Please, for the love of God, stop snowing!

maha said:
if your plowing your raking in the bucks unless you got yearly contracts.
and a plugin block heater, or a tarp and a space heater under it the night before on a timer, solves most starting issues at any temp.
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I'm salaried as an employee, company handles yearly commercial contracts.

I'd use a block heater if our shop space had electricity. But we don't.

I've got a generator I can run the block heater on for a few hours if I must, but the damn thing wouldn't start today. Guessing that one is a shitty oil level sensor, most of em have that issue in my experience.

Any more ideas? haha.
 
take a vacation down south. :) join me in the sunshine.

or get your own f- 250 gasser with a boss plow and do jobs for yourself. i got one for my driveway , any temp i start it from my house and let it warm up.
even -20 or so.

block heater will run off a 12v battery with a 2000 w inverter. but your salaried so tell them if they wont give you electric or a way to warm up then you cant plow that day. no one builds a shop where there is no electric available.

and you do run number 1 diesel in winter and power service to stop gelling or it isnt starting anyway.
but a 7.3 is made to start in the cold. thats what they are for.

what i used to use for a plane was a camp propane stove and run a flexible duct up into the engine area and let the heat go in that way and twenty minutes everything was up to temp. this way the battery gets some help as well.

my tractors usually had number 2 in them still so it gelled and with the heater they warm up and ran fine . gelling starts like at just below freezing with number 2 diesel.
cold weather is the shiits.
 
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sjm said:
... Oddly enough, though it is further south than New York City, Louisville, where I'm heading on Friday for the Derby, is often significantly colder.
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I suspect that's because Louisville is farther from the Gulf Stream. I experienced -35F one winter when we lived near Syracuse -- a gift from Canada (15 Jan 1957). I enjoyed building snow forts/igloos and clearing ice from our sidewalk.

I don't live near Syracuse any more, and it looks like I won't build snow forts any time soon:

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We have the Pacific Ocean as a temperature buffer here.
 
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I don't even know where to start, but here goes.
In 1986 I started moving snow for one the biggist ski resorts in North America.
After 10 years I had operated Road graders both Cats and Deeres. Front end loaders with 13' blades
Cats, Case and Volvos, all tires had to be chained up. Larue blowers that were fitted to out 850 Cats.
Unimog tractors, Frieght liners and many other heavy trucks. For the last 30 years I ran a crew of 32 operators on three shifts 21 hours a day 7 days a week.

We would move every flake of snow 3 times. Plowing snow onto the shoulders of the road, than when the storm had passed we would group it and blow into tractor trailers and haul to our snow dump. Once there, we would need to push it off into a 80' revine.

I retired 12/15/2025 and since then we have received around 8" of snow. Its the driest winter on record. We average around 300-350" a year. But this year is vastly different.

I had a great career and am proud of what I had accomplished. Enjoy it while you are fortunate enough to get it. Fire season will be very bad this year in parts of the Rockys if this continues.

Hang in there my fellow snow fighters.
 
Cuebuddy said:
I don't even know where to start, but here goes.
In 1986 I started moving snow for one the biggist ski resorts in North America.
After 10 years I had operated Road graders both Cats and Deeres. Front end loaders with 13' blades
Cats, Case and Volvos, all tires had to be chained up. Larue blowers that were fitted to out 850 Cats.
Unimog tractors, Frieght liners and many other heavy trucks. For the last 30 years I ran a crew of 32 operators on three shifts 21 hours a day 7 days a week.

We would move every flake of snow 3 times. Plowing snow onto the shoulders of the road, than when the storm had passed we would group it and blow into tractor trailers and haul to our snow dump. Once there, we would need to push it off into a 80' revine.

I retired 12/15/2025 and since then we have received around 8" of snow. Its the driest winter on record. We average around 300-350" a year. But this year is vastly different.

I had a great career and am proud of what I had accomplished. Enjoy it while you are fortunate enough to get it. Fire season will be very bad this year in parts of the Rockys if this continues.

Hang in there my fellow snow fighters.
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That's the real deal right there.

Happy retirement! I bet you miss plowin, but probably don't miss the sleep loss!
 
