400'x400' lot with 8" snow cleared with L3800 FEL

[tsafa]

It took about 10 hrs but the FEL with 66" bucket did the job and put up 6 foot high snow berms all over the lot.














I am seriously thinking of getting a snow plow blade. The Kabota dealer quoted me about $4,300. Its not just a bucket, it is a full loader change out with a left/right rotation. I am still kick the idea around. The dealer told me the plow blade would cut my plow time in half.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

10 hours! Someone really likes seat time on their tractor.
I think you are in serious need of an upgrade!
But then again beats a shovel!

Option 1: Snow pusher, about 20 times faster than a loader.


Option 2: Rear blade about 4 times faster that a loader.


Option 3: Snow blower about 10 times faster than a loader


And yes, I'm taking a W.A.G at the time savings, but you get my point.
I clear over a mile of 30 foot wide road and 10 driveways and yards in less than an hour and half.

 

[olthumpa]

I would go with option #1, absolute best bang for your $$ for clearing a paved parking lot.

 

[Burt]

It took about 10 hrs but the FEL with 66" bucket did the job and put up 6 foot high snow berms all over the lot.


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I am seriously thinking of getting a snow plow blade. The Kabota dealer quoted me about $4,300. Its not just a bucket, it is a full loader change out with a left/right rotation. I am still kick the idea around. The dealer told me the plow blade would cut my plow time in half.

Tsafa,

Recommend option number two. A snow blade can usually change angles. We can plow our 300ft plus driveway with two passes and then clean up with the loader.

I usually make a pass going out with the blade at 45 degrees! stop at the end and Turin the blade 45 degrees the opposites way. In each case, the snow is pushed off to the side with the he of cooking aid "PAM" sprayed on the blade. After that, I lean up the berm that the county road grader deposits with the loader. The rest is touch up with the loader.

We have a used rhino blade. Craig's list turned it up. Remember that not all accessories are not from the dealer.

Our tractor is essentially the same as yours.

Burt

 

[tsafa]

I don't think the snow blower would work in the parking lot because it is just way too big. I would be blowing snow from one area of the lot to the other. Plus it is expensive.

Would the rear blade be that much faster? Would I have to run it in reverse? Right now I have a 500 lb counterweight on the 3point to offset the weight of the FEL. I would be loosing my counterweight and my rear traction.

The Box Pusher seems like a very interesting idea for just a little snow. I am wondering how far I would get in 8 inches of snow. It is 10 deg here and the snow got hard fast. The L3800 tractor was struggling to get through at times with even the 66" bucket in 8 inches of snow. The snow pushers don't seem cheap either at about $1,300.

Thoughts please????

 

[Fallon]

A blade will weigh over half of your ballast, so you wouldn't loose all the weight. It will hang out back further making it a little more awkward. The extra leverage hanging further back may offset a little of the weight loss too.


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[Eric McCarthy]

Assuming you own the gym which I believe you do. Any investment will almost pay for itself in savings over having to hire someone to do the work for you. Down here in my neck of the woods plowing at an hourly rate went for around 90-100 bucks an hour.

On the bright side you'll have a new toy to keep and use year after year equalling even more savings. So it will pay off in the long haul.

I'd go with the pusher. Even with a front blade most people end up putting box ends on them anyway.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I don't think the snow blower would work in the parking lot because it is just way too big. I would be blowing snow from one area of the lot to the other. Plus it is expensive.

I only paid $900 for my 60" snow blower and I can blow snow quite a long distance. But yes not really the best unless you have a ton of snow.

Would the rear blade be that much faster? Would I have to run it in reverse? Right now I have a 500 lb counterweight on the 3point to offset the weight of the FEL. I would be loosing my counterweight and my rear traction.

I use mine in forward just drive threw the snow with the blade at an angle and it will peel it right off and you will save a ton of time.
If you get a heavy blade you won't need to add ballast as the weight of the blade will actually be better than where you have your ballast at right now.

The Box Pusher seems like a very interesting idea for just a little snow. I am wondering how far I would get in 8 inches of snow. It is 10 deg here and the snow got hard fast. The L3800 tractor was struggling to get through at times with even the 66" bucket in 8 inches of snow. The snow pushers don't seem cheap either at about $1,300.

They push snow better than anything else, you can take smaller bites if the snow is too heavy. One down fall is there limited use, snow only nothing else.

Thoughts please????

