Friday daytime temp high 43F. Friday evening wind 25mph, low temp 9F, 3-5" of snow. Saturday daytime temp high 12F. Daytime wind 30mph. Daytime 1-3" of snow. Saturday evening temp -8F, 20mph wind. Our roads are bare. Little or no frost. I'll try to run without chains. That depends on drifts. Snow should be light and fluffy coming off that cold air. Makes it drift worse. But pushes easier. No complaints here. We've had a very easy Winter so far. Picture for mood.
I've been out 3 or 4 times, but nothing to speak of. Snowing now, but it will be one of those just enough to have to clean up. Crazy mild so far this year, the river hasn't even frozen over yet.
We got a whack yesterday. And the temp dropped making it all turn into ice. We’re grader plowing the whole city. Gotta love Winterpeg !
Yep, has been crazy temp swings, been out 3 times, seems we get a good dumping of snow then 3-4 days later it gets rained away, temps have been really swinging here along the coast, 55F to 20F and everything in between, hopefully it will swing to the cold side mid to end of Jan for a month or two.
I agree. I don't like cold weather. But my roads need to freeze and stay that way for the next 45-60 days. I am chuckling at the weather geeks this morning. They want to dramatize this pending storm sooooo bad. But they don't want to completely miss. So the "buzz" word this morning is "potential". In other words they don't have a clue. But something is going to happen.
One of the guessers here has added the "european" model into the mix on this "weather event"....lmao. Just gives the moron another way to get it wrong and talk longer. Ed
My Grader is 7 miles from my house. I went and plugged it in just now. Didn't put on chains. Snow is supposed to start about 0300 hrs tomorrow morning. Snow all day ending around midnight. 20-30mph winds. Expected snowfall 5-8". They always guess high so I figure 4-6". I'll start pushing just after midnight tomorrow night if nothing changes. We're going to 4 wheel here at the farm tomorrow afternoon. Ta Hell with the storm!!!!
My wife always says," Do you think you should be going to the store in the snow? It might be slippery." Thinking if she could only see how crazy my drive to work is in some storms.
Absolutely!!!! And for me I usually start pushing at night. No one is out. No tracks on the roads to guide me. It's actually stimulating. I prefer to push at night when no one is out. I get satisfaction from turning a no track snow covered road into a clean road that can be safely driven. Kinda sadistic.....
We added these to our grader that does country roads. Since it’s dark some 16 hours a day here at the height of plowing season they are a worthwhile investment. And they look pretty cool as well.
Do those require a separate ballast, or do they wire direct to 12v? I had looked at some a few years back to put on my Deere 310A backhoe (nothing that fancy), but I quit looking when I saw I had to mount and wire a separate ballast/converter thing first, and then re-wire my lights. I would like to replace my old conventional work lights to some LED and have actual lights at night to work with.
When we ordered this new machine we specified HID lights. I can see my moldboard better at night than daytime. 18 lights total. I have a slight shady area just left of the rear tandems on the left side. Otherwise everything is brilliantly lit. The machine has these on 8 different switch selections. Nighttime I run them all on. The grader also has snow plow light brackets that I put on in Winter, remove in Summer. This elevates the front lights 4 ft. They are seen in the picture I added at the beginning of this thread. Allows me to have excellent lighting over and in front of the snow plow. Without the brackets the front lights are mounted on the sides of the main frame at the front. Here's a windshield pic without the brackets.
I think you are referring to a ballast to create draw? As you would need if you changed your truck taillights/turn signal lights to LED?? The ballast replaces the draw your factory lights created. This prevents the computer from thinking your lights aren't working and throwing a code or blinking crazy fast when turning. Not sure you would need anything like that on your older model hoe.
I like the plow light stanchions on the Cat in that they rotate in the brackets and can be adjusted for height fairly easily.
Here's another night pic that shows the quality of our lights.
It started spitting snow at daylight this morning. Wind has steadily increased. We are at 10F degrees with 20 mph N winds and moderate snowfall. Still forcasting 4-6" by the time it ends around midnight. I'm plugged in. Did not put chains on. Did not hook up to the plow. I'm being an optimist. I'll go to bed mid afternoon. Wake up around midnight and assess the situation. I'm guessing I'll push. Even if to just remove whatever small drifts have formed.
These were pretty much plug and play after we made a harness to connect the new to the existing. No wires were cut and the originals will go back on at the time of sale or trade.
Yep, way better. Don't they also have the ability to fold out the rear lights to create a wider look at night?
My Son (mechanic) says the heated versions do not require any type of ballast. The heaters create the draw the computer is looking for. colson04 wouldn't need the heated version so he might have a ballast issue. But again his hoe may be old enough that it won't care.
One of our 950s came with HID lights, crazy bright in the snow. The new L90G has super bright lights, but I think they are LED, never been close to it. I love the HID lights on my F150. Had to replace a bulb last year. Around 400 bucks from ford. Got it aftermarket for around 200.
So it's up to you to make the call to plow or not? We get too many where did that come from during the night snow falls. One of the supervisors calls us. He gets up at 2 every morning. If it's not snowing, he drives around and decides weather to call the shovelers in to salt walkways. We don't do roads anymore, just parking lots. I think the Dept of highways, and the city have guys that drive around all night to assess road conditions.
Yep. I'm a one man show to cover 50 miles of gravel roads. I'll get up in the middle of the night tonight and drive my roads to make a final determination. I work for a Township Board of 3 people. In 30 years I've never had them call me and tell me to go out. I've had them call and ask if I'm out and I always am. Simply because of the current Board member's geographical location I will have ran their roads before they wake up tomorrow morning. I don't do any town/city work. I push driveways for rural residents that don't have the capability or are elderly (2-4 depending on wind direction). I dodge the occasional mailbox. Because of some recent traffic changes I added some stop signs at crossroads this Summer. So now I have two crossroads where I have to avoid knocking over stop sign poles. I have two intersections where there's an electrical pole close enough to the road edge that I pull the blade in a little when I go around the corner. Otherwise it's wide open running. I push at 14-18 mph. This snow is dry and powdery. The wind will still be blowing lightly when I start. There will be times when my visibility is bad. An adjustment of speed usually overcomes that.
I'll have to spend a bit of time and research my options. She is an old girl with broken lighting as it came. The switch works, just the old lights are shot, housings cracked with age. I'll go digging around the web and see what options exist as I am not familiar at all with current lighting options for retrofit or upgrades. EDIT- I should have looked around more. There are lots of options that are simple plug and play available now. I'm probably going to throw the dice and try this set off Amazon. It's a 10 pack. That has enough to replace the 6 lights currently on the backhoe, and maybe replace a couple on my bobcat as well. 10PCS 42W Led Work Light, Led Light Pods, Flood Round Lights Off-Road Lights Led Lights Fit for Trucks Off-Road Vehicle ATV SUV UTV 4WD Jeep Boat Tractor/Spot https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LGJ2WZ...abc_9GK2YCXHA8JMGYWTTAE4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Yes they come out closer to the width of the tires. The later Volvos had the same feature.
Have been running a high power 4 tier led light bar on the M Series for night plowing that has made a huge difference, I have it on my new 150AWD now, I believe it puts out 165,000 lumens and lights up the whole road ahead ditches and beyond, works well when snowing out also, with all my lights on I am one big glowing ball of light going down the road., I have to turn off the light bar when I meet someone or their face will get sunburnt, glad I have it.
Went to bed yesterday evening at 7:30. Got up at 1 a.m. Got in the grader at 2 a.m. Finished at 9 a.m. No chains, no plow. Had a few places that were drifted to the point vehicles couldn't get thru. But generally was pretty minor. Received 5" of light powder snow. Winds in the 20 mph range. Sorry I didn't get any action photos. Always think I should have afterwards. Here's a couple. First one shows the extent of snowfall. Second I snapped just at sunrise. Good morning sunshine. I always hate that transition. I'm fine with darkness. Actually seems to make time pass faster.
Early morning daylight always seems harder to see in love plowing in the dark too
It's 1:55 here, and I'm just getting ready to head out. Might be 3 inches. I should be home by 1 or 2. Supposed to be mild and rain an Wednesday. My mother was saying how when she was young, her father used to hang beef, pork and chickens in the wood shed, and it would stay frozen. Not now. I picked thee wife up from work at midnight, and it's almost no jacket weather.