Many years ago I recleared the main power line going up to Grizzly Peak or better known as Red Lodge Mountain .

This was while Yellowstone NP was trying to burn up so breathing was difficult at best due to all the smoke in the air !

If you were tired all you had to do was stretch out one or both arms and lean a little bit and you were touching the ground .

They had a bad snow storm that snapped all the power lines from the sub station at the base of the hill to the top of the avalanche chute , we finished it up in mid Sept in snow that was over my knees , I'm 6'4" in those work boots so it was quite an undertaking !

The deer , elk and occacional moose would cross the right of way and knock rocks loose and I got to the point where I only used 1 ear plug at a time for safety sake in the early morning .

We'd get it about done then one of the bosses would show up and say make it wider so job security and yes sir we'll get to it !
I miss those days and being in good enough physical condition to walk up and down like that and work that hard all day long !
 
RidgeRaider said:
That's the real deal right there.

Happy retirement! I bet you miss plowin, but probably don't miss the sleep loss!
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RidgeRaider I know what its like. Plenty of double shifts over the years, needing to be on the road by 2:30 am. Dealing with equipment failures, accidents and guys that would call in due to a toothache.
I trained hundreds of operators and I was a third party CDL examiner for 36 years.

I have been having trouble sleeping in past 3:30 but I am starting to be able to fall back asleep after naturally waking up early.

I would be shocked if anyone on the planet has moved more snow than myself.
And yes I always enjoyed plowing. There is just something about it.
 
Cuebuddy said:
RidgeRaider I know what its like. Plenty of double shifts over the years, needing to be on the road by 2:30 am. Dealing with equipment failures, accidents and guys that would call in due to a toothache.
I trained hundreds of operators and I was a third party CDL examiner for 36 years.

I have been having trouble sleeping in past 3:30 but I am starting to be able to fall back asleep after naturally waking up early.

I would be shocked if anyone on the planet has moved more snow than myself.
And yes I always enjoyed plowing. There is just something about it.
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Hard to beat being alone in a truck pushin snow around. Something cathartic about it for sure.
 
must be vail to have all that equipment as they are about that largest in area like 5or 6 thousand acres. and got the money to do that. and get around 300 or more inches a year. there are a bunch of smaller ones in funny places that get almost double that.
the pacific northwest has gotten good snow so far this year.
 
maha said:
must be vail to have all that equipment as they are about that largest in area like 5or 6 thousand acres. and got the money to do that. and get around 300 or more inches a year. there are a bunch of smaller ones in funny places that get almost double that.
the pacific northwest has gotten good snow so far this year.
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You nailed it.
I gave it my all and raised four amazing kids in an area that if you are not wealthy you will probably not make it.
I gave up my aspirations to be a force in pool and never looked back. But with diminishing cognitive skills and fuzzy eyes I am jumping into my bucket list.:giggle:
 
i drove to red lodge in late may or early june one year just after the day they opened the bear tooth hiway. for miles on end it was narrow two lane with snow cut out 15 feet high on both sides of you kind of scary. but beautiful when it opened up in the flatter areas.
one of the best drives when the snow is gone. that and going to sun road over glacier n.p. along with the ice field hiway above jasper.
 
maha said:
i drove to red lodge in late may or early june one year just after the day they opened the bear tooth hiway. for miles on end it was narrow two lane with snow cut out 15 feet high on both sides of you kind of scary. but beautiful when it opened up in the flatter areas.
one of the best drives when the snow is gone. that and going to sun road over glacier n.p. along with the ice field hiway above jasper.
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Logan pass is awesome! Those folks get snow for 9.5 months of the year. It always amazed me that at the top of Logan pass it is still nearly 2000' lower than where I live. It has been years since I have been there, also on the bucket list.
 
I went out yesterday and plowed our driveway and the areas around our garages. It was only about 5 inches of snow, but I wanted to move it before we hit the cold spell predicted. Forecast shows the highs not even reaching 20°F for the next week, with lots of negative numbers in there.

