Well guy's its that time of year again, we are starting to put the plow gear on the equipment now, working on my 150AWD getting things put back on for snow removal, wing tower and wing going on next week, our winter works starts on Dec 4, my machine has worked great all summer and fall, looking forward to the change, they say a change is as good as a rest.
We got 3" of wet snow last night. Temp at 31F at noon now. What a mess for gravel roads.......
There is snow to the north of me, 6-8", nothing but a few flurries here in the evenings, no amount of cold weather here yet either, it has been a beautiful fall, hoping the ground freezes up before any snow comes, probably not.
Unusually, we are already developing ice at the shorelines of our ponds. We're going to spend the majority of November below freezing at night. That's very unusual. I'm expecting more snow than normal simply because of our lower than normal temps. This weather pattern that moved thru yesterday and today should have been rain. I'm going to test fit my chains Thursday. I think I need to remove a crossbar and latch them a link tighter than the last time I used them. Based on more tire wear, chain wear and the fact that I ran them looser than I prefer last time I had them on. Hoping I won't use them. But just in case, I want to be ready.
Gonna be Sunday before we get any sunshine and/or temps above freezing. Are getting a little wind today so hopefully will knock the snow off the standing corn.
We got some this afternoon. Raining now, Hope it stays that way. Big panic around the shop today. WE are still doing dirt work. I plowed the snow off a driveway today so they could pave it. Last one for the season. Plant is shut down.. Still crushing, so some of the loaders are still busy. Non of them have their winter tires on yet. Nothing is frozen, no plowing markers up. Never even did a drive through of my route to spy raised manholes.
Yep, winter comes early for you guy's in Northern NB, we are suppose to get a few inch's Friday evening, will be enough for the Department here to hit the panic button and send the salt trucks.
We had an awesome Fall weatherwise. I cleaned a LOT of ditches and shaped banks. Could drive the grader off into anything with no fear of getting stuck. Very dry. Which equaled long stretches of perfect weather. I pushed hard on projects. Phone company burying cable on my roads slowed me down a little. But generally thought I was ready for Winter. I drove around this morning looking at my roads and realized I'm still not ready. I'm kinda OCD that way. Next week we'll be above freezing daytime and just below freezing nighttime. I'll grade roads until noon each day just smoothing them. Then I'll be ready for it to freeze up and stay that way for the next 3 months.
MODOT (Missouri Department Of Transportation) salted bridges Monday morning. Normally don't see that until early December.
Yeah DTI was out salting. Front plows on, no wings. Did some trucking today out of our quarry. Most of yesterdays snow melted. As you head north towards our quarry, you can see the snow along the side of the road deepen until it covers the grass. The last couple miles to the quarry, still chip sealed, but low priority, was unplowed and slippery.
Big push on now to get the gear finished up for snow removal, most of our brime tanks have been filled, our shop filled our salt shed last spring when it was easy to get so we would not get caught up in the panic of not having any salt in your shed in come winter works, alot of our sister shops didn't do that, they are low on salt and are at the mercy of the salt mine and truckers now, I expect the cost has risen alot to fill your shed sense the spring with the price of fuel now, 11 Bucks a gallon for diesel here in NS, more in NB.
Starting the big thaw today. Should get to 40F, warm South breeze. Probably hit 60F mid week. That's where we should be every day.
We received right around 20" of snow in the last 4 days. Today is below freezing, but prevalent sunshine. Snow is already melting down. Above freezing the rest of the week with frequent chances of rain, all of this snow should be gone by Turkey day.
Our ponds are froze over so we've got some frost in the ground. If we got 20" we probably would have a portion of it all Winter.
Piles are freezing here. I ran plant loader for the afternoon. Asphalt plant is shut down now but people are still using product. The 1 inch stone pile had a foot thick crust on it when I broke into it. Going to do some topsoil work tomorrow. That should be fun. Mud and frozen chunks.
Gravel roads now are freezing and thawing now making that gruel form on them later in the day, warm shot of weather is on its way in with some rain for this weekend, flip flop weather happening now, glad when everything freezes solid, if it will happen, that's the worst with living on the coast now a days -20c in the morning +10c in the afternoon, plays hell with all the roads, trucks have been out the last couple of mornings salting from the snow the evening before, the roads here where a sheet of ice last evening, no way will the department send salt trucks before winter works in the evening when the roads need it and have to pay double time to its operators, lol, come Winter works the department will send salt trucks with just a few flurries in the air at night, lol
We are back to no frost. Installed two culverts today. Took out some roadside brush and cleaned a drainage area. Almost got the grader stuck once...... Next week we will go back to 40F-ish daytime, high 20Fs nightime. I'll use that opportunity to lightly grade roads until noon each day.
I decided to put one wing on the one of 3 blades I operate have to do this one outside so figured might as well do it while weather is nice out will put others on when I need them we got 3 inches of snow Monday night and Tuesday roads are dry so I went out and bladed my high traffic roads mixing snow and gravel in hopefully will melt in next 3 days and freeze up nice and smooth.
above freezing this week. Hard rain last night. Woke up to plus 10 or 50, then as the sun rose, it dropped to minus 3 or 26. Black ice everywhere.
Curious if leaving a snow wing on affects machine balance or makes normal grading difficult in warmer temps.?
I don't find it to bad, just harder to see with the wing tower on, I always air up the wing side tires a bit more to carry the weight better, just have to be careful grading in tighter spots with the wing on.
Depends on the type of wing. Our 730 Champion, you couldn't open that door with the wing mast on. You lose a lot of visibility. Depending on the type of machine, you lose rotation, and tend to hit the wing post, and that is the side the piston is on. Seen a few banged up chrome shafts. I know some companies that leave the rear post on and remove everything else. Our champion, seems to me the front post was close to the ground as well.
She's a Beaut!!!!
Bummer.....
I certainly don't want enough snow to justify a wing such as you guys use. But when I need a wing, yours would be awesome. My wing fastens to the moldboard and pushes off the center of it. Best part about it is the ability to wing back tall walls of snow created by the plow!!!
The wing doesn’t bother the balance of the machine just have to put more air in the right side tandems the only thing it bothers is visibility out the right side it’s not bad on the cat M series with the big side doors and side window but on a Deere or older cat machines was a big thing seeing around the wing mast.
My V hasn't been used in a long time. We are doing a ditching job on a road like the one you have in the picture. No snow, and more trees, but through the middle of farm land. Not a grader job, the road is paved. A 14 ton Linkbelt. I'm on a truck. Last min job called, we bid high and no one else bid. The inspector did the math, and said they were getting around $26 a bucket. I hate ditching jobs on a truck. Really hard on the knee. The guy on the 3rd truck has an automatic, and said he does not miss the manual trans on these jobs. It's actually raining now, and no snow in the forecast.
Finishing my roads today. Trying to get rid of vegetation trash and give them a final smooth before Winter. The second pic is for data information. This is second pass.
never seen a wing mounted like that before, would be tight in traffic, you would have to watch for power lines when raised
I rarely have to deal with traffic and then it's just one vehicle. It won't raise high enough to get into power lines. It's not a perfect system at all. Imagine the stress it puts on the table. But it's what I have.
This wing is probably 50 years old. It was designed to be used on old rigid frame graders. The "brace" would mount between the tandems. The wing and moldboard would be parallel.
I have the hydraulic lift wing back by my rear tandem, your wing is a bit higher than mine it seems which I like, I find the snow goes over my wing a lot with any amount of snow, wish Craig would make a higher wing for graders, your setup would be great for shelfing.
I don't have any good pics, but, I can set the wing at the right side of the V Plow and shelf that snow away from the plow. Great for widening an area that's drifted completely across the road at a great depth. I can pile snow so high you can't see past it from the cab. You wing setup is most definitely stronger and more durable than mine. But as I said, it's all I have. I mostly use it in late Winter when I want to push the snow banks a distance from the road shoulder. Especially handy if I get in a series of moderate snow followed by high wind. By late Winter I'm running out of room to pile it.
We're supposed to get light rain off/on for the next 24hrs. 1/4" or so. We need it badly. Very dusty. A lot of loose material on my road surfaces.
Been raining here the last couple of days, temps have been flip flopping, cold then mild, snow in the forecast for next week, hope it freezes up first.
My roads don't handle that type of weather very well. I don't have a surplus of gravel to get me thru those times. Was mid 40sF yesterday, almost foggy, high humidity. Was 30F this morning at daylight. Frost so thick on everything I thought we had gotten a dusting of snow. Can't see the hiway 1/2 mile away at 9 a.m.
Winter storm in effect for here, 10" of heavy wet snow on the way, not one back road froze, what a mess this is going to be
Bummer. I feel your pain. My road surface is so thin here that I completely destroy my roads in those conditions. Will have the moldboard completely full of frozen mud by the end of the day.....
Grass is still green here. Snow in the forecast starting Tomorrow evening. There is a bit of frost in the ground, cold at night, but above freezing in the day. Parked the grader for the winter with the 4 small ones. Another winter of go ahead, backup on the loader. I see they have the winter tires on all the loaders, even got the 180 out from the quarry, and the winters on it. It used to cost about 3000 to put the winter tires on all the loaders. This year it went up to almost 7. They must be bringing in good money to justify almost 14000 a season
Must be nice to have that much budget just to change tires.
I thought about it, and I don't know how the tire shop ever did it for 3000. Even at 7000, it's only 125 a tire for a service truck, and 2 guys over 3 days. The local tire shop no longer has their own service truck, so they bring it in from a couple hours away, and put 2 guys in a motel.
I've got a Township 10 miles from me that has a set of Winter Tires for their Grader. I was talking to their Board President last week. They've got the same miles of road that I do. Their annual tax revenue budget is three times mine.
The Township I mentioned to Dave have theirs mounted on rims. They can easily swap them in an hour.
The winter tires on my loader are going on their 13th winter, and they are not even half worn. As long as they remove them before the construction season starts, they will last. The tires on the 180 Volvo were on the 972 Cat. I think they looked into rims, but nothing ever came from it. It was even discussed changing them ourselves, but then you are taking guys off projects in the garage, and risking an injury to one of your own guys. We don't even change truck tires, they just send it to the tire shop. There are 14 loaders plowing per storm. I think the Walmart is 150,000 for 2 years, so that's 75 a year to plow, sand and shovel. I wonder what the manager of a Walmart in Florida would think about having to fork out that kind of money for snow.
I was thinking that paying thousands to change tires for an owner/operator would be a big $$$ hit. A county or municipality still a lot but much more manageable.
Seems like an extra set of rims would save a lot in the long run.
Yeah. I'm guessing here but I'd say their snow tires are 12-15 years old. So buying the rims paid off pretty quick. Then factor in the savings on chain wear and it's a no brainer. My Township just doesn't have the resources to make that purchase up front.
It started raining about 2 a.m. Supposed to light rain most of today and half of tonight. I'd guess we'll get 1.5" or so before it quits. Just enough to rut my roads so they can then freeze solid.
I can see the snow starting to blow around the street light. I'm already on for plowing at 3am. They are calling for up to a foot of snow, but then mixed with rain. I drove my parking lots this afternoon looking for growing man holes. Now if I cold just get some sleep before midnight.
Life in the Military caused me to build a "sleep on demand" regiment. I can relax into sleep anytime, anywhere. My wife can't understand that. Snow coming. I'll eat a light meal, then go to bed. Doesn't matter what time it is. And my internal alarm clock will awaken me with 30 minutes of when I want/need to get up. I'm very Blessed with that ability. Which comes in very handy in snow season.
Yep, I have a internal alarm clock also, mine goes off at 3:45 am most mornings, holiday's makes no difference, I work on call for day shift for a week then switch to being on call for a week of night shifts during winter works, sometimes working a week of night shifts messes you up when you switch back to days if its busy I find.
Woke up to about 10 inches of nice fluffy snow. By the time I got to the shop it started to rain hard. Slushy mess. If it turns cold it's gonna be a mess
Bummer. That would destroy my roads!!!!
Back out in the morning to clean up a bit. Looks like snow all weekend as well.
We're headed for the big freeze. By tomorrow morning my roads will have enough frost in them to carry light traffic with no impact. By the end of the weekend they'll carry heavy traffic. Next Wednesday's forecast is high of 12F, low of -6F. Was lightly spitting snow a few minutes ago. No accumulation forecast.
I’ve been dealing with horrible weather here lately got 9 inches of snow last Friday no wind so not a big deal left inch or so on the road for hard pack then we get .25 of freezing rain Monday then rained .80 on Tuesday now I have a slushy frozen mess now today we got 5 inches of snow and 30 to 50 mph winds going to be a fun next couple of days of plowing really hope I don’t have to put chains on but got them ready just in case.
Oh wow. Depressed me just reading your post. Those conditions completely destroy my roads. We're heading into the deep freeze so my roads should be solid for awhile. Hang in there.
We are now in for a Inch of rain this weekend, this will be on top of the foot of snow we got this past wed, some places got 3ft of snow, it was a crazy weather system, my roads will go to pieces, I need a week of the deep freeze.
I see the CB Highlands got a lot of snow. We are in for snow all weekend. Never fails.... company Christmas party.... snow storm.
I feel for you. We are froze this morning. Will add several inches of frost over the next ten days. Lows below zero F starting Monday night. We have moderate chances of snow 3 times over the next ten days. Highest expected amount is 3". Being in our drought situation I'm guessing it will be less. If I knew for sure which direction you are from me I'd set up a fan outside and blow some of this cold air your way!!!!
We're doing our annual Christmas Party in my shop tonight. Cold temps but no snow.
Yes, they are snowmobiling there in certain spots, whole different world in the CB Highlands and surrounding communities than in my neck of the woods when it comes to snow.
Got all my roads opened up tankful if got cold so I had pretty decent traction so didn’t need chains probably have to ice blade my roads next week here are a few pictures of some drifts I pushed through going to be a long winter if we keep getting the snow and wind.
Our forecast keeps changing. This morning they are saying "major winter storm watch" for Thursday. High temp of 5F. Low of -13F. 3-5" of snow. 25-35mph wind with higher gusts possible. If that happens I'll have some plow pics to add to 140s.