I’m enjoying this thread chaps. Keep it coming please.
I only saw one vehicle and it was at 8 a.m. At night they can't sneak up on ya.
Post pics if you get any. We all love pics!!!
This is a "round table" discussion thread. Feel free to post anything you want to share. I used to have a 40 year old picture of a D6 with a V Plow on the front. Plywood heat houser. Reverse the fan. Put on every piece of winter clothing you own..... Those were real men!!!!
Not much snow here either 6-8 inches on the ground luckily the herd stayed parked up when it was -25 last weekend
I do an apartment complex, a lot of seniors. If the lot was empty, I could probably do it in an hour or so, but I have to muck around while everyone gets up, and cleans every flake of snow off their car. One building is on the ball, as soon as I land there, they all come out and move at the same time, clean their cars off in the entry way, and then move back in. This morning, they had cleaned around their cars and shoveled it out into the main lane for me to take away. The other 65 or 70 cars move one at a time in all different areas, so I run around like a whore in a fit. My bucket is just wide enough to get one stall. Then they rush up behind you to park. Almost got a Honda last time too close and didn't see her in the mirrors. The 3 inches today took about 3 hours to do that one spot. I had it too easy for years. Open up businesses down town when there is no traffic, the clean up one of the motels, a few driveways, and then home. So they give me this spot. I thought about changing to one of the shopping malls, but if it storms through the day, you have to be there, and traffic is worse, and people seem dumber. They always want to park where you haven't plowed
We got a new plow,
I'm way too old to do that. I'd be like the lady in the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes". I'd go ballistic....
Aboslutely awesome pic!!!! Can I steal that? Thanks for posting it!!!
LOL, Go right ahead, buddy in our department sent it to me, lol, the good ole day's.
One thing about plowing roads, not as much backing up. There a days when I wouldn't mind jumping back in the old 14E, and getting my fingers snapped. Only time I backed that old girl up was down a one lane road with all the houses on one side
Freezing rain last night. I went out and scraped some ice in the parking lots, but our sand trucks were crazy busy, and there was a line at the scales when I went in this morning. Don't know what they sell their salt sand for, but it's probably not cheap. The city had a new guy on their salt truck, and he was putting a pile of it on. They never use the slinger when putting salt on the road. Government is the same. Only use the slinger for sand. I must ask someone. 20/80, you guys are going to get a blast Friday. We are only getting 15. Think you guys are getting high winds as well.
Yeah, a mess is coming for Friday afternoon and night, mostly mixing with rain along the coast, 25-30cm(1ft) for me and up to 40cm inland, giving hurricane winds for western Cape Breton with this storm, 80-90 kmh for my area, its going to be a dirty night for sure, my 150awd is ready.
The Washington Cascades got hammered today, all passes are closed until tomorrow due to avalanche danger and blowing snow. I-84 down the Columbia got closed with a slide. The next open route to the south is Santiam Pass in Oregon.
The west coast seems to be getting hammered. I see Vancouver getting a foot of snow, and I don't think most of them have snow shovels. We only have enough to cover the grass here, and it hasn't been cold enough to freeze the river. The smelt fishermen set their nets on the ice, and it needs to be thick. Not so much for safety, but thin ice might run overnight, and take $25,000 worth of nets with it.
Good luck to you guys thru this next storm. Post the results. With pics of course!!! We're still cold here today, expected high of 17F. Then we headed for a warm up to 40F daily for the next ten days with little/no moisture forcast. Be safe out there guys!!!
Got a light snow wedsday 4.5 inches with the wind it turned into 2 days plowing couple pics getting warmed up this morning it was -8 f at 1am when I started them -27 suns out and luckily all no snow
The snow has started here. We're on the line according to the map, between 15 to 20, or 25 to 30. It's a Noreaster, so it will be windy. I'll go out around 2 in the morning. Of course knowing I have to go, I won't be able to sleep.
Snowing heavy here, not sure if I will be tonight or not, The back roads are crazy soft.
We are nearing the end of real deep freeze here. The city put off snow clearing until it warms up next week. They said the cold was too hard on equipment and operators. Daytime temps close to -30C and mid -40's with the windchill. Could get above freezing next week. Crazy weather. Will be nice to get out of the deep freeze.
That should be nice. How long have the roads been covered. You guys don't use salt out there either. Easier on your cars. Quebec won't let the pipeline through, but someone has a pipeline for old cars and square body chev trucks flowing east. None left here, too much salt
I'm very Blessed in the sleep department. To quote a military term, I can "sleep on demand". Here it is, 10 a.m., I could go in the house, get in bed, and go to sleep, after sleeping all night. Comes in very handy. I'm also pretty good at setting an internal alarm and getting up when I need to. No clocks in the bedroom at all. Definitely no alarm clocks. This last push I wanted to get up at midnight, didn't wake up until 12:45. I was very disappointed. But I didn't get to bed until 7:30 that evening.
Sorry to hear of your soft roads. That really sucks.....
Yeah, it was bad, now things have frozen solid again the forecast is calling for a quick warm up with a tiny bit of rain and then a flash freeze, every back road will be a skating rink.
Oh man, you keep describing my worst nightmares for my roads. I don't have enough gravel base to stand that. I'd make 6" deep grader ruts in some places.....
Our next round is coming tomorrow and Saturday morning. Weather predictions are all over the place. I'm gonna guess 5". Biggest down side is we will get freezing rain for a couple hours first. Second biggest down side is the snow's coming Friday night. So I won't be able to start until early Saturday morning. I hate pushing on Saturday. Everybody wants to cruise the country roads and look at the beautiful snow!!!!
We have another mess coming Fri into Saturday, rain, freezing rain, ice pellets, snow, and a flash freeze, high winds, been ice blading last few days, lots of ice on the back roads forming with these crazy temp swings.
I'm pretty lucky. My last snow all melted off my roads. It's dry enough that they didn't get deep muddy, just sloppy. But,,,,,, now they are saying rain starting mid day and raining until midnight, then changing to snow. Supposed to be over by 4 a.m. tomorrow. Supposed to get 5-8". I think they have been smelling glue. We don't get 5-8" of snow in 4 hours here in Missouri. So,,,, I'll go plug in the Grader this afternoon. Go to bed early this evening. Get up 3-4 a.m. and go from there.... I'm hoping for a miss. Supposed to freeze up and stay that way at least for the next ten days. My roads will appreciate that.
Went out yesterday morning, but it was just enough to have to plow. Snowing on and off all day. Calling for some tonight and in the morning. Probably be hauling some snow next week. A few of my spots are getting plugged. I plowed the snow dump off last week and realized we have not hauled yet this winter. Some winters it gets so full that we have to haul farther. I see parts of Cape Breton is supposed to get hit hard with this system.
This system coming in is to tricky to predict for the Eastern shore and CB, I haven't seen anyone yet predict the weather for a Nor' Easter, there either 6 hours early or 6 ours late, you may get snow, or you may get rain to freezing rain, or the system just up and moves away, its crazy weather and temp swings this year.
Pushing back some pretty heavy banks. Any more amount of snow and they will have to get a dozer in there
You guys run blue lights on your equipment, I think Ontario does to. We use amber I had a buddy that lived in Ontario for years. He had a 3/4ton with a plow. When he moved home, he was stopped by the Popo, said he couldn't run the blue.
Yes plows here can run the blue lights. I think it’s more effective that just amber alone.
Amber just makes them drive faster to get by. A good set of brights will slow them down at night. Our new L90 lights up the sky like a ufo. He says it's great when you are in the seat, but the cars don't like it.
That's how my lights are. I really like them. Expensive, but worth it.
I started at 6 a.m. Got done at 5 p.m. We had 1/2" of rain, then 4-5" of snow and 30 mph wind. Low 20Fs all day. Had some roads drifted shut. Really sucked pushing on mud. My moldboard was coated with frozen slush/mud within the first few miles. Makes the deep stuff hard to push and hard to move. Hope everybody had a safe day!!!
The warm stuff is never any fun
Ours was just a dusting with high winds. Enough to clean up, but just enough. Minus 30 Canadian right now, but I think Tuesday is showing Plus 7. It's a wonder the roads go to hell.
