# Plowing Techniques- How To Plow



## thomas

Is there a certian way you need to attack driveways? I have a very large (wide and long) driveway to do and I am trying to picture in my head how I would attempt it. If we get 12'' of snow, I dont think I could just plow straight ahead....Thanks for any pointers you can give...


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## grandview

First thing you do is don't wait for 12" of snow.You may have to plow a couple of times to cut it back. Once the sides of snow freeze that's it.


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## Rickco

Don't be afraid of that skinny little pedal,the one on the right.


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## rfed32

plow with the storm not at the end....not plow in and handi cap ramps....dont leave a mess...dont be afraid to get on the gas and dont be afraid to hit curbs....good luck...look when u back up


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## haligan125

DON'T be afraid to angle your plow. Make a windrow, and then keep plugging away at it 4 feet at a time. if you have a large area you will get spillover so just keep makin passes at it. THat's what I did before i got hired at Public works. Now when i plow roads i just push to the right. We dont push straight foward cause it would be to hard. It can be fun. At least the first few times.


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## spittincobra01

Start off about 4-6" of snow at the most if you can, don't wait till the storm is done.

If you are stacking the snow on the right, make your first pass on the left most edge with the plow angled to the right and make several passes never going much more than 1/2 the plows width into the windrow. or vise versa

move all easy to get to snow before doing any back dragging, even if you have to drag snow onto an area you already cleared, it will pack down less and then you can clean it up going foreward.

make sure you know your suroundings, and don't hit anyone or anything. I mark out all my residential drives about 6-8" from the asphault as a guide. Use flexible fiberglass markers with reflective tape at the top to spot easily in the dark

you will learn "tricks" as you get experience that make things easier and faster for ya

good luck


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## JeffNY

I have one driveway thats got me thinkin, its 2 car widths wide, and 3 car lengths long, goes from the road straight to the 2 car garage. 
Where the hell do I put the snow? Pushing it across the road is out, its a busy 3 lane rd.
To make matters worse, its stone.


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## PLM-1

JeffNY;334988 said:


> I have one driveway thats got me thinkin, its 2 car widths wide, and 3 car lengths long, goes from the road straight to the 2 car garage.
> Where the hell do I put the snow? Pushing it across the road is out, its a busy 3 lane rd.
> To make matters worse, its stone.


Sounds like you have to drag it back and stack it near the entrance to the driveway. That one sounds like it sucks. Is it a busy street in the middle of the night?


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## JeffNY

PLM-1;335063 said:


> Sounds like you have to drag it back and stack it near the entrance to the driveway. That one sounds like it sucks. Is it a busy street in the middle of the night?


not really, but its a curbed road.


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## Dogbonz

round here,, My local ordinance says ,, snow must stay on the property in which it fell,, that means i drag it out to the street and then shove it towards one side of the drive or the other.


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## spittincobra01

if you get permission from the other property owner there would be no issue with you putting it there... but alot of towns have laws about leaving windrows in roadways


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## diehrd

thomas;332473 said:


> Is there a certian way you need to attack driveways? I have a very large (wide and long) driveway to do and I am trying to picture in my head how I would attempt it. If we get 12'' of snow, I dont think I could just plow straight ahead....Thanks for any pointers you can give...


When i look at a driveway which is all that I plow, I make sure I have truck in it and I find my deposit area before I do anything else. Once I have a deposit area for the snow I am able to see how the driveway has to be cleared .


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## LogansLawnCare

spittincobra01;334190 said:


> Start off about 4-6" of snow at the most if you can, don't wait till the storm is done.
> 
> If you are stacking the snow on the right, make your first pass on the left most edge with the plow angled to the right and make several passes never going much more than 1/2 the plows width into the windrow. or vise versa
> 
> move all easy to get to snow before doing any back dragging, even if you have to drag snow onto an area you already cleared, it will pack down less and then you can clean it up going foreward.
> 
> make sure you know your suroundings, and don't hit anyone or anything. I mark out all my residential drives about 6-8" from the asphault as a guide. Use flexible fiberglass markers with reflective tape at the top to spot easily in the dark
> 
> you will learn "tricks" as you get experience that make things easier and faster for ya
> 
> good luck


SpittinCobra01

If I understand you correctly... you would back into a residentail driveway, push the snow, then back-drag and finish up by pushing the back-dragged snow?

When I back-drag the first foot or two gets clean, but then I start to leave snow. I'm sure with practice I'll get better, but is there a trick to this?

Thanks,

Eric


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## IMAGE

Eric,

If I am doing a residential, say like 2 cars wide, 2-3 cars long, garage on the end, and the snow is piled on one side. This is how I do it. Lets say piled on the right side in this example.

