Ready for snow?

[Bill D 2,536]

Ice always scares me more than snow.  I'll take 3 feet of snow over an inch of ice any day.  Forecast here is 12-24 inches of snow.  My driveway is too small for a plow or blower on my tractor.  I use an older Toro Powermax 1028 LXE.  Stay safe everyone.

Edited 10 hours ago by Bill D

[SylvanLakeWH 30,291]

7 hours ago, wallfish said:

I beat on that thing hard since it's pretty boney with rocks around here. Ripped the stabilizer arms off and had to beef those up afterwards. But that tractor definitely proved itself capable again and again since we did many projects like a few retaining walls and big stone steps.

Wait a minute...

 

the classified add @ebinmaine responded to said "gently used on sunny mild days by an elderly grandmother to plant petunias in nice, soft sandy loam soil ". 
 

[ebinmaine 76,771]

7 hours ago, wallfish said:

@ebinmaine Eric has it now and I hope it serves them well

 

It certainly has and will many more times. 

We have plans for a complete restoration on a new C Series chassis with upgrades! 

 

[OutdoorEnvy 1,791]

Well we are finally getting real snow here in Oklahoma.  They’re calling for 12-15” by tomorrow morning.  Supposed to be lighter powder snow.   416-8 is ready and waiting!
 

Question, first time I needed to wonder, what is the snow height where the plows start having trouble?  

[ebinmaine 76,771]

2 minutes ago, OutdoorEnvy said:

 

Question, first time I needed to wonder, what is the snow height where the plows start having trouble?  

 

Feel free to watch a few of my or Trina's videos. See how we move snow. 

 

We have a gravel drive and keep the plow angle forward to the third hole down. That helps it roll off the ends.  

Lots of folks use a wax or spray lube. We rarely do. 

 

DRESS WARM.  

 

If it's heavy snow you'll want to plow a lot more often so you're moving less. Or, take very small bites. Maybe a 1/4 plow width. 

If it's light fluffy snow you can move a good strong 8 to 10 inches off to the angles side with decent speed. 

 

Do NOT let the snow get piled up and come over the top. That'll bury the plow frame and get you stuck. Stop. Back up. Take a smaller bite. 

 

 

 

 

[SylvanLakeWH 30,291]

[adsm08 4,072]

4 hours ago, Bill D said:

I'll take 3 feet of snow over an inch of ice any day.

 

To be fair, an inch of ice is some serious business. You can't plow it, you can't blow it, its 10x the work to break it up, you almost have to melt it at that thickness.

 

 

Last storm we took the dogs out to run the day after. The roads were fine, even the one through the game lands seemed OK. I pulled into the parking lot, got out, and was laying on my back before I even realized the ground was icy.

[adsm08 4,072]

2 hours ago, OutdoorEnvy said:

Question, first time I needed to wonder, what is the snow height where the plows start having trouble?

 

What @ebinmainesaid is very correct. This is a question with a lot of variables, like temperature, weight/wetness of the snow, the plow, the tractor, the unladen weight of an African Swallow.

 

The general rule of thumb I have been using is 3/4 the height of the blade is doable for your initial cut, but don't stop for anything until you break free into the road (be sure to clean up after yourself there), or you get it to where you want to leave it, of you will make a lot more work. After my first pass up the middle I angle the blade and don't ever take more than a 1/2 blade width, less if the snow is deep, or heavy.

Edited 5 hours ago by adsm08

[Treepep 990]

On 1/21/2026 at 10:58 AM, Ed Kennell said:

 

  

Whatever transpires we (North Carolina) here specifically WILL lose power.  It hasn't been persistently cold,  the ground is not frozen, and these DIPS here brined everything.  Bridges

 

overpasses and my roof will be icy... Briefly

 

I have food and perishable food. Folks get crazy here when any weather event happens.  I do not know an actual percentage however I would guess mericans in general have enough

 

food water etc.  I own a generator.  I have been searching for 3 years for a human to make it run my house.  12v makes sense to me.  10 or 20 times that  Stay safe boys and girls!

 

 

[ebinmaine 76,771]

12 minutes ago, adsm08 said:

the unladen weight of an African Swallow

 

I always forget about that part! 

[lynnmor 8,428]

3 hours ago, OutdoorEnvy said:

Well we are finally getting real snow here in Oklahoma.  They’re calling for 12-15” by tomorrow morning.  Supposed to be lighter powder snow.   416-8 is ready and waiting!
 

Question, first time I needed to wonder, what is the snow height where the plows start having trouble?  

The last snow we had was just under 6 inches but was rather sticky.  I could see the snow pushing in front of me as much as 8 feet and bringing me to a stop.  I had to push that to the side to continue on several times.  The point is that no two snows will be the same, just don't leave much come over the top of the plow and back off before it brings you to a halt, it sounds like this snow will max out your plow and you will need to take smaller bites, kinda like eating an elephant.

