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Start of 2024/2025 Snow Season

Bill Satko

Bill Satko

Member
Messages
3,335
Location
Methow Valley
We had a soft opening of the season the last couple of weeks with an occasional dusting and about an 1 inch this past weekend. But we got some real snow last night. Still snowing, but I just measured it and it is right at 12 inches. They only predicted 4 inches last night.

I have been real busy preparing. I got a load of road base Monday morning and spread that over part of the area that I recently cleared for the tractor and implements. I prepared just the area I needed to store the backhoe attachment using the front loader and wheel rolled that. Tuesday I spent a good part of the morning detaching the backhoe and attaching the 3 point hitch including the top-n-tilt cylinders. All this took me awhile as the tractor came to me with the backhoe attached, so all of this was a first for me.

I then attached the rear quick attach and the box scraper, another first. With the sky beginning to darken, I spread road base on the rest of the area utilizing the box scraper. Dumped the front bucket and attached the snow pusher. Made a run up and down the driveway, quickly realizing the shoes on the snow pusher were set too low by the dealer. Using the impact gun removed the shoes and lowered them to increase the height of the blade.

All set for snow or so I thought. As I sit here before the fire, I realize I should have parked the tractor a lot closer to the house. Pictures will have to come later as the fire is just too cozy right now and my breakfast is calling.
 
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I didn't put the snow chains on the tractor as we are forecasted to get warmer temps and some rain starting late Thursday and all of Friday. I don't think I will have a problem as the snow is dry. Once we settle into consistent winter temps I will put the chains on and keep them on.
 
I know I struggled with my backhoe detachment and re-attachment the first few times. The second time for re-attachment I didn't move the retaining pins for the boom where it wouldn't settle. It built up pressure in the hydraulic lines and I couldn't get the connector to push in. I simply had to loosen the connector and let the pressure off the lines, but still a pain and a mess. This next time I take it off, I'll put it on the concrete pad behind the house where the wood shed used to be. should make re-attaching go a little easier as it won't settle.

Sounds like your tractor is ready, hope mother nature goes easy on you. ;)
 
I was wrong about that snow being dry. Not sure what the final depth of snow fall was, maybe 14 inches? I was doing okay without chains for a while and managed to clear our parking area which is quite large and my driveway which is about 300 yards long. But it was a struggle, especially near the end when the temps got warmer and snow slicker. The rear wheels were still pushing but steering with the front was the problem. It is going to take a couple times of clearing snow on the driveway to know where and when to push it to the side somewhere. My driveway curves back and forth several times. In fact it curves so much that I took the precaution to install fiberglass road markers to outline the path. Sure glad I did.

After accomplishing all that, I tried putting on the chains. The front took some time figuring out how they go on, but once I understood they went on with no problems. The front chains are a standard diamond pattern with no studs. The spring tensioner was also easy to install.

The rear chains...well that is another story all together. They are Duo Ladder chains. Similar to the Duo-Grip Tire Chains style but with addition of a Ladder cross chain between each Duo Grip cross chain. They look like this:

1732196521479.png
Did I mention they were heavy? On the front chains I was able to find a video on how they went on. I could not find one for this style of chain. It was late in the day when I started on these and I managed to get them on and connected but I am unhappy with the gap of cross chains between the tail of the chains and side chain fasteners. There is a decent space of tire without cross chains there. I do think I could do a better job of spreading the cross chains apart on the tire before hooking and tightening them up. I read the website where I bought the chains. And they had this:

"Tire Chains often have larger gaps between the tail of the chain and the side chain fasteners. This is caused by different tire manufacturer specs, and depth of tread. Sometimes additional cross chain be added to fill the gap. Cross chains can be purchased. "

So it looks like I will need to get some additional cross chains. Anyway, I going out today and reinstall the chains, trying to do a better job of spreading the cross chains apart.

In general, the snow was heavier, wetter and the air temp warmer than we normally get here. It has slowed all the plow services in the valley as they struggle to deal with it. Our neighbors and us still contract with a plow service to plow our shared road down to the valley floor where the county road is. It is about 3/4 of a mile long. There are shared roads like ours of similar or longer length up and down the valley. We have not seen our plow service yet. My neighbor managed to punch through a path to the valley floor with his tractor (he had chains on!). I suspect the county plows are also a little slow. I saw the lights of the county plow early this morning so I know are road in the valley is now clear to the state road. The state plows are generally on top of everything, as they just have the main roads to take care of.
 
