# Steep and Long driveway



## SteepAndLong (Nov 16, 2018)

First time poster.
My driveway is 1/10 of a mile long with an average grade of 15% increasing to 20% in places. It is paved. I have had several snow plow guys do the driveway once and refuse to return. For years I cleared snow with a walk behind (wheeled and tracked) but it was torture. Because of the slope I could only blow downhill, so had to walk the driveway a whole bunch of times. Oh, yeah, there is a large parking area at the top, 60' x 40'. 20 years ago I bought the Honda 13 hp tractor AWD with snowblower and it has been great. But I am now 64 and the horrible system of changing the drive belt and adjusting the tensioner is defeating me (never mind the hip replacement and broken leg this year). 20 years of use has worn out the Honda. And they discontinued it the year after I bought it, thanks Honda.
Does anyone have a suggestion of a ride on blower with AWD, or a small tractor, or even a really good self propelled walk behind that can handle my slope and deep snow? The forecast today was for 6", I got 12". This is typical for my street. 1/2 mile away they get 20-30% less snow.
I'm almost ready for the heresy of putting a plow on my truck.


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## rslifkin (Mar 5, 2018)

With your old walk behinds (especially the tracked ones), what was the limit on blowing uphill? Was it lack of power to keep moving and blow the snow or was it lack of traction to move forward?


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## SteepAndLong (Nov 16, 2018)

There were 2 issues. 
1 - the blowers did not have the traction (chains or track) to push through anything deeper than 6 to 9" uphill.
2 - (and this was the real killer) the slope transferred the weight of the blower to the rear of the machine so the blower would ride up over the snow. To combat this I had to lift the handles while helping provide forward movement. Back breaking.


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

*I would just put a plow on your truck and call it a day well done. Anyhoo, ALOHA From The Paradise City. :smiley-rpg027::smiley-rpg027::smiley-rpg027::smiley-rpg027::smiley-rpg027:*


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

SteepAndLong said:


> First time poster.
> My driveway is 1/10 of a mile long with an average grade of 15% increasing to 20% in places. It is paved. I have had several snow plow guys do the driveway once and refuse to return. For years I cleared snow with a walk behind (wheeled and tracked) but it was torture. Because of the slope I could only blow downhill, so had to walk the driveway a whole bunch of times. Oh, yeah, there is a large parking area at the top, 60' x 40'. 20 years ago I bought the Honda 13 hp tractor AWD with snowblower and it has been great. But I am now 64 and the horrible system of changing the drive belt and adjusting the tensioner is defeating me (never mind the hip replacement and broken leg this year). 20 years of use has worn out the Honda. And they discontinued it the year after I bought it, thanks Honda.
> Does anyone have a suggestion of a ride on blower with AWD, or a small tractor, or even a really good self propelled walk behind that can handle my slope and deep snow? The forecast today was for 6", I got 12". This is typical for my street. 1/2 mile away they get 20-30% less snow.
> I'm almost ready for the heresy of putting a plow on my truck.


No plow services in your area? I'm 62 and understand your situation. Old motorcycle injuries bother me in the cold plus asthma is a great combo. However my drive is only 2 cars wide and 25 feet long.

A plow attached to your truck sounds reasonable and maybe a tracked Honda blower for cleaning up around the garage and walkways. HSS724 maybe.


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## leonz (Dec 12, 2014)

Welcome to the forum SteepAndLong,


Avoid the Big Box store tractors like cub cadet and others with snow blowers they are junk.

It may be time to invest in a small sub compact 4 wheel drive cab tractor with heat and wipers and aquilline snow chains a rear mount snow caster. You would be able to use a rear mount flail mower to do all your mowing also. 

The big problems with the john deere and kubota sub compacts is the vibration created by their changing the fuel settings to make the EPA happy with lower exhaust emissions(the fuel adjustment can be changed to eliminate the vibration and smoothing the timing out so there is no vibration). 

The other issue is the fuel system where the filters will freeze up.
The indirect injection fuel pumps are the simplest diesel fuel systems to own and operate. 

