That’s always a fun job.  

Edited 19 hours ago by wolc123

[avg. joe]

Snow blower. I bought mine several years ago and will not do without. I tell everybody that if I have to limit myself to one 3 pt attachment for the tractor, the snow blower wins. Plus there are no piles or banks that build up. I guess to each his own.

[Four Seasons]

1 hour ago, avg. joe said:

Snow blower. I bought mine several years ago and will not do without. I tell everybody that if I have to limit myself to one 3 pt attachment for the tractor, the snow blower wins. Plus there are no piles or banks that build up. I guess to each his own.

No your 110% spot on. I have a beast of a 7ft blower on a 75hp tractor and a 4ft on a smaller Deere 1025R. I clean up 30 acres of deer pens and laneways on Top of the driveway and around the barns. After 3 days of 30-40mph winds last week I had 4-5ft heavy blown In banks that the blower laughed at. I would love to see someone deal with my kind of snow with a bucket and back blade. Blower wins every time. 

[Doc]

Years ago, I had a Ford 8N with a back-blade and with a 1000' driveway, and a wide area up by where the cars are parked, I would wind up with a hell of a stiff neck after plowing from trying to look behind to see where I was going.

I have to ask about you guys that use a bucket. When you are dealing with wet heavy snow, don't you find the bucket loading up and packing with snow? Also there is no way to tilt the bucket to throw the snow off to the side. Isn't that true?  

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, Doc said:

Years ago, I had a Ford 8N with a back-blade and with a 1000' driveway, and a wide area up by where the cars are parked, I would wind up with a hell of a stiff neck after plowing from trying to look behind to see where I was going.

I have to ask about you guys that use a bucket. When you are dealing with wet heavy snow, don't you find the bucket loading up and packing with snow? Also there is no way to tilt the bucket to throw the snow off to the side. Isn't that true?  

My father in law had a big on the back of his 125 hp cabbed 2 wd tractor, back when he lived in WNY.  He must not have cared for it too much because now that he’s moved up to the NW corner of the Adirondack park, and takes care of the snow removal for the roads and about 25 residences, around a little lake up there, he gets by with a big hydraulic adjustable v-plow on an open station 65 hp 4wd tractor.  
 

That plow mounts in place of the loader bucket on the loader frame and is controlled with the bucket control levers and maybe one additional remote cylinder.  I think it’s about 9 ft wife when straight, and tilts to ether side or forward or backward facing V.
 

 I also gave him my old 3/4 ton 4wd Chevy pickup, which he fixed up and mounted a plow on.  He used that the first 2 years up there, but has been using the open tractor more the last 3 or 4 years.  
 

He may be wishing for a blower and the cabbed tractor now, with all the snow the have been getting this year, but I haven’t heard.  They are a little north of the usual Lake Ontario snow belt, so maybe it’s not been too bad, where they are.  

The first year up there, the drifting was always horrible across the road on the north end of the lake, which runs north-south.  The next few years, I helped him put a snow fence across the beach on that end, which helped a lot but was also a lot of work (mostly for me driving the posts). 
 

The last few years, we have laid out a bunch of floating docks across that end, after pulling them out of the water in the fall, with his tractor.  They work almost as well as the snow fence and no extra work required.  How nice it is to not need to drive all those damn snow fence posts with the pile-driver when I’m up there on my annual October early ML huntcation.  

I also used a back blade on my 8n for the first few years at our house.  I was a lot younger then and it didn’t bother my neck that much.  It does a little more now but it’s a lot faster with the bigger blade on the back of my larger 4wd tractor.  
 

I do prefer plowing the lighter snows with the front blade on my old Farmall Cub.  Too bad it, and that old Ford are both broken down right now.  It’s a real challenge keeping those two brand of tractors running. Owning them certainly has given me appreciation for always having at least one John Deere available, for getting the real work done.  
 

I’ve never had too much trouble with the bucket loading up with snow on my John Deere 4120 loader tractor.  It usually all shakes out pretty good when I dump it.  I just finished moving two mountains of it from the ends of our driveways in fact.  
 

That bucket holds about 1/2 face cord of firewood, which I hauled up to the house from the woodshed after I finished moving the snow.  There was hardly any snow stuck in there, after a couple hours spent moving it.  

It also works good for moving butcher waste back to my coyote/crow bait carcass pile:

 

Edited 14 hours ago by wolc123

[First-light]

7 hours ago, wolc123 said:

I like a back blade facing backwards.  Mine has shoes on it and doesn’t dig into the stone driveways too bad.  I have a rear light on the tractor, in addition to the headlights, because most of my plowing is done in the dark.  I move most of the snow with that and use the front loader bucket, mostly just for pushing up the banks at the ends of the driveways.  

The front loader pushes snow the best, in the “float” position, which is accessed by pushing the hydraulic control lever all the way forward until the bucket lowers all the way and trips the internal hydraulic detent switch.  That allows the leveled bucket to ”float” over uneven surfaces.  

I can’t stand any type of snowblower.  They are only good with light fluffy snow and when you have very limited space for storing it.  I’ve got plenty of that.  I’ll be heading out after lunch, to bucket the big snowbanks that have built up at the ends of the driveways, into the middle of our front yard.  That’s always a fun job.  

Great info!