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4100 and snow

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Kevin Squires
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2001-10-31          32824

I bought a JD 4100 (Gear) last Spring. It is equipped with a 410 loader and R4 tires. This Winter I am planning to use it to plow snow from driveways a little (with the bucket), move snow banks back, etc. (I have a truck with a blade but I will use the tractor to keep the snow banks at bay) Some of the driveway is gravel (toward the barn) and some is paved (toward the garage). All of it is steep. Will I encounter traction problems? Do you think I will need to buy chains? (I live in New England and get snow storms that average 12 to 15 inches of snow per storm. Snow banks will average 4-6 feet) Thanks for your help. Kevin

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cutter
Join Date: Feb 2000
Posts: 1307 The South Shore of Lake Ontario, New York
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2001-10-31          32853

Kevin, I owned a 4100 hydro....used it for pushing back banks and plowed with the Jeep. It had turf tires and worked well for this purpose without chains, however those r-4's won't be as good in the snow. Several points to remember..1) I used a heavy rear blade for ballast..2) You are operating on hills, I would suggest you grab all the traction you can to prevent sliding and causing an accident or injury, spend $96.00 on chains at tirechains.com. and 3) If you are using a loader on a hill, be extremely carefull of your bucket position when moving. In other words, keep your loader arms as close to the sea as possible to avoid a capsize sailor. ....

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Peters
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 3034 Northern AL
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2001-10-31          32865

You did not state whether the 4100 has 4 wheel drive or not, but I assume not. I would suggest purchasing a blade. I would plow the my hill in Kentucky with the blade (750 4x4). The road down from the house was very steep and paved. If I started to slide I could put the blade down and slow my slide. You should be able to find a blade for less than $200 new.
Peters ....

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Joe A. Bell
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2001-11-01          32878

I have a 4100 (HST), turf tires, with front loader and rear blade. Here in southern Missouri we had a 14" snow last year and I had no trouble with traction moving show with either the blade or the loader. I cleared my drive (gravel) and the road in front of my house (asphalt). I agree that you may have some traction problems with the R4's if you remove the snow down to pavement. I was surprised at the traction with turf tires. Anyway, the 4100 should handle your snow removal problems just fine; but, a little slow using only the front loader. ....

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LOREN
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2001-11-01          32881

I am a John Deere Salesman in Illinois. I would get a 5' rear 3pt blade for your 4100. What you can't dig out with the loader you can drag or push away with the rear blade.

Your Welcome ....

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Craig Dashner
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2001-11-02          32900

Peters, all 4100's have 4wd.

Kevin, Weight would be good for traction. I plow a driveway and a private road in Michigan (Detroit area) with mine (4100, R4's, loader). I have used a backblade and a loader. This year I am upgrading to a loader blade (homemade one). I plan to make a weight for the 3pt. for use with the front blade. You can do what you want with no chains/no weight, but you will slip. Weight would help, and would likely be enough, as long as you don't have ice or really hardpack snow under the fresh stuff. With the loader pushing banks, the way you work the loader becomes important. I have found that if you start with the bucket on the ground, then slowly raise the loader as you start to slip, the weight of the bucket, the snow in it, and the snow being pushed up by it, gives you more traction to the front tires which helps the pushing. It becomes an art after a while. I think a weight box or platform (you can make one easy and cheap and use bags of qwick crete for the weight) on the back along with the art of working the loader should be ok for you depending on the steepness of your hill. You can always try it the first snowfall and then add weight and/or chains if you feel safer having them. I probably wont get chains (my kidneys don't like the ride).

....

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DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 5116 Northern Nevada
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2001-11-02          32907

I have seen some new "x" pattern chains on the market that look like they are about 1/3 the diameter or bulk of traditional chains. They look like a soft ride. I don't know if they are available in tractor sizes. ....

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Tucker Herbold
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2001-11-02          32910

I've had my 4100 in NE for 2 years now plowing snow and it does almost all I could ask of it. I've got the HST, turf tires (no chains), and FEL but I also use a heavily weighted rear blade. I strap on 3 5-gallon buckets filled with concrete (each bucket weighs about 100 pounds.) Between those and the 200 pound rear blade, I get quite a bit of traction using the bucket. Using the blade, it digs into packed snow and ice real well at the expense of traction. This year I'm going to try just 2 buckets and some homemade wheel weights (old barbell weights -- about 300 pounds total.) I plow my own 200 yard drive and parking area as well as 3 neighbors and have only been stuck once. As long as you keep the banks back and knocked down, your machine should do fine. BTW, there was a post on this board last year about using screw-in tire studs from motorcycle racing tires to add traction to your tractor tires. Haven't tried it but it sounded like a more comfortable method than chains. Hope this helps you. ....

