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lodestonefarm

Can a Wheel Horse do this? Should it?

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lodestonefarm

My bother runs a maple syrup business.   This year, with all the snow here in NW PA, the woods are under an unusual amount of the pesky white stuff.  We struggled through the tapping by wearing snow shoes and post-holeing our way around the 3000+ taps.  That nasty task is finished and it's time to collect the sap and make syrup.  

 

There's only one problem.  The road where this sap is collected has no winter maintenance.  Normally it's not that big a deal; you can get a 4WD pickup back there to ferry sap from the collection tank to a milk truck for hauling back to the sugar house.  After a week or so it has always melted off and allowed the milk truck to pull up right along side the 2000 gallon sap tank.  But this year that's not happening.  The snow is too deep for a 4WD and waiting for it to melt off could take weeks.  

 

My question is could my 520 with a single stage blower (which I don't yet own) move the snow a few feet to the side?  It's wet, a little packed down, but mostly deep.  Temperature has been in the 40s so things are melting, heavy, and wet.  I'm not looking to get it cleared to the gravel surface, just enough so that we could get the pickups down this 1/4 lane- maybe 6-8".  And I don't care about throwing it 40'.  6' to either side would be great.  

 

Would this kill the tractor/blower?  Is it fool-hardy, or is it a chance to show just what a WH can do?  I have no experience with a blower and only got my WH a month ago.  How do they perform with this left-over snow?  

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Ultimate destination is the far end of the photo.  One can just make out the poly collection tank.  

 

Anyone what to show off just how tough/capable their rig is?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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alswagg

Sure it will I kept several trails around our property cleared this winter with our D 180.

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randyh

heavy, wet snow with a single stage,  my experience is you can expect lots of clogs.

If anyone has other experiences they can share how to run to get good results

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alswagg

I rarely clog up. Run Wot and keep an eye and ear to what is happening.

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pfrederi

Get an M37 put chains on her a 1000liter handy  tank in the back and go for it.

Edited by pfrederi

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lynnmor

Could you drag a smaller tank behind a snowmobile?  To stay on topic, Wheel Horse did make snowmobiles.

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Racinbob

Sure, it will do it. You aren't going to hurt it one bit unless you try to blow branches and the like. Wheel Horses don't get hurt easily.

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boovuc

It would take time but it can be done. RacinBob said it best where you you hopefully won't chew any limbs and or larger branches. Cherry, Oak and hard Maple don't go through snowblowers real well.

 

Nothing beats having the perfect sugar bush location. (On a hill where your shack and evaporator are at the bottom). Just run your flex tubing to a few tote bins and valve it on the evaporators as needed. We did about 150 trees with about 15 people tapping on one day and only two or three needed to collect and boil. Actually one needed and one or two to help you drink!

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psalms83:18

U said it was a gravel base... You might want to keep that single stage raised upwards of 2" or u might bind up blow a chain spindle or like me burn a belt up real quick!

But no doubt if u take it easy and not try full speed ahead , the single stage should have no problem.

Edited by psalms83:18

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Sparky

If you attempt it (I would) make sure to apply a heavy coating inside the blower and especially the chute with something non-stick like cooking oil, Pam Spray, WD-40...should help prevent some if not all the clogging.

Mike.........

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daveoman1966

Run the blower a wide-open throttle.....creep along slowly enough so as NOT to plug the blower.  Like other posted, watch for twigs an such. 

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JackC

I was at my cottages today to open things up. The snow was deep, wet, and heavy. The single stage on my 520Lxi clogged up several times.  I had to raise the blower, go forward about 8 feet and then back up, lower the blower and go forward again.  I had a lot of trouble backing up with just wheel weights.  I had to put my weight box on since I could not get much traction without it.  The weight box filled with solid cement blocks adds about 250 pounds,  The deep, wet, heavy stuff is tough to deal with.  The single stage on my 520Lxi was just not up to the job for the snow conditions I was dealing with.  A larger two stage may work better.  I will be using a larger two stage on my 520H next weekend to see how that does.  

 

If your snow conditions are anything like what I was dealing with today, I would just hire someone to blast through it for you. 

 

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Ken B

I agree with Jack 100% I think you will only wind up frustrated and disappointed.

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lodestonefarm

I appreciate all the honest input.  This location is about an hour away.  Since I don't actually have a blower and it's not right around the corner, I think we're going to stick with our current system- 1000' of hose and a pump.  It works.  It takes 2+ hours to transfer the sap but we know how to do it and what to expect.  

 

It's been raining since last evening so maybe that will have knocked it down quite a bit.  I hate to run out and impulse-buy a blower and struggle with it.  If I already owned one, I'd give it a try, but right now the focus needs to be hauling sap out of the woods, not running around buy Wheel Horse stuff- even though that sounds a lot more fun!  

 

I need to get a blower for my own driveway before next winter so if this happens next year we'll have a setup ready and we'll stay on top of it.  This winter was just brutal!  

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Forest Road

We have a place in adirondack park. I bought WH specifically for this purpose. My plow guy does a great job. But the large piles and walkways need to be cleared. The single stage was a ton of work to get it done. The 2 stage chews through it. There's no comparison.

Personally for what you're trying to accomplish if find somebody locally with a real tractor and a snoblower. Or a backhoe. Good luck

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Chevydave

I run a single stage on my 416-8, I spray down the chute and auger with silicon and the chain with chain lube before each use. Get the right speed and I can blow the heavy wet stuff at 8" deep with no problem with weights and chains. I have a gravel drive so I have to leave an inch or two.

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