[Bar Nuthin 2,116]

2 hours ago, adsm08 said:

the unladen weight of an African Swallow

[Lane Ranger 11,723]

5 hours ago, OutdoorEnvy said:

Well we are finally getting real snow here in Oklahoma.  They’re calling for 12-15” by tomorrow morning.  Supposed to be lighter powder snow.   416-8 is ready and waiting!
 

Question, first time I needed to wonder, what is the snow height where the plows start having trouble?  

 

You don't wait for that to happen!  Early and often keeps the snow where you want it! 

[squonk 45,147]

Snow bank in Oswego co. and our snow arrives after midnight tonight!  

 

[pfrederi 19,588]

I am going to rearrange my snow horses so the blower (which I haven't used in a few years) can be first out.  This is supposed to be fluffy snow and the wind pattern around my shop puts a big drift in front of the doors.  Pics are from 8 years ago  expect something similar Sunday'

 

 

[Ed Kennell 44,220]

7 hours ago, Bill D said:

Ice always scares me more than snow.

Ice only is bad, but it sounds like we may get some sleet/ice on top of the 1-2' of snow.  This would be a great help in preventing the drifting that could keep our roads closed for weeks.

[Bar Nuthin 2,116]

The two tractors on the left (C-120 Auto and No Name Johnny) both have add on lifts from earlier models. Noticed a slight leak at the cylinder on the C-120 which is currently carrying my snowblower. 

Forutnately @wheelhorseman was able to hook me up with some new lines.

That only leaves 2 lines that haven't been upgraded yet (not counting the originals on the C-141), but I'm sure at some point those will need replaced as well.

 

The short ones go on the C-120 and the long ones are custom fitted for Johnny (ORB -5 at the control, and ORB-6 at the pump).

Now I just gotta warm up the garage and swap 'em out before the snow gets here. Right now, I'm letting the hoses warm up after setting on the porch at 5°F 

It will be the snowblower's maiden voyage (for me) if needed. Pretty sure I have everything dialed in, but there's always surprises!

Edited 1 hour ago by Bar Nuthin
typo

[ML3 2,090]

Im ready. Predicting at least a foot of snow.  Grew up out in the snow belt dealing with lake effect snows. Got the 654 w/plow ready, 702 w/blower also ready. Got the Toro 2stage if it snow gets too deep. Wish Workhorse w/Bervac was running 🙁

 

Plenty fuel for tractors & for generator if needed. 

[Ed Kennell 44,220]

1 minute ago, ML3 said:

Wish Workhorse w/Bervac was running 🙁

Yeah, wish I still had it on my 520H. 

[ML3 2,090]

2 minutes ago, Ed Kennell said:

Yeah, wish I still had it on my 520H. 

Sorry Ed.......

 

Its definitely not doing me any good sitting in my garage.  

[Blue Chips 591]

I think we're pretty much ready. We actually got more snow (19") in the previous big storm that what is predicted, but that was a bit of a hassle, so I'm taking a couple of extra steps this time. The last big storm was 'comparatively' local and caused a lot of power outages, some of which took a few days to remedy. Since the coming storm is so widespread, if there are a lot of power outages, the service crews will be spread thin, so outages may take a long time to fix. We have a backup generator, but major outages can affect a community in other ways besides loss of residential power.

 

Prep stuff:

• Set up a temporary plywood cover over the air intake end of the automatic backup generator to (hopefully) prevent snow from drifting up against it. During the last storm the snow built up very high against it, and it sucked in so much snow that it clogged the air cleaner. When I heard it running roughly and saw the snow, I figured out what happened. It was an easy and quick fix, but but I want to avoid that happening again.
• Exercised the backup generator when it was 5 below zero last night to make sure it would start up OK. No problem. It has a heater that wraps around the oil filter and automatically warms the oil and block a bit when it gets below a certain temperature, which I'm sure helps.
• Bought a new bag of calcium carbonate de-icer.
• Connected an extension cord to the oil pan and block heaters on Mr. Case (loader/backhoe), which might be our snow removal tool for this storm (as mentioned, my 522xi snowblower tractor isn't back in operational mode yet).
• Connected a trickle charger to Mr. Case's battery to keep it up.
• Checked the propane levels in the tanks (our generator and stove run on propane).
• Had our heating oil tank refilled a couple of days ago.
• Mrs. Blue Chips picked up some extra groceries (so far, there has been no run on the stores here, probably because they're not predicting an ice storm in our area).
• Checked the fuel levels in both of our vehicles.
• Recharged the flashlights.
• Put fresh fuel in my Husqvarna backpack blower and started it up. As mentioned, I want to experiment with it a bit to see how well it can blow snow off the driveway.
• And of course, I checked our supplies of 'comfort food' items (rum, chocolate, cheese, etc.).

Bring on the snow (but not too much of it)!

 

Stay warm and safe!

 

 

 

Edited 30 minutes ago by Blue Chips