Yes sir, the crazy temp swings, -19c here this morning and +5 and rain Monday night into Tuesday then flash freeze to -14c Tuesday night, our back roads are being tore to pieces, what a mess it will be come spring, this is by far the worst year I have seen it for crazy weather here in the winter season in NS.
We are 10F this morning with an afternoon high of 30F. Low tonight of 28F. High tomorrow of 37F. High Wednesday 41F. Yep, that'll destroy a gravel road.....
Great pics DB2!!!!
Picture someone posted from PEI
Wicked the drifts on PEI, they have alot of big loaders with Vplows and wing to bust through the drifts they have there, I was born and raised there.
Sound like an old guy here..... Back a decade ago or longer I've V Plowed areas where I had the snow piled so high on each side I couldn't see over it sitting in the grader seat. But I can't make it that pretty. No Blower.
My V plow has trees growing up through the frame
Been three years since I've used ours. Haven't had it on this AWD machine at all. Hoping I don't have to use it this year either!!!
Went to bed with snow, woke up to rain. Now it's getting colder. Cold all week, and above freezing next week
I got a question for you experienced guys. I have only run my Champion 710A a few times now and really like it. I went out this morning to scape the roads on the farm and I noticed my front tires loose traction making it difficult to turn, kind of hops. Do I need more weight on the front? I know it's not a big heavy 6 wheel drive like a lot of you are using so maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part. Thanks
Are you plowing when this happens, are you using a plow on the front or just using the blade, are your rears locked up when this happens?
I was just using the blade scrapping a couple inches of snow with no plow on the front, I don't think you can lock up the rear's on this unit but I maybe wrong. The conditions are icy.
I parked the grader outside yesterday in 46F temps to thaw the moldboard. Fortunately it worked. This morning it was 17F. 10F for a high tomorrow. Then back around 30F for a few days before the next big freeze hits. Wind is howling out of the North today. Huge swings......
I can't confirm the ability to lock the rears. If so, unlock them to get better steering response. You may find that you need chains on the front also. Do you have a set of chains for the rears?
Older Champions were locked full time. When plowing use your blade to help turn. When just positioning I found going in reverse helps as you pull the front wheels instead of pushing them.
We got hammered again.
Thanks guys. DB2 WOW! Now that's a lot of snow! I'll quit wining now. Do you have to take a run at it then back up and go again?
DB2 , great pic!!!! James , I'm guessing that's what he's about to do in the pic??
You mean it slides, or it's 6 wheel drive and spins? I can't speak to the issue if it's 6 wheel drive. I ran one once, and never used the front wheel power, or an old Austen Weston years ago. Like someone else said, use your blade to help turn. When I do plow with the grader, I use my wing once the snow banks get hard. If I start to turn a bit early, the snow bank will swing you around the corner like a rudder. Mind you it only works going right. Without a wing, put a bit more pressure down on the heel of the blade, and it will slip you around as well. The old 14E I ran years ago had a front plow like DB2. It was a 16 footer, and sometimes I would start to lift it just to take a bit more weight on the front. Leaning the wheels as you start the turn helps sometimes to as it kinda slings you that direction.
Thanks cutting edge. I only have my back tandems driving me. I'll keep practicing with your techniques in mind. I do use the wheel lean which helps.
This technique stirs debate every time. But here goes. If your tires are worn relatively flat, with a sort of sharp edge where the tread ends, lean them the opposite direction, away from the turn. For example if I want to turn right, lean the tires to the left. That puts the sharp tread edge firmly planted on the ground. That edge will dig into the ground and slow slide. I know, I know..... Sounds stupid..... Try it. If your tires are worn round, forget the above.
The tires are not the best but still have some edge.
I've heard that before, but never tried it. Don't know if they will ever do any plowing with our grader again. I would way sooner be doing roads than parking lots.
That's a pretty good looking old grader. The DOT in the province ran 720 Champions for years. They were so under powered. They went to Volvo, and now Deere has the contract.
went out this morning and scraped some ice, bucketed some snow around, pushed some banks back ( some of these new guys have to learn if they don't shove them back at the start, they will run out of room real fast ) and cleaned of the snow dump at one of the malls. Snowing again, and there is already enough to have to go out in the morning and do my route. Another one of these just enough to plow storms. My route has become time dependent. I do a bank downtown. Nowhere to put the snow. A deal was made, the bank staff parking lot is surrounded by buildings, and connects onto the city hall staff parking lot. I shove the snow from the bank across the city lot anyway, so I plow their lot as well, and push the material out on the street. In exchange for cleaning the city lot which we don't get paid for, the city loader shoves the snow I pile on the street away. Cheaper than having to haul every storm. Problem is, I have to get it out on the street by 4am. This time works well, I don't mind the early mornings, They added a motel to my route that I can't clean up until after 11. Works out well for a big storm, but a small one like tonight, I will have everything done by 8, and then it's a waiting game till 11. They took a big appt complex last winter, and I can kinda run back and forth as it's next to the motel, but it's still a pain.
Oh yeah, you have plenty of edge.
I don't have the patience to do your job..... How old are you? I'm 70.
Oh man, that stressed me just reading it.... I would suck at your job. Kudos to you. They are lucky to have you!!!!
I'm just a pup. I turned 50 today. Been at this for 30 years. Hoping I don't have to keep working full time, or at least plowing snow till I'm 70, but I might get bored sitting home.
Happy Birthday!!!!! I started running a grader in 1987. It's a hobby job for me. I've been retired for 10 years but still enjoy running the grader. Put 400-500 hrs a year on it. It's my Beer Money or Rockcrawler project money. If I had to run an old worn out machine, or if I had to plow in residential/commercial areas I would give it up. I enjoy being out there by myself in the middle of the night, all lit up, wearing a T-Shirt, listening to XM Radio and cleaning rural roads.
The Boys found some ice.
oh that sucks cant hit like on that one
That looks like a wrecker call. Other than that, how's she goin?
Oh wow!!!! That's a serious Wrecker Call. Will be hard to get either of them out without causing damage to the machines.
Yep, a 2 wrecker call, was a bad day for slippery roads, nobody hurt other than their pride, the windrow of ice is when I made a pass with my 150AWD with my chains on of course so the wreckers could get to them.
The grader was all right but the sand truck will need some attention, our department FROWNS on this, LOL
Tell a funny story on myself. Sorry no pics. I'm accustomed to running chains. Having AWD negates the use of chains most times. But old habits die hard. I came off a gravel road onto a State paved hiway at a T. Had my blade full so turned to the right and then started unloading my blade into the hiway ditch. By the time I stopped I had my right tires off the pavement and on the edge of a narrow V road ditch about 3ft deep. I clicked it into reverse and gave it throttle as I would with chains on. Too fast for bare tires. I spun 1/3 of a tire rotation and felt the grader sliding into the ditch. Slammed the clutch/brakes and assessed my situation. With chains I could have rear steered myself back onto the slick pavement. No chance with bare tires. Now what..... Before I tried anything I called the local heavy wrecker guy. He was about 10 miles away and could come my direction in 10-15 minutes. Okay. Hung up the phone, knowing he was on his way, might as well try to get out. Mud underneath snow. Every little wiggle put me farther into the ditch. Even with the blade rammed into the ditch bank. Within 30 seconds I'm basically laying on my side at a 45 degree angle in the ditch. Shifted the table and moldboard. Rammed the end of the blade into the ditch bank. Lifted the front tires of the grader off the ground. Shifted the table and moldboard to the right while rear steering. Literally set the right front tire back up onto the pavement. Still leaning at 45 degrees to the right with the right side tandem buried in the ditch bottom. Again shifted the table completely to the right. Rammed the end of the moldboard into the ditch bank. As I let the clutch out in forward second gear I "rowed" the moldboard by rotating right. The end of the moldboard was able to push me forward just enough to help the spinning tires and I popped back up onto the hiway. Looked in my mirrors and noticed a State Hiway Dept truck sitting in the roadway back aways behind me with all his lights flashing. I got out of his way and as he went by he was laughing and giving me the thumbs up. Called my wrecker buddy and cancelled.
Keeping fairly busy ice blading, this is not my area for ice blading but was pulled off another road to ice blade this road for the Wreckers, this road is along side a river that was backed up by ice, by the time the wreckers got there the sand truck was almost submerged and the water was up to the exhaust on the grader.
