Best way to clear snow from a rural driveway?
 

I've learned the hard way that a snow blower isn't the best for clearing a gravel driveway that's a few hundred feet long. I sometimes have snowbanks that are a few feet deep and the wind drifted stuff freezes in place. Should I get a quad with a plow blade on it or should I get a plow on my 3/4 ton truck?

Plow on your pickup. Quad is too light in my opinion. I have a skid steer with a blade that works awesome. Also used to have a pickup with a blade, really nice especially if you need to travel any distance to help out a buddy or whatever

14 old car tires all,lashed together 5 across, 4 across etc tie it off to the quad and do passes up and down lane way.

Plow on your pickup.

Or raise your snow blower so it's an inch or so above your driveway. You can also blow the windrow from plowing, so you maintain driveway width.

Truck plow. I use a quad for light snowfall but it won't handle big drifts and it doesn't push the snow that buildups up on the side well so you get closed in real fast as the snow builds. Or use this an excuse to buy a tractor...

Or flag down the grader fella, invite him in for a sandwhich and a hot bowl of soup...worked when we lived in Saskatchewan.

We use a variation of this with a couple of old truck tires on my buddy's acreage West of the John Ware Cairn. About 800m of gravel that blows in. Works like a charm

Pulls them with my old Burbs 4x4 that lives and stays on property

I live in the Peace country and used my quad and a blade. People always told me it wasn’t heavy enough and eventually I would reach a point my quad couldn’t do the job.

Did it for 10 years, never had one problem and do the majority of my plowing in 2 wheel drive. I make sure the lane is good and wide to start and that is enough.

Best part is a quad does the job so fast.

House is for sale and I already sold my quad. I really regret it.

Is the v plow worth the extra cost or is it overkill?

started with a blade
 

On a garden tractor and guess I didnt plow wide enough as many years ago I made banks on south side of drive the tractor would no longer climb to push snow over. think the biggest problem was the 2 wheel drive on small (20hp tractor). Following year I bought a two stage tractor mounted snowblower and dont think we had any substantial snow for 2-3 years but when I did use it it threw snow 20-30 feet so piling up on edge of driveway was never a problem. Odd time in yard the 2 wheel drive became an issue and it would be a lot of work to get it going with the weight of the snow blower on front. Counter balance weights and chains highly recommended.
Sure I threw a few pieces of gravel until I got the height adjustment right judging by how many times the hydro company replaced the glass globe on the meter on power pole. Still have small tractor and snowblower but rarely hook it up (takes some time) as it is so much easier to put two slide clips in blade on quad. Hard packed wind blown drifts in October 2 plus feet high took some time as I had to take 18 inch to 2 foot slice rather than push the whole blade width but I did get it done and that to date is the toughest snow we have had for several years. 4 wheel drive on quad makes all the difference.
Never had a blade for the truck but if I needed one I would also need to plow routes out to the tree rows and ditches where we plant pheasants all winter. Neighbor has a gigantic 4 wheel drive tractor with 20 foot blade that we have had to use a couple winters to make route roadways so I can get the truck and client trucks to the bird cover but not that often. Perhaps 2 winters in last 20 or so years.

Some counties will come and open up your driveway when the grader goes by. You just have to let them know you need it. The county of Leduc by Edmonton gives 3 free snowplow openings per year per landowner.

I got a small John Deere yard tractor, works awesome. Does everything you need it to do and is easy to work on and store. Only have had too much snow once, and then I just go borrow buddy's tractor that is 4x the size

Call the neighbour. He comes down with his tractor .:)

I used a quad exclusively for years. I plowed countless tons with my grizzly. Now I use a half ton f150 with a 7.5' blade by snowbear. I still use the quad but very rarely. I also have a John deer 2032r with a front end loader for drifts and snowbank removal, and scraping right to the pavement.
Hard to beat a truck and it is not hard on them if you aren't an idiot behind the wheel.

