Wheres the snow!!

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,567]

Man I'll tell ya what frosts my pumpkin. Every fall I talk big about gettin my 2 snowplow tractors, one for me and one for my son, and my snow-blower tractor ready for snow before it hits. And every year I find myself mounting plows and weights and chains while watching a Noreaster cover the whole state of Connecticut in snow. Well this year I talked the talk and walked the walk and had both plow tractors and the blower tractor all set up with fresh oil and all the snow removal stuff mounted and set up just right with weights and chains by the first week of November! A record for me!!

So now I find myself going out to the shed about once a week or so and running the tractors out in the yard in the GRASS just to keep the gas fresh and the batterys charged. I finally have all my stuff ready and we aint even got snow in sight.

.....Good Grief...Mike

[Rollerman 290]

Been thinking the same think here to...got 2 tractors set up with plows & weights.

Then another with blower, cab & weights.

No snow except for a little covering early december that lasted a few hours...long enough to get the rust of the bottom of cutting edges!

But the roses are looking healthy & that big garden spider is building a web just outside my shop door ....LOL

Never seen it like this in January.

But things are looking up...temps have droped & we are getting some lake effect snow showers...sorry roses.

Stephen in northern IN

[whchris 5]

just sit tight mike it should be here Friday not a lot though :D

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,353]

Even though we only got about an ince, I was out there plowing away!!

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,567]

Well dont leave us guessing?? How did yer tractor plow and most important......WAS IT FUN??

We got less than an inch and I didnt even consider plowin it but my 11 year old son was happy to plow it. His tractor has been down for about 8 months and just 2 weeks ago I got it all back together and running fine. So he has been missing alot of tractor time but he made up fer it last nite in the dark.

Mike

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,353]

It plowed GREAT! I have a 250' driveway with about a 15 degree slope. It took 2 round trips to clear the entire thing. Usually if I shovel it will take 45 minutes, and 20 minutes with the snow blower. I was done in about 7 minutes. Went so nice I started to do the street.

The AG tires have excellent traction. There was no wheel slip at all even up hill in the deep 1" of snow. I wished it would have snowed more but I'll tell ya, I had a ball, even if the neighbors think I'm nuts!

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,353]

We're supposed to get a whopping 2 inches tonight. Not a whole lot, but I'll take it.

Looking forward to the morning!

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,567]

We got something coming down right now but I dont know how much it was predicted to be. I still havent used the plow tractor or the blower tractor yet and I have to work tomorrow so my son will have it all plowed out by the time I get home if it needs plowin. Oh well...maybe I'll get to plow out the next one.

Mike

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,353]

We ended up with just about the 2" that was expected. Went out this morning the ole 414-8 started right up and off I went. Two trips down and two back up again and it's all clear. Went out to the street and cleared off the storm drains too. I think that I will get a set of chains for the wheels. The AG's get GREAT traction except where there is a little ice then it sits and spins.

Too bad my tractor budget can't afford to get that electric lift conversion on e-bay now. I must be spoiled with the Hydro If there were more snow, I would think about switching the plow to the 416 just for the lifting of the plow. All in all, wish there were more snow!

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,567]

We got the same 2" of snow as well. My son had a Klondike Derby with the Boy Scouts so he wasnt able to plow so I stepped up and got it done.

As far as manualy lifting the plow goes, yep its sometimes tough after a long time plowin. My plows are only 42"ers so there a bit easier. Last year I used my snow-blower on the front of a 312-8 with manual lift and I think one arm got bigger than the other after the long winter. So at the 2006 Wheel Horse show in PA I set my sights for an hydrostatic tractor with hydraulic lift. I ended up with a 1982 C-125 Auto/hydraulic lift tractor. I just have to move that little lever and up and down goes the snow-blower....MUCH BETTER!

Now if we could only get a snow fall thats deep enough to warrant getting it out I could really test it. I have a gravel driveway so the snow-blower wheel/skids are set up about an inch off the ground so with a 2" snowfall I'm only blowin an inch of snow.

Mike

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,353]

Were you able to break out Big Ed to do some plowin?

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,567]

Man would I love to do that! But "Big Ed" needs some time put into it before she's ready to be put to work and spare time is hard to come by. I'm been a "traveling electrician" lately and have a couple of business trips in February and March to Navy Bases. I also have pleasure trip to England at the end of March so I wont be able to work on it till April. I will need to get some serious weight on the rear tho. I brought it to my fathers house to stick in his garage till spring and I had to man-handle it sideways to get it to fit in the space it needed to be in. I was able to almost pick up the rear end by the 3 point bars by myself(and I aint no giant). So anyway I was able to drag the rear sideways into the spot for it with ease so lots of wheel-weights are in order.

Mike

[whchris 5]

hey mike did ya move any of this 2 or so inches of solid sleet that got wet and froze? i dont have anything to go at it with right now but the truck couldnt get under it to bring it up just wanted to know how you did in it

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,567]

Well.....I got an early start and was able to clear out the driveway(and a neighbors) before it turned to a concrete type of snow, so I did just fine. And nuttin broke down this time!. My son plowed with his C-120 8speed and I tried to use the C-125 auto with a blower up front but the snow was to granular. I moved onto my B-100 with a plow which worked out much better.

The snow in the yard and woods is so solid that my son has been bombing around on TOP of the snow and only occasionally breaking thru. He's having a blast.

Mike

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,353]

I tried to use the C-125 auto with a blower up front but the snow was to granular. I moved onto my B-100 with a plow which worked out much better.

That suprises me, all the time I was pushing this stuff I was thinking a blower would have a much easier time. We had the same kind of concrete stuff, hard as a rock, then it breaks down into fluffy powder. The first pass was to break up the snow then it tool multiple passes to clean it all up. I saw those front AG's which Perry had and I think I'll get me a pair as well, tires that is Mike, if you get them mounted, let me know if they help in the snow. The rear AG's worked great still don't have chains, but the front was hard to get traction, especially tryin' to turn into this stuff to break it up.