How did they both end up in the ditch right on top of each other? Were they chained together, or working right next to each other when this happened? Or did the grader try to pull the sander truck out and get sucked in? I've left the roadway more than my share of times in the winter when I was younger and thought I knew it all. Always ended with broken body panels and a bruised pride.
The grader slipped in first, it was just one of those roads that had gravel up through the ice with lots of traction kinda tricking you into thinking you really don't need chains till they got to the top of a hill near the end of the road next to the river, it was to late then, it was wall to wall ice all the way down around the turn at the bottom of the hill, the guy on the grader tried stopping using the blade but only spun him around and he landed ass backwards over the bank, the sand truck tried to sand the hill but where the blade of the grader stuck out over the road he couldn't make the turn and get around the plow blade and slid off the road, the sand truck bumped the grader and came to a stop if not he would have rolled over into the water and maybe not have got out, a big wake up call about when to use your chains even if there is some traction on ice covered roads for sure, use your chains even if there a pain to get on, this could have ended real bad.
Glad to hear everyone made it out ok. The picture doesn't really show the water backing up into the machines, but I certainly understand the dangers on cold water in the winter. Thank you for explaining how that situation happened.
The river was backed up with ice after a heavy rain, a couple of hours after that picture the river came up quickly and flooded to the top of the road.
Calling for a big dump Saturday and Sunday. I was out tucking banks back just in case. Hauled some snow for a couple of nights. As I was the odd driver out, the other 3 guys took their own trucks, so I took the new automatic. I could really get used to that. Be great hauling away from an asphalt milling machine, no sore leg from the clutch. Be real good for hauling away from the snowblower to.
Yeah, we are getting snow then changing to rain than flash freeze, another big mess, would love if it would just stay as snow.
Yesterday our weather said 5-8" next Wednesday. Today they say 1-3" next Wednesday. By that time we'll probably be down to a dusting. As long as these storms keep pounding the East Coast we get by easy.
-2° F here at 0530 this morning. Next Tuesday is pegged at 40°F and rain. Next Thursday calls for -1°F and snow. Mother nature just needs to make up her mind and do one thing. Preferably 70 and sunshine.
We're in the 40 to 50cm (15 to 20 inches ) band. High winds all night. Long range is calling for rain next week. Wind chill has been -36c (-32.8F). It's cold, but not Winterpeg cold.
Good reading boys
This morning they are saying less than an inch Wednesday. 50F Monday. 17F Wednesday. 30F Thursday. No moisture for the next ten days. I may try to do some maintenance grading this week. Pull loose gravel from the shoulders back into the traffic area. I like to do that early morning when it's froze so I don't get any dirt. Then thawing temps during the day lets traffic stick it down. We'll see.....
This is the biggest storm this year, but we didn't get the amount they were calling for. We still got a foot with a lot of drifting. I put in 12 hours, and will go out tonight for a it of cleanup. Started snowing hard again when I was half way through my route, so there will be a bit to do. Couple years ago, we seemed to get storms like this back to back for a couple months. Didn't think it would ever end. Some of the contracts went over the limit, and got plowed a few times for free.
Man its crazy the amount of ice on our back roads that these crazy weather systems is producing, buddy on the other M told me he had to fully chain up to travel the pavement to get to his roads, the pave road had 2" of ice on it shoulder to shoulder, forecasting another weather bomb for this coming weekend for here, hopefully it will be snow.
We got about a foot of snow here. I guess Moncton got a lot more.. The snowmobilers will be happy. I went in around 3 this morning to do a bit of clean up. All 3 trail groomers were gone from our shop yard.
11 0r 12 years ago we had a Winter of repeats. In our case it was wind driven. Cold weather that kept the snow fluffy. V Plow the drifts. Wing it all back. Next day we'd get an inch of dry snow and high winds. Blow everything full. Repeat. I pushed snow 5 times in December that Winter. Didn't get any relief until February. I was mentally exhausted. Working a full time job. Pushing snow at night. Took many 15 minute power naps in the grader.
More snow for the weekend. Rain Thursday, that will be a nice mess. Went out this morning to push up snow the trucks were dumping from one of the malls. Got a chance to try the new ( well 2 or 3 years old now ) 950. It has lots of power, but I know I could work circles around it with my old L70F. The controls are heavy, and the hydraulics are slow. Now it is a GC model, and I am told that the more expensive M series is a different machine, but this one doesn't impress me.
I was out last night scraping the ice off the back roads, my 150AWD sure likes the fuel, 350L in 6.5 Hours of pushing her hard, and 15L of DEF.
I was curious about the fuel consumption of the 150. They added some HP and Torque over the 140. Most, if not all of that is done by adding fuel.
Township next to me got a new 150 AWD. I'll try to get some pics in the next few days. I took a quick walk around this evening with it in a dark shed. Has Bridgestone V-Steel 17.5 tires. At a glance I don't like them. Very directional. I'll report the operator's opinion next Summer. I got a new machine mid Winter once. I didn't like that. No time to be getting used to a new machine when pushing snow. But I'm glad for them. Their 140 was ten years old and only rear wheel drive. This is a whole new world for them, as it was for me. I'll be surprised if we get more than an inch of snow. Temps falling quickly. Supposed to be mid teens F for the next couple days then warm back up. If I start grading my roads this weekend I'll start a new thread. Hoping you guys get some good weather. Stay safe!!!
Yes they have a bit more power, when I engage my front drives I was told by Cat another 35-45 hp out of the engine, you can hear the engine and turbo spool up when you engage the front wheels, more like a stage 1 tune being turned on to up the HP.
We dodged a bullet with this latest storm. Only got an inch of dry snow. 11F degrees with 20mph N wind this morning. Supposed to stay that way thru Thursday night. Then next week we start a big thaw. Should have very little frost in the ground by the 7th or 8th of Feb. I'll start doing maintenance grading this weekend.
looks like a freezing rain storm with ice pellets for us, better fuel the generator, this storm will re-glaze the back roads, crazy temps swing, -19c this morning by 12pm noon +5c, what a unbelievable winter so far in this area.
Same here. At least half a dozen times we've had 40+ degrees temp high swings in 24 hours.
Well, we got what was forecast, and its continuing to come down. The rain melted off any snow that we had yesterday, and thawed the top couple inches of my driveway. By noon today, I had 6" of heavy, wet snow to plow and it was still coming down hard. I plowed as much gravel as I did snow as the base isn't froze anymore and peeled right up with the snow. I got it roughly cleared, and I'm hoping the colder temps will help the gravel to freeze again. I really despise plowing snow off of a thawed driveway. Makes for a lot of work in the spring fixing the gravel.
If my driveway wasn't frozen I packed the snow down and drove on it. Much easier than raking rocks out of the yard in the spring.
I spent 2.5 hrs this morning running around dressing up the few small drifts that I had. Probly drove somewhere around 30 miles. Have everything knocked back far enough that when the big thaw comes next week I shouldn't have much water running down the roads.
Been bust since the 4th. Mother nature has made up for the lack of snow. Anything we have hauled away is back, and more so. Sunday was a clean up morning, but she was a beauty. Yesterday was chilly, but a great day as well. Snowing hard right now, so I'll be out tonight. I believe this is a rain event for you 20/80, should make a nice mess. It's going to be heavy to push. Wonder what the manager of a Walmart in an area that gets no snow would think of the extra $75,000 a year one pays here for snow removal and sanding?
The Manager ain't gonna like it if their pay is profit margin based!!!!!
Our snow only remains where the drifts were deep. 55F this afternoon. Supposed to be mid 40s to 50 for the next 10 days. Hoping our extreme cold temps are over for this Winter. If we get a big snow it won't last long.
We are supposed to get some above freezing temps this week and next. It's fairly mild now. Going to be heavy snow. The city subs out the plowing for out lying areas. The contractor that does my subdivision has a couple Case 621gs with power angle box blades. The ones that can change the angle of the side plates. The young fella that runs one of them will close the side when he goes by a driveway to keep from filling it in. The other guy just lets it go. I try to be good to people. When I plowed roads, if it was a street with homes on one side, I would take all the snow to the opposite side of the road. If I do a lot that is beside a driveway, I'll take the heavy bank away for them. Probably should try to lay down and get a bit of sleep before 2
heavy rain and hurricane winds, most back roads north are all ice but some are baring off to the south, no power now for 12 hrs, freezing rain storm last Saturday really iced everything over, snow in the forecast, been busy scraping ice off the back roads, little break today, I will be back at it tonight, My new 150 awd really drinks the fuel iceblading, what a crazy winter.
