Re: (ET) Snow's over, E20 is tired...

[Christopher Zach <cz alembic crystel com>]

Graham Allan wrote:
> So what would you say is the major factor in not getting stuck? Weight? 
> I've tried either blowing or plowing my driveway with my E15 with dismal 
> results. The driveway is probably around 30 degrees, downwards from the 
> house, and when it comes time to reverse back up the hill one wheel will 
> simply lose traction and spin. So I have given up for now (knowing 
> mainly, I am missing something critical). I've had chains on the drive 
> wheels but no extra weight, which is probably a big mis-step given the 
> huge weight of blower or plow blade up front. But I was never convinced 
> that weight alone would make the difference, given the open 
> differential... hopefully I'm wrong on that?

I would say weight and chains. Not on the tires, behind the tires, 
that's why the weight box helps so much: It's located way aft of the 
wheels, and adds it's weight to the blower on the front to put more 
pressure on the tires.

> How much do you have in the weight box (besides the additional 120 lbs 
> of lead)?

That's it. Technically it's 6 Hawker Genesis 26ah batteries at 22lbs 
each. I can stack three more on there for 180 pounds, but 6 seems to be 
enough.

Now one problem is if I put BB600's into the box I would only have 
3.5*30=105 pounds in there. Which is still not too bad and was enough to 
do the job a few years ago (granted with less snow)

As for the drive, you need to make a turn-around at the bottom and use 
that to reverse the tractor's direction. I think the blower is better 
than the plow since the blower lifts the snow up and sends it forward 
while the plow appears to compact the snow into an ice-wall.

But most definitely add some weight in a box on the back. I think the 
best thing would be a tiller :-)

Chris