[AT] 620 day

[Spencer Yost]

I have a 6’ 3 pt blade for for Ford 861.    It will not pull anything more than 4-6”(depending on wetness) reliably, 8” if I don’t mind always having to plow downhill, making a mess of things and getting stuck a few times.   More than 8” and it’s a non-starter.

I really feel like I need a 9 foot blade so I can put an extreme angle on it yet still scrape where my tires have been(or keep both on pavement if back blading).   With the 6’ blade the differential traction (one rear in the cleared area and one in the snow) with an angled blade after the first pass becomes a headache.

I built a belly mounted snow blade for my Farmall A. It was 7 foot and angled about 33 degrees. Steering was a bit touchy (fronts in the snow) at times but otherwise it worked great.  Just like using a motor grader.  Just not enough power and weight for big snows.

Nothing like being out on an antique tractor on a beautiful, snowy winter morning though.

Spencer Yost

> On Feb 3, 2019, at 11:06 AM, Jim Becker <mr.jebecker at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I’ve had about 15” of snow so far this winter.  I’ve plowed 4 times.  Three of the four, driving through the accumulation was no problem, but we had the situation Steve described.  I was expecting a partial thaw and I didn’t want it freezing back on the drive.
>  
> Jim Becker
>  
> From: Stephen Offiler
> Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2019 9:46 AM
> To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group
> Subject: Re: [AT] 620 day
>  
> 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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