I have a chance at doing a townhouse complex right now it has 110 drive ways,about 15' by 25' long.What do you think would be the best way to remove snow a blower will be great because there is not much room to push it.I have JD 425 thought of a blower on it,also seen cubs 45" snowblower,and even maybe goin with a blower for a walk behind. Need some advice.
Rear plow, or skid steer. Snow blowers will atke way to long, plus you will be cooooooooooooold. Dino
Definitely a rear plow or backdrag if it doesn't have to be real clean. Stay away from the snowblowers unless you are a masochist...in which case you should just buy a bunch of shovels.
I would go skid steer, over rear plow, gives you one more thing in your bag of tricks. Try to work a deal with rental yards, maybe you can pay a little more, and you can pick up the unit the day before it snows. Or see if you can rent one over the winter, and pay XXX amount of dollars up front and XX amount an hour. I heard of someone, who gave the rental yard, 1,000.00 up front in the fall, and paid like XX (i think under 50)amount of dollars per hours use for the season. The rental company came out, like once a month to read the hour meter. Geoff
GeoffDiamond- That's a great idea, but it doesn't sound like such a great deal. We rent machines for 250/day (Bobcats). I would expect to do better if we were going back for multiple days.
Well, I can't remember the exact numbers. It just depends on what part of the country you are from, and what you can work for a deal. Also the number of skid steers, the dealer has sitting in there yard, and how hard it is to get them all rented for the winter. Geoff
This has all been great advise except no one bothered to ask you if you know how to run a skidloader? If not, I'm not sure you can be fast enough to get all that done in time or without damage.Skidloaders can be a little tricky on ice or snow.The 425 is out ,even though you can heat them with a cab it will not be near fast enough. My suggestion if you don't know how to run a skidloader well, is to use a short box pickup with a rear blade,maybe even with a regular blade on front.
110 Drives? How many cars in the way? How long would that take with a skidloader? How much damage will a skid loader do to all those drives? You are still going to have to do cleanup with a blower or shovel, right? Do you get that deep of snows where you are located to really need a skidloader to move it? Stay with me here on this,just drives here alone at a resonable 5 minutes a drive is 550 minutes or 9.17 hours. WOW! Get ready for complaints "Why is my drive not done when I leave for work". Sounds like you will need an arsenal. Not to discourage you, just sounds like alot of work with even alot of employees. Big money though, I hope for you. GOOD LUCK
When I was a kid, there was a golf course in a friend's backyard. In recent years, they turned it into a small townhouse development. Not sure of the number of driveways, but it has to be at least 200. It's got a few roads in it too, that are cleared by the contractor who plows it. Because my friend's house has a clear view of a part of the development, and he was my shoveler for a few years, standing in his yard, or looking off his deck we could clearly see the contractor performing snow removal. I haven't seen them do it in a few years, but here's how they used to do it. When snow was on the way, or forecasted, a lowboy would show up with 5 little bobcat skid steers on it. They would leave the lowboy on site. Next to it, was a Case 580 size backhoe, and a single axle GMC, like a Top Kick, with a 10' blade. When they cleared the complex, they did it the same every time. Two 2wd crew cabs would show up with operators, and a few shovelers. The skid steers pushed all the snow (or most of it) out into the street, and the "Top Kick" dump would take it away. The dump just kept going around pushing the snow to the sides. They had a pick up, with a straight blade, that would go around and open up driveways that were cleared after each section was done. Then final clean up was done with the skid steers on their way back to the low boy. The system must have worked well, because they did it the same way for the 3 years I watched them do it. It took them about 5 hours to do. I know, because that's how long my route took on average then. When I dropped off my shoveler, they were loading the skid steers onto the lowboy. Most of the time, they did all the plowing at night if possible. That way, no one had to get out. If someone came home, there was always a skid steer near by to open up their driveway for them to get in, and then go back to plowing. The backhoe was used to clean up intersections, and load salt into the dump. Now with pusher boxes, plows, and V plows, I'm sure it could be done even faster. Back then, they ran the front bucket on the Bobcats. They were (and are) a big landscape company, and this account kept their Bobcats busy when it snowed. Like we all know, a machine that sits all winter, is a waste. They found a way to use most of their equipment all winter long. ~Chuck
Okay, Okay, it's only 14' x 16', but you get the point. Chuck, 200 driveways next to each other if 3.5-4 hours worth of work for 1 truck + roadways. 1 truck 7 hours for the total job. Where is it? I'd like to bid on something like that. [Edited by Lazer on 10-27-2000 at 05:00 PM]
Lazer, Read my post again... >>When I was a kid, there was a golf course in a friend's backyard. In recent years, they turned it into a small townhouse development.<< How many townhomes fit on an old 9 hole golf course? I have no idea for sure. >>Not sure of the number of driveways, but it has to be at least 200. << At <B>least</B>. >>It took them about 5 hours to do. << "<B>about</B>" Guess you read between the lines there. They say a picture is worth a thousand words..... <img src="http://www.snowplowing-contractors.com/images/lazer.jpg"> The scale is 1.5" = 200 yards, at least on a 19" monitor... This is a satelite view of the development. You figure it out! ~Chuck
Awww mannn..... Chuck's got access to orbiting cameras !!!??!!! Shoulda known, what with all he knows about mechanical stuff on plows.... Lazer.... cover that skylight in your bedroom man.... Chuck's a watchin...... Toxic paint AND an 'eye in the sky'..... This is one dangerous dude.....
Chuck's watching you now from his eye in the sky. He can read what you're typing before you even send it! He also knows who your girlfriend is with right now.
John, is that a baseball field across from your company yard? No wonder it's so easy to have company softball games... ~Chuck
I know it's off the thread a little, but as long as you're talking about baseball, did anybody watch the World Series? There was a lot of activity on this web site during the games. Do you guys even know who played?
Lazer, I hate to ask, but what are you shoveling out of your bedroom? What ever it is, it sounds like you are very fast at it! Now back to snow! 5 minutes was used as a very loose general average that I myself have experienced on the same approximate size drives. I did 16 side by side for four years. Always took 1.5 hours to clear the drive, stoop and walks. Which comes to 5.6 minutes per property. Using Chuck's example: 5 loaders at 5 hours is 1500 minutes by 200 drives = 7.5 minutes. That does not include man hours on trucks or shovel/ blower crews which Chuck mentioned. Makes my 5 minutes seem fast. I was trying to help Dean think about something he might not have thought about: Total time!