Spent the day yesterday cleaning roads up getting the pushed back and sloping the banks I find snow will blow right on through if I slope the vs just ridging it up making a snow fence here are a few pictures I took yesterday
Excellent pics. I agree on sloping the bank. I also try to use as much speed as I can to throw snow away from the road. Even moldboarding snow I run 14-18 mph. This morning they increased our snow numbers for Thursday. But the killer is the wind. They also increased that. Starting Wednesday evening thru Friday night, 30mph +, gusts up to 50mph. If we only get a couple inches it'll drift my roads. I'll wait until Wednesday to make a decision about how to equip the grader. I won't put my wing on. I'll probably carry the plow. Wait to see about chains. My roadbeds are dry and bare so there should be enough traction to get me thru this one without chains. I have a young man that helps me during bad snow. He texted me this morning about helping later this week. He's a dozer owner/operator. So he's good help and he isn't busy with the dozer during snow storms.
We dodged a bullet. Barely got an inch of snow. Wind is howling at 20mph with blustery gusts well over 30mph. Supposed to blow like this thru Saturday morning, 48hrs. It's -5F at 9 a.m. Won't warm much today. Lows in minus teens tonight. I've got the grader here at home, sitting in the machine shed, plugged in. I'm going to go look at roads in a minute but don't expect to crank the grader at all. Stupid weather swings. Forecasted highs in upper 40s beginning Monday.
Know the feeling, major rain and wind event for us tomorrow than flash freeze, thinking no power for Christmas day to cook the turkey, our power grid is patches on patches, we had a power crew here from Vermont "thank god" to help with Hurricane Fiona mess, great guy's, hard workers, expecting lots of wash outs and downed tree's, just wonderful for the holiday's, what a nice present.
Our power grid has improved steadily over the past 15 years. Rarely have power outages. I'm talking about a brief outage maybe once in 5-6 years. We are very Blessed. Wind has howled all day. Drove some of my roads this evening. Not enough snow to cause any drifting. Just brutally cold. We are -15F at 6 p.m. Wind steady at 20+ mph with gusts. Got another 36 hours of it coming. I spent all day in my Son's new shop doing interior work. In a T shirt. Parked my truck in so it would be warm when I came home.
Rain has started mixed with wet snow, the winds are starting to howl, power will be out soon for here, power outages are showing up all over the province, nice
Freezing rain started here around 3 this afternoon. Winds a picking up.
We were blustery all day today. 20-30mph. High of 1F. Will be windy thru the night. Easing up tomorrow.
Be glad you're not in Buffalo,NY. Blizzard of 2022 here. Winds 40 mph gusts have been 60 mph for the last 9 hours with heavy snow. Supposed to keep up through 10 PM tomorrow night. 36 hour duration. Snow should stop then but winds still 30 gusting to 40 . . Driving ban everywhere. Zero visibility. Glad I don't plow much anymore
We would be screwed if that happened here, with all the cut backs, all our big plow trucks have been taken out of the system, not sure what a epoke will push, but that's what there replacing everything with, we do have a few graders though.
We would be screwed here. Our roads are antiquated with maybe 25% of them elevated to minimize drifting. In your situation I would have 8-10ft drifts all the way across my roads in places.
This is my first winter plowing snow. All my roads in the municipality are pushed back and or sloped. The other day another grader operator came through my roads and bared the shoulder on many of my roads. Leaving a ridge a couple feet off the road. Not sure how to go about dealing with it, but the snow is getting caught in the ridges and making drifts across my roads.
Kadoka, South Dakota on Thursday, copied from twitter. Thats an I90 overpass.
Welcome to HEF. I suppose that ridge of snow is now a frozen brick? That will suck. You'll deal with it the rest of the Winter unless you can go back over them and slope it?
OH WOW!!!!!! That's a LOT of loader work!!!!
Thanks. I probably will be dealing with it the rest of the Winter because I don't think they are going to change their practice. But can hope for a good winter.
Welcome to the board That's a common problem with having multiple operators but there are many stages to winter road maintenance and a lot of push and pull both with mother nature and other people its best to just put in the hours do the best you can and go with the flow Lots of times we are looking for bare or partially bare shoulders to show the road otherwise to many people lose track in the whiteness or drive off on the false shoulder when they are winged flat you can always lay it back or slope up next time you widen the winter roads are always changing Be safe out there
I've ran a grader since 1987. I continually learn new things. So you can hope.
I've been teaching a "helper" for a few years. I always tell him, try to sweep the shoulder clean so they can see where it is. Hard to explain sometimes.
Ya i try to sweep the edge of the road so the grass is visible. My boss told me to keep my wing level so that is what do. Merry Christmas guys! Thank you all for your advice as I am learning still.
And weather being what it is, the right thing to do this snow may be the wrong thing to do next snow. Especially with gravel roads, being a good grader operator also means being a good weather guesser.
I'm not a grader guy, but I've spent thousands of hours pushing snow ridges back from gravel roads. I know you guys think baring the shoulder is the right answer, but it really isn't. We have a couple new guys that started that around here, and it's a disaster. It was also a disaster 25 years ago when some guys did the same thing. Any little ridge along a road and you've started a battle you will never win on a long winter. That ridge will stop snow behind it, and you will never get the snow to blow on across. Our last old guy retired this spring, and he was an absolute master at clearing roads. He would drag the toe of his wing to expose a narrow strip of gravel on the edge, but that was it. He would have miles of road where the road would be basically a valley, and the blowing snow would actually scour the road bare. It sometimes would get the best of him, but the new guy right now has 4' high ridges alongside the roads where the road is 5' high, and now have no chance at making the winter without a dozer pushing them back. He insists on sticking the outer end of the wing down to expose the shoulder. Not trying to start anything, just sharing a differing opinion.
If there are good ditches helps but some roads there's not much you can do if there's lots of snow that year. Have seen where they have put snow fence quite aways back in a farmers field to prevent drifting at the road or intersection.
For me I like to have the roads frozen solid, then you can push back, I always plow for the next storm, Its when your road is not frozen and you get a big dump of snow that you have to be careful with a wing, this is where you have to keep your wing raised abit to prevent cutting the shoulder and windrowing sod, so you may have a bit of a ridge at first, all depends how you graded your roads all summer, if you did not grade to the edge of the ditches and left a big sod ridge on the edge your going to have problems winging when its soft, your road will dish pan and fill with water when it freezes, water can't run off, with the temp swings here in my area could be -20c and then +10 in 6 hours and raining, then flash freeze, nightmare for the back roads.
Starting my 36th year as a grader operator. Learning still.
Oh man,,,,, I've lived that several times over the years. Think I'm doing something great. Turns into something crappy.......
I try to never tell someone they are doing something wrong. I offer my suggestions as to something that might be better. Baring the shoulder has nothing to do with leaving a 4' high ridge of snow. I push snow at speed. So I rarely leave a ridge. And certainly don't if I have the wing on. As someone mentioned earlier, each snow is different and should be handled differently. Each location is different and should be handled differently. I might have a method here that works great and would miserably fail somewhere else.
Yep. I learned early that when you get serious drifting in December you better be diligent about what you do with that material and wing it back as far as you can. In Missouri once you move that material it doesn't move easily the next time. For example, we are supposed to get into the mid-upper 40s later this week. Turns that piled snow into a solid block of ice. If it's several feet deep you aren't moving it again with a grader....
Excellent post 20/80!!!! Especially this comment "I always plow for the next storm". Wise words my friend!!!
20 years on a grader I learn every day, and it seems like I forget things at times to, lol
Unfortunately, around here it does if you stick the tip of the wing down the slope. I probably wasn't clear enough, but what I'm referring to is when guys expose 3-5' of the inslope. If they can scrape the top of the roadway off without leaving any sort of ridge, that's ok. But, as soon as you leave any sort of ridge whether it's lower than the driving surface or not, you have started down the path to a ridge, how high depends on the weather. I've pushed 10' banks back. Around here it is inevitable. The only chance you have is to keep blowing it out smooth. As soon as the snow comes off the wing in a ridge, that ridge will be double in height every successive plow.
And that's where the guys can go wrong. As long as that wing can sweep the snow out smooth, you can build a valley. A 6" ridge, and it's all over. You will never stop it from building again. Some of these newbies around here will stick the end of the wing down where it's completely unnecessary, blow a bunch of big chunks out, and boom. The next blow the snow is level with the road, even if is was a couple feet lower before. Hopefully this makes sense.
Not directly related to the discussion, but I thought you guys would appreciate this
Absolutely!!!!
Woke up to 40F temps this morning with steady South wind. Supposed to get to mid 50Fs. I appreciate the warmer weather but am not a fan of huge swings. It's unnatural for us. Forecast nice steady temps with highs in 40Fs lows in 20Fs for the next ten days. 80% chance of rain next Monday/Tuesday.
It made it to 64F today with stiff South wind. Clearing ice off the ponds. Retrieved some logs out of the timber this afternoon. Ground thawed down a couple inches. Another extreme.....
Know the feeling, steady temps swings here, wish it would just be winter in the wintertime, not raining and springlike for 10 days then back into the deep freeze with snow again, seems to snow, wash, rinse, over and over more and more now a day's in this area, winter seems to set in late in this area now, late Feb into March.
I am 71. I've definitely saw a change here in Winter. Warmer temps and less snow. But I'll add I've also saw us move toward a drier climate. I try to avoid all conspiracy theories and accept it as simple climate change.
My mother, born in 37. Said how we don't get the cold like we used to. Her old homestead, had an area on the back of the house they called the shed. There was a wood stove in there. It's where you hung things to dry. Grandfather had a big chair where he would nap or smoke his pipe by the stove.. On the back of that they had the wood hole. The wood for the shed stove was in there, a side of beef, some chickens, maybe a couple deer hung in there in winter, and she said it was frozen. It would never freeze now. Even I remember the air freezing my face walking to school. The main river hasn't even froze yet. I don't deny the weather is changing, but I have no opinion as to it being something we are doing or not. My nephew has been working at the nuclear power plant, about 2 hours away. It has been shut down for quite a while for a "refit". Nephew said the fact is that an electrical cable shorted out and burned through a heavy water pipe. I guess it was a major spill, and the entire facility is contaminated. He says if it were not for the leak, the cable could be taken care of in a couple days. Because of the contamination, it might be another year with all the safety procedures. So much for clean energy.
I didn't used to mind the cold too much but now I hate the cold when it gets below about -15C and especially if it's windy.
Nuke power plants make good clean power when working right, but when things start going wrong its a major problem, and if not caught in time can turn into a huge problem for the area, problem is they are all good when everything is new, its when things get dated on the power plant the problems happen, also the government dragging there feet to fix things quickly don't help, hope everything gets fixed up properly.
I’ve been plowing snow dang near everyday for the last 3 weeks can’t catch a break and it’s starting to take a toll on equipment and we’re supposed to be getting a big storm coming on Monday with wind with full ditches even an inch of snow and wind creates problems going to be a long winter.
Yep, you've definitely been dealt a bad hand this year!!! I took advantage of the nice weather here the past couple days. Had a couple large trees down in the timber. Blocked them and split them into firewood. I don't burn wood anymore but my Son does in his shop. Merry Christmas to him. Best thing about this load of wood is I don't have to unload and stack it!!!!
Rained last night, fog this morning. Rain this afternoon, and tonight. Not much snow left besides a few banks.
Now I want a drink of coke
Rained yesterday till about 2, Snow was all but gone. By 6, it was a winter wonderland again. Just got home from a little clean up. Of course everything that was frozen is soft again. Below freezing now, but wednesday is supposed to be around 50 degrees.
We got a nasty storm coming for us next couple days .25 inch of ice first then 8 to 14 inches of snow plus 30 to 40 mph winds going to be a heck of a storm taking fenders off the grader today in case I need chains unfortunately I have a lot of people in my townships who moved out from the city and they except city services there going to get a reality check with this storm going to be slow going opening roads with this kind of snow and wind.
That seems to be the trend. New Brunswick is a really rural province. There have been a lot of people moving here from the Toronto area. Selling their city homes, and moving here. We have never had a noise bylaw here. Now suddenly, no construction work between 10PM and 7AM. I had a woman call the police three times on me plowing apartment buildings at 5AM. I saw them drive by but they didn't stop. She came out and started to go full Karen on me. I said drive around the city.... all the snow removal gets done early. People need to get to work. I am guessing the cops realized how stupid the noise law is in this instance. Felt like telling her to go back to the big city.
Bummer. You described the worst storm in my opinion. It's been a couple decades since we've had anything like that. Was running a tandem drive grader then. Had chains on all 6 tires. Still struggled controlling the front end..... If you think of it post some pics.
It appears to be common for humans to move out of an area because they don't like it there. Then they bring all the same crap to the new area and pretty soon it's just like what they left. Repeat......
I hear ya, same in my area, seems like all these new by laws have come into play sense the migration of these city folks from Toronto and other big cities, there are alot of long time residents really mad about it, alot of these newbies belong to special interest groups, trying to change the way we have lived for years in this area, I live in a very small community with one street that goes a short way's through the Village, you could blink and your through it, they have been calling and want it recognized now as the new down town core, unbelievable
I had the run of my neighborhood as a kid, just don't break tree branches or tram flowers. Fella bought a house down the street from my Mom, we used to play in the yard, it was big for the subdivision. First thing this guy does is fence it all in and put up no trespassing signs. It was a doctors house for years and then the church bought it for the few remaining nuns to live. I plowed it for a few years. The guy right beside it was a lawyer, and the driveways were attached. He got his driveway repaved, and paid to do the nun's as well. The city guy had it resurveyed, and ran the fence through the driveway, leaving the lawyer with a 9 foot wide area to park. He is also a don't put your snow on my property guy.
We're in a thaw pattern. At 4:45 p.m. it's 51F. I've been getting up early and grading until it starts thawing. Lets me move my limited amount of gravel to the traveled area of the roadbed without bringing dirt. Hoping to get everything ran this week. Forecast says rain Monday. Hope it's wrong. I'd be happy to cruise along like this for the rest of Winter...... Cattle ranchers love this weather. Row crop guys complain that the soil won't frost heave enough and the insects will be a problem next Summer. Us humans are never on the same page.
