[AT] 620 day

[Stephen Offiler]

Hi Ralph:

That's a great answer in places where the snow arrives and then reliably
hangs around until Spring.  The climate in my region (RI/CT border) is
highly variable due to proximity of the ocean as well as the way the jet
stream tends to bend in our general area.  In my 56 years there's never
been a winter with continuous ground cover.  I've seen a winter where 4"
total fell the entire season, and that was only two winters separated from
the all-time record which was around 120".  One pattern that's fairly
common is a heavy dense snowfall at just below 32F, with some changeover
back and forth to rain, leaving several inches of maximum-density wet
mess.  Our temperatures seem to cycle... warm up and snow/rain, followed by
a dry cold spell.  If you drive thru that heavy wet mess, you leave deep
ruts, and there's a strong chance it's going to freeze later.  It's less
about the slipperiness of the ice, and more about the irregularity of those
ruts that makes them hard to drive thru/over/around, and then if more snow
falls, plowing is just a disaster as the blade catches on the
irregularities of the ruts.

I modified a 7' Woods 3-pt back blade, adding home-made skid shoes and
removing the steel cutting edge and replacing it with a heavy piece of
rubber, 1" thick, 6" wide, 7' long.  (McMaster Carr if anyone is curious).
It's sort of like a giant windshield wiper blade.  I keep the shoes set up
about an inch or so, which is my attempt to leave the gravel in place.  It
sort-of works.

SO




On Sat, Feb 2, 2019 at 7:22 PM Ralph Goff <alfg at sasktel.net> wrote:

> On 2/2/2019 5:29 PM, Mike M wrote:
> > Problem I have is that our driveway is crushed asphalt, and we always
> > get snow before it fully freezes solid. If I try to scrape it clean
> > with my back blade, I end up with half of it in my yard.
> >
> > Mike M
>
> It would be the same problem here with gravel, although my driveway is
> getting seriously short on gravel anyway. I like to get a layer of
> packed snow built up on it so then I can scrape with
>
> the blade or snow blower without digging up gravel. Sometimes I'll drag
> a pair of old tractor tires up and down the driveway to help flatten out
> and pack the snow.
>
> Ralph in Sask.
>
>
>
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