Go Bottomblade vs FEL for snow removal
 | ggman
Join Date: Posts: 1 
|
2000-10-31 21072
Need your experience. I am building on 10 acres...will have an approximate 800 ft gravel drive. As I make plans for a compact tractor purchase, what implement makes the most sense for snow removal and or driveway maintenance.....a front-end loader or a back blade? I would guess that I don't necessarily need both. Am not considering a blower for snow.
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
| Roger L.
Join Date: Jun 1999 Posts: 0
|
2000-10-31 21075
Unless it is just a mowing tractor, a front end loader is the most useful thing that you can have on your machine. You will use it for everything. SO you have to have the front end loader as your primary tool. Then you have to have something on the back of the tractor to balance the weight of the front end loader. Back blades are about the least expensive form of weight that will mount back there. Hardly more money than a weight box. You can get a usable blade for less than $200. But when you find out how useful that they are I bet you will go looking for a back blade that angles, tilts, and has swinging offset....and these features do run the cost up. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley 
|
2000-11-01 21085
I'd say both loader and blade are useful. I believe there are some lengthy discussions on this subject in the archives here. I know people do fairly long drives with loaders, so it can be done. However, I find that the snow doesn't clear very well off the front of my loader bucket, and I bog down if there's much snow. A blade just works much better, and a blade with angles can push the snow off to one side. On the other hand, it's hard to get through the winder without using a loader to stack some snow. You can't always keep pushing it back with a blade. Loaders also are good on gravel before freeze up. The bucket can be curled up and floated so it rides on its bottom and won't damage a drive. Of course, a good blade can be tilted and back dragged to do the same thing. Myself, I use a 3ph blower, because I just like blowing the stuff 30’ out in the yard and never have to worry where I'm going to put it. However, I wouldn't want to be without a loader as well. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
| kay
Join Date: Posts: 1
|
2000-11-01 21088
I don't completely disagree with the responses, but with my 600 ft gravel driveway (for 32 years), I would not be without a front blade that has hydraulic lift and angle. I now have a 7ft western plow mounted on a JD4300, and it is a blessing compared to the effectiveness in snow of an FEL and/or a back blade. Backing up to plow snow was not be my idea of fun. Finding a used 7 ft meyer or western plow off a truck to go on a compact (I used a JD420U two-cylinder for many years with an old plow off a jeep) is not too expensive. An FEL is a great tool for a new acreage as well as a back blade. However, I do not use my back blade for much, when the snow plow also works so well at dirt and gravel moving and smoothing tasks. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
| al
Join Date: Posts: 1
|
2000-11-01 21091
i have used bot to care for my drive part gravel, part cement, over the past years, i think they are complimentary pieces of equipment, and would not want to do without either of them. the blade allows you to move snow, the bucket allows you to stack snow. you can push or pull snow with the blade easily, you can move snow if you have repeated snowfalls and it starts to pile up where you have pushed it with the blade.
good luck
al ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
| Doug Huebner
Join Date: Posts: 1
|
2000-11-01 21100
While a front blade is probably the best choice, it is also a more expensive choice. I went with a back blade for about $170 for snow [I drive forward], but it is too lite for doing the drive IMHO. The heavy duty blades that weigh a lot more cost a lot more [$650 for a King Kutter]. From previous threads it seems to be a draw between a rear blade and a box scraper for driveway work. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
| Mike K
Join Date: Posts: 1
|
2000-11-01 21112
If you can afford to, I would get the FEL with a skidsteer style release bracket and bucket. This allows you to easily remove the bucket and install a plow in its place. Add remote hydraulics for power angle of the plow and you have a great snow fighter with the ability to easily install bucket back on machine to move piles of snow. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
| Mike S.