For what your doing I would go with the rear blade. You could even get a rubber blade for it, it wouldn't hurt the asphalt and it will move slush too.

 

[tsafa]

A blade will weigh over half of your ballast, so you wouldn't loose all the weight. It will hang out back further making it a little more awkward. The extra leverage hanging further back may offset a little of the weight loss too.


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Yeah... but when the blade is on the ground and freefloating the entire blades weight is on the ground. Am I missing something?

I really like the idea of the rear blade because it is a much cheaper option and I can just pick one up at tractor supply if it will do the trick and I won't lose traction. I do own the gym and manage the 5 acre property which has a large grass area. That is why I bought the L3800. Plus I own another 9 acres that I live on.


Edit: With the Rear Blade I am thinking to Freefloat the front bucket at the same time. This way both are on the ground. What do you guys think?

 

[Benhameen]

I use a 6ft blade with mine this year and it worked
really good, used my box last year and for me, i like the blade better.

As far as the weight goes. I added a few hundred pounds of free weights I had laying around the garage. Unfortunately, that's about all they get used for anymore.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Yeah... but when the blade is on the ground and freefloating the entire blades weight is on the ground. Am I missing something?

You only need the rear ballast when using the loader right?, well you shouldn't be running the loader when the blades down on the ground.

I really like the idea of the rear blade because it is a much cheaper option and I can just pick one up at tractor supply if it will do the trick and I won't lose traction. I do own the gym and manage the 5 acre property which has a large grass area. That is why I bought the L3800. Plus I own another 9 acres that I live on.


Edit: With the Rear Blade I am thinking to Freefloat the front bucket at the same time. This way both are on the ground. What do you guys think?

NO BAD OPTION! #1 reason you loose control.
You need the weight on the rear when using the loader (blade in the air) and you need the front weight to maintain steering control when the blade is down (loader in the air ).

Beside that when the rear blade is doing the work the loader bucket doesn't need to be slowing it down.

 

[IDKUBOTA]

I use a six-foot rear blade for my L 3800. It works pretty darn well, granted I'm not clearing of 400 x 400' lot. We clear approximately 16x800 ft of gravel driveway and it works well for this. Service department Vic has a video on plowing snow using a rear blade.

Several have suggested certain types of rear blades on this forum. If you go the rear Blade route, there is a lot of value in having a real blade that adjusts not only for angling, but also for swinging your rear blade out to one side or the other and canting the rear blade for ditching and so forth. I use the landpride 1672, but I am seriously considering the 3672 due to ease of blade offset, although this is at the max range for our tractor hp.

Good luck and good job with the plowing,

Cheers,
Idk.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I have not plowed much snow, but a rear blade is great for roads-drives. You windrow the material and it is off to the sides. Not so easy or efficient with a 400' square lot. You need to get the snow off of the lot, not just move it. You want an implement that contains the material and you remove it. A rear blade has a live (moving) load and you will be moving the same material over and over and over and over again. I don't think that that is how I would want to clear your size lot.

In my opinion, the snow pusher would be your best bet and at $1300, that is not really that bad of a cost to be able to clean your areas. A deceit rear blade will cost at least $1000 and a nice one will be $2000.

Good luck with whatever you go with.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

MtnViewRanch,

One way to do it with a flat blade is to use a low or no angle, brake the lot in half and most go strait off without a problem.
You can also get a wing kit for most back blades to make them work like the snow pushers too.


tsafa,
A good back blade is worth it's weight in gold, and as IDKUBOTA stated an off set blade is even better, super versatile.
Spend a little more and get a good quality blade with all the features and you'll love it!

 

[MtnViewRanch]

MtnViewRanch,

One way to do it with a flat blade is to use a low or no angle, brake the lot in half and most go strait off without a problem.
You can also get a wing kit for most back blades to make them work like the snow pushers too.


tsafa,
A good back blade is worth it's weight in gold, and as IDKUBOTA stated an off set blade is even better, super versatile.
Spend a little more and get a good quality blade with all the features and you'll love it!

Again, I have not plowed much snow, but aren't the snow pushers taller than the 17"-19" that most rear blades are? Are you using the rear blade driving over the snow, or in reverse? I'm all for rear blades, just not sure that any rear blade is the best implement to clear his lot is all.

 

[tsafa]

Again, I have not plowed much snow, but aren't the snow pushers taller than the 17"-19" that most rear blades are? Are you using the rear blade driving over the snow, or in reverse? I'm all for rear blades, just not sure that any rear blade is the best implement to clear his lot is all.