3 of us hauled 216 loads of snow in one of the mall parking lots today. That's from the last 2 storms as it was cleaned up before that. Not sure how they price that. It's part of the contract, but they keep track of it hourly. It was a little more than 6 hours, the snow dump is on the mall property. When we haul to our own dump for other customers, it's around 30 bucks a load. Almost $6500 for 5 men, 3 trucks, an L150, and an L180 for 6ish hours
You wouldn't make much money trucking snow here.
Well the ice we scraped off the back roads have now turned to soft mud with this mild spell we are having, log trucks are tearing them to pieces, we are trying to get them closed, to make matters worst its going to snow 6" on top of it before it freezes, holy crap!!! what a winter.
It wears me out just reading about it. You guys have had one hell of a Winter!!!! We got a trace of rain last night. Cold front moving in this afternoon. Then back above freezing by Monday. Forecasted to get rain and 1-3" of snow next Thursday. I'll be shocked if we get more than an inch. We're on the verge of a drought. Good thing is when my roads thaw, they stay solid. You guys hang in there....
It was 54 degrees here today. Saw a lot of people out in t shirts. Loads of water and ice around. Went in to haul a few tandem loads of salt sand for smaller customers, ended up staying for the day to load people coming in for sand. Warm again Saturday, but the mercury drops again Sunday. Loaded a load of blending sand for brick layers. Tarped it and put it in the shop for the weekend. Going to be cold for delivery on Monday. Hopefully between the heated box and the tarp, it won't freeze to the sides on the 2 hour drive.
Going out to fix a washout today, with all this rain our river backed up with ice and overflowed out into the fields and washed the shoulder out on one of our paved roads, looking at 15+ loads of gravel to fill the hole in along side the pavement, trying to fix before snow coming Sunday night, couple of hours and I should have it straightened out, trucks have a short haul. I will try to get some pics for ya to have a look.
County roads here are mud mires, our own drive is like walking on sponge where just my weight I leave tracks in a gravel road. Frost is all but out, ground full of moisture, a healthy rain and washouts would be everywhere. Cannot even run loads of rock to clients as their own roads will not support the trucks.
Yeah, it's raining here. One of my co workers fishes smelts. Says the river ice in the bay is around 16 inches, but lots of slush on top, making it harder to work. The asphalt roads are taking a beating, I can see spring road closures coming early
We sometimes find ourselves in that position here. Usually in the Spring. Need spot rock real bad. But do more damage getting it there than it's worth...... Sucks.....
Here's a few pics from this morning, pushed a bunch of ice off the road a few day's ago come back to touch up the road, you can see it to the sides, took 8 loads to fix this wash out, I recovered alot of the gravel off to the side which cut back on the load estimate, lol, I was on my way back to the shop when I realized I didn't take a finished picture, getting old.
That's pretty bad. That asphalt doesn't look that old either. Does your department save asphalt millings for that stuff? Here, anything we don't use for shouldering, goes to the nearest DOT garage. They take the coarse screenings as well.
Yep new pavement last fall, we save the old ground up pavement to, not so much anymore though, they tried a bunch of different things with the stuff, but its really no good for anything, shouldering with it seems to either settle back to pavement or stays to loose and gets scraped off with the wing in the winter, new style shuttle buggies used for paving have been re taring and re -applying the stuff to make a smooth surface for new pavement.
Yeah they do the train thing here too. Mostly Miller group, or Northern. I would imagine Dexter has one as well. They lay down cement powder, and I assume half inch stone ahead of the milling machine, goes into a mobile screener, into a shuttle buggy, to be remixed with fresh liquid, and then into a spreader. They have done a few jobs for us, and then we pave over top. They seem to have a hard time keeping it smooth. We had to do a lot of padding this summer to try and remove the bumps they left before we paved.
They did a road here using the cement powder, is suppose to keep the road in good shape longer using less lifts of pavement, but they didn't factor in frost heaves with mild to extreme cold temp swings, the road here showed signs of failure after the first year, the only difference I have seen is it costs more now to do a road using this cement powder, just snake oil, the old timers new how to Build pave roads that lasted, took a bit longer to do but you had a long lasting pave road when they were done, they never butted a hot seam to a cold seem when paving, the old timers always put two hot seams together and then the seem raked over, hot against cold seams are common practice here now and first place it shows cracks in a year or two, I have never seen Dexter's come back and fix cracks that came in the roads in a year or two after paving under the 5 year road warranty guarantee they are suppose to honor.
All that stuff that is good for the environment, is no good. They don't want to use fuel anymore to keep asphalt from sticking, and that stupid soap is garbage. Pressure treated lumber is no good anymore. I hate that warm mix asphalt. Nothing lasts anymore, even graders.
This statement is so true, but by god we are paying for it though, we all will be running electric graders soon with the price of fuel now, electric utilities will burn ten times the amount of coal to keep up with the power demand from using these new electric vehicles, that's real enviro friendly, lol
Truth. Profit drives everything including quality. Our large corporations are doing this to us. I don't see a fix for this problem either. The current shortages, blamed on China, are the fault of our own corporations that increased their profit margin by buying cheaper components from abroad. Then quality issues appear. The corporations blame it on the foreign manufacturer. That manufacturer built the product to the specifications they were given by the corporation that again, was trying to increase profit margin, at our expense.....
And that's the thing. You are free to make money as a company, but it seems the rich want to get richer, so cut corners, get cheap workers over seas. WE might complain about it, but in the end we buy it because we need it, or it's more affordable. If one of us were to come up with something good and affordable, the big guys would offer us so much money, you couldn't refuse it. It's difficult for the everyday working man to buy local. I support the local corner store when I can, but would go broke trying to buy everything there. If he were to lower prices to compete, he would be out of business. Might have to extend the garden this summer for more preserving
It all has me a bit worried. Then I think, oh I'm just old and out of touch, it can't be that bad. Then I think, yeah, it's that bad.
This is so true, all products have to meet a standard, but our industry standard is at 4 out of 10 and companies just barley meets that 4 for quality, it would cost us a fortune for China to build high quality products and ship them to us, big box stores and manufactures get products for pennies but us as consumers we are hypnotized into thinking the price they charge is that they are barely making a profit, you would be mad if you actually knew what manufactures pay for their products overseas and sell them to us, sad.
Snow fall warning for here tonight and into tomorrow, a round a foot expected with some strong winds, back roads are soft as heck, then rain later in the week will take it away, then flash freeze to follow.
March has yet to swing its Ugly Head around as to Bad Weather.
Pfizer had a record high profit of $35 Billion in 2021....
Again. How many times have you went thru this?? My roads would be 4x4 only. Woke up in the night thinking about getting our annual gravel supply in a month. We get 65 tons per mile. That's 1 ton every 83 feet. Let that soak in....
3/4 of a yard per 83 ft of roadway? Does that even get you an 1/8" of coverage?
No. You can actually put your hand on roadbed that didn't get anything.
We put 1 ton per 3 ft or 1 meter on a regular 30ft wide road, a ton every 83 ft is not very much, I guess something is better then nothing, your trucks must have their spreader chains tight to the box to give you that amount feet per ton.
A good truck driver that can tail spread is worth a lot. Truck driver on our crew for doing driveways in the summer. He moves the grader and roller, hauls the junk away, and hauls the gravel in, and helps with the hand work. He understands grade, and can spread it as thick or thin as you like.
A truck/pup combination hauls 27 Ton. Two of them almost go a mile. It's minimal at best. We couldn't survive with the extreme temp swings and moisture you deal with.
Every dump truck owner/driver that survives knows how to spread rock. If he doesn't, he doesn't survive. We even expect professional spreading in our circle drives, etc. Better know how to duck power lines and tree limbs as well. Stop/start at the edge of bridges and edge of pavement.
Really despise spreading Screenings or heavy screening rock loads, bridge pack against gate where almost need a bed shaker to get it to cut loose. Spreads then stops, then drops clumps then spreads more, nerve wracking. Straight 3/4, inch or two inch or clean stone of any size can spread like a carpet. Ditch spread 3 to 4" clean for a client, had chains at 20 links for that to work, third gear on a 8LL about half throttle. Last 2" minus we spread we were only achieving a eighth mile to 21t, 3-4" depth in Second Gear just about 800-1000rpm, client was ENORMOUSLY pleased built a nice base. Packed and rained on settled to roughly 2 1/2" depth.