We are in a warm up pattern with heavy rain again here in NS, was nice and cold all last week things were freezing up nicely, was -14c/18F early this morning then within 4 hours it was+7c/ 40F and raining, really don't like these crazy temp swings, hard on the body, was hoping for two to three feet of frost this year to kill of the ticks, they have exploded in my area the last few years with the mild winters.
Winter wonder land here again. About a foot of snow yesterday, with just enough rain to make is super heavy.. Was out all afternoon. When I went back out this morning to clean up what I didn't get yesterday, my driveway was clean. Right now there is about 4 inches down. So back out again tonight. Break tomorrow, and rain Monday.
Zero snow here now, just +11c and raining, temps are going to flash freeze tonight, There giving a freezing rain warning here for this evening and tomorrow, I hate freezing rain, hopefully it won't be that bad
You guys have my sympathy. We've been thawing every day. Been grading until noon. Thursday the shoulders were thawed enough I had to have a light touch to not cut too deep. All I want is loose gravel. Friday I didn't go out. Was cold all day so let it freeze up a little. Ran this morning (Saturday) and finished all my roads. Monday we have a 40% chance of rain with above freezing temps. Then Wednesday, rain changing to snow thru Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Calling for 3-5" of snow. The trend has been for the number to decrease to almost nothing by the time it gets here. I'd welcome a little rain to stick my loose rock down. My roads are in perfect condition except the loose rock issue. I've got it all off the shoulders and in the traffic lane. So maybe Monday will get it settled in. My 16 miles of roads that had phone cable knifed in last Fall are a mess. No rock left at all. I've been battling the Contractor and now the Phone company to get some rock. Monday if it's raining I'll get the Phone Company guru to haul me around in his pickup and look at these roads. Maybe he'll see the importance when we are done and he looks at his shiny company truck....
Yeah, I saw where Halifax was 13.
I get gravel on my roads once a year. 65 Ton per mile. I have it put on around the 1st of April. So, in January, the first pic is what my roads typically look like. The second pic is a road that the phone company plowed cable on. In the pic they backhoed a hole in the road in front of the pedestal. Then just past it they backhoed a path for the cable to cross a water line. Then farther down the road they backhoed two holes to bore under a culvert. They backhoed 250 holes in my roads plus knifing 16 miles. They don't think I had any gravel loss.....
2nd pic. looks a little slimy for a gravel road. Is there a different technique when grading a narrow road not much wider than your blade?
Pics are a bit deceiving. That road is probably 22ft wide. Two vehicles can easily meet there. I have some roads in steep hill country that are narrower than that. Before the phone cable crew went down that road it was a good gravel road. That's my point of discussion with them. I feel like my roads should be restored to their original condition. As you can see in the first pic, I don't have much excess gravel to work with. In the second pic there's none left. I use a 14ft moldboard. Typical 3 pass procedure. My biggest hurdle is that my roads need dozed/elevated. In both of those pics you can see evidence of that. Our annual budget generates $1,000 per year per mile of road. That's to cover all costs. This past year was very dry here. So once the crops came out I could do ditch work and bank work as evidenced in the 1st pic. So I didn't do any dozer elevation work. I spent that portion of the budget cleaning out ditches.
Been out every day since the 13th, and back out again in the morning. I can hear the ice pellets hitting the window. Cleaned off the snow dump when I was done today. Most of my spots are getting plugged with snow, so I can see them hauling this week. Snowmobilers are happy. The 2 club groomers were getting ready to head out and do some tramping tonight. The 2 drags were in our shop getting the bush cutters put on for tomorrow.
Had to pick my memory. I'm sure we haven't had 3" of snow total this Winter. We are not in a winter recreation area so no one is complaining. Makes taking care of cattle much easier. 3 days ago the forecast for Wednesday was 3-5" of snow. This morning it's reduced to less than an inch. I'll be surprised if we get the ground white. Were supposed to get rain yesterday, got none. We are most definitely in a drought trend.
It has been raining for 3-4 day's now here, finally temps are starting to drop, this weather pattern on the coast this time of year is crazy, I feel our winter will come later this month into next month with more cooler temps, we will see though, back roads are a mess and hard to fix up with all the mud on them now, a few days of sunny weather will help for sure, no groomers running on the trails here, lol
lots of folks trailering up from Nova Scotia. An hour north from me has way better conditions, and they have been grooming for a month. The 2 groomers that park at our shop, tramped snow all night, and the day shift headed out with the drags this morning. It's above freezing, so if we don't get cold weather, they will be torn apart in no time.
Yes for sure, a lot of sledders heading your way to find snow, may have to do the same for a long weekend in the future, I love snowmobiling
High temp mid 30Fs all day. Been lightly raining steadily since noon. Supposed to stay below freezing tomorrow. Scheduled to give the phone company guy a tour of my roads Friday. There should be no debate about where gravel is needed.
Got .6" of rain yesterday. Started lightly snowing sometime in the night with barely an inch on the ground this morning. Hoping it thaws enough to slop the roads today. Will make them perfect for viewing by the phone company tomorrow.
We are expecting 4 inches of snow tomorrow with the temps dropping, back roads will be soft for sure, calling for rain on the following Monday, Snow, Wash, Rinse. lol
Was out this morning for a small clean up, out early to bucket some snow around, and 15 to 20cm on Monday
We had about a foot of snow last evening, the back roads were unbelievably soft, had to use the mould board only, to keep my gravel from going in the ditch, this crazy weather temp swing are killing my back roads, lots of pot holes, just can't fix them, everything just goes to muck when you move material around, the roads are so water logged now, never had a winter season this bad with the freezing then back to mild with rain, they are calling for a another warm up and 2" of rain Monday on top of this snow, crazy weather
We dodged another bullet. Yesterday afternoon forecast was 2-6" of snow. we barely got 3". Wet snow on roads that are not frozen. Would have been a disaster to have to run the grader. Cleaned the driveway with the little JD. Fine with me.
Well I’ve been just getting hammered with snow and wind have now plowed snow everyday since Christmas the one big snow we got 24 inches we just got another 5 inches and wind so got another mess we have now received 47 inches of snow and our snowiest months are February and March so going to get interesting here are some pictures I’ve taken
Also here is a picture of my v plow I repainted it last year and it’s getting shined up going to have to repaint again
Oh wow!!!!! Wears me out just reading your posts and looking at the pics!!!! Our old plow needs sandblasted and repainted. I keep putting it off because we rarely use it anymore. Of course that's stupid. When we do use it we'll wish we had sandblasted it and had it repainted...... Thanks for the excellent pics as always!!!!
Awesome pics, the good ole days, haven't seen snow here like that in two years or more, thanks for sharing, it gives me hope.
Is it sometimes easier dealing with a heavier snow than a light snow? I know clearing packed snow with a skid steer it's nice when bigger chunks come up.
cool. Neat work with the wing. How do you like the V plow vs a 4 way dozing blade? Thanks for the pics.
Depends. On a long push, heavier snow stays in your blade longer ( Talking loader, not grader ) Then you are not chasing windrows forever, faster clean up. Pushes up in a pile and stays. Ice pellets always roll down the bank ,and you can't pile up. I always found heavier, not too heavy, snow is better for winging back snow banks if you are some place where you can't keep your speed up. This winter here has been terrible for snow followed by rain. Way too heavy.
In hard wind drifted snow you can’t beat a v plow we have had lots of wind packed hard snow drifts so nice to have the v plow to break it up and help throw snow up on the bench from the wingI actually just got a new reversible plow that I’m getting tomorrow see how it is compared to my v plow.
I’d much rather push the light fluffy stuff vs the heavy wet stuff we have been getting a mixture of both types of snow the problem we have is the wind and cold pack the drifts like concrete so very hard to move takes lots of power I’ve been burning a tank of fuel in 10 hours so working the blade very hard lot of 6th and 7th gear
From my 1 time grader experience clearing my 1/4 mile driveway light fluffy snow is a bit of a pain to push as far off the end of the moldboard. It piles up and spills over the moldboard. I guess if I cleared the side of the driveway first would help but it's extra work that isn't really needed as the driveway is only about 14ft. wide or less. I cant go too fast clearing it. Was curious what it's like on miles and miles of roads if you don't have a wing?
Saw my first Deere grader tonight on the north slope. 872gp. Typically only see Cats up here.
Dave its really not practical to plow roads without a wing at least at some point they have to be widened when plowing road you always have to plow to get ready for the next storm We use one township owned grader occasionally in the winter with no plow gear on even with 18 ft moldboard on it have to take an extra pass one down the middle and then the outsides. The front plow does a lot of the throwing off the road also when you get rolling down a road V plows are pretty rare to see on here but out in Dakota pretty necessary We run reversibles on everything but when you need a v there is no replacement I keep them dug out and ready to put on at all times
Post some pics of the reversible plow please!!!
I push at 14-18 mph. Has to be in a drifted area before anything comes over the top of the moldboard. I prefer dry snow.
Sexy!!!!
Here are a few more pictures from last night pushing stuff back and widening roads out this spot here is one of my worst got it pushed up 10 to 12 feet high glad I got the tall wing and hydraulic rear so I can bench this deep of snow will have pictures coming of the reversible plow in a day or 2 waiting for my dealer to install it.
Thanks for another batch of excellent pics!!! When I first ran a grader it had old style automotive lights. Could barely see the front tires. Then we bought a machine with H4 lights. I was in heaven!!! What a difference!!! Then we bought a machine with LED lights. Oh my Gosh, I thought there could be nothing better!!! Then we bought our current machine with HID (?) lights, I think they are called. I can actually see the moldboard more clearly at night than daytime. 18 lights. Looks like a space ship coming down the road. We've came a long way!!!! And are greatly spoiled!!!
Actually, with your machine, you have the 16 footer, you could side shift your draw bar to the right so you can get a sharper angle on your MB. I mean inside your front tire, and outside your rears.. If you have a mid mount scarrifer, you might have to pull the teeth out. up one side and down the other, and done.
No scarifier.
Great pictures guy's, for me all our snow has been rained away again, another round of rain coming Thursday for us with a flash freeze on the back end, the rivers are overflowing now and causing flooding on the road ways, this rain coming Thursday will cause alot more flooding, all snow to the north of me in NB.
We got about 4 inches yesterday. Moncton got hammered I guess. Snow thursday, some places could see close to 2 feet, followed by 2 inches of rain. Can't wait to push that stuff
I'm Jealous
Our forecasted 1-3" last night turned into 1/2". Fine by me. By the weekend we should be frozen. And if they know what they are talking about, we'll stay that way for ten days or more after that. Fine be me.
Well got my reversible plow on still have to put some rubber belting on the front we got a clipper storm coming this weekend 2 to 4 inches and wind so probably get to try out the new plow will report back on my thoughts
Nice!!!! Look forward to pics in action and a review!!!
Yes, looking forward to your review and some pics in action, so that plow angles left and right which would be really nice option, your front lift attachment on your grader is quite different then mine, I just have the single ram with lift chains and a one way plow, really like that set up you have
That is 1 big shop!
It’s a 40X60 shop Township built it 3 years ago it’s a very nice to have everything inside and a heated place to do maintenance in.
It looks a lot bigger than 40x60.
A Grader is 30-ish feet long. I've not measured our shop, but am guessing it's 30x50. Houses the V Plow, a hydraulic angle front blade, a wing, the grader and a fuel barrel. I like his size much better!!! Plus his is heated. Ours is a pole barn with electricity and concrete floor.
Nasty today. About 10 inches of snow followed by heavy rain, and turning cold tonight.
All rain here again, with a added bonus, no power, Our grid here in NS is patches on patches, glad I have a generator, you need one here.
Wife and I were talking about Generators the other day. Neither of us could remember the last time our electricity did more than just blink. Most times I only know it did because the shop radio is off when I go out there. I told her I had a lot of Internet friends who have whole house generators. Seems to be popular in the NE USA. We are 40F degrees today with a stiff 15mph wind and sunny. Our little dab of snow will be gone by evening. Tomorrow we will start a cold spell. I may go out then and move my little bit of gravel around again to fill in whatever ruts showed up. My roads aren't soft, just sloppy.
I was out today fixing up some back roads, material was very soft and water logged, we are going into a deep freeze for abit so hoping they will freeze dry, got alot of bad pot holes fixed today, was thinking about my last post concerning the power outages in my area today as a I was working, kinda laughed to myself looking at some of the power poles that have been holding wires up sense the 40s, lol, old crook it cedar poles, that's what we have been dealing with, anyway the power company did a semi upgrade to the grid system in the early 60s, you don't have a home generator here your in the dark, lol
Tried out pulling some ice teeth with the truck to groove ahead of the sander worked quite well I will add another 3 feet of teeth next time
Our Power Co-op was originally set up with loop service. If your powerline ran North/South past your property it could be disconnected from one of those directions and you still had power. Over the years things deteriorated. And the Co-op got lazy about clearing brush. Took a few decades, but finally the trees got big enough to be hanging over the lines. Everywhere. 30 years ago we went thru a lot of blackouts. The Co-op gave up on the loop service wherever they could. And they started working hard on the brush/trees. I can't recall any lines in my area that have tree limbs hanging over the lines. Now they spray the small brush every 3-4 years. We just don't have outages anymore.
I have a set of SanVick (sp) cutters. 20 years ago it was common for us to get ice. I used them at least once every Winter. The last time I used them for ice was 15 years ago. They work very well.
We have had so much ice this year the cloride roads are the worst they melt the snow a little and form a very hard clear ice at the bottom it usually works to keep a little more snow pack on so they are white instead of clear and shiny but all the rain changes that Usually run the teeth on graders this was a bit of experiment to use them on the underbody 2 of the graders carry another moldboard on the ripper with teeth so we can chip and plow at the same time or go over a intersection a few times with out having to change blades The power COOP here is similar when I was a kid Dad did a lot of tree cutting away from the lines now they have the entire right of way cleared and power is very reliable it was out for about 6 hours in a snow ice storm this year thats the longest in probably 10-15 years we had fuel in the pickup transfer tanks so we were able to keep plowing and not start a generator
Yeah, that's our problem, our private utility power company has been pocketing the money and not cutting back the tree's, any amount of wind the tree's take the power out every time, before the utility went private the province alway's had the tree's cut back and sprayed, never had very many outages in those day's.
