OT snow

[alan_m]

I've not set foot outside today but the snow on our side streets must be bad as the taxi drivers are only traveling at 2 miles per hour!

[Brian Gaff]

Hmm its not the going that is the problem its the stopping. brian

[Dave Liquorice]

An hour ago a rather large 4WD Claas tractor with V plough on the front got itself stuck for minute or so as it did battle with the 8'+ drift just by us. The gap it forced through is rapidly filling back up...

[Harry Bloomfield]

alan_m formulated on Thursday :

Ours must be much worse, the local taxi drivers are avoiding it completely. Normally there are several an hour racing through on their missions.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Not sure there's anyone around to use them. Walked into the town centre a couple of times today, and it was empty.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Andrew Gabriel was thinking very hard :

They use the local small station as a base and as there don't seem to be many trains running, not much need for taxis.

[Harry Bloomfield]

They are given a shovel and sent out to clear the footpaths?

[alan_m]

Elfin Safety probably stipulates that the air temperature must be 20C before they are allowed to clear the pavements of snow.

[JoeJoe]

Pavements in my road are at least 60cm deep, road around 50cm. The neighbour has a monster Land Rover, and managed to get half way down before he got stuck. No other car on the road for the last 2-3 days.

I dug around the car yesterday in the hope that the council would plough soon. It is covered in at least 20cm of snow again now.

[Muddymike]

We have a longish uphill driveway which leads to the road via a council owned area serving District council retirement flats and town council offices.

The town council have been quite good at clearing the road in, the yard and staff parking area but District council don't clear the roadway or footpaths leading on to us or the flats.

For this reason I have a snowblower:-)

Each morning I have cleared a footpath width up the drive as well as the footpaths leading to the flats, only yesterday did we need to get a car out so in the afternoon I cleared our drive and turning area.

This old YouTube video is how I do it. Video starts after a few seconds.

Mike

[nothanks]

Which blower have you got, and would you recommend it?

[Muddymike]

Its an old Snapper I bought from an ex MOD auction by Witham SV. Its a

24 inch two stage 6 speed machine which as as you can see in the video it cuts through 10 inches of snow with no difficulty.

Mike

[nothanks]

Thanks. Having been snowed-in twice this winter I've resolved to get a blower and that looks like just what I need. I can't justify a new one when it will probably not snow for another 10 years so I'll look around for a decent used one before next Winter.

[Dave Liquorice]

Could do with one as well but where it would be most useful there is nowhere to blow it, short of straight in front.

Whilst shovelling snow this afternoon I wondered if I could put some of plough blade on the front of the self propelled mower and wether it would have enough traction to be effective with say 6" of powder to deal with. Mind you the wind will take the powder once it's lifted into the air, trouble is that will probably just send it where you don't want it.

Earlier in the week:

[nothanks]

I've been asking about a blade on my mower and the general opinion is that friction is an issue (chains would help) but also the relative "fragility" of the auto back axle. In my case I could move the snow to one side but a blower would be better.

[Muddymike]

I have one area I have to blow straight in front. It still works if the blower has enough power to throw the snow far enough forward.

The problem with trying to plough snow with any type of mower is that they usually only drive one wheel or have an open differential resulting in only one wheel driving.

Mike

[Muddymike]

If you do find one make certain its a two stage machine. There are a lot of single stage out there that seem pretty ineffective according to reports I have read.

Mike

[Dave Liquorice]

wether

powder

I think you might have interpreted "self propelled" as "ride-on". B-) I'm talking about an 18", self propelled, walk behind, rotatory mower. Pretty sure both rear wheels are driven, possibly without a diff. It's got a reasonable pull on dry concrete and propells itself on "not to wet to mow" grass. I suspect that on snow/packed snow the solid plastic wheels won't have enough grip to be useful.

[Muddymike]

Perhaps I had a mental picture of something like this

Mike