tractor for snow removal

Tractor type depends on many factors such as yard size ect....the same for the winter attachments, where you live, size of driveway ect....

Thx, well yard is about 1acre. I live in the Noth East. The snow here is basically alot of wet heavy stuff. My drive way is flat and about 100' long.  I am just confused about the thrower/blower or a blade for plowing. or even if maybe I should just go with a walkbehind thrower.

If your seasonal snow is 120" plus or if you can't get to clearing your driveway before there is 4-6" of snow on it, get a separate walk behind blower.

With 1 acre you definetly want a tractor of some sort. Check the Sears site for tractors under 2 acres.  Make your comparisons and do your homework.  Any Craftsman tractor will work with and Craftsman Blade or Blower.  If it a lot of wet Heavy stuff you may want a nice, larger two stage snow blower: walk behind or tractor attachment.  They are a lot of fun.  Let me get some expert opinions in here.

I let some other guys know about your questions, they will comment soon.

You are going to want at least a yard tractor since it will have a cast iron axel which will be better for pushing snow.  You also might want to consider a snow thrower attachment vs a blade because 100' of driveway is a lot of snow to have to push somewhere.  Don't forget that you will also need tire chains and wheel weights to do snow removal.

I'd recommend taking a look at Craftsman model 28924 for starters. It's a 21HP, 46" automatic transmission tractor with a fender shift knob. It's a Consumer Reports "Best Buy" and extremely popular.

I know some people have the snowthrower attachment, and some have the plow blade, but before recommending either, I'd want to know how handy you are. The snowthrower attachment is completely disassembled in the package, and installing/removing it isn't the easiest task for the novice. If you're unsure of your ability to assemble something with around 100 nuts and bolts, I'd recommend considering the plow blade.

And, if you're concerned about being able to handle all the snow, and for the sake of ease, I'd recommend Firsttractor's idea of getting a separate snowthrower. It's far easier to use a snowthrower than to install one, and unless you're clearing enormous areas (parking lots, private streets, etc.), the attachment probably isn't very cost-effective or sanity-preserving.

Here's the URL for the tractor:

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_07128924000P?vName=Lawn+%26+Garden&cName=Riding+Mowers+%26+Tractors&sName=Lawn+Tractors+%28less+than+2+acres%29

You can use a snow blade on this tractor, though you will also need wheel weights and tire chains (and probably a little bit of tube sand as well). If you want information about snowthrowers, let us know. I'm sure folks here will be able to share their insights.

100' driveway may seem like a lot with a shovel but it's nothing for an 88791 for under a thousand and you'll make paths to the shed or woodpile, very practical machine even if Norwich is in a snowbelt. For a first tractor, get the thousand dollar 42" 6 Speed, a set of guage wheels and a bagger. Jeeper has one...with a plow.

Mad, I've got the 46" 24hp and a plow which I haven't had snow enough to try yet. And it's the hydro AND I have a steep drive. I'll post on my experience if global warming doesn't throw us a curve.

The reason I recommend a walk behind snow blower is that by the time you spend the $ for a plow, chains and weights, for a hundred or 2 more you could buy a separate blower and save yourself the trouble and time of attaching the blade, chains and weights plus the removal of the deck.

Depending on how my plowing experience goes, I probably should have gone with a less expensive hydro tractor and bought a walk behind blower--storage space would have been about the same. Regardless you cannot beat a hydro for mowing

I live in Juneau, Alaska. I own a Craftsman 5600 yard tractor which has a 42" snow blower on it. Last I had rotator cuff surgery early in December. We subsequently had over 200 inches of snow. I was able to plow my flat paved driveway and my sidewalks in about 1/3rd the time that my neighbors spent doing only their driveway, using only my left arm. The blower worked well and dealt with berms up to three feet high. And the blower enabled me to stack the snow just where I wanted it which I could not have done with a blade. I put the wheel weights on it, but not the chains. They were not needed.

Wow, snowsalmon!  That is seriously impressive.  Do you normally use chains, or, have you found them to be completely unnecessary for your tractor?