We call them stingers here, I run them year round on my grader, in the winter for ice blading I always take every second one out, it breaks ice better and your machine pushes easier through the ice, makes deep grooves in the harder ice.
The boys on the sand trucks were busy today. Real mess. I went around and cleaned up some windrows, and spots where cars hade been parked during the storm. Going out a 3am to try and get a bunch hauled before the next little dump on Monday morning.
A neighboring Township used an 8ft section of an old grader moldboard to make a "dozer" blade for the front of their JD grader. It has a teeth blade on it all the time. Operator says it's handy to bust up ice and stop signs and intersections. He says it's a bit hard to control as it wants to "grab and suck down" but it beats nothing. I carry a dozer blade unless I need the V Plow. I use a smooth cutting edge. It's handy for widening large intersections. But mostly I carry it for front tire weight.
For years, tree maintenance occurred when a tree was on a line. Our semi-rural area had very frequent power outages after any windy spell. Ten years ago, we had a massive ice storm right before Christmas followed by a week of near zero temperatures. You couldn't drive a mile without seeing a line torn down. Something like 100,000 people were affected by the outage and it took almost two weeks to get cleared up and and power restored. Personal generators became scarce to buy anywhere within a couple hours of here. The public outcry was loud enough and reached far enough that the power companies actively started clearing right of ways of any brushy vegetation. Today, they're staying on top of it and power outages have become almost non-existent. I have a portable generator that I maintain for backup, but haven't needed in 2 years now. As for roads, we were completely thawed and raining a week ago. We've received 6-8" of snow this week which means lots of ice on all roadways and soft ground under a thick blanket of snow. Don't pull your truck off the gravel because it'll be stuck in a mire of muck if you do.
The moderate temps we have had most of the Winter would have created the same muddy mess as you and others describe if we had went into Winter with normal or excessive moisture. We are borderline drought so my roads have held up. Seems from the posts concerning electric Co-ops most have improved their services by maintaining power line vegetation. I wonder, was there no financial resources to dedicate to that problem then?
LOL, when our province turned over and sold our power service to the private sector for a dollar, they had to share info on their profits figures with the tax payers of the province and keep the power lines in good repair and tree's cut back every year, the last time I looked the power company made 300 billion in profits a year after they put very little money into repairs and tree cutting, they alway's wait till the province declares a state of emergency then the province has to pay half for any repairs, If it wasn't for the great service from the US Vermont power company helping us fix our lines and get our power back we would still be in the dark, now that hurricane Fiona is long gone by our power company is looking for a rate hike, the people of this province are furious, but I did get lots of grader work pushing tree's off the roads after the hurricane, we had no power for 13 days.
Oh wow!! I'd be furious too. What a ripoff!!! So they just wait for a disaster so they can do the maintenance on tax payer's dime!!!!
It seems that way, we had a rain storm here last week with wind gusts to less then 60mph nothing big really, but power outages all across the whole province including here, lost power for18 hrs, should never be a issue but keeps happening, its really awful.
Well got another 3 inches of snow and wind we have now received 50 inches of snow this winter got to try out my new plow and I absolutely love visibility is much better then the v plow plus clean up is much faster I was out today my average speed was 23mph and I can throw snow 10 feet on the other side of the fence with just the plow so that’s a big help here our pictures of it I took today.
I also will throw this picture in here drives me crazy to see operators dragging there wing in the ditch I don’t touch any snow with my wing unless it’s higher the the shoulder then I slope the banks back allowing snow a better chance to blow through the first photo is neighboring township who’s operator drags wing the now have 5to 6 feet of snow ridge up the whole mile we get another big storm and wind there going to need a blower vs my road having only a few spots a mile amazes me that they can’t see the difference.
The county my land is in has wider and deeper ditches so they can run the wing down in the ditch and the ridge is still lower than the road. Typically don't get enough snow that the ditches fill up with snow higher than the road.
That is a nice plow, I agree with the way you wing back your roads, lets the snow blow through, thanks so much for the pics
Got about 3-4 inches of snow here today, temps are going to drop really low the next few day's, we need it to lock the back roads up, hoping they wait till morning to call us out to do back roads, temps will be much colder, snow will be much lighter and won't tear up the gravel as bad.
Great pics 140 !!!! In my World it's obvious where the Township boundaries are. Not saying good/bad. Just saying different.
I see a section of highway before Truro is closed according to the weather network
C could be stupidity, or just lack of pride in ones work
Maybe was in a hurry to get other roads open and will come back to push the banks back once the emergency is over?
20-ish years ago we had 12" of snow with high winds that blew for 3 days. I was down to punching a single lane path thru the worst areas just so I could keep all the roads open. Had a guy call me and raise Hell about how narrow I was opening the roads. That was the 3rd day in and I was home mid day sleeping when he called. It didn't go well. I wanted to hold a grudge and leave his road til last. But his neighbor's didn't deserve to be punished for his ignorance.....
Yeah, a propane truck rolled and broke away from the truck on the Cobequid Pass, gas was leaking, so they shut down the highway, also a salt truck just outside Dartmouth on the 107 collided with a car, the lady of the car walked away just shook up luckily.
Yes, I get alot of couch foremens that has never sat in the seat of a grader, but they sure can tell you what your doing wrong, as a grader operator doing county roads these people don't realize the power you have to make their lives miserable, lol, I get great joy in knowing that, lol
Shared it before, but still true.
I'm in a city of about 1.1 million. The snow clearing is lacking a lot of times but my partner doesn't understand the scope of work to clear and remove snow from a city this large. Yes, some roads will be reduced to 1 lane each way because there's a huge windrow in the middle. There is no way they can clear and then pick up all the snow right after. They would need 5 times more the equipment and probably 5 times the budget to do all the main roads at the same time. Where there are real issues is in residential area's. The richer districts get much better and much faster service. Also certain people get preferential treatment on their streets. I know some people that life in a fancy district around a golf course. About 1/4 mile up the road was an MLA and later premieres house. They city would clear the snow down to pavement just past the "big shots" house and the rest of the road would be a couple ruts until it got so bad cars were getting stuck. Currently in the news $250 tickets were being given to residents in regular area's because their cars weren't moved. They were not given any notice and 3 days after the tickets, the roads still weren't cleared. The next day on the news people in a richer district weren't given the same tickets but their roads were actually getting cleared. People said it was a double standard but I think discrimination is a better term.
Well we are going back into a crazy temp swing for here, was -20c/12F this morning, then rising to +2c/34F for this evening with rain or snow, then flash freeze down to -40c/-8F with strong NW winds for a day or two, then rising to +3c/35F Sunday evening with some more rain to top it of on Monday morning, unbelievable the crazy temp swings this winter, are roads will go all to hell, guaranteed the power will be out again, people with these new fancy heat pumps will freeze to death, I'm old school I have a wood stove keeping me nice and warm.
Oh wow. And I bitch about small swings in temps with little or no moisture.....
Watched a video of snow removal in Montreal. There was a tow truck hauling cars away. He cleared the whole street, and then when they were done he brought them back.
We've had some good temperature swings in Alberta with more coming. The roads in my community are just ice because they weren't cleared soon enough.
Here's the video. It does not show the cars being moved, but at the very end they are bringing them back.
Looked like maybe they had no choice but to move them and owners were getting a ticket after they brought the car back.
That's quite the operation, makes for a busy night. thanks for sharing
Unfortunately that’s how he plows his roads all the time he only goes 10 to 12 mph dragging the wing makes no sense and flat out uncalled for I find the less you move the snow the better off you are.
Wow, the job doesn't even look finished.
I'm told there is a truck with a loud siren that warns people to move their cars. I think some cities have to park on one side of the street one storm, the on the other next storm. Here is no parking on the road from midnight to 7am during winter months. It surprises me that they bring them back if they are getting a ticket. Quebec has different rules anyway so........
Yeah I figured the owners would have to call the authorities to know which tow yard their car went to.
It looked to me the guy standing on the sidewalk might have been writing a ticket.
Its minus 27c here this morning, wind chill minus 45c, as expected the power is blinking on and off as a I type, soon it will be out altogether, Glad I have a wood stove, our private power supplier just got approved for a 14% rate increase for taxpayers, every person that sits on the power utility board that approves these raise hikes should be fired, our new supervisor at our shop had the salt trucks out last night salting roads at -21c, LOL, That's saving money on salt, LOL, she just keeps getting better.
Same temps here. No issues with power. Missing the wood heat, never should have got rid of it.
Around here they have what they call alternate side parking. Even days I think you park on even numbered side of street and odd days the odd side of street. I'm out in the country so don't deal with that! Only thing is I have to deal with plow knocking over mail box! And I think I helped with that as last time I redid the old milk can that holds it up I raised it about 8 inches, think now the wing of the plow fits under it either that or the wing man got a new pair of glasses! Used to be at least a half dozen times a winter I would be swapping out the mail box for the one I beat back into shape from the last hit, have two spares sitting on shelf in garage!
15 years ago I lived on a State paved hiway. I always bladed snow away from my mailbox before the State got there. I'd even push it back off the shoulder so the mailbox was easily seen sitting on the shoulder. Every year, at least once a year, they would knock it down. Last time they got it I had just finished clearing around it with the Grader. Had stopped at home to sleep. Getting out of the Grader and walking toward the house I see them coming. They sheared it off at the ground and threw it up on the bank. The next Spring I dug a 14" diameter hole 4' deep. Stood an 8" 1/4" wall steel pipe in the hole and concreted it in, including filling the pipe with concrete. Then I built an "arm" coming off the pipe to hold the box. I clamped it to the pipe just tight enough to hold the box, but loose enough that it could swivel if needed. Damnedest thing...... The State trucks don't hit that box anymore. They even slow down enough to not destroy the box with snow coming off their plows...... Isn't that odd.....
LOL
Have been getting spot rock put on where the phone cable contractor tore up my roads. Got twenty three 17T loads this week. Last night we started with light rain, then wee hours of the morning switched to heavy wet snow. Ended up with 2" of that. Sloppy mess. Glad the truckers got some rock hauled. Still have another 20 loads to go. Maybe early next week it'll be good enough to run again. Our temps are right at freezing. Worst place for them to be. I'd rather it was ten degrees colder and frozen. Yesterday I did see a flock of Snow Geese headed North. There's a large refuge SE of me 70 miles. Another one NW of me 70 miles. The migrating geese use these to transition from the Mississippi River valley East of me to the Missouri River Valley West of me. They are a little early this year. Usually don't see them until the third week of February. For about a month it's rare to go outside and not hear or see huge flocks of geese. There was approximately 500 in the flock I saw yesterday.
Temps are flip flopping here, bit of snow and a little rain on the back side tomorrow, maybe 3" of snow at most, just enough rain on top of the snow to turn the back roads to ice with a flash freeze coming in behind it, calling for a snow storm this coming Tuesday, weather models are still not in agreement yet on how much is coming, we have geese that fly south every fall and geese that stay around all winter, seen a flock of geese in a grain field yesterday, had to be a couple of hundred in it.
I used to go out every winter for the city I live near with my dump truck working with these snow blowers. They have a bylaw where during the winter months you cannot park on the roads after 11 pm until morning otherwise they tow your vehicle at your expense. Our city used to have all those self propelled Sicard's and Larue's but they have pretty much switched over to all wheel loader mounted Larue units that have their own engines. I miss those old self propelled Sicard's with their V12 Detroit Diesels.
I've always been interested in graders but have never run one, other than some snow plowing. So I have a dumb question. How hard is it to remove and re-install the wing blades? Is it more than a one man operation?
Mine is pretty simple. But when looking at most of the wings here, I don't have much. Mine hinges to the end of the moldboard and braces to the rear center of the moldboard. So when I pick up the moldboard I'm picking up the whole wing. Roll blade forward/backward changes pitch of the wing. Manually change the telescoping brace to change the angle, which I never do.
I had never seen one like that until I saw this thread. All the graders here use the mast type wings because we need the high benching capability because of the amount of snow we usually get.
Yep. Mine was originally designed to be used on the old rigid frame graders. The brace fastened between the tandems. The moldboard and wing were both angled the same direction. I built the "hinge" bracket that bolts to the end of the moldboard and welded to the end of the wing. Then built the brace. I can shift the table and put the wing just off the side of the V plow and open deep drifted areas. Has a lot of versatility. But isn't anywhere near as strong as the normal grader wing setups. I don't have enough snow that needs winged to justify the cost of a good wing. I think it's been 7 or 8 years since I've used it.
Snow here last night, and all day today. Around 5 inches. Was out most of the day, and going out again in the morning for some cleanup. Something is going to have to be done about the geese. Their population has exploded in the last couple years.
DOT here have steel post in their yards. The trucks drive up to them, chain the front of the wing to it, pull the pin, unhook the lines and drive away. To remove the wing posts, you need a fork lift or loader to lift them off, so might be safer with at least 2 people.
40 years ago the Conservation Department here in Missouri and in Iowa decided they wanted Canadian Geese to nest and Winter here. So they clipped the wings on paired geese and dumped them onto surrounding large ponds and lakes. It worked. Very rare to see migratory flocks of Canadians anymore. And they Winter here. Only moving farther South if cold weather drives them. Urbanites wanted to play the game too. So they "seeded" golf course ponds and scenic ponds amongst shopping areas. Now when you walk across the parking lots or on the sidewalks you watch for goose poop. It's everywhere. They walk around amongst the people. They are a bit aggressive when their goslings first hatch. Now the Urbanites cuss them.
They can give a person a pretty good thumping.
I don't care who you are,,,,, that's funny!!!!!
Well a storm is on our doorstep, calling for a foot of snow and strong winds, will be busy the next few nights
I'm west of you in northern Ontario and they were calling for some snow here, but it has been like summer the last few days. We didn't get anything. Sure been a strange winter.
