[AT] 620 day

Sun Feb 3 15:50:11 PST 2019

On the subject of snow and plowing.

I have a 6' 3pt blade that I have used behind my Ford 8N, once it gets 
up to 5 inches or so, it does not work at all well.

A few years ago I picked up a Sauder blade for the tractor:

and 3 years ago cast iron weights for the rear wheels:

which helped a lot (usually can handle 6 to 8 inches without a problem.  
(Wish the tractor had a locking differential tho...).
Howard

On 2/3/19 11:35 AM, Spencer Yost wrote:
> 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 
> <mailto: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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