I push the apron in, a little farther in on the right then the left. (Turning the blade, forming an angled line between pile and street)
Then line up and push the line from the driveway into the yard on the right. (love the scoop feature on my 810)
Then back drag from the garage, back to the same spot as the first line.
Then back out and push line into the pile.
If I left any snow boogers or lines in the drive, they are probally small, and I just pull in straight and back drag them out to the street. (very little bit only)
It take a few minutes, and is a pain backing and turning, but it leaves the drive clean.

(with the 810 being so heavy, on shorter drives in light snows sometimes I will just pull straight in and back drag it all to the street, then just angle it over to the side where the city plows are putting thier snow. Takes alot less time, like 1 minute total)


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## clncut

This is how I do driveways. Everthing gets backdragged to the street. Start in the middle of the drive and backdrag. Move to the left or right, doesnt matter....slightly angle the blade away from the edge so that if any snow decides to drift it will move toward the edge of the drive. Do the same for the other side. Most times you will leave a thin layer of snow. To fix this, drop the plow and push toward the garage lifting the blade a few feet before the garage. Pull ahead of your small pile and bagdrag to the street. Once the drive is finished, pull into the street and push the snow angling your blade toward the curb leaving it right were the plows do. Usually I can finish in under ten minutes or so.

John


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## diehrd

A basic driveway should take 3 minutes tops , Drag back to street from right to left or left to right. Push pile off to 1 side or the other ,,

Back in push to street and again push to one side or the other ,, Go to next driveway ..

If anyone thinks the driveway should be scraped clean tell them to get another plow company or a shovel..The hole concept of plowing should leave a skim of snow on the surface because you should have the feet on your plow , I myself do not keep the feet on but because there supposed to be on one can conclude 100% removal was never the intention of a snow plow 

I do 22 driveways ,it takes is 75 minutes including travel time from my home and back.


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## Plowinpro03

diehrd;459946 said:


> I do 22 driveways ,it takes is 75 minutes including travel time from my home and back.


You have some smaller size drives that are dead in a row for the most part then...if you divide that up ur looking at 2mins a driveway with 1 min travel time inbetween.....and the ride to the first site and back to your home..............Or your just that dam fast..


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## clncut

3 minutes, that is pretty fast. I did forget to add that we shovel the small amount left over in front of the gargage.

John


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## joker28

*how to plow without leaving trails*

i just started plowing this year but am not sure if i am plowing right i always seem to leave trails and must go over it about 5 times before i get it all clean can anyone give me tips thank you


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## Mark Oomkes

Don't spill your beer when hitting the pile. Hold it in the hand that you control the plow with, too hard to steer and hold the can upright.

One of those hard hat's with the straws works great. 

joker, those are snow bunnies, good luck catching them. 

Seriously, don't so big of a 'bite' when plowing, use less and less of the moldboard until it doesn't spill off. You'll be able to determine how much to use as you plow more. On heavier snow falls, don't worry about them, plow the lot twice. If you really want to prevent\reduce them, get wings or a plow with expandable wings. 

Happy guys? I didn't say the B word..........................................YET.


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## nekos

diehrd;459946 said:


> A basic driveway should take 3 minutes tops , Drag back to street from right to left or left to right. Push pile off to 1 side or the other ,,
> 
> Back in push to street and again push to one side or the other ,, Go to next driveway ..
> 
> If anyone thinks the driveway should be scraped clean tell them to get another plow company or a shovel..The hole concept of plowing should leave a skim of snow on the surface because you should have the feet on your plow , I myself do not keep the feet on but because there supposed to be on one can conclude 100% removal was never the intention of a snow plow
> 
> I do 22 driveways ,it takes is 75 minutes including travel time from my home and back.


actually a driveway should be scraped clean and it is very easy to do . 
im sure you pull in up to the garage then back drag the snow out ...

try this on one account , clear the skirt or end of the driveway near the street then push all the snow forward UP TO THE GARAGE !!! ( yes i just said push the show into the drive way ) leave about 4 - 5 feet before the garage , lift the plow over the snow pile and back drag it out .

you will be pleasantly surprised at the resualts . oh ya do the sides first then the middle . always angle you blade so the snow windrows into the middle of the driveway . it makes customers happy when they don't have 10 foot walls of snow while trying to get out of their car .

<edit> 
what i said was for smaller driveways . largers ones i would back in and push the snow out .


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## Zack1978

Windrows? What is that?


Zack


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## diehrd

nekos;460281 said:


> actually a driveway should be scraped clean and it is very easy to do .
> im sure you pull in up to the garage then back drag the snow out ...
> 
> try this on one account , clear the skirt or end of the driveway near the street then push all the snow forward UP TO THE GARAGE !!! ( yes i just said push the show into the drive way ) leave about 4 - 5 feet before the garage , lift the plow over the snow pile and back drag it out .
> 
> you will be pleasantly surprised at the resualts . oh ya do the sides first then the middle . always angle you blade so the snow windrows into the middle of the driveway . it makes customers happy when they don't have 10 foot walls of snow while trying to get out of their car .
> 
> <edit>
> what i said was for smaller driveways . largers ones i would back in and push the snow out .


