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<DIV>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.</DIV>
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<DIV>Jim Becker</DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=soffiler@gmail.com>Stephen
Offiler</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, February 03, 2019 9:46 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=at@lists.antique-tractor.com>Antique Tractor Email
Discussion Group</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [AT] 620 day</DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr>Hi Ralph:
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<DIV>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.</DIV>
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<DIV>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.</DIV>
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<DIV>SO</DIV>
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<DIV class=gmail_attr dir=ltr>On Sat, Feb 2, 2019 at 7:22 PM Ralph Goff
<<A>alfg@sasktel.net</A>> wrote:<BR></DIV>
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style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex">On
2/2/2019 5:29 PM, Mike M wrote:<BR>> Problem I have is that our driveway is
crushed asphalt, and we always <BR>> get snow before it fully freezes
solid. If I try to scrape it clean <BR>> with my back blade, I end up with
half of it in my yard.<BR>><BR>> Mike M <BR><BR>It would be the same
problem here with gravel, although my driveway is <BR>getting seriously short
on gravel anyway. I like to get a layer of <BR>packed snow built up on it so
then I can scrape with<BR><BR>the blade or snow blower without digging up
gravel. Sometimes I'll drag <BR>a pair of old tractor tires up and down the
driveway to help flatten out <BR>and pack the snow.<BR><BR>Ralph in
Sask.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>