Same down here. Forecast starts big and dwindles daily. Might forecast 5-6" and we get 1" or less. Saying 1-3" Thursday. We'll see.....
5 to 10 on Friday. Beautiful out right now. Might see if the daughter wants to go snowshoeing after school.
We got a 4 day break from the wind and snow had 4 days around 35 to 40 degrees so started to melt the banks down some at least now it’s 37 and and raining there talking half inch of rain then 2 to 3 inches of snow tonight with 40 to 50 mph winds so that will be a mess hopefully it doesn’t snow and won’t have to go out all the rain is really making a sloppy mess on a positive note I got my Deere machine all washed up definitely was long overdue I have the luxury of a truck wash 4 miles from my shop cost me 21 dollars to wash it plus have hot water pressure washer definitely nice plus I don’t have to clean up the mess
We got about a foot of snow, was nice plowing with the ground froze for a change, now they are calling for a slight warm up to +10c/42F and light rain then flash freeze with freezing rain with the temp drop, talk about ice then on the back roads, my god the weather has been crazy flip flopping temps here on the coast.
Yeah, it's -17C right now, then tonight is going to be +3 and rain. They have upped Friday to 15cm of snow
Man, I'm embarrassed to even mention our weather. You guys have gotten my worst nightmare for weather this Winter!!! My roads would be 4 wheel drive only..... I'm going to the shed and plug in the grader this afternoon. One weather app says 1-3" tonight and 1-3" tomorrow morning with 25-35mph wind. Another app says 5-9" total. Hard wind all day tomorrow. Low tomorrow night of 6F. I'm hoping they shot high again as they have all Winter. Last time we had 1-3" forecast we barely got an inch. Cat140 , got her looking good!!!!
I'm in the mine right now half way between Dubreuilville and White River, Ontario. It was plus 4*C yesterday and through the night. Poured rain hard all night. Now it's snowing and blowing and supposed to be minus 20*C overnight. The temperature swings have been crazy this year.
As they have here. Our Major Winter Storm Warning has fizzled again. We got barely an inch of snow. Has a little ice under it but not bad. Wind was supposed to blow 30mph. Might be blowing 10mph. It's 26F this morning at 0800. Forecasting 6F for a low tonight but I'm doubting it. Will be back above freezing for a high tomorrow.
I moved some snow around last night for 5 hours or so. I couldn't get over how mild it was. It rained, and it was like a warm rain in summer. The pile was frozen hard in the middle, from all those wet heavy storms. Still calling for 10 to 15 Friday, but Monday has changed to rain so far.
We might have picked up another inch thru today. Wind is NW at 15-20mph. No significant drifting. No pushing for me. My roads are thawed underneath. I went to the "city", County Seat, this morning. Drove almost all the way there and back in 4wd. Roads were above freezing temp by a degree or two when this started. So it all turned to ice. You could see the center line of the hiway under it. Couldn't stop to save your butt. Felt the truck drifting in the corners. I could see three trucks off the Interstate when I went across the overpass. The State Hiway Patrol won't allow wreckers to retrieve anything that's not blocking traffic until conditions improve.
They have upped tomorrow's snow to 30cm, or a foot. Every 10cm is about 4 inches. I always did inches, but all the government grades, and the younger surveyors do everything in metric. I still translate in my head, but. I'll give them measurments in feet and inches, they convert to metric, do their calculations, and give it back to me in standard. Our asphalt plant batches in tons, but the scales are in tonnes
We are getting Freezing rain for here, with some snow on the back side, was +16c/ 48F here yesterday, summer like, Crazy temps for mid Feb, looks like we will be going back in the deep freeze later next week, Yes, I always do the conversion in my head from Metric to standard, I'm just old school, I prefer the standard measurement, that's what I grew up with.
We ended up with a half inch of rain then it flash froze everything turning in to snow ended up with an inch with 40 to 50 mph winds so made a mess out of the roads drifts were hard and snow pushed hard kinda crazy in 12.5 hours I burned 94 gallons of fuel and a half of a tank of def my fuel guy has been filling my fuel barrel weekly this winter crazy amount of fuel I’ve went through.
Sounds like everyone is having some crazy February weather. We were 55°F, light winds on Tuesday, snow all gone, beautiful spring-like day. Wednesday had 40s for the high and cooling off throughout the day with high winds, 25-35mph all day. Thursday it started drizzling in the morning and the temperatures dropped off to just below freezing which brought a lot of ice on everything. After dark, it kept raining and the temp continued to drop. Sometime after midnight it finally switched to snow, but at this point, there was ¼"+ ice on everything. The temp dropped all the way to about 15°F. We picked up an inch of snow, but all the schools closed Friday morning due to road conditions. I went to a hydraulic shop to pick up some parts Friday morning and couldn't hardly walk across their parking lot because of the ice. The sun came out and temps rose to upper 20s again. With the full sun, the roads were clear and dry by 5pm. Today, its supposed to be full sun and upper 40s again, staying above freezing for 3 or 4 days again. Been a very mild winter overall for us.
We got a potential of a big storm coming in on Tuesday through Thursday 6 to 18 inches of snow 20 to 40mph winds for the duration of the storm things are going to get very interesting if we get all that snow with wind I have room for it on my roads although lots of my other townships who drag wing are going to have a real tough time getting roads open.
4th day of ice cutting after our inch of rain I really wanted to keep the nice easy plowing winter road longer but they shined like glass between the 3 graders we have about 200 miles done and start on another 40 mile township tomorrow that we don't usually plow but needs some help with ice and snow pack
How do you like that slopemeter? I'm thinking of getting one to use for my oval track with 3 to 4% banked corners.
Are you using stingers/sandviks for cutting the ice on your roads?
Yes they are loaded with stingers it had got below zero and that ice cut hard front wheels in the air most of the day it was to slippery to steer with them anyways when it warmed up on the afternoon got quite a bit easier Slopemeter is the first thing that goes on when we get a grader they help greatly to carry a constant crown boss has been in a greater since 1968 and won't run with out one. Slopemeter brand is made here in Minnesota so you know they are good
Our snow and ice all left yesterday, temps in low 50Fs. I have a 15 mile view to the South at my house. This morning at 0700 looking as far as I could see to the SW, across the horizon to as far as I could see to the SE was a constant string of snow geese. 10s of thousands of them. They started their day early. Usually don't see them that heavy until mid morning. Also saw three Deer grazing in the CRP field in front of my house. They were obviously grubbing new growth on the ground.
I have been using stingers for a long time now, use them year round, when using them for ice blading during the winter works I always take every second one out putting in a plug to keep the hole from wearing, you will find that your machine pushes through the ice easier and breaks the ice alot better, keeps your front wheels on the ground also, I always carry the plow in the front for extra weight, some here don't, there's my tip for today.
I'm curious how the individual stingers would last in dirt. I made a heavy drag beam to go on a 3pt. hitch and welded 15 bucket tooth shanks on it to act as a heavy harrow. It works great but the teeth wear much faster because you can drive faster than a bucket ever goes through the ground. The current teeth are worn flat and I was thinking about welding carbide tipped stinger adapters on them. Would the shanks wear out too fast for the carbide tips to be worthwhile? Is there something else that could last longer than standard bucket teeth?
Stingers would last longer, but do wear too, easy to replace though, I always rotate mine around to get the most wear before replacing.
They look like the teeth on a milling machine. Do you have to keep the free moving. I know on the miller, if they stop spinning, they wear faster. The fella from miller said they used to try to keep them free, but it was cheaper to just change them as they started to wear on one side. We use that same slope meter on all our graders. Very well made. You just need to remember that it reads where you are, and not where you are going. If you want 3%, and the meter starts to show 5, chances are you need to go back to where it shows 3 and judge your cut as you feel it in your ass. Just like a dozer, your best indicator are your eyes and ass. I wear a ball cap low on my forehead sometimes as the back ground can give you a false sense of grade, and the peak of the hat can block out the back ground. Having the slope meter, can verify your suspicions.
Yes you have to keep them freed up, I use tranny fluid poured over them, seems to work the best, keeps the rust away in the sockets and the spring retainer on the stinger itself, but after a while they will wear in and you get a flat spot, I turn them to get the longest wear out of them, easy to do, got just about 4 years out of my last blades on the H series, just replaced stingers when I needed to.
Thanks for the info. on stingers. I don't think they'd turn for my application and the shanks would wear. I saw an ad for hardfacing used on bucket teeth so I think I'll try that. Hardface the middle so they retain a point better and hopefully wear longer.
I always get each end of the outer blades hard surfaced and in about a foot on the back from the ends, these new stinger blades I'm using has a extra wear plate that bolts on with the blades when you install them, helps save the surface of the main blade, we are using the cheapest blades so extra has to be done to them to make them last, there are stinger blades out there that are completely hard surface plated and last forever, but pricy.
That's unlike a province to cheap out on stuff.....
Well we’re staring down the barrel of a good 3 day blizzard here 11 to 18 inches of snow and 45 to 50 mph winds going to be a big mess hopefully the forecasters miss this one but I’m doubtful.
We haven't had a three day storm in the longest time, maybe 9 hour storms at the most anymore, none of the new operators have never experienced a good old 3 day storm, when I first started with the department there were lots of them and lots of snow to push with them, have fun.
Remember White Juan in 2004?
I've always been a one man show. Back in the day when we had a couple multi day storms each Winter I lived in the Grader. Run until you can't figure out why the blade is moving???? Oh,,,,, I'm pulling/pushing the lever and didn't realize it. Back into a farm field gateway and crash in the seat for 30 minutes, then back at it. Didn't have a Cell Phone. Couple times a day my wife would get in the 4wd truck and come looking for me. Once she saw me still working she'd go back home. I don't miss those days at all. I'm not as hearty as I once was.....
Yes I sure do, 4ft of snow came over night, 12 ft drifts everywhere, went 22 day straight in a row, that ever happened here again we would be screwed, the department thinking they would save a few bucks sharpened their pencils and got rid of alot of our big gear for pushing snow, all we have now is these Epokes mounted to a Mack which are pretty much useless in any amount of snow, and graders with a couple of 6 wheel drive western stars kicking around, all our big plow trucks, blowers, dozers and big loaders are gone, I often think if we could just get a couple big 3-4 day storms like we use to, so the bean counters could get caught with there pants down, just seems the weather is just not cooperating the last few years, all in their favor, if this weather keeps up they will be sharpening their pencils again.
Seems like the winters I used to get here have moved south. I see many of the States getting hammered. Usually I get 13.5 feet of snowfall (snowfall, not depth on ground) but still lots of depth on ground but this winter we've basically only got two weeks of snowfall. I plowed 7 days straight Christmas week and only had one other week where I plowed a couple days in a row. Can't say I miss it though. But it sure is a pain when we keep going from plus 4*C one day to minus 20 to 40*C overnight. Pretty much all of Lake Superior is still open water. But the winds seem to be blowing all the Lake effect storms south this time.
Yeah, if we hadn't had that early cold spell in December we'd have had an exceptionally easy Winter. I have never trusted huge temp swings. Always comes with wind. Which means you never know what you are going to get. My area, 50 miles across, has been in a drought bubble for six months. Go 50 miles in any direction and their moisture total rises fast. This last snow we barely got 2". 25 miles NW got 6".
Now I know what you guys further south have always had to deal with. This wet heavy melting snow sucks. Even with our old heavy snowfall, it was always easy to deal with because you knew by December it would be minus 20*C and colder, then stay there. So any snow was always powder and once you got your base made it stayed until spring. I still haven't got to play with that new Elphinstone Cat UG120. Still waiting for Cat to come and commission it at the mine.
Temp swings are destroying paved roads here. Spring weight restrictions are starting to the south of me this Sunday night, and here the following week. Earlier than ever.
Even here on the Trans Canada 17 between White River and the Sault. I came home yesterday afternoon and I can't believe how much washboard and potholes are in the highway in just over a weeks time now. It's like the frost is coming out already.
Our weight restrictions went on last week. Thats the earliest I've seen them on in a long, long time. As per local law, they have to stay on until April 15th now, whether everything dries up or not. The freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw cycle we've had this winter has destroyed a lot of our asphalt roads. Certain stretches are absolutely horrible to drive right now.
How do they work you restrictions? Here they allow extra weight for things like snow buildup. A lot of guys run up to the limit, but if you go over your allowed snow weight, your fined as if the tolerance was not there. When the roads close, main highways are 100% with no tolerance, then secondary roads will be 80%, and some 70%, and the odd road will be closed to truck traffic altogether.
Michigan has roads listed as All Season, or Seasonal, when discussing weight restrictions. All Season roads have no restriction, but these are usually Interstates, State Roads, and Class A Primary roads. Everything else becomes Seasonal and is affected by the weight restrictions. When the restrictions are started, all axle load limits are reduced 35%. Basically caps all tires to a max weight of 450 pounds per inch of width. So, a pair of tandems that could gross 34,000 pounds is reduced to a maximum of 22,100 pounds. A 12,000 pound steer axle can't gross over 7800 pounds. It really shuts down local vocational type work mostly. Freight that sticks to interstates and primary roads moves as normal. Local deliveries get reduced, our milk hauler has to change his route to reduce his load to comply, etc. The guy delivery our bedding sand hauls 20ton loads instead of his usual 25ton loads. And yes, the weigh officers are out and patrolling with scales during this time. Every year, we hear of someone getting stopped, weighed and fined for not complying in our local region. We try not to sell any grain this time of year because of the extra loads it takes to move the same volume. We had to delay setting trusses on a new barn years ago because the crane couldn't get a permit to come down the secondary road to our farm. The framers couldn't get the barn ready before the weight restrictions started, and the crane couldn't shed anymore weight. I did look it up again, the law states March 1st to May 1st, but is subjective to actual conditions to when they can be enforced and when they can stop the weight restrictions.
Our weight restrictions go on the 27th of this month, that is early for here, usually last week of march, all primary roads like routes and the TC are not affected by the restrictions, just secondary roads have the signs up, I'm am seeing alot off truckers that haul wood in a big panic stockpiling wood road side on the roads not affected by the restrictions lately.