This year my rock is coming from a different quarry. The pile is last year's rock. It will have a lot of moisture in it. If the loader operator doesn't stir it a little they'll have clumping problems. The last couple years I've gotten fresh rock from the crusher. It spreads very well. I've also got a new crew hauling this year. Never know what to expect. I go to the quarry the first morning and have a discussion about my roads. Hand out my Cell #. Talk to them about bridges they can't cross loaded. Talk about dead end roads that they can't turn a pup around on. Then each evening I'll drive the roads they've worked. If I see no problems I leave them alone. I sign all the tickets when they are done. If I see problems I stop them and we have another discussion. I understand they are trying to make a living. I don't want them to sit onsite and wait for me to show up to sign tickets. Just do the job with quality in mind and we get along fine.
I hate fresh from the crusher. Dry yes, but too dry, might as well be clear stone. We scalp off a 1 inch minus after the jaw, everything else goes on to the cone to be asphalt aggerate. The inch minus grades like a dream, and packs like concrete. If it's too wet, it does stick in the tail gate. The so called in spec inch and a quarter minus for road building is too clean. If you can't put it to grade in a pass or 2, it loses all the fines, and gets real rocky. Then they don't like wetting it down too much because it takes it out of spec
I like the first cut from the face the rock seems softer settles and packs the best, the further they cut into the face the harder the rock it seems, doesn't settle stays to alive on the road only 50% packs, bank gravel is the best I find for back roads, you half to remember that most roads are just mud roads with gravel on top, seen what a gravel road is suppose to look like when I took a trip to Labrador.
And that is my roads. Dirt roads with gravel sprinkled on top. I want all the larger stone I can get. Fines disappear to quick. The County specs the rock and takes the bids. 1 1/4 square opening - 100% 3/8 square opening - no more than 50% #10 square opening - 5%
If I am building a new roadbed I start with clean 2". Once I have it embedded by traffic I then add a layer of 1 1/4 down.
Here typically the counties use 2" clean and once laid overlay with 2"minus(Screenings), about two weeks of weather and traffic cover that with inch minus.
Well, looks like the latest "Winter Storm" is going to miss us completely. Was supposed to get rain last night, got none. Supposed to get 1-3" of snow this morning and end in two hours. Not saw a flake yet. Had a high temp of 62F yesterday. It's 19F this morning at 9 a.m.
Did NOT miss Us here, rains last night somewhere around a inch, stopped about a hour this morning so went to work. Boss showed up just as the next round began and said Day was already over as Ice coming. Came home, took load of Scrap down 20 some miles to scrapyard all was just rain, fought Ice storm on way back and had 3/4" of sleet on drive as got back in less than a hour. Supposed to be close to 6F by morning tomorrow so no work again.
I thought it looked like you were gonna get hit. Several storms this Winter have missed us and hit your area. It this keeps up we will have a dry Summer. Very little sub soil moisture now.
Our soil moisture is such cannot get off tge squishy rock roads or drives for fear of immediate burial! Ground is so soft as to be a sponge, just walking across leave boot prints under the grass.
We are just the opposite. I can get in almost any ditch with the grader. Isn't that weird? I'm guessing you are 240 miles SE of me? I'm at Ridgeway.
So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday was down around minus 36 Canadian, or minus 32.8 American with the wind. Over the evening Wednesday, it went up to 5 or 41. Yesterday it rained, and this morning started freezing rain, now it is snowing, and the temperature is dropping again.
The "like" button on this site needs choices. For this one I would have chosen
Yep, same as here, cold snow, then warm and rinse then cold again, the Temp dropped 10 degree's here in 40 mins, my back roads are heaving like crazy, with just about 2.5" of rain in 7 hours and high winds The St Mary's river has spilled over onto the roads again, washing the shoulders out and leaving icebergs on the middle of the roadway, power outages everywhere, what a crazy winter, be glad when things settle down.
I have a cousin In Nova Scotia, and she just got power back.
Once again, we've missed all moisture. My roads are dusty. High today just under freezing. Tomorrow's high will be mid 50Fs. I'll go out early tomorrow morning and lightly blade the 8 miles of roads I haven't hit yet. I feel bad for you guys. As I've said many times, what you two describe would completely destroy my roads. Would be in such bad shape we wouldn't even be able to get rock trucks on them.
There's a lot of sandstone around here. There are some clay areas. I live along a river system, so lots of sand and gravel as well. As you head toward the center of the province, you get into solid rock. Great for quarries. Some peatmoss areas, but that's a whole art for building roads on that stuff.
Nothing but Rock, ledge and shake bog around a lot of my roads, I have pulled rocks the size of washing machines out of my roads to get clear of them, just trying to find the material to fill the hole back in can be a bit challenging though, any roads along the coast is nothing but boulders here it seems, my roads to the north and away from the ocean are much easier to find material and ditch.
It's 52F with 20-30mph S wind this morning at 0930. Expected high of 60F. We'll exceed that. Same for tomorrow. We'll have no frost left by tomorrow evening this "hot" dry wind will suck it right out. I was going to finish up some roads this morning but talked myself out of it. Weather forecast has removed the chance of rain/snow for the next week at least. It's so dry here that when I look out at my road I see dust blowing as if someone is coming down the road.......
At my sister's house job, it froze and snowed, then they rolled on the floor trusses and sheeting, trapping the snow and frost under an unheated lid. Those plumbers and HVAC guys first had to bust through snow, and now mud to to the work. How about that for fun?
That would suck bad!!!!
It is a tall crawler so that is good. It was beautifully graded by the dirt guys. Now it is a muddy mess and they drug in all this cardboard and plywood scrap to crawl on, which will have to be cleaned up.
Little mess last night, went out a 3 am and did a bit of cleanup. Lots of ice around, and overflowing ditches. The road to our asphalt plant was messy. Going to be dandy when it turns cold tonight. Paved roads are heaving like crazy, I can see an early road closure for sure.
Pushed off some ice burgs from a road today, filled in some washouts also, still lots to do yet but the Department won't call us in till Tuesday, they would have to pay us double time for the Holiday on Monday, it could snow two feet and they would not call us out on Monday, lol
You guys get any word on spring weight restrictions yet? Southern NB, and NS is normally a week ahead of us. https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/departments/dti/trucking/content/spring_weight_restrictions.html
You guys get any word on spring weight restrictions yet? Southern NB, and NS is normally a week ahead of us. https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/departments/dti/trucking/content/spring_weight_restrictions.html
We have some on now on the back roads, but these crazy temp swings this year will play a part with putting them up early, Feb 27th for the whole province I believe.
Yeah, back in my truckin days, Nova Scotia, and Southern NB closed , and reopened a week before northern NB. I never really pay much attention to the date anymore, I'll see the 80% sign one of these days on the post an my way to town.
I drove some of my roads this evening. They are in really good shape. We'll get a light freeze tonight. I'll go out early tomorrow morning and touch up the few miles that I haven't hit yet. I staked a roadkill Deer in my field a couple days ago. Usually the Bald Eagles immediately show up. My game camera only captured two. I watched them. They were more interested in mating than eating. This afternoon I sat on the porch for an hour and watched Snow Geese migrating. I'm in their path between two sanctuaries that they use. Spring is coming guys. Stay strong.
Fun times here, 69 degrees today, most if not all the Sleet Ice is gone now, HOWEVER Round Two is staring at us, Rains, HEAVY rains tomorrow Morning, likely Thunderstorms then move into Tuesday night temp plummets and Ice begins AGAIN along with more Sleet Freezing Rain, Snow thru Thursday night, Friday gonna just be frozen, AGAIN.
Once again, we missed it. Big temp change. 26F this morning. Just before daylight we got a few minutes of freezing rain. Just enough to lightly glaze the sidewalk. Damp, dreary, windy. Moisture is over.
Our temp has dropped to 20F at 1000. Light spitting of snow with no accumulation expected. Blustery NW wind. I've got an old Windmill in the field South of my shop. I converted it to a wind vane. It's whipping around a lot....
Nice, we used to have a old windmill to charge the batteries for the lights in our barns, 6volt back then, it worked and lighted the barns very well at the time, was a big step ahead in technology in those days.