The driveway is almost 400 yards long, has a little slope, and has a couple areas that pass along some pines and never get much sun, so those areas ice up. My tractor, with which I plow, has an 84" pivoting blade, mounted up front, and works great when I have some momentum and maintain traction. The blade is so far out front that the rear wheels don't have much weight on them. I'm going to end up getting then loaded with Rimguard, which should add about 600 pounds, and help a lot.

Aside from me not being as able to deal with the cold as long anymore, a problem that impacts my hunting too, going out to push the snow isn't too bad. I dress for it, and it's only my fingers that don't last long. I almost enjoy driving the tractor and clearing out areas for our vehicles, and my ineptitude is gradually decreasing. I still tear the hell out of the grass on either side of the driveway, and push gravel out onto it in other areas. The first couple mows in the spring are quite exciting with all that gravel getting flung around.

Heard the weather forecast for us this morning, and they said that Watertown, NY, which is at the western end of Lake Ontario, was supposed to get about four feet of snow. That rivals Buffalo, at the western end of Lake Erie. I don't know how they deal with all that lake effect snow out there.
 
Well I'm north of RidgeRaider a bit, yesterday we didn't get above zero all day, today starting out a little worse, 18 below, Friday Saturday predictions, 25-30 below and that isn't windchill. I have 250 yds of driveway, solid ice underneath from a warming stretch a couple weeks back. Had to plow yesterday and as it was below zero I plugged the tractor in. Fired right up, but I had put a new and bigger battery in, and use 5-40 synthetic oil. I did go back in the house for a bit first to let the cab warm up. It's beautiful in the winter by me, but I could do without this extreme cold, even my dog doesn't like this cold and has to get his booties on to go out.
I'll probably go out in my shop today to do some woodturning as there is infloor heat, it is so nice. Stay safe everyone, weather comes and goes, but by me it looks as though the cold is hanging around for awhile.
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That's a good looking vest for you're dog ! I bought a flotation one for my black lab years ago and put it on him the first time and he hated me , while giving me a look like what did I do wrong to deserve this crap !

I cut out around his front legs as it looked like it would rub him raw which it did and so I trimmed it even more and cut it so his legs would rub the more flexible material under the briar or bur proof outer coating .

Once he got use to wearing it and we hunted more he would all but bring it to me to put it on him if I had a camo coat on which he'd drive me crazy until he got his camo vest on too !

As for weather it's snowing here now , with more wind later in the day so hang onto you're hat !
 
Rickhem said:
I went out yesterday and plowed our driveway and the areas around our garages. It was only about 5 inches of snow, but I wanted to move it before we hit the cold spell predicted. Forecast shows the highs not even reaching 20°F for the next week, with lots of negative numbers in there.

The driveway is almost 400 yards long, has a little slope, and has a couple areas that pass along some pines and never get much sun, so those areas ice up. My tractor, with which I plow, has an 84" pivoting blade, mounted up front, and works great when I have some momentum and maintain traction. The blade is so far out front that the rear wheels don't have much weight on them. I'm going to end up getting then loaded with Rimguard, which should add about 600 pounds, and help a lot.

Aside from me not being as able to deal with the cold as long anymore, a problem that impacts my hunting too, going out to push the snow isn't too bad. I dress for it, and it's only my fingers that don't last long. I almost enjoy driving the tractor and clearing out areas for our vehicles, and my ineptitude is gradually decreasing. I still tear the hell out of the grass on either side of the driveway, and push gravel out onto it in other areas. The first couple mows in the spring are quite exciting with all that gravel getting flung around.

Heard the weather forecast for us this morning, and they said that Watertown, NY, which is at the western end of Lake Ontario, was supposed to get about four feet of snow. That rivals Buffalo, at the western end of Lake Erie. I don't know how they deal with all that lake effect snow out there.
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yes liquid in tires helps year round.

if 4 wheel then put car chains on front tires. easy on and off just raising the front. works better than rear and makes it easy to back out if getting stuck. i like blade on back so you got the bucket as well. and can push backward easily. and backward you dont dig in. especially on frozen ground.

or get a boss plow for your truck then on and off 5 minutes and all problems gone and being warm inside the cab. remote start if parked outside. solution for old men.
 
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