Join Date: Posts: 1
|
2000-11-01 21130
Kay--would you please briefly describe how you mounted the Western snow blade on the front of your JD4300--this sounds fantastic since these used blades can be found easily in the spring. Thanks Mike S. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
| kay
Join Date: Posts: 1
|
2000-11-01 21137
Be happy to. Because I wanted to be able to quickly drop the snowplow, in case I needed to use the FEL, I decided to use the belly mower brackets, designed another bracket with square tubing to hold the lift cylinder, and attach to the A frame of the snowplow (I bought the short Western A frame). When detached, everything stays with the plow. To hook up, just drive into the plow bracket, tilt the bracket up (pivoting on the belly mower brackets which stay with the tractor) and fasten with two bolts through the front weight bracket (same one the FEL attaches to). Couple the three hoses - one for lift and one each for the hydraulic angle cylinders and away you go. No need to buy the extra set of controls (I don't have a belly mower).
If adding a snowplow to the FEL, it extends out several feet in front of the loader arms, and at least the JD blade for the FEL is not very wide. I think 7 feet is minimum when angled and plowing snow. I only need to now add some hyd. flow control to slow down the movement of the angling and lift cylinders. There is no down pressure on the blade, only gravity.
I hope this makes some sense. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
| Mike S.
Join Date: Posts: 1
|
2000-11-02 21178
kay--thanks for your detailed description of how you mounted the Western snowplow to your tractor--some great ingenuity. In fact, this appears to mount up easier than the OEM JD hydraulic front blade on my JD955. There are usually a number of Western snow plows for sale in the spring. Thanks for your heads up. Mike S. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
| Jack in IL
Join Date: Posts: 1
|
2000-11-13 21472
Loader Mounted Snow Blade. I just ran across an ad for a Quick-Tach Angling Blade that mounts right in a loader bucket. See Website www.versa-teeth.com. Looks interesting. They also have rake teeth, pallet movers, and hay forks that mount in buckets. ....
Link:
Click Here
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
 Pics
|
2000-11-13 21475
Based on many years of experience, I can tell you without hesitation, ANYTHING you put IN your bucket will be ruined in very short order, unless you use the loader for nothing but a counter-balance. Any thing you dig, load or carry will bend, or stick to the mounts, when you want to use them they will be bent, caked in mud, or just rotted from the moisture. If the mount involves dilling and maintaining holes in the bucket sides, the holes will grow from abrasion, or rust. I have seen MANY people weld brackets inside their buckets so as to enable them to mount a standard pickup type plow inside their tractor's bucket, I have yet to see one such setup work for more than the first season. Best of luck. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
| Roger L.
Join Date: Jun 1999 Posts: 0
|
2000-11-14 21484
Murf, that's a little extreme. I'll admit that for some reason loader buckets seem to practically attract rust, but with reasonable care it can be kept to a workable level. I have modified my buckets for several different bucket-mount implements. The problem with most of them is that the bucket itself is only being used as a mount - and it makes a poor mount. This has required a number of modified buckets. I think I have 5 or 6 of them....plus the ones that didn't work...Next on my list to-do list will be some sort of quick change bucket mount, but that is in the future.
Frankly, I don't take much care of my buckets. They are stored on wood blocks or parked with the cutting edge down on some blocks of wood - so that they don't touch the ground or store water. Dirt gets hosed out periodically. If the soil is real "active" like fresh loam, manure, or high sulfate, then it gets hosed out that night for sure. Welds and mounting holes get wire-brushed and squirted with a spray can of Rustoleum black now and them. Nothing defeats rust like a quick shot of paint. That's about all it takes in this climate.
....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
| Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
Pics
|
2000-11-14 21486
Roger, as I mentioned it is possible for it to work, just not very likely. Besides, most buckets, especially the relatively light ones we use, are designed to have sufficient strength ONLY as integral units. As soon as you put a large amount of force to one SMALL area, such as the new mounts, the small area is no longer strong enough to withstand the force applied and failure results. I have seen many badly deformed buckets caused by people trying to remove stones or stumps and the small section of the bucket bearing the load wasn't able to withstand the load applied by either the loader or the moving mass of the tractor. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photoblade vs FEL for snow removal
 | Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
Pics
|
2000-11-14 21502
When looking for your compact tractor look at some of the factory options. I have several units out that can have both subframes for the loader as well as for the front blabe or snowblower on at the same time. These units work well with the quick attach systems from the manufacter and can be converted in a mater of minutes. We built some of the first ones and had good luck so it is Possible to have the best of both worlds with out to much work. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photo
Go Top
Share This