I think the snow pusher will get stuck in deep snow. 38 HP pushing a 66" bucket through 8 - 12 inches of snow was hard enough (low gear, 2500 rpm). The Pusher will fill up with snow and stop the tractor in its tracks. It is not an issue of traction. If you put a big enough pile of snow in front of any size machine it will be stopped. They all have their limits.

The Show Pusher would seem to be more useful in clearing 1 to 2 inches because the snow will not built up fast enough to fill the box and stop the tractor.

The real issue with the Bucket is the snow coming out the sides. For every pass I make, I have to go back 2 more times to clean up the snow that spilled over the sides. The Rear Blade at an angle would force the snow to just come out one side.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Again, I have not plowed much snow, but aren't the snow pushers taller than the 17"-19" that most rear blades are? Are you using the rear blade driving over the snow, or in reverse? I'm all for rear blades, just not sure that any rear blade is the best implement to clear his lot is all.

I agree with you a snow pusher is the better tool for a parking lot, it's just not better when you don't have enough tractor to push it.
The blade is not much taller than a back blade it's just the side wings that help it do the job.
It takes a tractor with a lot of HP's and weight to push wet or packed snow, powder or dry snow you can do a ton, but that's a rare.
They use pushers up here a lot, but they are backed up buy a 100+ HP tractors to do the job, even a 125hp tracked skid steers can get stopped by the pusher blades.
The #1 tool for deep heavy snow is a snow blower, but it's hard to justify the cost for most, I have all the tools at my disposal and 50% of the time I use a blade and 50% of the time I use the blower, just depends on the snow.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I think the snow pusher will get stuck in deep snow. 38 HP pushing a 66" bucket through 8 - 12 inches of snow was hard enough (low gear, 2500 rpm). The Pusher will fill up with snow and stop the tractor in its tracks. It is not an issue of traction. If you put a big enough pile of snow in front of any size machine it will be stopped. They all have their limits.

The Show Pusher would seem to be more useful in clearing 1 to 2 inches because the snow will not built up fast enough to fill the box and stop the tractor.

The real issue with the Bucket is the snow coming out the sides. For every pass I make, I have to go back 2 more times to clean up the snow that spilled over the sides. The Rear Blade at an angle would force the snow to just come out one side.

So if you use a rear blade and you windrow the snow, even at a 6" depth, how many passes before you have more than you can move with the blade. Honestly, I can't see more than a couple of passes. Each pass with a 6' blade is going to give you an 18"-24" windrow. One more pass, maybe. then what do you do??? Back using your bucket? I'm sure that it would be faster, but enough to make a difference??

On your very first pass, can you just drive the full 400' and if you can, how much snow is at the end? Maybe if you did that 5 or 6 times, and then use a rear blade to move all the spillage over to one side and start over again. Maybe be able to do that every 5 or 6 passes???

I don't know, just thinking what I would do with what I have at my disposal. Dozer with 6 way blade?

 

[Eric McCarthy]

In whatever you choose I'd recommend putting a polyurethane cutting edge so you don't scratch and dent the asphalt parking lot all to pieces. Fall Line sells a plastic cutting edge you can cut yourself to suit your blades need.

http://www.fallline.com/store/snowremoval.cfm?Cat_ID=9

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

So if you use a rear blade and you windrow the snow, even at a 6" depth, how many passes before you have more than you can move with the blade. Honestly, I can't see more than a couple of passes. Each pass with a 6' blade is going to give you an 18"-24" windrow. One more pass, maybe. then what do you do??? Back using your bucket? I'm sure that it would be faster, but enough to make a difference??

On your very first pass, can you just drive the full 400' and if you can, how much snow is at the end? Maybe if you did that 5 or 6 times, and then use a rear blade to move all the spillage over to one side and start over again. Maybe be able to do that every 5 or 6 passes???

I don't know, just thinking what I would do with what I have at my disposal. Dozer with 6 way blade?

Up here a dozer with a 6 way blade can be the way to go!
I know what your thinking is but it's just not the real world case when dealing with snow, It's a lot different rules than dirt moving.
8" of snow not moved does not add up to 8" when it's worked and moved.

Jump on a plane and come up here, I'll let you play in the snow then you'll get a better feel for how it all works!

Eric has an excellent suggestion on a cutter edge, I'll just add and easier and cheaper place to get an edge from.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200436345_200436345