# Plow Blade Ice Cutter



## Earl W. (Sep 22, 2004)

Has anyone purchased/made an ice cutter to mount on the plow blade?

We have a 600' - 700' gravel hill that the plow just won't cut the packed snow/ice.

Salt and calcium have caused the road to get soft (maybe over applied) and get costly, so I'm thinking this to accelerate thawing.

I'm thinking of two types:

1) cutting edge about a foot to two feet wide that hangs 1"- 2" below the regular cutting edge. 

2) cutting edge that's serated, maybe full width


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## MattR (Jan 4, 2009)

Wouldn't it be easier to just spread sand down for traction?


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## leon (Nov 18, 2008)

*cutting edge*



Earl W.;918203 said:


> Has anyone purchased/made an ice cutter to mount on the plow blade?
> 
> We have a 600' - 700' gravel hill that the plow just won't cut the packed snow/ice.
> 
> ...


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exposing more area will alow it to freeze more area.

4 pallets of bagged sand or truck load will cost you less money than a easy rake edge or grapple bucket edge on a tractor bucket. hay cutting knives will break in that case too.

If you have a garage with some room you can lay in a supply to keep it from freezing or nearly so; or use a salamander to heat up an exterior pile to shovel it.

The thing is you will skid across areas and not be able to do a thing about them unless you own a crawler excavator etc.

Using sand is the better way as we will have 5 months more of weather ahead of us and the sand will go a long way spread by hand , shovel or by a good quality walk behind spinner spreader like an earthway with pneumatic tires.

Even spreading every other day will be more of a help than a hindrance for tractions sake as well as your sanities sake.

:waving:


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## BenB (Nov 30, 2009)

We have a steep 800ft gravel drive that gets icy, we got what's called c-chip or 3/8" chipped gravel in two piles on the driveway. It's big enough it doesn't freeze together so we just cover it with a tarp and it's done well. It's probably too big to go through a walk behind spreader so it is still a lot of shoveling to spread it. I put some in a container on the ATV and toss it out with a small scoop as I drive up the hill.

It does sound easier just to cut the ice with a blade but if it can cut the ice it might start scraping up your gravel too.


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## Earl W. (Sep 22, 2004)

Thanks for the input. I forgot to mention that we have tried the stone (here it's #78's) and it works great for immediate use and awhile afterwards, but when the ice is thick enough it will thaw then re-freeze over the stone and I think sand would be similar. These certainly are better than nothing, but I guess I'm trying to 'make a better mouse trap'.

I had a chance to try a short - 14" piece of I beam (turned like an 'H') under the blade and held on with bungee cords. The gravel was frozen so it just pealed the ice off in small sheets. It worked good until I removed it to use the blade full width to remove the cut ice and I couldn't get it to stay on afterwards. Back to the drawing board.


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## woodsman (Nov 18, 2008)

Try a piece of sched.40 pipe split down the middle and weld on some type of claws to the bottom of the pipe then attach the cut end to plow and secure.


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