So typical for this year. Our temps plummeted over the past 3 days. Yesterday we had a 20% chance of snow flurries. Ended up with an inch. Go figure. That's what we've been getting when they predict 3-5 inches.
Were expecting 4-6" of snow this evening, its going to be fluffy stuff with these cold temps, I will be out early tomorrow morning cleaning up.
Went to bed the other night with about 4 fresh inches on the ground. Woke up at 2 to go out, and could hear the freezing rain. Could have skated from my house to the asphalt plant. Glad for studded tires on my truck. Then the heavy rain hit. Chased slush all morning, but managed to bare off all my lots. Went to 19 Canadian or 66 F, water everywhere, then down to minus 20 or minus 4 that night...hello for ice....
Are these huge, wet swings normal for you guys?
No. WE always had a January thaw, and a lot of coastal areas have snow that never lasts, but these are the craziest temp swings I have ever seen. My mother says when I was born in 72, it was a mild winter, but no crazy temp swings like this. We should have about 6 feet of snow by now. Only one noreaster so far this year.. Be interesting to see if we get a St Patricks storm this year.
Has been Nuts and staying that way here. In Fifties one week ends Frozen in the teens next midweek then back again. Had two inches Ice over snow a few weeks back, then Ice Storm Last week, and Another Ice Storm THIS Week, be in mid fifties again Sunday.
Must be all the hot air from Washington, and Ottawa
If we can escape this Summer without a drought I'll be all happy about what we've had so far.....
What you have there is about what we have now with a lot of ice. This is what we normally have. But I'm not complaining.
I hear ya. Ice sucks. But so does running out of space to pile snow!!!!
I remember in the 1960s, Frankie Roberts using a Field Marshall single cylinder tractor with a snowplough made out of wooden railway sleepers snowploughing the rural roads near me, initially with a number of overcoats on, then an upgrade of a home build wooden cab, which looked like a flying hen house above the roadside walls. The image is a snowplough/sweeper we used on a contract we had to keep the roads clear at the local steel works. It would clear off as little as one half inch of snow so the road salt acted quicker. The beauty of the sweeper was there were no support wheels to wear out. it is photographed here sweeping mud from roads during a forestry operation
Very cool pic Willis!!!! Always enjoy seeing things from a different perspective. It's very interesting to see how mankind over comes obstacles under varying circumstances. I guess the same human nature tendencies cause different dialect in different regions. Human Nature is pretty awesome when used properly!!!
Pretty scary when a dictator goes insane.
received 6" of snow by Saturday morning was out cleaning up, woke up to -21c/11F this morning, 6 Hours later plus 1/33F, crazy, -12c/20F tonight with more snow Monday, its so hard to get use to the temps swing here this winter, I find myself either to warm or freezing to death.
Dusting last night, beautiful day today, cold tonight. But it is nice to see the days getting longer
Yes, was a beautiful day here, that sun has some power in it now where the days are getting longer, won't be long and you will be swatting flies, lol
Can't wait for spring. Was hoping I could clear snow off my tracks so they dry faster but think the grader is going to have at least 1 flat tire. I'll probably have to finish my adapters and mount the new wheels before I can use the grader. At least if it warms up I could work on the adapters and some easier access steps. I might need some help moving the adapters to finish welding the hub pins in. They weigh about 50lbs. and I have less strength now than I had when I started them. I think if I clamp or tack a piece of pipe on the blade/loader of the tractor will make it a lot easier to turn them for welding the pins. Will be nice when the wheels are on and the steps are done. The grader is fairly comfortable when you're in it and I plan to spend some time in it.
Which one???? Have been rejected from joining NATO repeatedly since 2004. Corruption. Maybe it takes a crazy dictator to sort it out.
I thought he was talking about potatoes.
The world doesn't need another Hitler. Most of the people in Russia are against the invasion of Ukraine. Don't want to make this political. Just hard to believe this is happening in 2022.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article258774458.html . Weather, strange temperatures..... same thing might happen with China and Taiwan. Lots of ice....la la la.
Not sure what to think about what's going on overseas, very sad
Yeah, I couldn't believe we closed the most secure military airbase in the area and tried to evacuate out of a slum city airport and got 13 Soldiers killed either. Go figure.
Yeah. It's sad that bad things get ignored until they explode. Then we just can't understand what happened!!! Human Nature. It's done at all levels clear down to our personal lives. Us North American Continent folks are very Blessed when compared to most other places on Mother Earth.
so true, our political system is so constipated with policies and greed that the most important things it seems get put a side and we become very unprepared, then when a serious issue happens or lands on our doorstep we get caught with our pants down, a QUOTE from Margret Thatcher former Prime minister of the UK, "You never negotiate with a dictator on any level"... Ever! sounds like good advise.
Little dump of snow last night. Been really cold again. Beautiful today. March came in like a lamb, so maybe out like a lion?
Yep 4" today with some rain, another 4" tomorrow
Looks like it's going to be above freezing all next week
Yesterday evening I went to a birthday party at the creek on the edge of my farm. Big sandbar. 30 people including little kids playing on the sandbar. I had on a light sweatshirt and was very comfortable. This morning our wind is from the North with a bite......
Spring is in the air. The shop is giving the crusher spread some TLC. I see one of the Mauldin graders in among the the chaos getting some work as well.. They tell me there has been no word from the manufacturer about the new one, but they will bring my old one in and have it ready just in case. Sure there will be lots of snow to move yet. We have had storms well into May some years.
Weather is going to flip flop for sure next week. they were calling for rain on this coming Monday for here, now more snow with some rain on the backside of it, with more little hits of snow for the rest of the week, was out all last night chewing frozen rain soaked snow to the gravel on the back roads, couldn't get all the roads done but the roads to the West had more ice on them then snow, I will have to chain up tonight to take this round of snow and chew the ice up underneath to get back to the gravel, my 150 AWD will suck the fuel tonight.
Nice getting out with family, its nice having some farm land to enjoy some peace also, I couldn't imagine living in a city, crazy how the weather flip flops now a day's.
I had been wondering about the fuel use? Figured it would be noticeable whether the AWD was being used or not? And do you tend to run it all the time? Deere doesn't change the HP rating according to AWD use or not. If the speed ratio is set to "0" you don't see any difference whether engaged or not. Just improved traction. I tend to run it all the time when pushing snow. By CAT's data the 150 has 268 max (?) in AWD and 233 (?) without. Deere's 672 has 255 max.
My neighbor and I share the creek beach area. Property line right thru the middle. No fence. Neighbor's family are very large row crop farmers, 25K acres tillable. It was a Birthday Party for one of the Sons. I'm very Blessed to have 150 acres surrounded by this family. They are good people. They all came to my shop in November for a surprise 70th birthday party for me. They were still in the middle of harvest but quit early to attend the evening party.
Good for you that you're still enjoying your work into your 70's. Hopefully I make it there.
As it stands now pushing my 150 in AWD I get about 6.5 hours till my fuel light comes on, 31O L, still have about 65L left in my tank, my tank holds around 375L give or take, so when the light comes on I still have some leeway waiting for the fuel truck to come or run back to the shop to fuel, I could get a full shift 12hours out of my old 140H before fueling, but it would be low on fuel.
I am very Blessed. I only work about 500hrs a year. That's perfect. Bout the time the enjoyment is waning I am done for awhile. Normal road maintenance I am able to stay ahead by working when I want to. There's a LOT of difference in going to work because you have to and going because you want to.
Yep, she's kinda thirsty. I can easily run 9 hours on 310L, probly 10 hours. A 12 hour run would have me at 400L. Are you running wide open throttle all the time? I'm normally running 1500-1700 rpms. Governor is 2180 rpms.
Yes, right to the pin all the time, Governed 2200rpm, I need to when cutting ice to the gravel, rpms run up and down under the strain when putting pressure on the blade to cut the ice, some operators at our sister shops just use float to try cutting ice, they think just making groves is ice blading, your better off dragging a spruce bow for all the good your doing.
I never use float on the grader. I was taught to always be in control no matter what you're doing. Same as being in a dozer, loader, whatever. If it has down pressure, I'm using it. My loader was down for a couple hours the other morning, and the only thing left was an F350 with a V plow. I never bring my good glasses to work, so I couldn't see the buttons on the hand held. If the grader hadn't been sitting since November....... Was glad to get my loader back.
