I remember that when I was a kid, the town had no loading equipment, just a plow. When it snowed heavily, all of the farmers who wanted a day of fun and fellowship would come to town with their tractors outfitted with buckets and Heat Housers to clear Main Street. The city would reimburse them for their time and equipment. When that was done, many of them had regular routes in town for the clearing of driveways.
If it ain't too cold and the snow ain't too deep I just use the blade on the rear of a small tractor. If it is deeper and colder then I use a skid steer with a bucket.
I have a 60" blower on the back of my Kabota and 60" bucket on front.I have been using it a lot this past week I just cleared some big drifts around the barn so melting snow won't run in. The around the house ,I have a 36 " walk behind blower..
I like the blowers because after awhile, if I plow, run out of places to push the snow to the side.
We don't get as much as we used to here in PA, but we have a MF 4610 with cab and FEL, 6 ft backblade for another tractor, 6' snowblower for back of other cab tractor, a 40 hp Agco 4x4 tractor with FEL and a skidsteer with bucket and truck snowplow that we had fastened onto a quick attach mount. The best thing that we do is hook up the snowblower for each forecast storm and then it never gets as bad as they say it will, so we don't get to use it. It doesn't work as well unless we get 6" or more.
I have a plow on the Honda rancher that I just replaced the wear bar on. I plow most of the neighbors and our lane. As long as I hit it early and often I can stay ahead of all but the biggest blizzard. Even last year I was able to keep our road open. This year has been mild. Calling for a high of -5.
It is snowing hard here now but I don't know how much we will get. It is coming in sideways and the temp is flirting with zero. Supposed to be cold for about ten to twelve days.
That works for me! I'll hang that plow at the beginning of every winter, and ward away all that deadly white stuff! Like a Shaman's charm, should have done it years ago!
It's coming down pretty good here with a little breeze behind it. Danged if I didn't take the box blade off my TC 30 last week after not seeing a skiff of snow all through Dec and Jan.
Snow removal is very likely to keep me away from a couple of properties I've been watching in the real estate listing.
Both are in the Tug Hill snow belt area of northern NY, common annual snow totals over 200 inches, some years 300-400 inches. An area where single lake effect snow storms have dropped 2 to 6 feet of snow.
One listing is about 50 acres, about 2/3 wooded, 3 acre pond, house built in 2007, and a 600 ft gravel driveway. The other property is 116 acres, mostly wooded with some existing food plots and deer stands, small pond near food plots, stream along one border, house built in 2000, and a 1500 ft long gravel/2-track driveway! I think the current owners were only using them as vacation homes, but I'm looking for a year round home.
I'd have to have enough snow removal equipment to rival a small village! Or build a garage out by the town road and use a snow machine or tracked UTV to get back to the house. You can't count on plows alone to work in that country, you need at least a tractor with a bucket or a tractor mounted snowblower to be able to move the snow out of your way when the banks build up. A lot of folks use tractors with a front bucket and a rear-mounted snowblower, but my neck and back start hurting as soon as I start thinking about blowing snow out of a 600 ft or more driveway going backwards.
Depending on how much snow and which driveway, I alternate removal tools. But we get rid of the white stuff with orange machines.
My driveway is only about 175 feet long plus some parking area and in front of the pole building. I use a Kubota BX-1850 with a loader and a 5 foot back blade.
Over at the farm, the driveways are from 300 feet to over 1/2 mile. Over there it's the Kubota M-6800 cab with a loader and 7 foot back blade.
John Deere 5200 with loader on the front and 7’ blade on the back. About perfect for my snow removal needs around the house. JD 5100 with front end loader for the farm.