If you can tolerate the snake oil salesmen in their showrooms as they sit in their chairs and blink their eyes as they brag about their sub compact tractors and stick to buying a sub compact tractor with factory cab with a heater and defroster and window wipers and a front end loader(they have a much lower resale and trade in value without a front end loader).
You also want two sets of remote hydraulic connections on this sub compact tractor.

The Aquilline snow and ice chains are top of the line snow chains and you can purchase them directly from a snow chain retailer.

The rear mounts are easier to install and remove and require less power to operate than the front mount snow blowers and there is no mounting frame to trip over.

A diesel powered sub compact tractor with a pronovost or other canadian brand snow blower like the Riest series 1000 single stage snow thrower will work well with a front mount or rear mount set up. The front mount series 1000 will cost more than the rear mount.

The rear mount Riest Series 1000 is a simple proven design with a roller chain drive and no shear pins that will handle any snow.


A rear mount Reist Series 1000 snow thrower will cost you less money about $4,000.00 canadian dollars for a unit with manual chute rotation and manual spout adjustment.

You will benefit from the weak Canadian dollar and your canadian sales tax is refunded to you at the border crossing station or when you purchase the series !000 with a credit card and have it shipped to you. 

I have uploaded several pictures of the Reist Series 1000 snow thrower on the forum.


I am not trying to spend your money as you and I are the same age and I need both knees replaced. 


The only other suggestions I would have is a Yamaha 1332 track drive walk behind snow thrower as a first option with your conditions as it would be more than capable of clearing the conditions you have and it is heavy and it has plenty of power with the yamaha gasoline engine.

The second option would be to import a larger track drive two stage snow thrower like one of the Yanmar, Fuji, or other Japanese track drive snow casters through an importer most of them have the Kubota 3 cylinder engines in various horse power sizes. 

The third option which is greater in cost is purchasing an RYT like the kubota rtv 1100 with four wheel drive and an all weather cab.

Mounting a snow blower on an RTV is also big money as you either buy a motorized Bercomac 2 stage snow blower or a two stage Kubota snow blower for the RTV

If you would like to chat more please send me a PM and I will be glad to give you my email so I can go into more detail to help you make a good decision. I have been dealing with this slop from the shovel up since I was 13 years old.

I had an original IHC cub cadet lawn tractor with a single stage snow thrower with snwo chains and it never had issues with any snow or snow pack removal.
The 12 horse cub cadet had a horizontal crank Kohler engine that used a small belt to right angle bevel to bevel gear box drive with a final chain drive to spin the snow blower rotor up to 700 RPM.

Please understand that I want to help you not get in your way. 


Leon

Disclaimer:

I have no financial interest nor a management role with any snow removal machinery manaufacturer or agricultural tractor manufacterer.


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

:welcome:to SBF SteepAndLong

.


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## SteepAndLong (Nov 16, 2018)

Snow plow guys have gotten stuck, destroyed plantings, damaged the driveway, broken plows, and refused to come back. I have to do it myself, or hire my landscape guy to snowblow.


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## SteepAndLong (Nov 16, 2018)

Immediate crisis has been averted. A mechanically capable (younger) friend was able to adjust the belt tensioner and I got the driveway cleared. Still looking for a better solution.

Does anyone know of a good place to look for a replacement blower attachment for a Honda 5013 compact tractor?


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## drmerdp (Feb 9, 2014)

My parents driveway is the same 20% grade and their 2009ish MTD gold 28” blows snow up and down hill. Last year I added liquid ballast to the tires which further improved traction.

As long as the tires are the newer fancier directional style I can’t imagine much of a problem. For even better performance a nice Honda track machine would certainly do the trick. 

The new Honda’s drive system is extremely intuitive and very maneuverable. Particularly usefull for the older crowd. Let the machine do the work.


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## leonz (Dec 12, 2014)

SteepAndLong said:


> Immediate crisis has been averted. A mechanically capable (younger) friend was able to adjust the belt tensioner and I got the driveway cleared. Still looking for a better solution.
> 
> Does anyone know of a good place to look for a replacement blower attachment for a Honda 5013 compact tractor?


=======================================================


Check with the bercomac folks to see if one of their universal snow blowers will fit your tractor.

They have a find a dealer link in their home page so all you need to is go down the list or type in your zip code to find the nearest dealer.


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