Reminds me of my 18 wheeler days. Too many stops at the base of a hill, flashlight in hand with heavy chains, cold, snowy, lying on the ground with traffic whizzing by. Yep, don't miss that!
 
Rennie Heuer said:
Reminds me of my 18 wheeler days. Too many stops at the base of a hill, flashlight in hand with heavy chains, cold, snowy, lying on the ground with traffic whizzing by. Yep, don't miss that!
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I follow a guy on YouTube (Casey LaDelle) who lives in Bend Oregon and does heavy rescue/recovery work in the Cascades. Both of his big trucks have auto-chains installed on one of the drive axles. He can "chain up" at the touch of a button from inside the cab. He swears by them. He also carries chains for the other drive axles and front axle, but in most cases the auto-chains are all he needs.

 
Vaughn McMillan said:
I follow a guy on YouTube (Casey LaDelle) who lives in Bend Oregon and does heavy rescue/recovery work in the Cascades. Both of his big trucks have auto-chains installed on one of the drive axles. He can "chain up" at the touch of a button from inside the cab. He swears by them. He also carries chains for the other drive axles and front axle, but in most cases the auto-chains are all he needs.

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Those are wildly ingenious!
 
Vaughn McMillan said:
I follow a guy on YouTube (Casey LaDelle) who lives in Bend Oregon and does heavy rescue/recovery work in the Cascades. Both of his big trucks have auto-chains installed on one of the drive axles. He can "chain up" at the touch of a button from inside the cab. He swears by them. He also carries chains for the other drive axles and front axle, but in most cases the auto-chains are all he needs.

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Wow - such things did not exist when I was driving!
 
When I drove OTR, I never put chains on...stayed down south.
Rennie..snow your way? I have 2 inches plus..snowing on and off, since last nite.
staying in
 
Darren Wright said:
The second time for re-attachment I didn't move the retaining pins for the boom where it wouldn't settle. It built up pressure in the hydraulic lines and I couldn't get the connector to push in. I
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The "Waite" Hydraulic Decompression Tool - you can find knock offs on AMZ that work as well. You could also swap for flat head connectors instead of ag style and the problem goes away (but then you have to swap connectors.. on everything that would hook up to that as well - maybe not a problem on the backhoe hookup)

Vaughn McMillan said:
Both of his big trucks have auto-chains installed on one of the drive axles. He can "chain up" at the touch of a button from inside the cab.
Click to expand...

My Schoolie had something very like those... they didn't work anymore.. but it had them (I never tried to get them to work). I don't think they're great at high speeds from what I read when I considered getting them to work (maybe the newer ones are less dicy that way IDK).
 
Ryan Mooney said:
...My Schoolie had something very like those... they didn't work anymore.. but it had them (I never tried to get them to work). I don't think they're great at high speeds from what I read when I considered getting them to work (maybe the newer ones are less dicy that way IDK).
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The OnSpot chains work up to 35 mph. They recommend being below 25 mph when engaging them. Most conventional chain manufacturers recommend a top speed of 30 mph. One of Casey LaDelle's favorite things about them is you can turn them on for the stretches of road where they're needed (often icy hills or starting at an icy intersection) and then turn them off when you don't need them. As a tow truck driver, he understands the risk of doing any work at the side of the road, including installing chains.
 
Vaughn McMillan said:
I follow a guy on YouTube (Casey LaDelle) who lives in Bend Oregon and does heavy rescue/recovery work in the Cascades. Both of his big trucks have auto-chains installed on one of the drive axles. He can "chain up" at the touch of a button from inside the cab. He swears by them. He also carries chains for the other drive axles and front axle, but in most cases the auto-chains are all he needs.

Click to expand...
I had never heard of this. Fascinating!
 
I worked on the rear chains and I am going to need to get an additional ladder chain for each side. There is not enough room for the H pattern cross chain. Also going to get an chain plier to install the additional cross chains. You can see the open space on the rear tires.

IMG_20241121_125102774_HDR.jpg

That snow pusher can push a lot of snow.
 
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