I have no problem with my back drag , When the end is full I push it to one side then pull to garage and back drag , My Arctic does a super job back dragging.

And I do not care if you push then back drag , almost all paved surfaces are crowned from traffic and sometimes paved that way for run off , this is the main reason a snow plow can not scrape the surface perfectly clean .

Any one who thinks ya need to see black top after your done plowing needs to stop drinking when they plow LOL..

And yes my route is situated in one zip code , the furthest client is 2.2 miles from my home , I Built it this way on purpose, and I earn almost 5k a year for it ,, With each trip being 70 minutes it matters zero to me how many trips i make , on an average year 25 trips , a bad season might be 40 , I make 104 per hour bad year or 192 per hour on an average year and the clients have all been the same for approx 4 seasons . .


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## HKusp

So $10 a driveway then diehard?


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## Little Jon

Being that I only do one res, and all the rest are comercials, plus I use a V I cant help with how to do a drive, but I did see curbs mentioned earlier in the thread and I can tell you one way I deal with curbs, If I need to get snow on an area with curbs, then I will drive up to it in V mode then once the two outward most points of the plow touch the curb then I will fold in to straight mode, then with the plow straight I will slowly push until I just touch or am about to touch the curb, then I'll pick the plow up 4 or 5 inches, to where its just above the curb, then continue to push until the front tires touch the curb. Bam, snow on curb!!


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## diehrd

HKusp;460449 said:


> So $10 a driveway then diehard?


Well 200.00 a season , 2 trips per day 3 inch trigger .. I have a storm clause $15.00 per storm which kicks in with 12 inches of accumulation in a 24hr period..


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## nekos

Zack1978;460335 said:


> Windrows? What is that?
> 
> Zack


 windrows is what i have alway heard them called ... when you angle the blade to the left or right the snow will spill off to that side , thats a windrow.



diehrd;460348 said:


> I have no problem with my back drag , When the end is full I push it to one side then pull to garage and back drag , My Arctic does a super job back dragging.
> 
> And I do not care if you push then back drag , almost all paved surfaces are crowned from traffic and sometimes paved that way for run off , this is the main reason a snow plow can not scrape the surface perfectly clean .
> 
> Any one who thinks ya need to see black top after your done plowing needs to stop drinking when they plow LOL..
> 
> And yes my route is situated in one zip code , the furthest client is 2.2 miles from my home , I Built it this way on purpose, and I earn almost 5k a year for it ,, With each trip being 70 minutes it matters zero to me how many trips i make , on an average year 25 trips , a bad season might be 40 , I make 104 per hour bad year or 192 per hour on an average year and the clients have all been the same for approx 4 seasons . .


none of my blades will back drag that well in all conditions . wet snow i can useally back drag with out any problems but if it's packed down or ice i can't get that stuff up unless im going forward . i would try a back drag edge but i only do commercial now and what i can't back drag the shovel crews or salt trucks get .

as for seeing the black top , drive way or what ever you plow ... i mean with in reason . im not going to sit there for an hour trying to get a piece of ice off of anything but what i said before works much better ( at least it did for me ) when i was doing drive ways.


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## MOWBIZZ

thomas;332473 said:


> Is there a certian way you need to attack driveways? I have a very large (wide and long) driveway to do and I am trying to picture in my head how I would attempt it. If we get 12'' of snow, I dont think I could just plow straight ahead....Thanks for any pointers you can give...


If you have no choice other than to plow a foot of snow, one thing I have learned is to raise the plow a bit so it cuts the top half of the snow off then attack that area again with the blade on float...then do the same with the next section...eventually you'll have enough room to get a little head start...(this is with heavy or compacted snow...light powder should be easy no matter what!)


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## LogansLawnCare

Thanks for all of the tips. Now all I need is some snow to practice them


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## Mark Oomkes

MOWBIZZ;460665 said:


> If you have no choice other than to plow a foot of snow, one thing I have learned is to raise the plow a bit so it cuts the top half of the snow off then attack that area again with the blade on float...then do the same with the next section...eventually you'll have enough room to get a little head start...(this is with heavy or compacted snow...light powder should be easy no matter what!)


Yeah, and if it's wet, heavy snow you'll never scrape to pavement because you just packed it down. Then you lose traction because you'll be plowing over hardpack.

The only time I would consider doing this is if the windrow is too large to move anymore. But then I would either plow perpendicular to the windrow to cut the amount of snow down or plow on the other side of the windrow to get rid of the snow. Then come back and move the rest of the initial windrow down the parking lot.

I would only do the above as a very, very last resort.


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