No matter what do not buy a lawn tractor. I have had a 2009 yard tractor and it will not last at all it might last you a year or so before you will have problems with it, if I were you I would go with a 2009 Garden Tractor which is what I have now. It is built a lot heavier duty with a 11 guage steel deck, cast iron front axle and a super heavy duty transmission. And this tractor has the Kohler V-twin 26 horsepower engine in it which will last you forever. If you want to use a snow plow or blower the higher the horsepower the better. I would not go with any of the craftsman products as far as snow removal equipment. I would only go with a Becomac product for snow removal and since your drivway is 100 feet long I wdn't even think of buying a plow only a blower.You might want to buy tire chains and wheel weights they might help a little bit. The total cost of all this will probably be around $5000 but hey you would be paying $8000 to $12000 for a john deere that will do the same as this tractor but your only getting the tractor from john deere and no snowblower or anything.

Don't bother with the snow blade unless you're plowing really light snow. You said you live in Ohio. That eliminates you. These tractors just don't develop enough traction to push anything heavy. The same thing applies if you have any kind of incline on your driveway. It just won't do it. It's fine going down but coming back up is a big problem. The blower attachment is better in heavy snow but it also suffers from the traction problem.  I'm over 250 lbs, use wheel weights, additional weight on the rear of the tractor and tire chains. I can't climb grades on icy driveways. I just sit and spin the wheels. A locking differential might help but that's not part of the Craftsman repertoire. If you're considering the blower unit I can tell you that when it works, it works great. The problem is that it throws the drivebelt like crazy. The belt is very long and there aren't enough idler pulleys to keep it under control. It's a very poor design and Sears doesn't have an answer. Get ready to spend a lot of time laying on your back in the snow putting it back on. That's if you're lucky. Sometimes it chops the belt and destroys it. Sears wants over $60 to replace it. They also made it an oddball length that's only available by mail order at Sears. It takes a minimum of a week to get a replacement. (Good thinking,eh?)
When I bought my setup my intention was to have a multi-purpose machine that would take care of most of my lawn chores. The thought of having a separate snow blower taking up room in the garage, that would get little use, and that had another engine to maintain was not very appealing. In retrospect, I wish I had gone for the separate blower. I could have gotten a huge 30" blower with electric start, it would have been cheaper and saved me a lot of aggravation. Live and learn.

Interesting discussion I stumbled into.  I have an older Craftsman tractor I got as a hand me down from my daughter and son-in-law when they moved to an acreage and got a larger 26HP Gt.  this tractor I have is probably 8-9 yrs old, 46", 16.5 HP Kohler.  I've had it probably 4-5 yrs.  They gave me a snowblade for it 3 yrs ago. I'm in Northern Virginia, D>C> suburbs so we don't get a lot of snow.  First year we got about an 8-9 incher, which we saw coming, so I assembled and used it.  I had been skeptical about how good it would do, but  I was pleasantly surprised.  I got chains for it, but no weights.  I weigh about 220.

I share about a 60 ft pipestem drive way with my neighbor, and have a parking turnaround where you can park 5 comfortably, all asphalt.  Fairly steep grade down to the street.  My setup handled our drive easily, then I did 4 of my neighbors drives.  Most popular guy in the neighborhood.

No use the second year.  Then last weekend you probably saw our big snow in the mid atlantic.  I measured 16/17 inches in my yard, no drifting.  I took a few passes to get ahead of it Saturday, but it was snowing so hardand filling in behind me, and it was cold and miserable that I decided to wait til it stopped.

Sunday, I really was skeptical, bu i was again pleasantly suirprised.  I cleared all the flat turnaround, then started on the sloping driveway.  The first pass downhill let me clear enough that I would be able to get back up the hill, and do all the plowing downhill til I had it mostly cleared and could cleanup both ways  I was amazed how much traction I had with the chains.  I never really got stuck in this deep snow and could go where I wanted.  Sure I spun tires, but much like in a car you can rockit and get moving.  i even had to clear over some piles made by county plow to get out of drive.Since the sun was out and in the 30s, by mid afternoon my driveway was clear of snow as the asphalt soaked some heat and melted what snow was left.  I did the same for my neighbor yesterday when they returned home from a trip and started to dig out.  Cleared him up in a couple of hours.

