Get Ready!

[Slickcraft]

Originally Posted by jeffk

I was reminded yesterday that when snow amounts reach a certain level, the normal things you do to clear it don't always work. We have 600' of DIRT driveway and ups and downs along the length of it. We have a good plow company take care of it but the amount of snow, the dirt base, and the uphill portion overwhelmed their plow truck. They ended up leaving a 6 foot pile of VERY heavy snow about 50 feet from the house. When I saw it, I suspected that they were out of the fight and they called to confirm that they had no way to deal with it.

Luckily, I have a small Ford tractor (4WD) with a bucket. "Plowing" with the tractor is not "elegant" but after 7 hours, it got the job done, albeit a very rough job. I only got stuck twice where I had to dig around the wheels and dump sand to give me traction. Unfortunately, I also dug up some dirt with my efforts and will probably have to do some minor repairs once this all melts and we finish up Mud Season II. Thank God for the tractor. Hand shoveling would have been impossible. I would have had to seek out a company with a bucket loader. As it was, clearing around the entryways and cars was a lot of work for my wife and I.

Also luckily, we have replaced all our vehicles in the last few years and they are all AWD or 4WD so they handled the remaining sloppiness without a problem.

It was a beautiful snow event but coming at the end of the season it was a waste. My wife said although she loved watching the snow coming down and piling up, but in the end the cleanup was a major PITA and not worth it (she didn't exactly say THAT because she is too polite. but I take editorial license).

Our situation here has evolved over the years. We have a 550’ driveway that has an 80’ vertical rise from the road, a dogleg turn 200’ from the top and an 11 degree pitch for the final section.

When we moved here in ’98 the drive was gravel. We hired a plow guy who got stuck on the top section in heavy wet snow after a March storm. He quit and left me to shovel out. So, I had a Fisher plow installed on my Dodge 2500 and plowed from the top down with chains on 4 wheels. It did work but not ideal.

In 2005 we bought the Deere 3320 with FEL, landscape rake and rear blade for gravel drive maintenance and help with snow removal. In 2015 we added the 64” rear mount snowblower and sold the plow truck. Then in 2019 we had the drive paved, sold the landscape rake but kept the rear blade. The blade can be angled to plow light snow of a few inches.

Now with the 64” blower and a paved drive, heavy snow falls can be delt with. This recent storm was the most difficult we have ever had. We had 19” here with alternating layers of snow, sleet and freezing rain. So, it was slow going.

Alan