cabbed tractor or blade for truck???

raider

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i'm gonna be buying a compact tractor - would prefer no cab, but have about a 250' push for snow...

anyone out there have or used a residential grade angle blade on a 3/4 ton or 1 ton single wheel???

thanks...
 


SDMF

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Get a blower for the tractor.

Blades require that a person push the pile way further than they anticipate early in the season and they push short and run out of room by Feb. Then you have to hire a blower the rest of the winter every time your road/driveway blows in because you don't have anywhere to push it.

Blades are hard on front suspension components and rob you of clearance as well.
 

raider

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i have to push it all the way back right away and have nowhere to blow it except on the neighbors, so a blower will not work... it has to be pushed...

it's a long narrower lot...
 

Kentucky Windage

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If that’s the case, blade for the truck. One engine to maintain and it can be used for ice fishing too.

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Then take the money you saved not buying a tractor and spend it on hookers and blow for the ice house. Triple whammy
 

raider

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i'll be getting a tractor either way for tilling and grading work, just want to not have a cab if i don't have to... i can get a decent blade for the pickup for about 1/2 the cost of the tractor cab, and can scrape compacted snow and ice the truck plow might leave on nice days with the tractor in the winter if i have to...

by the way - the hookers and blow for the fish house are already factored into the budget... i'm smart that way...
 


westwolfone

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If you have an automatic in your truck, factor in replacement cost.

Tractor.
 

Davey Crockett

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I want a blade on a pickup and I want to learn how to use it. Our driveway is about two hundred yards long and a couple years ago we came home from a vacation to a blocked driveway and a friend was driving by with a blade on his pickup and he said hop in. He did a better job in 10 minutes than I could have done with all the equipment I have in a an hour. The equipment is only as good as the operator , He hung the front left wheel in the ditch with his blade at an an angle and every time it felt like we were going in the ditch he would give er the onion and push us back up on the road. I was impressed.

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This was a light 1/2 ton dodge .
 

JMF

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If the tractor will have a loader, then get a snow pusher for it. The size will depend on how big the tractor/loader is. You don't need a cab, and on small tractors they get in the way for summer work.
 

eyexer

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Get a V plow that folds to an angled plow. Spendy but I think it would be worth it
 

guywhofishes

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i have to push it all the way back right away and have nowhere to blow it except on the neighbors, so a blower will not work... it has to be pushed...

it's a long narrower lot...

on the neighbors what?

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if it’s not another driveway I’d negotiate being able to use a blower
 


raider

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I would have to blow it onto their yard right at their house... that's not an option so I'm looking for the best way to push it...

I have a big back corner to stack it, hoping I could get some input on truck plow users...

Meyer makes a home plow that would be fine, I've just never used one on a pickup...
 

Wirehair

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We have both a blade for truck and a compact tractor with blower on 3-point and bucket on front. Driveway is about 350' with tree rows on both sides. Blade gets used with light snowfall / small drifts. Everything else gets blown for the reasons SD states above. No cab on our tractor.
 

1lessdog

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With a blower, you do know you dont have to blow it at your neighbors house. You can turn the chute and blow it right next to the edge of where your blowing. I have a 7 ft blower with a hyd chute and electric flapper. I can put the snow anywhere I want it. There are times I drop it right in front of the blower and just keep reblowing it till I get to where I can blow it off to the side.
 

raider

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Ya, but I only have about 30" between the neighbors yard and my garage... blower isn't an option...
 

1lessdog

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Pushing 250 ft of snow is going to be a challenge. You get 6 inches of snow and by the time you get 50 ft the plow is going to be loaded up and rolling off the sides.
 


Achucker

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@ raider I will disagree with you on the blower. Speaking from experience. I have a compact tractor. I used to use a bucket for pushing and blade in rear for both weight and scraping. Bought a front mounted blower because it sucked on big snow falls. Now at my place I dont worry about where snow goes but it cut my time of pushing 75%. I have also used it at my parents place in a trailer park. Now if that isn't a tight spot i don't know what is!! You can literally blow the snow into a pile right next to the road/tractor. No different than pushing snow with a blade. Or throw it in front of you and always moving snow forward. Another nice thing with blowers is the snow does not compact in piles and seems to melt over the winter better. Saying it's not an option is imho not knowing the capability of what this setup can do. I also still have the blade on for scraping ice and light snow.
 

onpoint!