I remember from my highway truckin days, the Nova Scotia closed the same time as southern New Brunswick, and we closed the following week. The mills here have been taking wood 24 hrs to make sure they have enough till the restrictions lift in May. Normally during the Victoria day weekend here, and a week before that for you guys.
Yeah that's right, our main mill now their lot is full to the max right now, they have drop the price on pulp wood by 20 bucks a ton this last week, Truckers and cutters are not happy with that with the cost of fuel and everything else today, as far as road restrictions I was in the office today and they told me if it stay's cold the Restrictions will be lifted but put in place if it goes mild, with these crazy temp swings could be minus 15c for a week then plus 15c for another week.
We're getting it here too. I plugged in the grader this evening. Gonna try to clean up some roads tomorrow morning. It's 20F now at 1830. I drove some roads a couple hours ago and they are extremely soft out of the "track". Hoping they'll firm up enough tonight to let me do some repairs. Roads are so soft now that I can't get a rock truck in to deliver some relief. Our situation will improve quickly if we can just get some stable weather. For those not familiar with the World we live in, I need an inch or maybe two inches of hard rain. That would settle my roads. This dusting or snow and sleet crap isn't working.
We got nailed with this last storm got 13 inches of snow 20 to 40 mph wind from 3 different wind directions my roads are a mess very slow going opening roads with 4 to 10 ft drifts in a lot of spots definitely going to be a long cleanup process
Wow, nice pics, lol, I want what you have not the temp swing winter were having, I don't like this type of winter we are having at all, was hoping everything would have freeze up early and have a normal winter with lots of snow this season, this has been by far the worst winter I've seen in this area ever, Snow, rain, rinse, mud, thanks for sharing it made my day.
20/80 , you can have it. I don't want what he has at all..... Oh wow. Awesome pics. Thanks for the update. I can see that the wind was still blowing when you took these pics. I haven't had anything like that for ten years..... I'm so Blessed...
Started my other two townships today and had same bad drifting although had one road I could not get open drift was in a big cut up a big hill all of 12 to 13ft deep first time I’ve ever not been able to open road with blade and v plow
Reminds me of the drift I had at the waste ore dump at the mine on the hill that connects the upper and lower pads. I had to dig through it with the loader for 2 hours. Gotta love those wide open areas when there's high winds.
When I lived on PEI I seen alot of drifts like that back in my younger days, they alway's used big loaders with V plows to get through them, lots of wide open areas that drift on PEI, I remember them plowing the fields along side the main roads so they would fill in first instead of the roads, thanks for sharing.
I think I put a video on here once of a loader with a V on the island. Crazy deep. I remember when I used to run the old 14E. We had a few storms in the city where I couldn't get through a drift, and they sent the blower up to get through.
Awesome pics!!!!
In 2015 PEI got hit with a huge snow and wind storm, my uncle sent me some pics after the storm of a really big Cat loader trying to open up the road across from his house, In the pic the loader was reaching as high as the loader could lift and all you could see was the top of the Vplow nothing else, just making it over the drift with the snow was a challenge for the loader, crazy, our Mack epokes would be completely useless if we had that big of a storm, not sure if I can find the picture but you can see that storm clean up for PEI on youtube.
Well we have another storm on the horizon, calling for a foot of snow on Friday if the forecast holds with some strong NorthEast winds, It has been cold here the last week or so, I'm glad we finally got some frost in the ground, so much nicer for plowing, our snow is coming late in the season, hopefully it won't come in as rain on Friday.
Was calling for 15 to 20 here, but now down to 5 to 10, but it looks like a little bit every day till Sunday, starting tomorrow night.
Had my girlfriend come out and take some pictures of me pushing back some bad spots thought they turned out pretty good
They sure did come out good! Awesome pics and sweet machine!
Great pics, Awesome operator, thanks for sharing
They turned out great!!! She got the cold job!!!!
Snow fall cut way back to flurries tomorrow, and less than 5cm (2 inches ) for Thursday.
Well,,, at least I'm glad to see that your weather people up there inflate things just like they do down here.
We live in a river valley, and they claim that is why it's hard to predict our weather. I don't want to jinx it, but we have not had a nor'easter this year at all.
They are giving 10-20 cm for here Thursday/Friday, that still could change and we could get dry slotted, the only thing the weather man is accurate on this winter is the amount of rain it seems, snow predictions and models are all over the place.
couple inches down and still snowing. Go out tonight for some cleanup. Tomorrow is down to flurries. First day of March baby!!!!!!!!!!
If our weather holds I'll be putting on my annual gravel in two weeks!!! Can't complain down here. We've had the easiest Winter I can recall having. Our total Winter snowfall is under 12". I have lived vicariously thru you guys all Winter. I appreciate you letting me ride along!!
There is a winter storm warning for here now, 30cm/ 1 foot of snow coming with strong Northeast Winds, we will see if the model holds, if it does I will be busy.
Well we got about 10 inches some places a foot of snow, it came down quick about 6-7 hours, was out all last night for the clean up, my partner on the other shift bent the wing tower, he was going to fast and the wing caught the edge of the pavement coming out off a back road, top of the tower is moved ahead about 6 inches, the mount that connects to the goose neck that the tower bolts to is twisted and both braces are bent, he was not wearing his seat belt and hit the little combat window face first, he may have whip lash, so not sure what the department will do, not sure if you can straighten it with that bad of a twist, may need to be replaced, you can still use the wing but you have to be careful the front of the wing wants to dig in all the time, the banjo bolt will also have to be replaced it has stretched and the wing flops back and forth when winging, drives me crazy, no reason to be in such a big hurry, that's when stuff breaks.
We ended up with about 4 inches, and it warmed up around noon yesterday, and everything is back to bare pavement. Was talking to the city grader man at the coffee shop for e sec. He has a dandy wing on his Volvo. Not sure of the make. The rear arm attaches to the back ripper. It's tall, not really ideal for city work. the rear curl must be a little over 4 feet high.
Maybe heading your way next weekend, Christmas Mountains area, for alittle snowmobile trip, nice to get away for a couple of days, never been in that area before.
If you stay in Miramichi, try to get into the Ramada. They sell weekend trail pass's, and the main trail runs right through their yard. I think Bathurst has a few spots that cater to sleds as well.
Thanks, buddy I'm going with like rides in NB every second weekend, knows his way around the trails, he is making all the arrangements for us where to stay and ride from, looking foward to it, thanks for the pics, not use to groom trails.
You'll probably be going to the Bathurst area. The club here leaves the groomers at our asphalt plant. It's about an hour from there to the edge of the Bathurst club. It's about a 22 hour round trip with the groomer. Should be lots of good conditions for sleds. Peak season now, lots of snow, and milder conditions.
You guys mind if I add my fun here? I spent the day opening up a logging mainline and plowed the deepest snow for me yet. Climbing the hill it started at nothing and a few miles up it was around 3 feet deep. I did fine without chains up to about 18 inches, then threw a set on the front. Made it to the top of the hill and got stuck turning around so put the others on. I was wishing for a wing! I spent a lot of time with the saddle in the far hole pushing the berm up and back. I was able to plow it down in layers. First pass was about 18 inches, then about 6 inches at a time from there until I found the road. I was smart enough to start the berm as far away as I could on the downhill side and then worked as much as I could that way since there's only so much room on the ditch side and had a decent amount of road surface when I was done. Supposed to finish Monday down the other side so a lowboy can move equipment through the woods instead of on the freeway.
Beautiful here today. Just above freezing. Calling for snow on Wednesday. Some fresh stuff to eat the old stuff away.
How is the operator? Machines are relatively easy to fix. People, not so much.
He's doing good, back on the go
Just got back from Bathurst, had a great trip and seen some nice lodges and trails, alittle sore, put on 400miles in a day and a half, yes weather moving in for Tues night into Wed, a Nor'Easter they call it, giving 40cm/16 inches of snow and strong winds for here and 5 mm rain, now that's if the forecast holds, the back roads are all soft again, isn't that nice to look forward to, lol
Glad you had a good trip. I've snowmobiled right into April before, but the water crossings get a bit iffy. The sun yesterday and today is really chewing up the snow, and the fresh stuff coming will really take the old stuff away in a hurry. My nephew is heading to Yarmouth Monday to work. He runs a drill rig for blasting.
Great pics!!!!!
Forecast has changed this morning for here, 10inchs of snow with 10mm rain on the back side and strong winds, going to be a mess and heavy pushing on soft mud roads, going to have lots of fixing to do this spring when the grading starts.
Thanks for sharing, nice pics, wondering why you don't have chains on the rears when you started out for pushing snow, thinking it would be hard on the front drives with the only chains on at the time, I always start at the rears first, I'm thinking the front was the easiest to put on at the time, lol
Yep, definitely easier! I didn't know how deep it would get and often I can get by without chains if it's no more than a foot. The tires are about done and have enough little cuts in them that they make pretty good snow tires. I figure the front end isn't pulling any harder with chains in snow than it is on packed gravel and it steers better as well so I always start there. I can't pull real hard with the front without it wanting to spin and hop even with chains on so I don't think it's gonna hurt anything. The logging roads we work on are rarely straight for more than a couple hundred yards and are usually corner after corner across a steep sidehill so I like to know it's going to come around when I turn the wheel. I was parked about 18 miles from where I was plowing so I wasn't going to leave them on for the drive back and forth and then I only had about 5 hours that I needed them so I wasn't going to put the full set on if I could avoid it. I ran with just the fronts again today. The snow was pretty wet so it would have been nice to have them all but the lowboy was breathing down my neck so I didn't want to take the time to put them on. Is that enough excuses to avoid throwing chains? Ha!
I've only put on a chain out on the road once. That was when a side link broke and I lost one. If I think I need chains, I chain up before leaving the shed. Actually, I'm so wussy and OCD that if I think I need chains, I chain up the day before.
We don't get a lot of snow and even less down low so I can easily be plowing up the hill to a logging job first thing in the morning and grading the mainline down at the bottom the rest of the day. The one time I chained up the day before, it didn't amount to near as much as the weatherman thought.
Did some cleanup the last 2 days. Not a lot of snow, maybe 10 inches, but it lasted all day Wednesday, and into Thursday morning. Real slippery too, nothing frozen anymore. Today was a beauty day, great to see the sun getting higher in the sky. Hit 10c or 50F for a while. Be making ready for pave in no time.
Not much out of the storm they were calling for, 2-3 inches at most with rain on the back side, real slop, inland got about 6inches with rain also, was hard scraping those roads where they were so very soft, nothing left here now of the hyped up storm, spring on the horizon, grading season will come early I'm hoping, just need some warmer sunny day's with some wind to dry things up, but sometimes April can be dirty.
We got about 2 inches of snow with lots of wind so roads were bad but to make matters worse it rained and took frost out of roads so under the snow was soft ground very challenging to move this last snow now it’s starting to melt so working at night when it’s froze to push bad spots back in the ditch hopefully keep the roads from turning to crap while we melt snow hopefully the end is near washed my 2016 140M3 yesterday afternoon got a whole skid loader bucket of crap off the blade been a long winter definitely ready for spring
We have another system heading in Thurs evening, calling for 10" snow with some rain on the back side, should be real nice trying to plow that off the gravel roads, the roads are soft as heck with the warm temps during the day's, they are calling for another system on Sunday dropping another 6" of snow on the back roads, hard on the nerves
Long ranger shows snow all next week. I got a call yesterday wondering if I was going to be around. I guess there are 5 going away this weekend, so I guess my to do list will be expanding.
We continue to miss wet weather predictions. My roads are pretty solid for this time of year. Wanting to start getting my rock on. But we get a misty, nasty wet day about every three. Just enough to make the roads sloppy for a few hours. Of course, when the weekend comes everything is great. And the Quarry is closed.....
I find what they forecast for a area and what we get can be very different at times, this time of year though snow won't last, temps get to warm during the day, depending on the amount of snow we get it may not be worth plowing the back roads off especially when they are very soft.
You guys live my worst nightmare. My roads are dry and solid unless you get next to the ditch. My rock hauler called me this afternoon. He'll start hauling my rock Monday.
We had about 4-6 inches of wet snow, melted fast, back roads are wet and very soft to scrape off, we left alot of the backroads today, we were sinking to deep into the mud leaving huge ruts, the hills were the worst, calling for another round of snow this coming Sunday.
Another little dump coming tonight. I have been sick since I plowed on Friday. I think I have sweat off 10 pounds. Feeling a bit better. Hopefully good enough by 3am, or it's gonna be a shakey plow job
Hope your feeling better, starting to snow here now, calling for 4-6 inches
I've pushed snow sick twice. It's brutal.
I graded 8 miles of road this morning. Rock hauler will start tomorrow.
Well our storm on Sunday didn't amount to much here, light dusting at most, our forecasters are having a hard time getting in right, even close, lol, hopefully the weather will turn more spring like get my back roads dried up, I have a lot of work to do getting my roads back after this mild soft winter.
I've spent the past two days grading roads for rock. Yesterday evening I took my snow plow lights off. Jinxed myself. We got 2" of snow last night. No frost in ground with partly cloudy skies today. It'll be gone by noon.
always the way, nice pic
We got about 8 inches, but everything cleaned up good. Safety course on Thursday. The crazy B@#ch wants us to bring our boots in so she can make sure they are CSA approved. I'm sure she won't like the fact that they are only 6 inch instead of 8. She has been on a chin strap for hard hats rant since last fall. Must go see if I can find some dog crap to step in before I take my boots in.
We are safety coursed to death, can't count how many times I took A traffic control course, first aid, and diversity courses, all our courses start out now with 15 mins of thanking the Natives for the use and allowing us to be on their land, seems to be lots of money for this, but no money for steer tires on the salt trucks, it only keeps getting better.
