Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
I went out to my 80 acres to clear the driveway and shovel the snow off the 5th wheel trailer. A guy that goes out there sometimes hand shovelled the driveway once about a month ago. It's a 1/4 mile long with some curves and it took him 8 hours over 2 days! He e-mailed me after the fact, otherwise I could have gone out and cleared the driveway. The snow was about 2 feet deep(a little less where it was shovelled but had a crust on it and the bottom was hard packed. I didn't have the chains on the tractor but it wouldn't have gone far anyway. So I got my 4x4 3/4 ton, which was parked there, unhooked from the trailer and somehow managed to get it turned around so I could boost the Cat loader. I was pushing snow when I opened the door to get out of the truck. I got the Cat going and proceeded to open the driveway. The bucket is 6 ft. wide but I sure wish it was at least a foot wider. If I only had to do one pass down the middle wouldn't have been bad but a track loader with street pads is a poor machine for clearing a driveway. It will go through almost anything when pushing straight ahead but if you have to turn, the one track just spins because they pack with snow. It took about 3 hours to get the driveway open, where the skid steer would have done it in about an hour with an even smaller bucket. I guess it's why a skid steer is a lot faster spreading topsoil too. I did get down to the gravel and levelled the driveway in the process though, which was needed. I don't think much gravel came off, just some sand. The rocks in the gravel were pretty packed down from all the rain last year. The skid steer would have been so nice to have there but oh well, I at least got er done. Dave