Not saying this is like a county maintenance type p;ow, and it obviously takes longer, but it has worked for me.  I'm also impressed with the durability of transmision and blade. The rocking back and forth, hard bumps at a snowbank, etc  No breakdowns yet.

As to having to remove mower deck and install blade.  I went out removed mower deck in about 15 minutes(5 clips to remove and slide it out)..    then I put the blade on in less than 30.  There are only 6 bolts involved with my blade to reattach it.

If there were  a way to post pics, I could show you a before and after on my drieway from this past weekend.  Those are my thought on the subject.. 

The first pass downhill let me clear enough that I would be able to get back up the hill, and do all the plowing downhill til I had it mostly cleared and could cleanup both ways 

Plowing is an art. Sounds like you really enjoyed that lil N'oreaster. Thanks for sharing. My late uncle plowed in PA with a 1950's 5 hp Kohler L1 on a Cub Cadet til a few years ago. That tractor's transmission was made by Mopar, they just shortened the axles. Your 16.5 Kohler is a legendary single cylinder engine. Command or Pro? It makes a difference on the air filter, the correct number is on a sticker under the hood.

Hey, rocky4paw-We would love to see those pics!  You can upload photos on to your home page.

Let us know if you get them up, so we can check them out.

If you have any questions on how to upload, send me a message, and I will walk you through it!

Ok Julie and all.  I just uploaded 7 pics.  The first 3 show the depth when it stopped snowing.  In the one showing the turnaround with my tractor sitting there under its cover, keep in mind i plowed this area a little Sat while still snowing.  Hence the piles you see across the way.  The next 4 pics were taken today, 4 days after it stopped snowing.  With 4 days of sunshine and temps in the 30s, the snow has melted and settled a bit, but I think you get the pic.  My driveway was clear to the asphalt Sunday afternoon.  Note the cul de sac, done by the county is still snow packed, as is my neighbors drive(on the far right across the street with brown car) which was cleared Sunday by a Dodge Ram dually with a big blade.  he also got his Dodge stuck twice and had to dig out.

Directly across the street is my neighbor who got home Tues afternoon from a weekend trip to outerbanks in NC.  They had mounds in front of their uncleared drive courtesy of the county.  I saw them come home, park in the street and start to shovel.  So I jumped on my trusty Craftsmen and went over and helped.  I actually backed over the mound and backed to the head of their drive by carport and proceeded to clear the drive down to asphalt.  When that was done I attacked the mound by the street which after 2 days had become packed and by the asphalt was frozen ice.  With the blade at an angle and taking a small bite I could eventually break the pack and push it across the street into the ditch.  Note his drive is also clear.  I hit the snow/ice pack so hard a couple of times, that the rear of hood jumped up.  But it eventually gave way before the tractor did.  Then my neighbors backed in, unloaded, thanked me profusely and came out with a nice bottle of red wine I'm going to enjoy tonite.

One other comment i forgot.  someone mentioned having to remove deck and install plow.  I already mentioned that was easy in my case.  Also, having the deck off in spring gives me a chance to change/sharpen blades and check condition of belts before I put it back on.

You can probably tell I like my plow which is much more capable than I anticipated.  I moved all the snow in the picture without touching a snowshovel.  At age 73 theire is no way I could have shoveled that.

I actually stumbled on this discussion as I've been browsing tractors the last 6 months thinking about a new one.  After the results I got this week from this one I'm thinking do I really need one - other than the age of this one.

Merry Christmas to all.

Yo Rocky, 5 Stars! Very impressive work, thanks for sharing. And with a steel front axle! Keep it greased, 4 grease fittings total.

Mad golfer  You sound like you know your tractors.  After Christmas activities I'm going to lift my hood to look at that label you've mentioned.  Like many, have had my hood open many times, but never noticed it.  when I got the hand me down they didn't have a manual of course, so I bought one from Sears.  I always tell my kids, read the instruction manuals.  Companies spend millions of dollars on preparing those for good reasons.

Amazing.  That picture of your patio table really shows how much snow fell by you, rocky4paw.  Nice work!  Thanks for sharing the pics.

You are an awesome neighbor to have helped out, too!  Want to plow my alley?

Very, Very nice.  I just wished I had snow like that.  No accumulation here.  Awesome pictures, thank you for sharing!!!!!!!!!!!!