One of the #weekend-engagement topics this week is focused on what we would rather be doing that what we are actually doing. Well, there are many, many things I would rather do than shovel snow like I did this weekend.
Hmm you may have to click to view the video and see it in action, seems vimeo links changed here. This video was after about a 4 inches of semi-wet snow. It handled it like a champ, I'm actually looking forward to an 8-12 inch dump (which is common here) so we can really test it out.
https://vimeo.com/user101765448/
I've got a lot of driveway space compared to most folks I'd imagine, and have to do a small part of roadway between and beyond my driveway. Certainly more than even a young person in good health would want to shovel by hand.
Here in Vermont, we average more snow than any other state in the U.S. It also just builds up this time of year until the spring melt. By March, it will be over waist deep in our front yard.
That makes it a little difficult to plow, as you end up running out of places to pile it. The plow pile made by my ATV last year was over my head and ended up being multiple places.
So, what many of us do is end up with a snowblower, this blows the snow out away from the driveway farther, and leaves a cleaner path behind than just plowing. For those of us with gravel driveways vs. paved, it also means much gravel gets plowed into the yard, which then has to be swept back into the driveway using a power broom or something similar each spring.
I've had a walk behind blower for several years, and it works well, just takes a while and is not pleasant to use when the weather gets below zero degrees F, or -20F (minus 17C- minus 28C). So this year, I invested in a larger 60 inch snowblower that mounts to the front of my ATV/UTV which has a heated, closed cab. Can you say Ahhhhhh? So nice to stay warm and out of the cold, blowing snow and just drive back and forth. This also cuts my clearing time by more than an hour.
Details for the tech geeks.
Here it is in the box. I ordered mine from Tractor Supply. I went to the store, they dropped the pallet/box onto my trailer and back home I went.
I actually had to drag it off the trailer using the winch from the ATV. After that, fairly simple.
Here it is in the box.
Assembly not too bad. The worst part was having to attach the mounting plate under the ATV. It came with both a "Universal" mounting plate, and a special "Polaris" mounting plate, which I guess is not "Universal" - sic. The wheels were already attached, so just had to attach the tower, plastic protector, and a few other things but at least was able to roll it out of the box myself.
A nice feature, is that it has a cable to connect to the UTV battery so that the snowblower does not require it's own battery. This same cable also goes to the remote control inside the cab. The downside is that the cable was not long enough to reach into the cab normally without drilling additional holes through the firewall. The good news is my ATV has the tilt up windshield, so I was able to just tilt it up and run the cable through there.
This is where the remote switch is. This allows me to start/stop the rotors from turning, and also adjust the blower tower from left to right without leaving the warm cab.
This is where it connects to the blower.
Well that's it for now see you on the next dump! Or maybe it will be a snorkel. We are actually planning a move to Florida later this year and will be swapping out the boots for flip flops!