Maybe tonight is the night!

[Alan]

Forecast is for two inches by daybreak, kinda reminds me of my honeymoon. Temps will be low enough to permit icing so there may be some salting done. And of course Mr. Murphy was sitting on my shoulders. Came home at dark, the sun had gone down on clear skies. I had a truck full of hoses/tools/misc. from installing a septic system for my mother over the weekend and today. Didn't bother unloading it or putting the spinner back on the spreader, not gonna snow tonight. Other stuff happeing here so I also did not bother looking at a forecast. SOOOOOOOOOo, at 9:30 when I did see a forecast it was balls to the wall panic time. Got unloaded, hung the spinner, cleaned the remnants of stone out of the truck body, took the generator down to the salt shed (have to make my own electricity). Everything works and is ready to go. I expect this will scare off any chance of snow but if it doesn't we'll be able to tag a little Magic by morning.

 

[Alan]

OK, maybe TONIGHT!!

I was right, after getting ready everything fizzled last night. BUT, we had snow showers all day and temps below freezing. Pavement is right at the freeze point now and I WILL shake a little salt tonight. Just as soon as the town gets salt on the hill leading down to where my salt shed is. I just came home that way and was losing traction with my S-10 in 4wd. The grade is probably 8% and a 90 deg. curve at the bottom, no way I'm going to try taking the 5500 down there empty until the road sees some attention. With a glazed surface and temp of 30ish it's prime time for salt, but I'm betting the town leaders will use salt/sand mix, it's "cheaper".

 

[tru cut]

Alan,
No snow last night? We got about 6" I thought you would have gotten the same oh well.They put up winter storm warnings yesterday morning so i realy had to scramble to get ready,still had to build a mount for my sander didnt have my light bar mounted(still dont)used my magnetic.started at 1am things went well the new 550 plows very well and is as meneverable as my 250 was did get stuck though not to bad it well be nice when thhe ground freezes.blew a fuise at 4am and didnt have plow lights.snowing now but only calling for 1" I well get up at 1 and check.

 

[snow]

hey tru cut!

I have a few questions to ask you off forum. Send me an email, BKrois@aol.com . You didn't put it through lawnsite,so.


thanks,

bryan

 

[Alan]

Finally got to play

Well, I finally got to try the sander on the 5500. This was a unit we had used in the past but the first time I had used it on the newly installed central hydraulic system on this truck. Everything worked just fine, other than the trough popping open at one end and wasting a LOT of salt. I kept thinking I was not getting much distance between times of raising the body to get salt back to the augers. Good reason why, one end of the trough was hanging down about 2 inches and just dumping salt out the back. I had forgotten to safety pin the locks for the trough. They're pinned now!

Temperatures are hanging in the high 20s and the glaze of ice from the snow showers all day responded nicely to a light application. I went back about a half hour later, after I got them all done, and the ones that had just snow were coming along well. The ones that had packed and glazed over did even better, Magic salt works much faster on a thin layer of ice than it does on an inch of untraveled snow.

Makes me feel kinda smug that I was the only one in town salting tonight, and my lots are the only ones in town that will be bare and black in the morning. I sold the last couple new accounts on service, told the last one right out that he could find a better price, and I wanted to "make a showing" to let them feel that they are getting the service they are paying for.

Todd, I'm glad to hear that new Ford is working out well for you.

 

[GeoffD]

Glad your new truck and spreader worked well for ya. I got to spread some sand/salt mix on monday.

Geoff