Plowing with skidsteer

[CaptainsLS]

I've never used a skid with a plow before. We put a 8' fisher on the 185 and parked it in a condo complex. I have no idea how well it will work, I have a feeling the 8 feet in front limits the turning benifit of the skid. This condo has 75 driveways and they all are on crazy hills lined with pine trees. Most of you just use the bucket?

[Mbella]

We just use the buckets for cleaning curbs and moving small piles. I'm curious to see how it works for you.

[cgland]

I know of several scapers that use them and swear by their performance.

Chris

[Colonial]

You'll love that thing with a plow in there. We have a plow and 10' box for ours. Its great in tight areas.

[CaptainsLS]

I hope it works well. The situation lies with the clusterfck of driveways. It’s by far the worst nightmare of any snow contractor. I can’t get a 3/4 ton pick up into 60% of the drives. I plan on using the skid for almost all of em' and let the hourly rate roll :pound:

[B.L. Landscaping]

they work excellent we do our residentials with a bobcat 753 and a 8.5' blade it works amazing!!!!!!

[Colonial]

To be honest i did a condo compleex a few years back tried to do it with a pick, up, then a skiddy with snow blower, then i wised up and got a plow for the skid. Let me tell ya, it will be your best equipment in there as long as the operator is good. Either that or a Sten's tractor.

[lawnkid]

Just make sure your backup alarm is disconnected from your skid or you're gonna have a lot of complaints from the tenants about the annoying beep at 3 in the morning. And yes a skid is a very useful piece of equipment in a snowstorm. If you're doing a condo, the plow will work best. If you're doing lots, a pusher box or the Blizzard 810SS would be best.

[CaptainsLS]

or you're gonna have a lot of complaints from the tenants about the annoying

My old 04 F250 had a flowmaster exhaust. Sometimes I felt bad at 4 in the morning using that thing.


:scared::scared::scared:

[HRLand]

I couldn't see doing it any other way. We used our skid with a plow at a condo complex a few years ago and it was great. 60 drives in a couple of hours.

[Colonial]

LOL, i never felt bad.... me in truck for 18 hrs them in warm bed sleeping.

[Shadetree]

I am sure by now you have found out how productive a skid with plow is. We put an 810SS on our CT322 and it will plow CIRCLES around any truck. It feels to be 50% more productive than using the 78" bucket as well. It is so productive that our pricing structure will have to change for it next year. It does too much work compared to the truck mounted plows (810, 8611LP, 8.5 V)

PS As much as I hate the back up beeper It CYA with a thing called DUE DILLIGENCE. That combined with a warning light and the insurance and lawyers will be a little less painful.

[Pro Cut]

This is where its at right here. Increased our productivity by two fold. However, you won't catch me dead in there for 14+ hours.

[cgland]

Pro - Will that SS handle a full bucket of snow?

[Pro Cut]

Most definatley, unless you are on ice. But thats a given.

[cgland]

Nice setup!

[chardscapes]

The bucket is bigger than the loader :scared:

[Pro Cut]

8 foot to be exact! It's the ultimate driveway machine. It's awesome at the two 21 unit condo complexes we do. Backdrag and stacking all in one!

[Terraventure]

My partner and I subcontract a 76 unit condo association with the ridiculous drive right up to the garage door drivewway setup. The palce is five years old and they have had five plowing contractors and we are the only ones they have been happy with. We are the first ones to use a skid steer. We use a J250 with snow wolf tires and a 9' curtis plow modified with down pressure. I don't know how they did the place in the past without a skidsteer. Actually if we get the contract next year we will probably get another skid steer to get out production down to two or three hours instead of four or five.

[Pro Cut]

Do you do the whole thing with just one skid loader??? That would be very long and monotonus....

[kootoomootoo]

With a bucket on the front you pull upto garage, tilt bucket and reverse>?

[mrusk]

I am sub for a guy and we a complex that has single family houses, carriage houses and condos. There are several hundred units. We use 3 skids and 2 trucks. Storms take a minimum of 10 hours with EVERYONE there.

We back drag almost a 100 drives right out with the skids. Pull up curl bucket down and back up.

[kootoomootoo]

I am sub for a guy and we a complex that has single family houses, carriage houses and condos. There are several hundred units. We use 3 skids and 2 trucks. Storms take a minimum of 10 hours with EVERYONE there.

We back drag almost a 100 drives right out with the skids. Pull up curl bucket down and back up.


Just curious but is it possbile to score/scratch the driveway with the bucket when you backdrag.

[mrusk]

Just curious but is it possbile to score/scratch the driveway with the bucket when you backdrag.

not really

[Terraventure]

yeah you definitely make marks when using down pressure. we have gouged the ends of some of the drives because they abruptly intersect the road. Bad design. some of the drives will get 6" of water at the end of the drive because they put the swale in the awn instead of using the road. So any salt runoff goes on the grass instead of the street. Oh and whoever invented asphalt curbing and decided it would be ok for use in places where it snows should be shot.

[-EGLC-]

One of the local landscapers here has a Western plow mounted on his Bobcat ss and uses that; he plows a bunch of small commercial parking lots in town.

[paponte]

Just curious but is it possbile to score/scratch the driveway with the bucket when you backdrag.

Absolutely can. If you do alot of residential or sensitive areas I would recommend investing in a poly blade for it. We run one on our snow bucket, and also have it overhang the edges about 4" on each side. That helps reduce damage on belgium and curbs.

[mrusk]

I'll tell you one thing, plowing really kills the cutting edge on the bucket. After two storm the cutting edge is worn down to nothing.

[CaptainsLS]

I feel like a zombie. I've been in the skid for past few days dealing with snow. We ended up not even using the plow attachment due to the difficulty of the property layout. About the backdraging, if you get good you can enter the drive on one side and swing a 180 at the garage and right back out. Repeat that from the opposite side and the driveway is clean up to the door, with the snow piled out on the street rather than where the walks are.

[lawnkid]

I'll tell you one thing, plowing really kills the cutting edge on the bucket. After two storm the cutting edge is worn down to nothing.

I was wondering how long a bucket cutting edge lasted compared to a plow cutting edge. I personally would never use a bucket to backdrag driveways. Anyone here use a tracked loader for plowing?

[mrusk]

They guy i sub for has a new 297c. Thing works great for plowing even when it was icy.

[Pro Cut]

The bucket in the picture of mine I bought new this fall just for snow. If we get two more events I'm going to have to cut the old one out with the plasma cutter and put a new one in. They eat of 6 inches of steel really fast, especially backdragging like rusk said. By far the best backdrag scrape for driveways though.

[HRLand]

You need to get a bolt on edge instead of wearing down the bucket edge. I bought one for my JD back in 2000 and it's still in use.

[patpls]

Poly edges were stipulated for my townhouse accounts, the drives are blacktop with a stamped border. $100 to buy the 7ft edge and its reversible. 100 hours on it and almost time to flip it around.

[HRLand]

The one we use is steel.

[lawnkid]

Pro Cut,
Sounds like you're gonna have a fun project a head of you cutting that edge off.

For those using metal bolt on edges, aren't the bolts scraping the concrete or are you pretty much putting the bucket vertical and backdragging? I think the reversible poly edge is the way to go.

[paponte]

The bolts on the edge are countersunk carriage bolts. They are flush with the bottom of the edge.