Good stuff. 30 some years ago when I started running a grader it was an old 12 CAT with a pony motor. The Township Board President was introducing me to the machine. He said "She's a dependable ole girl. But you'd do better to grab a chicken by the feet and drag it down the road". I've never forgot that. And he was right.
I have to run a couple State Hiway paved roads for a mile or so to get to my next gravel roads. I'm always there before the State gets there. I throw the blade in float and haul butt. And them guys complain about how hard pushing snow is......
It’s been a very weird winter here in SE South Dakota have only had to plow snow once first part of December this will be 2 years in a row I haven’t put my snow wings on I’ve been able to blade my roads most of the winter have crazy temperature swings go from 50 above to negative 15 in a couple of days not suer what to think.
Are you in a drought situation? Friend of mine has a large ranch in Montana and they have been in severe drought for a couple years. He thinks it's headed our way. We are very dry. Spring rains or lack of will determine our fate for this year. We don't have any sub soil moisture. Here's a pic of me blading roads yesterday. Note the dust in the rearview mirror scene.
We are pretty dry definitely in a moderate drought in our area no snow last two years has really made our lakes and potholes shallow hopefully we get some good spring rain otherwise going to be very dry year I’ve been out grading we had 2 inches of snow and melted right away gave us some moisture for grading but not much.
Lots of white stuff out there now. Just got home from opening up the movie house, and a few mall entry ways. Out in the morning at 3. Freezing rain starting around 10. More snow on tap for tomorrow night to.
Well we got a weird storm come through yesterday started out as rain thunder and lightning then freezing rain then thunder snow ended up with 5 inches of snow on top of a .25 inch of ice run my roads today roads weren’t bad but dang slick got buy without chains really love the AWD can get away with so much more then tandem drive
Ours was similar but less. Barely an ice sheet then 2" of snow. Slight drifting. I'm going to drive around and take a look but don't think I'll do anything. I'd push off a lot of rock to skim close enough to get 2" of snow. We're supposed to get hit again Thursday and Thursday night. Saying 4-8". Probably get enough that I'll have to push it. Hoping to also run without chains. I haven't used them yet this Winter. I'd sure hate to go back to tandem drive....
Wish I had your 7 series rather than my 6 series. Can't ever have too much HP. Are you on Bridgestone tires? Can't tell for sure. We've had Michelins for 20 years. Current machine is Bridgestones. I don't like them as well. Seem to lope more.
I have Michelins on this machine there an okay tire I much rather have the Michelin snow plus tires over these my dealer ordered it with these tires so I make do with them I can believe that I’ve heard from a lot of people who operate the 672 to be underpowered never operated one so can’t say so myself my 772 is pretty good but just doesn’t have the lugging power of my cat 140M plowing snow and doing dirt work but ik Deere has always been a high RPM motor
Still lots of snow here. Been mild, above freezing. Took my daughter ice fishing on my brother's pond during her spring break. About 38 inches of ice, mind you it's almost still water. Snowmobile trails are getting soft. The club dropped a groomer the other day. A bit of snow and freezing rain Saturday night, had to plow the shopping malls.
Grass is beginning to green here. I burned my CRP fields over the past 2 weeks and they are really turning green. Some tree varieties are budding. I still haven't saw any Purple Martins yet but they'll show up in the next week. Buzzards have migrated back so it's truly Spring down here.
Going down to minus ten or fourteen tonight. Calling for snow on the weekend. I was talking to the guys working on the pipeline demo job, and there is still 4 feet of frost where the line crossed some farm fields, only 18 inches through the woods. The groomer in the picture was crossing a brook, and the ice on the outside of the snowpack is eating out from the bottom. Grooming will soon be over for another season. They lost a machine a few years ago crossing a swamp early in the season. It was a brand new machine. By the time they got an excavator and some swamp mats in to get it out, it was a write off.
The frost is punching up thru the road now. 3 days of light rain last weekend set it off....so, yea, its spring. Ed
Some years I have trouble with that. This year we never had frost deep enough to cause it. I drove my roads two days ago and there were only a couple small spots that I tribute to frost heave. I've had a very easy Winter.
Glad to see the site back up, my roads are slowly stiffing up, zero snow left on the ground, just some now and than small snow events, doesn't last, typical spring storms, did some stinger maintenance this morning getting ready to start bringing the roads in soon, stays like this I would say 2 weeks to start spring grading.
We're getting a little rain this week. If it doesn't mess up the roads too much I'll turn the rock trucks loose next week. If it does mess them up I'll hafta grade some before they can be rocked.
Winter seems to be over here also frost is mostly out of the ground should be able to start blading next week also plan to start discing road shoulders the first week of April ready to start the spring work.
Another 1 1/4" of rain, road is fast becoming a mud bog. So much for our 2 yo re-gravel....of course, can't anyone slow down. Just bore on thru. Ed
More snow here for the weekend
My pet peeve is that they won't split the tracks. They just keep driving in the same ruts, thru the same pothole......
We've had a wet weather system stalled over us since Tuesday. Have only gotten 1/2" or rain and we got it the first day. It's just been nasty, 40F, wet wind. This morning it's spitting snow off and on. Won't amount to anything. No drying at all....
Sheep. WE did a road job years ago. Here, on highway builds, after your subgrade which is normally sandstone. You step in, and do 9 inches of 3 inch minus, step in, and do another 9 inch lift, then step in and do 6 inches of 1 1/4 minus, then pave. The 3 inch was really wet. It had passed the tests, but once down and rolled, the moisture was crazy high. It would grade out nice, but this was an open road, and as soon as the first loaded truck went over it. it would rut 3 or 4 inches. Even though it was really wide, the cars would drive in the ruts that the trucks would make. Ended up cutting it back to subgrade, and changing to another pit. I do grading on some of the haul roads. The trucks know , they only get it twice a year. I always tell them to slow down for a couple days, and get it packed down a bit. No.... it's hammer down, and it starts to washboard right away.
Speaking of washboards. I've had people ask me why I grade those washboards on steep hills and/or at stop signs. They think I make them on purpose.
Were getting another mess here this evening and over night, snow, ice pellets, 4 hrs of freezing rain then to rain, nice!!
WE got about 5 inches in 3 hours this morning, and then it started raining. Was out opening up stuff around ten this morning. Stayed out till three. Probably go back out around three in the morning to clean up. Followed the city grader when I was leaving our shop. I don't know what bran their wing is, but it is really tall. No posts, hooks to the rear ripper. The one I never get to use for my grader is a Craig, but I bet his wing is a good 16 inches taller than mine.
Wonder if DB2 got that 80cm they were talking about? Like 31 and a half inches
In Winnipeg we got 20-30 centimetres. In Onanole to the northwest they apparently got all 80 that were forecast.
The ice just ran here last Saturday. I have one little pile of snow left in the yard. My sister lives in Oshawa outside of Toronto, and she has been planting flowers, and her hubby has been getting the lawn mower ready. Mind you I have plowed in the first week of June before, but that is just gross
I mowed part of my yard yesterday. Will finish today.
I see more snow for the west on the way, yuck! Going to sweep a couple parking lots on the weekend with the open broom on the loader. No new grader yet.
We were 70F yesterday. 45F today with cold breeze. The wife is not happy with what this weather is doing to her yard flowers.
It has been a cold wet spring with crazy winds so far for here, 2" of snow on the ground Sunday morning when I got up, soon the dam black flies will be here and it won't be fit to be outside, getting my yard work done now before they come on.
There was talk of lifting the weight restrictions early, but no sign yet. Northern New Brunswick opens a week after you guys in Nova Scotia. My new little grader is supposed to be at Sancton in Dartmouth. Been studying the joystick control. I've finally given in, and agreed to take charge of my own crew. On the plus side, I get a company truck, but not a real fan of having to do the paperwork and run the job from the machine. Mind you there is only 3 of us, and most of the time, the foreman has been my laborer. I have been training my foremen for years, and they need my last one to move on to other tasks.
Never heard when they are lifting the weight restrictions for us, thinking soon, congrats on your new position, company truck is a must now with the price of fuel, big savings for you.
The only good part is the halfton. No more money, but now I have to fill out all the safety crap. I like jumping in the machine and letting someone else sweat the details.