# Plowing condos



## Green7650 (Nov 11, 2019)

Need some suggestions.. we do snow removal on condos and villas. In a 2 inch snowfall we do roughly 400 drives in one night. Each villa has 30-50 drives in each complex. In the past we have used skidsteers with kage plows and walker lawn mowers (with cabs). Just trying to get other ways to speed up the process. With the skid steer u have to back drag the drive to the road and then push up in the grass. I hate doing this because u touch the snow twice.. the walkers work really well because u just divide the drive in half and push into yard. Only downfall is no heated cab and they don’t do well with 6 inch plus snows (we get about 3-5 of them per year). Just trying to see what other options I have... thanks guys


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## m_ice (Aug 12, 2012)

Inverted blower...back blade


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## SnowFakers (Dec 31, 2012)

Tractor with a blower I would bet is the fastest way to get it done, that is a lot of driveways.


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## Philbilly2 (Aug 25, 2007)

first place I ever plowed we did a bunch of condoplexs

we had pull plows behind pickups. First year or two of plowing snow, I never even had a plow on the front of the truck I was in. Just dragging drives every snow.

We worked in teams with trucks that had front blades or skidloaders with push boxes.

Once I saw an inverted blower in action... we were doing it all wrong.


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## Green7650 (Nov 11, 2019)

Thanks guys. Just trying to speed the process up with less guys. I’m leaning toward the inverted snowblower. Was wondering if it’s the best option


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## m_ice (Aug 12, 2012)

Green7650 said:


> Thanks guys. Just trying to speed the process up with less guys. I'm leaning toward the inverted snowblower. Was wondering if it's the best option


No question...it is the best option you just have to have the work to justify it which it appears you do. 
I'd probably pick up a back blade just in case something happens to the tractor.


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## BrianQ68 (Nov 16, 2019)

What is the difference between an inverted blower and a snow blower mounted to a skid steer. After using a toolcat with a snow blower to do a small condo, i bought a blower for my JD 328 and rented 2 Bobcats with blowers.Just curious, if there's a difference or just 2 ways of saying the same thing?


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## cjames808 (Dec 18, 2015)

Inverted hangs off the arse end. You back in and drop her.


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## prezek (Dec 16, 2010)

BrianQ68 said:


> What is the difference between an inverted blower and a snow blower mounted to a skid steer. After using a toolcat with a snow blower to do a small condo, i bought a blower for my JD 328 and rented 2 Bobcats with blowers.Just curious, if there's a difference or just 2 ways of saying the same thing?


Check out some of the threads on this site or some videos. Pretty crazy how quick some of the guys with tight routes get through their drives.


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## BrianQ68 (Nov 16, 2019)

I would think, a blower on the front would do a better job. When it's on the rear you have to drive over the snow first. I don't know where you guys plow but here, when you drive over snow it packs down and is very hard to remove.
Thanks for quick replies, I'll take a look at videos...


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## Unraveller (Jan 28, 2014)

BrianQ68 said:


> I would think, a blower on the front would do a better job. When it's on the rear you have to drive over the snow first. I don't know where you guys plow but here, when you drive over snow it packs down and is very hard to remove.
> Thanks for quick replies, I'll take a look at videos...


There's a thread, about 110 pages long, dedicated to showing it's the best way to do it. Very large, soft tires have such low PSI, that anything you push down, scrapes up pretty well.


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## Herm Witte (Jan 27, 2009)

BrianQ68 said:


> I would think, a blower on the front would do a better job. When it's on the rear you have to drive over the snow first. I don't know where you guys plow but here, when you drive over snow it packs down and is very hard to remove.
> Thanks for quick replies, I'll take a look at videos...


When you use a plow, front or rear, you ride over the snow first. An inverted snowblower seems to float over cracks and rough surfaces while the front mount seems to catch more. The inverted is the best commercial tool for driveways that I have ever used. I've been at it full time for a long time.


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## Green7650 (Nov 11, 2019)

Herm witte. This seems to be my best option moving forward. Labor is gonna get harder
To find. Thanks Guys


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## leolkfrm (Mar 11, 2010)

look at the pics of the inverted blower with the blade that drops down to scrape behind the blower


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## seville009 (Sep 9, 2002)

An inverted blower has an edge on it that drops down and lets you drag snow forward, so you can back up to a garage door, drop the edge, and pull the snow away from the door before engaging the blower from what I’ve seen

with a skidsteer blower, you will always leave a little berm of snow in front of the blower as you’re going forward, so once you reach the garage, you have to go sideways to get rid of it.


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## Philbilly2 (Aug 25, 2007)

BrianQ68 said:


> What is the difference between an inverted blower and a snow blower mounted to a skid steer. After using a toolcat with a snow blower to do a small condo, i bought a blower for my JD 328 and rented 2 Bobcats with blowers.Just curious, if there's a difference or just 2 ways of saying the same thing?


An inverted blower is a mating of a drag box and and a snowblower is the best way I can describe it. Drag it out, then engage the pto when you are at a good spot to launch it.


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## Mark Oomkes (Dec 10, 2000)

BrianQ68 said:


> I would think, a blower on the front would do a better job. When it's on the rear you have to drive over the snow first. I don't know where you guys plow but here, when you drive over snow it packs down and is very hard to remove.
> Thanks for quick replies, I'll take a look at videos...


You think wrong.

What do you do about the snow that gets pushed in front of the blower?

OP....why do you hate yourself?


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## Gr8WhiteNorth (Sep 27, 2007)

We have two Ag tractors with inverted blowers. It’s a great solution as long as you have room to manoeuvre and large lawns to blow the snow onto. Unfortunately for us, the majority of our condo groups don’t fit into that scenario. We do around 1200 driveways every 1”+ event, only about half work with the tractors. That said, our tractors are 110hp and 140hp, so pretty large to bring with. Where they do work, they dominate.


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## Gr8WhiteNorth (Sep 27, 2007)

A few years ago we fabbed up a hydraulic arm with a cutting edge to back drag on the front of a conventional snow blower. This unit was on a skid steer. You would approach the driveway head-on, blow snow to the sides while working towards the garage door, then lower the arm and back drag the bit of snow left in front of the garage door. I thought the system was great, but the operators didn’t like the controls. There was a huge time savings once a snow event reached 4” or more. We only get 8-12 of those events a year. Unfortunately, The operator kept reverting back to a bucket so we eventually sold it.


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## Meezer (Apr 3, 2010)

Green7650 said:


> Need some suggestions.. we do snow removal on condos and villas. In a 2 inch snowfall we do roughly 400 drives in one night. Each villa has 30-50 drives in each complex. In the past we have used skidsteers with kage plows and walker lawn mowers (with cabs). Just trying to get other ways to speed up the process. With the skid steer u have to back drag the drive to the road and then push up in the grass. I hate doing this because u touch the snow twice.. the walkers work really well because u just divide the drive in half and push into yard. Only downfall is no heated cab and they don't do well with 6 inch plus snows (we get about 3-5 of them per year). Just trying to see what other options I have... thanks guys


We use Hiniker C Plows for drives.


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