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have a SCUT tractor with a front blower 53" and rear grader blade for most snows; run forward with blade facing backwards and blow the furrows. have a boss Vplow on the 3/4 250 to make quicker work of it all (200' drive and 1.5 miles of gravel) but it would pile up if not able to blow the banks back (or all the way forward in your case) occasionally. tractor is open, no cab ($5k??) so bundle up and wear goggles/mask when it blows hard. I'd prefer a cab/heater setup but for the few times i'd need it, just not worth the big bucks. Boss is slick if you have room to operate, not so much if it's in tight spaces. Don't know what i would do to make it any better, this setup seems to be the best IMO. Guess instead of the grader blade on your tractor, you could use an ATV/plow for that long run? Again, you'd run out of space and need to have someone scoop your sides back later in the year with a vplow or loader.
 

BrokenBackJack

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When on the farm we have had everything at one time or another.
Had a 79 Ford Bronco with a Western snow plow on it and it worked great. Always back dragged the early snows and packed it down to form a base so i wasn't pushing our rock/gravel out into the grass. Always pushed in 4 low and used common sense by pushing slow. Never wrecked anything or hurt our transmission. Cleaned out neighbors yards too with it.
Down the road i sold the Bronco and kept the snow plow. Had a buddy that made a bracket and we mounted it by quick attach to the front of our Bobcat and the hydraulic angle was still usable and that worked slick too. Also had the Case Backhoe for a loader, the Bobcat loader, Western snowplow, Protech Snowpusher, and the Bobcat snowblower. Each had its purpuse. I used the loader or the snow pusher to create piles far away from the yard to act as a snow fence to try and keep the snow from coming up into the yard. Then towards the end of the season i used the blower and at the end of the season the blower was used to cut channels so the water would run in the spring out through the yard and trees towards the creek. We had a huge yard/farmstead so snow removal took some time plus we opened all of our neighbors yards and some in the 2 towns we were by.
One of the main reasons we moved all the snow in our big farm yard was we had between 200-400 deer in our trees in the bad winters that we would have to feed big round alfalfa bales and corn/barley in the bad snow years. My bride was like a kid in a candy store in the springs when she got to go horn picking!
Never charged the other people for moving snow as was brought up if you are able to do it and can afford to do it, you done it and didn't expect nothing in return. At times it was fun moving snow and at other times it really sucked as you all know the routine!
 
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mikef

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A. Nice thing about plowing is it breaks the snow down to maybe 1/10th of its original volume
 

raider

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@ raider I will disagree with you on the blower. Speaking from experience. I have a compact tractor. I used to use a bucket for pushing and blade in rear for both weight and scraping. Bought a front mounted blower because it sucked on big snow falls. Now at my place I dont worry about where snow goes but it cut my time of pushing 75%. I have also used it at my parents place in a trailer park. Now if that isn't a tight spot i don't know what is!! You can literally blow the snow into a pile right next to the road/tractor. No different than pushing snow with a blade. Or throw it in front of you and always moving snow forward. Another nice thing with blowers is the snow does not compact in piles and seems to melt over the winter better. Saying it's not an option is imho not knowing the capability of what this setup can do. I also still have the blade on for scraping ice and light snow.

thanks, but i would not be comfortable using any blower with my situation and layout... if i could, i would because i do understand the value and time savings there... after any bucket is full, you're just making trails the rest of the push... that's where a pusher really shines if you have the weight to push it...

i'm an old farm kid and have been moving snow for 40 years... i worked 3 winters, including the last bad one we had around 2010, commercially moving snow in the oil patch with 2 to 4 yard loaders, skidsteers, and tractors from 100 to 250 horse with loaders and blowers, and ran a 9300 john deere with a 16' degelman 4 way blade (that was fun)... the bad winter i had over 1000 hours of seat time alone... i also sold equipment for 3 years and ran all types with buckets, blowers, and snow pushers, and understand where they all shine and where they don't...



the push i have is very long... i'm looking at a 35 to 40 horse tractor to be nimble enough to do the other things i want to do and would prefer no cab ($8000) for all but probably a hand full of days per year... i could go with a 5' pusher or a kage system along with a ballast box on the tractor to do cleanup on nice days after storms if needed... i would prefer an angling truck plow for most situations if i think it would work... also, i do have access to a 2 or 3 yard loader if shit gets real...

truck plows and engine driven wheel loader blowers are about the only snow removal stuff i have not run and know absolutely nothing about...

thanks all for the comments so far... anything truck blade wise you would stay away from???
 


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