Up until the last 3 years or so, DOT, or DTI they call it now, they had no safety. I was on my way to Moncton on the 126, and they had a 1 ton in the middle of the road with the 4ways on, patching pot holes. No signs, no flaggers, not even an amber light on the truck. 126 is a 90km road, so everyone does at least 110. On road contracts, the inspectors used to want hard hat and vest now it's sign inspections 3 times a day, field level hazard assesment cards and tool box talks every morning, hats, vests glasses. Stay in the 2km work zone, flag signs within 200meters of the flaggers. They went from zero to overkill
Its overkill here within reason
Tomorrow is the spring foreman orientation. She has also been on a kick to get rid of a follow me truck on jobs. I intend on fully disagreeing with her on that. On any road job, we are allowed a 2km work zone for signs. You can have as many 2km work zones as you want, but each one has to be signed. Construction next 2km, men working and flaggers. The zones can overlap, but the flaggers must be within 200 meters of the flag signs. In a moving job like paving, or shouldering, you are constantly moving flaggers, and signs. With a follow me truck, you sign and work the entire zone. Flaggers have radios, and they talk to the follow me truck as well. The follow me truck is like the pace car, and slows the traffic down where we are working. Without it, as soon as the traffic goes by the flaggers, especially on a new paved road, it's foot to the floor.
I agree with you, to many cowboy's flying through a work site as it is without the follow me truck, bigger work sites should have them for sure, even though they are a pain to drivers, people just have to many distractions going on in their vehicles today while driving it seems, cell phones are the worst
20/80, since this thread has been so successful, how bout starting a Summer Works thread? We can use the two to keep up with each other year around. Course, I may be a bit premature for you Northenas.
Sounds like a great idea, love chatting with you guy's,
Hi guy's, been busy the last couple of months, haven't posted much on the forum, well its that time of the year again, how time fly's when you get older, later getting my machine ready for plowing snow, still don't have my wing on yet, calling for a snow event tonight for here, lol, back roads will be soft no frost in them at all, wondering what everybody is up to, winter will soon set in
We got a dusting last night. Not a lot of frost in the ground, but it's hard enough. No grader plowing this year again. I noticed they had covered the exhaust on it the other day. Spent Friday moving loaders down to the malls for the pending snow that we never got yesterday. Hope it is not a snow then rain winter again.
No snow for me down here yet been really nice weather mid 40’s up to 60 here last couple weeks next two weeks look mild also just really dry no moisture all last month haven’t put any snow equipment on probably won’t till we have some cold weather or we got a storm coming got one of my new cat 150s showing up end of December excited to get that machine.
That seems to have been the trend the last couple of years, thinking we will get the snow to rain then flash freeze trend, hoping for more cold weather and a couple of feet of frost to kill off those dam ticks
Yeah its been kinda the same here weather wise, but living on the Atlantic ocean we get crazy weather bombs that can come in as snow, please send pics of your new 150, thanks
Our department is in a panic racing around trying to get the salt plow trucks ready for this upcoming storm, lol caught with there pants down
I will definitely get some good pictures my board let me spec it out so definitely excited to get plus I get all new snow equipment with it
Hi guy's, well we got a foot of wet snow dropped on us out of this last storm on Monday in my area, was hard pushing, we left the back roads for a day than had to scrape them, mould board only the plow just wanted to dig in where it was so soft, slow going, things have frozen up now with the drop in Temps and was doing some ice blading yesterday, light rain is now in the Forecast lol, so that should make things interesting, temps are suppose to warm up on the weekend so hopefully the back roads will clear off, I'm hoping this won't be the trend for the winter, still working on getting my machine ready, no wing and tower on yet, just front plow, should have her ready by next week, my partner is studding the front tires today, putting on front fenders, and plow lights also.
Just a skim here. Been cold, but supposed to warm up. Been at our quarry all week digging shot rock from the face for the crusher. It's about an hour north of here, and there is about 6 inches of snow there.
Going to be mild the next few days, high of plus 10c/45F with high winds 100KM/65MPH on Monday with some rain, Don't like this trend
Yeah the little dusting we had is gone, same here plus 15 rain and high winds
-9C/24F here this morning, weather front moving in for this area, forecasting 146mm/6" rain and high winds plus 12C/44F over a 3 day event, expecting lots of back road washouts and flooding and power outages, when the cold starts setting in could be some major snow storms if the pattern holds, going to be busy next few days
Yeah real crazy temp swings. It has been cold enough that there is about a foot of frost in the ground, and rain most of this week
Going to be a wild night, we are having some troubles with our 140m as of no surprise, lol, 2 lights on, one is saying high hyd fluid temp, we figure that one is a sensor, not sure what the other one is, also we were backing it out the other day to clean the bay out and it seemed to have locked its brake on right side, moved ahead and back and it seem to let go, hoping its not another tandem chain issue, has anyone had trouble with their brakes locking on their 140m's and what would cause them to lock, thanks
That foot of frost is gone. Crazy temp swings
Yes, we have alot of flooding here, it has turned cold now, freezing rain, ice pellets at the present time, and snow this evening, what a mess
A foot of snow has fallen ontop of the flooding and washouts, what a mess to say the least, nothing but mud under the snow on the back roads, what a nightmare, just got power and Internet back after two days in the dark, hope this is not going to be our trend for the winter, the water has dropped now but was 3-4 feet deep over some main roads here, alot of people where blocked in and couldn't be reached easily, seen a few cabins floating in the lakes and down river, its a good thing the river wasn't froze up with ice we would need boats to get around, crazy weather
still not a flake here, which is crazy considering you're not that far away.
Y yeah, your in the snow belt more than here, crazy weather
I bought a new snowmobile in 1996, and it was just like this. I couldn't use it till the end of January
We have had great mild weather last 2 weeks and of course the week of Christmas we got a storm coming in starting out as rain saying inch of rain then freezing rain the 2 to 8 inches of snow going to put plows on hopefully it will just rain. Merry Christmas everyone and stay safe out there
I got behind this new John Deere the other day, heading out to a customer. I never did see the model number.
I expect to be called out tomorrow, Alot of the back roads need major repairs done, with all the flooding a lot of the back roads got washed out, lol, they wouldn't dare call us in during the holiday's they would have to pay the extra, lol, Happy holiday's everyone!!!
Well we kinda got lucky not much snow lees then an inch although had lots of rain freezing rain and sleet so I’ve been out ice blading trying to get rid of all the mess on the roads I think I would of rather had snow ice is never fun.
Yes for sure, my prediction for here is mid Jan will turn more to being snowy, with the odd warm up with some freezing rain, sleet and rain than flash freeze, I will be ice blading soon enough
It's mid January, anybody getting any snow yet? We got a cold snap and got 12-18 inches in the woods. I got to plow powder which was fun and had to chain up for some steep narrow roads which wasn't so much. I like to make my first pass throwing the snow to the downhill side and then widen the ditch side which puts less for the ditch to handle when it melts. I had eight miles of road to plow where a previous operator left a big berm of hard rocky snow on the ditch side not quite to the shoulder, so I had to deal with opening the road wider bumping the berm over where I could without blasting all the rock in the berm into the ditch. Not sure why it was done that way. Snow never stays around long and there were no trucks running so no reason to dig into the rock and also why I prefer not to work behind other operators. But I still had fun. I opened up a lowboy turnaround and hopped out for a quick picture with Mt. St Helens
That grader should go through just about anything with chains on all 6 drive wheels. Is a standard practice to lower all the attachments when you get out of the grader? I just put a ripper on my grader and I'd worry if I lowered it the solenoid to lift it would fail or a hose would blow. Kind of a murphy's law type thing. Supposed to warm quite a bit to single digit -C lows. I'll go out and clear the driveway and see if I can scrap a bunch of saplings off that grew like crazy after the fire in 2010. They're a pain to get through if I have to pump water from a pond in the middle of them. I'll try with the grader and if it doesn't work I'll try the track loader or backhoe. I still have the mower on the tractor but it's a finish mower and I don't want to damage it cutting the saplings. I'd guess they're 1/4" to 3/8" diameter. Hopefully the -40C deep freeze we just had froze them really good so they shear off.
It goes pretty good. Last year I plowed several miles of former railroad grade, (easy turns and gentle grades) that was 2-3 feet deep. I was able to make it a long ways before needing any chains at all due to the tires having lots of small rock cuts in them kind of like siping but now I have new tires. Lowering hydraulic attachments is required by the timber company.
We had 3 inches of snow then change over to rain and washed most of it away last evening, temp went from -9c to plus 9c and going to drop quickly to -6 this afternoon, I would say there is ice on the back roads, going to be iceblading for a few day's I would say, staying cold for the next few day's, have been out a few times keeping the ice at bay on the back roads
I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos of graders plowing snow, some are set up with front blades and a wing but many are using the center mounted blade only for plowing snow. I've seen them used on both gravel and paved roads. I've plowed snow for 40+ years but with trucks and loaders only. I'm familiar with the hidden hazards one can encounter while plowing and have wondered how they are handled with a grader. Is there a float position for the center blade? The videos I've seen have the machine moving along at a pretty good clip and I wonder how forgiving the blade can be if something like a catch basin or water valve is encountered? How do they plow gravel roads without peeling them up? Seems like it could require a lot of talent!
Some have float but some operators don't like float. I went out to my property today. Some grass in the ditch closest to the road was exposed but there was snow on the road. I think they raise the blade just off the road surface and if the road is established there's not much to hit. Anytime I see graders in the city they aren't going very fast. On paved hwy's. there's not usually much that the moldboard could come in contact with. I also think if an operator does the same roads all the time they know where look for obstacles. Last year there were lots of complaints about catch basins/sewers being covered with snow and freezing with caused huge problems when it got warm and started melting. The water had no where to go so sidewalks were skating rinks. The city has maps showing where all the drains are and sent crews out to open them up.
Some guys use float, and that's fine. Wings and front plows are float, but they are designed for it. The thing I find with using float, unless it's really high, the MB tends to grab it, and because it's on float, the front wheels will jump up, and the MB is still hooked, so you are coming to a quick stop. Under pressure, it will jump the MB and machine together, and you are still in motion. Unless you are going really slow, then you are stopping either way. I have caught soft gravel on float, and had one corner dig in and the other side com up as far as the piston would allow, and then slam back down on the road, not fun. I always sell control, be in control of your machine. Not saying the other way is wrong, but that's my preference.
I pretty much set my plow an inch off the gravel surface do same with my moldboard when I use it I prefer to use front plow and wing when possible I don’t use float unless I’m cleaning up intersections otherwise prefer to run everything manually.
Took delivery of my new Cat 150 today has a 12ft falls XPR directional plow also has 14ft balderson cat wing got the good Michelin snow plus tires and the good LED lights machine has 13 hours on it look forward to getting to put hours on it
That's got to be a $600,000 or so chunk of iron. Nice! Can't tell if it's front wheel drive or not.
Looks like a planetary hub on the front axle.
That's kind of what I thought and see some hoses at the front but wasn't sure if they were for wheel motors.
Great goolgy moogly that is a fancy piece of kit! I've never plowed a lick of snow and only maintained haul roads at Jobsites. Does all that stuff weigh you down?
It’s an all wheel drive machine and if I remember right new private party price for this machine is 800,000 bucks I believe our government price was around 400,000 bucks will be putting the first coat of wax on it today got to keep this machine in the best shape possible.
The extra snow equipment does give you extra weight but this machine has enough power to push through the snow we get.
I notice a lot of wings now are part of the ripper. But I don't think I've ever seen one that lifts like that off the front mast. Mine is mastless in the front. Only enough to pick the front of the wing a couple feet off the ground. Rear is also mastless, but it lifts from the rear. Doesn't seem so many years ago that they were still cable lift. Always the thrill of some car parked on the street, and lifting the wing and hoping the cable doesn't break.
The good old days of cable wings man I’m suer happy I got hydraulic wing now as of my wing type I having the tall mast I can bench snow as high as my cab I’d love a massless wing like you have but when the blade is all I have for snow removal I have to be able to bench 9 to 10ft high so that’s the reason I have wing like this.
Hopefully you don't have a lot of issues that another poster mentioned they had on a new Cat 140 (I think).
Yeah that’s kinda my worry is sometimes new isn’t always better we do have a 7 year warranty so that’s nice but hope this machine is as trouble free as my old M3 was.
Congrats, That's the same machine I'm running, had a few hiccups at first but has been a very good machine so far, We are getting Hammered with snow, been snowing heavy for 3 days straight, my 150awd is getting a workout, between 3-4 ft is down now in 3 days and blowing hard, drifting has been a challenge, would love to have your front blade, thanks for sharing
Yeah, I heard you guys were getting hammered. We just have enough to snowmobile. Seems like it's all around us.
We ended up with around 16 inches of snow and wind around three weeks ago now it’s been extremely mild weather all the snow is melted except the drifts and piles I’ve been doing a little grading crazy weather.
Yeah, we got a winter worth of snow in 3 day's, 4ft, lots of drifting, some 15ft high in spots, Vplows are going on today, hoping to get to Bathurst for a snowmobile trip this year, and maybe Cape Breton Highlands, depends on work though if I can get away for a couple of day's, we will be busy cleaning up and opening roads up for a few days.
Yeah, they have lots of snow there. Our quarry is about halfway between Miramichi and Bathurst, and it has a lot more snow than we do here. They moved my V plow a couple of years ago, and had to cut the trees out of it. It's never been on the Volvo, and while I remember seeing it on the Champion, I've been here for 25 years, and never used it myself.
We never had the Vplows on in a few years, just the one way's, the snow is just to much now for the one way plow, pushing your front end into the ditch all the time, really bad on some of our S turn narrower roads, just gets you in trouble.
Well what a difference plowing deep snow with a V blade on, keeps you straight and can move mountains of snow, I found just going along at a slow steady pace worked the best for me but keep your momentum going, 4-5 ft on the level with no effort at all, big drifts took a couple of tries and don't get to greedy punching your way through though, or the snow will drop in behind your plow then you can get in trouble, once you shovel out behind the V plow accouple of times you will learn, lol
I love my directional plow but in deep snow and drifts there’s nothing better then a v plow I put mine on when we get drifts and a lot of snow get roads open then switch back to directional plow to clean up just a tip when you get in a drift that’s 6 feet or deeper make a hit in middle then to the right and left with your plow as you go will keep you from getting stuck. It’s been in the 40s and 50s here majority of snow gone and I’ve been grading roads.
