[AT] Good tractor work-out...

Mike Sloane mikesloane at verizon.net
Wed Dec 5 04:24:40 PST 2012


been there, done that. There is nothing quite like sitting in a puddle
of melted snow and having one's mustache freeze solid in the middle of
the night.

And that is why I gave up pushing snow with an open tractor a LONG time
ago. I have been using a series of trucks with closed cabs and (some)
heat for the last 25 years, gradually progressing to finally buying my
first brand new truck. It is a Toyota Tundra with automatic
transmission, and it makes plowing almost a pleasure. The only thing I
miss is the 8' blade on the F350 mason dump - the 7' blade on this truck
requires an extra pass to get the snow where I like it.

I do still use a rear blade on the Ford 860 the next day to get the snow
near the barn/garage doors and other tight spots. And, at age 70, I no
longer shovel snow. I found a very nice used Simplicity snow blower,
cleaned up, and put a cab on it for doing the walkways.

Mike

On 12/5/2012 3:18 AM, Mattias Kessén wrote:
> ... but I really hate snow. Yesterday we got the first snow maybe 8"
> so I plowed and shoveled for two hours yesterday evening when done at
> nine there were 4 new inches were I begun. Some defrosting wit a
> little glögg and some time in the sauna helped to deal with the
> continuing snowing and wind drifts. Then this morning at 4:45 the guy
> that takes care of our road it's about two miles of a shared road and
> he said that he had broken his tractor. So he wondered if I could at
> least open the road. OK the block heater was plugged in so I was
> ready to go. Yeah 12-16" with winddrifted parts with more than two
> foot of snow nice since the blade is something like 1' 8". But the
> boxer managed really good but the driver could have need some more
> glögg afterwards. Temperature was 19 F and wind between 25-30 mph at
> the open parts so a cab would have been appreciated. But the Boxer
> endured really good in it's heaviest workout for the last 40 years or
> something like that. And no I don't have any fancy clips or pictures,
> It was dark, no powersteering and frozen fingers.
>
> Mattias
>



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