I had a skid steer for a while but could not justify it sitting around most the year and just pushing snow. Sold it and went quad plow. Works perfect, works fast and can really push through deep snow. It works better than i would have though. Super cheap and easy

If your in a area that's not protected and drifts nothing works like a snow blower. I use a tractor and don't have a blower but some times it drifts back in in hours. And if that's the case your not moving it with a quad!

Sounds like a plow is the way to go. Thanks for your help.

I have both a 7' truck plow and a 50" quad plow. My experience is I should have gone with a tractor with blade/bucket of some type. Here's why...im located in North peace area. My driveway is long trees on both sides and northern facing. I get large drifts the quad (a,500) does a fabulous job but is sped up by using chains....no slip ever and never get stuck. With tighter turning radius it keeps up time wise with the larger truck plow. I also run chains on the truck when plowing and never get tire slip or stuck that way( without chains I have gotten stuck more than a few times). As the season progresses though the driveway gets narrower and narrower as with a plow you can't really push the banks back once they get 3' high. A bucket would allow lifting and piling snow a bit better. By chaining up though I've almost cut plowing time by half

A good neighbor will stop and help. Ken sent his wife out to deal with the issue. ;)

http://www.fluidmotorunion.com/wp-co...d_corvette.jpg

Good advice
 

First try the county, if they offer this service it is free.
Second if the county won't see if you can make a deal with your neighbour who has industrial sized equipment.

Last on the list is buying small expensive equipment and doing it yourself.

I have lived in the country for 50 years and have never had to shovel snow.

Promise the kids a pizza and a trip to the video store. Worked for my old man:)

Colin

I have acreage with long driveway and Ive used a quad and blade for past ten years. Havent yet had an issue with the snow being too deep that I couldnt plow it just take smaller swaths if its really deep. Key to a quad/blade combo is you have to start year pushing the snow back as far as possible to allow for room to push more snow as the winter progresses. Once the piled up snow freezes the quad wont be able to handle the frozen banks so allow lots of space to push each snowfall into

Tracked John Deere skid steer, able to angle blade from cab, has heat, & it's quick.

I have used a quad for all my years in the country. I now have a 6' snowblower for the tractor but only use it when the snow is to deep for the gator. On my gator 620 I have a 5' blade that works very well. Chains on the rear tires make a huge difference. It's my first year using chains and I hardly ever put it in 4wd. I'm sure same would apply to a quad.
Best bang for your buck would be a honda 350 with a 4' blade and chains on the rear. Maybe a couple sandbags on the rear rack. Whole setup would cost around 3-4 g on Kijiji.

Forgot to mention. My driveway is about 2000' out the one way and about 3000' the other way.

i bought a " SuperPlow " rear mount plow about 15 years ago . i run up the center of the driveway then down each side and done . slides in the hitch receiver in about 2 minutes and comes off just as fast . only mod to the truck was a heavy wire to the back and an electronic control for the hydraulics .
as mentioned earlier , pushing snow with a warm pick up beats a garden tractor or quad which i have also done .

My driveway is 500m long and I've tried it all.
A quad can't even get out of the yard!
Currently using a retired JD 4020,chained up, with a 10' blade.
Seems to be the answer for now but in a big snow year I could see needing a loader to move drifts

I have a 4wd tractor with a 6 way 14' blade and I still prefer to use a drag to pack and level the snow. I find it way easier than plowing all the snow off and I don't get the drift catching ridges. It can get a little messy in the spring but the slush is easy to push off the road before the frost comes out. If you blade your road down to the gravel all winter, it is the first thing to thaw in the spring and the windrows seep into your thawed drive way and make it soft and prone to rutting.

I had the same issue this year. I ended up with a Meyer lot pro on my f150. Whole not the heaviest duty it works like a charm on my driveway which is a quarter mile long. I live where we get about 120 inches of snow a winter here in Montana.

i got a snow blower and a box blade for my tractor, i prefer the box blade 99% of the time but if there is lots of snow the blower running off the pto is really fast. tractor is a jd4105 so its pretty big for the blower it runs.