That's the problem V plows have on trains. If they don't make it all the way through, they need a bigger train to come and pull them out. I watched a video of a plow train. There were 2 locomotives pushing the V plow. The rotary plows are even cooler, especially on steam locomotives. I think it was Union Pacific that kept a steam locomotive just for running a huge rotary plow.
Yes in the bigger drifts That's what I do, middle right than left, being from the East coast I call it fish boning, lol thanks
We had a few more dumps of snow, another ft, then a couple around 6 inches, yesterday we got hit by a rain storm, 2inches of rain fell with a flash freeze, has made quite a mess, I had all my roads peeled right to the gravel but this flash freeze has left a little skim of ice over them all, won't take much to peel the ice of them with some milder temps in the forecast, some of our other shops never had there back roads peeled to the gravel and left hard packed snow on them they have a skating rink on there hands now.
We are getting 4'+ over the next 3 days in our mountains. My wife wants to go for a snow drive today. The lowlands never get much.
I’m about to give up on winter here been in the 40 to 60 frost is pretty much out of the ground I’ve been grading gravel going to take at least one wing off tired of looking around it.
Sucks to have all the good toys and not get to use them. It is also funny to think that you look forward to what every sane person thinks is abominable conditions
Your lucky, 4ft in my front yard, need a lot of warm weather and rain to be rid of it, thinking maybe in June it will be gone
We are going up Chinook pass to get the dogs to the snow. Probably drive up to the closure at Crystal Mountain Blvd.
Take some pics
I tell everyone I get a brand new machine with new snow equipment and no more snow although I’m not complaining after last winter it was nice to have a slow winter and not have everyone on your ass wanting roads open.
It was a bust. 39 and rain at the gate, 35 and rain at the sad ski area. I think that's 4400 ft. We got to see a short herd of cows for consolation prize .
Snow all around us, and I might have been out plowing 4 times this year so far. I see the roads are closing in the southern part of New Brunswick next week, so that will probably be Nova Scotia as well. We are always a week after that. This is a project we are doing site work for. A new Rink, pool and gym. Shows what little snow we have, The snow covered areas have about a foot of snow on them, but the bare spots have been plowed off since January. This was taken this past week.
Skyking 1's last pic. looks like painting.
Thanks for sharing, very nice, love pics
Thanks for sharing, love having pics shared
Took delivery of my second brand new cat 150 I’m giving up on winter took the wing off the first new 150 and put my packer on going to do my blading with that still have wing on my second new one here our a few pictures of it plus the video I did on my YouTube channel
Does the moldboard extension not use end bits? I'm guessing it has conventional controls and a steering wheel.
congrats again!! just noticing a few things that are different on mine compared to your new one, blade extension, was that added to give a 14ft or a 16 ft, you also have LED light package which I don't, and I have the auto grease lube system on my machine which I hate, just over greases everything and covers your machine with grease, even on the lowest setting, your wing set up and front plow lift is abit different too but much the same, just in the lift part, thanks for sharing
No end bits on the 2ft blade extension I really wish they could make them work but then again I’ve never had one wear out yet so guess if it not an issue leave it alone and this machine has the joystick controls so no steering wheel just two joysticks I love it.
Thanks and I have a 2ft left hand blade extension making moldboard 16ft and yeah I ordered both machines with the led lights there amazing and yeah I don’t think I’d like the auto grease option if it makes a mess I prefer my equipment nice and clean and yeah little difference in the snow equipment I’m suer mine is all balderson snow equipment which is now cat I prefer this snow equipment over anything else.
Unless you do a lot of ditching, I don't think you really need the end edges. My old 730 had almost 19000 hours on it, and they were flipped once. All of our snow is pretty much gone, and it's almost t shirt weather.
Yeah our snow has taken a beating, still lots in the woods though, it has been very mild last day or too, we alway's get hit with a crazy march snow storm though
We got 18"in the hills this weekend. I've spent the last 2-1/2 days plowing about 18 miles of logging roads. Yesterday I plowed the toughest road for me yet. Steep, narrow and dug out of a rock hillside. Slow and easy does it. Then I also had a mainline that I could grab a few gears and let er rip. Today I hauled the grader to another road and plowed another 12-18" so our dump trucks can run tomorrow and then hauled it back to the shop to be ready to go grade a road tomorrow. Parked the machine in the old Weyerhauser shop my dad worked in 40+years ago Monday night. Operator following me in. Steep and narrow, pushing the berm over the side. Big old growth log that slid down the bank years ago, don't want to mess with that! Plowed the previous pass on the way in a few hours before and it's melting off nicely.
I love this front blade. The horns on top are great for pushing trees down that aren't on the ground and the tilt is great for catching them with the corner and pushing them off. Loaded up, ready for whatever is next.
I put an outside air temp gauge in last spring and now I get to use it. Sure is nice to know what's going on outside since temps are usually not much below freezing.
Nice pics Jared!
Thankyou for sharing the pics, love seeing what everybody else is up to, great job, thanks JaredV
I have been busy fixing washouts the last few day's, heavy rain is playing hell with the sides of the road of the pavement and the back roads, more heavy rain in the forecast, the snow is going fast
Feeling a little warm this summer? This will cool you down.
Finally got to plow a little snow this week. We've been getting some colder weather than usual the last month but no snow until this week. I had to plow to a logging job, only to discover that they changed the haul route and didn't tell me. I went up the hill without chains doing just fine until I wasn't. The tires have enough cuts in them that they do pretty good in snow but it wasn't enough and I spun out and started sliding towards a culvert. My heart rate went up but then after about 20 feet the tires found some rock and stopped, so I chained up the front and the left side, drove it out and up to a flat spot where I put on the rest. Too bad I didn't need to be there in the first place. Anyone else doing anything?
Did the moldboard help to get you stopped?
We get a couple inches at a time. Enough to plow, but nothing to brag about. Snowmobile season should be well under way, but there is not enough to groom
No, I picked it up when I spun out hoping to keep moving. I was throwing the snow to the right and if I tried to use it as a brake it would act like a sled runner and help me over the side. Everything is down in the pic because the customer requires all hydraulics to be lowered when you get off in case you decide to put your head under something and have a hose pop or something. Somebody got hurt taking a hose off when it still had pressure once so this is the one size fits all solution.
Man, large corporations everywhere are cloaked in blanket policies written in blood. H&P has a policy that all overhead lifting connections are to be done with a clevis with a wire ring backup keeper. (Remove cotter pin from right of nut and install wire ring keeper) This was because someone didn't properly secure their hoist to an object, it failed, and someone died. After litigation, a "Standard Operating Practice" that the entire oilfield uses was deemed not safe enough and the Plaintiff was awarded huge sums of money. H&P's reaction was to write a blanket policy that everyone must use one style of connection. If it fails because you didn't use it properly, then it is your fault and they are not liable that you didn't do what you were taught. They also mandate training that only teaches the one approved method, and have a policy that no one can force anyone to take short cuts around the prescribed policy. The guys on the rig take it serious because it is a termination event if you get caught using any method other than their prescribed method. As for winter works, we were starting to get some real snow accumulation locally, and then we had a week above freezing and it severely melted back down. Ice layer is very heavy right now after the melt off. My driveway went from drifting shut every 12 hours to bare dirt in about 3 days. I'm not complaining, I haven't plowed snow in almost 2 weeks now.
we had a guy peel his finger like a banana last year on a big job. He was checking the oil on the 470 excavator. He slipped and caught his finger ( wedding ring ) between 2 panels. Next week, no rings, and gloves at all times when out of machines. Last summer, a young fella got run over and killed by an excavator on a government job a couple hours away from here. Now anyone working on DTI jobs must have a course for working around equipment.
It's been very dry here all Winter. We are in a moderate drought. I had a pond built on my farm last August. You can still wade across it. Drains 41 acres. No runoff since August. Weatherman says we have two potentials for snow this coming week. If they develop I'll push Wednesday night and Saturday night. Thinking the heavy snow will go South of us again. That trend has what's put us in a drought situation. Only pushed once this Winter and that was a 3-4" dry powdery snow. My roads are dusty dry.
Plugged the Grader in this evening. Will eat a big lunch and go to bed at noon tomorrow. Wake up mid evening and start pushing the expected snow. Expected snowfall amount is 4-8". Dry snow. Temps tomorrow evening will be teens F. Low tomorrow night will be -5F. Should be an easy push. No plow or chains needed. Expect 10 hours.
Calling for a foot tomorrow, and another dump on Sunday.
We got 5-6" yesterday. I got in the Grader at 1430 yesterday afternoon. Was done pushing at 22:30. Light fluffy snow very little drifting. Roads were frozen solid. Had problems keeping the center windshield clear until sundown. Great cab heater. Ran the temp knob halfway wearing a Tshirt, 5F temp. Remembered to take a couple pics just before I got done. Hard to take pics hauling butt down the road.....
Friday night, 25-40 mph wind, low 27F, 40% chance of freezing drizzle after midnight. Great..... Sunday night/Monday, High temps 10F, lows -6F, 1-3" of snow. Great...... Tuesday high 3F, low -9F. Wednesday high 3F, low -13F. Thursday high 8F, low -7F. At least 20F below average temps all next week. Stupid Groundhog....
Just after noon here. Snowing heavy. Want me to go out around 15:00. Open up a few businesses that never close for weather, then probably go back out around 3:00 for cleanup. Have a physio check at 11:45 tomorrow. Might have to take the loader there. I can't raise my arms over my head. Especially the right one. I no longer have a family doctor, so hope it's just a muscle thing.
Sorry to hear of your health issue. I'm 73. My motto is "If you have good health you have nothing to complain about". Prayers for a good diagnosis.
Thanks. Not too worried, just hope it's not a torn muscle or something. Can't really afford to be off work. I think we are getting our foot of snow or pretty close. Been snowing pretty hard since noon. Was out and opened up a few spots. Back at it again early
Going to get all the snow we have been missing at once. We did get our foot of snow, and this afternoon is the start of another 16 or so. Be lots of snow to haul this week. I did get to see the physio. They gave me a little 20 something year old French girl. She asked a bunch of questions, checked a bunch of stuff. Then she got me to lay face down on one of those tables with the hole for my face. Then she climbed up and pretty much sat on my ass, as she probed my spine. Then she got down and asked me to roll over. Now I'm happily married, but if she had started to climb up again, I was running out the door. Thankfully she stood on the floor and probed my shoulders. She gave me some exercises, and I have to go back on Wednesday for dry needling. They close at noon on Friday, so when we came out, everyone was gone, and she had no way to bill me, so she said we'll get you Wednesday. Gotta love small towns. My sister lives in Toronto, and said they would have wanted money before you walk out the door.
Great story about the therapist!!!! Several years ago we got 20" of wet snow on muddy roads in early March. What a disaster!!! Normally our snows are around 6". Big snow is 12". Our enemy is wind. Our terrain varies widely. Worst areas are where it's open farmland. Drifts real bad there. Forested areas are easiest, even though they are hilly.
From Friday morning. Have a video, but not sure how to reformat it. No grader pics, just loader. This area, I have to push all the snow onto the street, then up the street to an upper parking lot.
Forecast is 1-3" of snow tonight, low temps around 0F, 25 mph wind. I plugged the Grader in this evening. Hoping I don't need it. Ridiculous temps for the next five days. 0F down to -13F for lows. Really cold for us. Hunker down everyone.
You have to upload to YouTube, then post a link.
We'll trade you. -34, -39, -35, -29 then next 5 nights. And, 40s the following week. Mother Nature must be having a mid-life crisis....
I don't miss working in that at all. Those damn rigs didn't stop unless the winds got above 40mph. Then it only stopped because they wouldn't let the derrickhand go up to latch up the next stand.
I actually have no idea what that's like. I am stressed by a mailbox once per mile. I admire the focus that this requires!!!!
Ditto. I'm out in the woods and only the roads that are being used need to be plowed. Try not to throw up a big bank in an intersection but probably not gonna be a problem if I do. Only have to watch out for road number and mile markers and often they're on a tree or well out of harm's way.
Last week I ran 50 miles of roads and only had to deal with 5 vehicles. And they all saw me coming and got completely out of the way. My road number marker poles are usually set in the fence intersection out of my way. I have two four way stop intersections with signs that I have to watch out for. I only have 36 mailboxes.
Wow, wide open country for you. I think there's 36 mailboxes on the county road in the 2 miles off the state highway to my house.
Leaving the shop this morning, a bit hard to see. The pile in front of me is shoved out from the other side of the building. I'm on the street. I have to push that pile up to wards the back of the pickup truck, the in towards the building with the steep snow covered roof. later on, another contractor will come, start all those cars, clean them off, move them plow where they are, then put them back. The area to my right will also be cleaned. I just plow the whole street, or at least my side, then the city plows don't fill it in after. This loader an L70 F is an 07, but it still works quite well. The bucket is off an L90F, it is a bit wider, and fits the pusher better. It's hard to see the pusher, 8 foot bucket, 10 foot blade.
. Not sure if this is how to post a video, but here it is
Another. Sorry. Not a George Lucas production
I always plowed with an 18 or 20 foot box. Plowing with a 10 footer would make me crazy. LOL We had 40 acres of lot to plow so plenty of room.
My route has a lot of spots that I can't use a wide box, plus it's hard to drive on the streets once the traffic starts. They have a couple 16 footers at the malls, but they stay on site. Some of the guys have boxes on a quick attach, but I do apartments on my route, and need my bucket to clean between cars. Some have power angle blades. They bought a power angle pusher this fall that opens up to 20 feet, but I think they paid thirty two thousand for it. Most of the bucket drive in boxes were made in our shop. I would love to have a wider box, but I do too much traveling on the road, and a 10 foot box is still more efficient than using the bucket. Normally If I am asked to do the dump, I do a couple passes down the center, then kind of a wide arc to either side. I just felt like seeing how much, and how far I could push in a long strip without losing traction. I would never be able to do it without my snow tires on.