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cutter
Join Date: Feb 2000
Posts: 1307 The South Shore of Lake Ontario, New York
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2001-11-02          32911

One more thing I should mention. The ladder tire chains I use don't seem to make the machine jump around like I am reading in these posts. I keep the tires just hard enough to carry the load yet remain flexible. I would think that beats screws in your turf tires, but to each his/her own. ....

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Mike Yager
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2001-11-05          32958

I have a 4100 with turf tires and 410 loader. I live in Virginia. We had a mild winter last year. I had no problem plowing 6" of snow from my driveway with the loader.
I just picked up a set of the ladder chains (rear only) from my John Deere dealer. The cost was $150. Cheap insurance if we get a big storm. Also, I can use the chains in the field for loader work. I got stuck in mud last year with the turf tires.
Has anyone used chains when removing snow on an asphalt driveway? Any tips? I want to make sure I don't wreck the pavement if I do have to use the chains.

Thanks. ....

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DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 5116 Northern Nevada
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2001-11-05          32964

I don't think plowing tractors would differ markedly from plowing with pick-up trucks in this instance. I have done my share of plowing and driving with chains and studded tires on trucks and cars. I have never seen the road surface damaged by the passage of a chain-equipped vehicle. I suppose if you tied it to something and had the horsepower to spin the chains in the same spot for a length of time it could scar the asphalt. Tire studs on the other hand will leave shallow grooves in asphalt and concrete for two reasons: 1) the material (tungsten) in contact with the road is much, much harder, and, 2) unlike chains studs are more prone to spin in place while trying to develop traction. ....

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TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2001-11-07          33008

Mark: I know your comparison between truck and tractor plowing was incidental to the subject and I suppose they are pretty much the same. I believe there is one difference worth noting though. In general, trucks plow faster than tractors. For example, in light snows, trucks plow much faster than the top speed of most tractors. In addition, even in heavier snows if passes can't be made both up and back, then a tractor has to chug back at the same snail's pace without doing any work. On the other hand, I use a blower, which is much slower than either tractor or truck blades. Slower, that is, unless the time to manage the plowed banks is considered. I can't push the banks back far enough to get enough space to store the plowed snow till spring. Picking it up and stacking it with the loader would take a lot of time. The blower just blows the stuff 30'+ into the yard so the blower may be faster than a blade for my situation. ....

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DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 5116 Northern Nevada
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2001-11-07          33016

Yes Tom, but wouldn't a tractor (because of the low speeds) be even less likely to scar an asphalt driveway while using chains and plowing snow than, say, a four wheel drive Toyota Tacoma and a Winter Wolf running in granny gear?
Boy was that a mouthfull? I also hereby challenge you to construct a longer and more truncated question than the above. ....

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TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2001-11-08          33023

Mark: Yes: I think that's true about chains scaring asphalt if they spin, but around here plow trucks are seldom seen with chains. Most people who plow use 3/4 ton 4x4's and composite edged blades that don't scar asphalt. But then, I'm not sure why since almost all roads except the highway are gravel. I think most people who plow with trucks just plow often enough so the snow doesn't get deep enough to challenge the tires. I incidentally ran across a relevant comment on another board yesterday. The person said that skid shoes don't scar asphalt unless there are holes in it, in which case it's better without skids. I guess the idea is that the leading edges of the shoes might catch on the edge of a chuckhole and break more of it out.

A curious side-note about our lack of paving here is that Town Council faces a problem. Our highway dept. decided (after 40 years) that the intersection of a township road with the highway is dangerous. They surveyed a new road for weeks and planted enough stakes to heat a house for a winter and ended up recommending a paved road. Trouble is that the Township doesn't have any equipment to maintain paved roads since there aren't any. I think the recommendation had to do with standard speed limits, standard traffic levels and the radius of reverse curves needed to make the standard intersection perpendicular to the highway. The engineers said that the traffic would push all the gravel into the ditch along the curves. Well, fewer than a dozen people live at the end of the recommended paved road (most of which is straight) and nobody goes standard speeds anyway. People just wanted to get onto the highway someplace other than 100' from a bridge abutment where you can't see what's coming. For most of those 40 years, people use a bush road that crosses several private properties, along a section of old highway to our camp and then out our drive —non-standard but it works. Go figure; the more distant bureaucracy is the wackier is seems to get.
....

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