Re: Snow plowing with tractor vs. pickup

Posted by Hal (WA) on September 07, 2008 at 21:00:51 from (208.81.157.90):

In Reply to: Snow plowing with tractor vs. pickup posted by Wildturkey on September 07, 2008 at 17:11:15:

I have plowed snow both ways. Sitting in a warm pickup cab is a lot more comfortable.

But I didn't like running around with that big plow on the front of the pickup all winter. It made an already long vehicle that much longer. I also think that plowing is pretty hard on a pickup. And buying a pickup is a huge investment these days.

When the guy who had the pickup and plow died, I lost access to it. So for years, I have plowed snow with my Ford 641D. I have an extremely heavy rear blade that I usually plow with going forward, with the blade at an angle. It works very well that way, especially if I can get some speed up to throw the snow a little bit. It isn't very hard to turn the blade around and plow backwards. Amazing how much snow it will push going backwards, but it is hard on the neck to keep looking behind the tractor all the time. I also use the frontend loader to pile up snow banks.

I learned pretty quick that a 2 wheel drive farm tractor without chains was pretty useless in the snow, especially when the snow was packed down to ice.

Last winter we had a huge amount of snowfall--just a couple of inches less than the alltime record. We were on vacation when the biggest storm hit, and my son couldn't get the diesel tractor to start, as the power was out. So when I got home, there was a huge buildup of snow. The power came back on, and the old diesel machine was soon running. I ended up spending about 5 hours getting the yard opened up enough so we could get in and out more or less normally. But then it snowed a whole bunch more, and I began having trouble finding places to put the snow.

A neighbor came over with his now deceased father-in-law's Kubota. He had unburied the snow blower that had been in their barn unused for about 20 years and put it on the Kubota. In about 15 minutes time, my neighbor widened my driving area to as big as I ever need it. The Kubota is a much smaller tractor than mine, but worked great for that purpose. My neighbor had never seen the snow blower before that day and was having fun learning to use it.

Over the last number of years, we have not got nearly as much snow as we used to in the 70's and 80's. But last winter, it made up for it, and what had been working very well to move the snow we had been getting was just not really adequate to deal with the huge volume of snow we got. I was sure glad my neighbor's father in law bought the snow blower attachment way back when, and that they had never got rid of it, even though then had not needed to use it all those years.

So I guess the answer depends on how much snow you get and how much money you want to spend. A decent rear blade for a tractor you already have and a set of chains should cost quite a bit less than $1000. I have seen used pickup plows for about that amount, but it would cost some time and money to mount it up on an existing 4x4 pickup (I wouldn't even consider using a 2wd), and a plow is not a handy thing to have on the front of your truck if you drive it around much. A snow blower is the ultimate snow mover, but for my area, it isn't something I would need very often. I don't know what my neighbor has tied up in their snow blower, but I would guess several thousand. And it was never mounted on the tractor during the preceding 20 years. How much do you want to spend?

Last winter I was having hydraulic problems with my tractor, and the loader didn't work well at all. I finally found the internal leak and fixed it. Hopefully next winter will have more normal snowfall...and my existing snow moving system will be adequate. Good luck with your choice.

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