dbd33

That looks to be a formidable machine, good luck with it.

<steps out to have a go at the drive>

BristolUK

That's the puzzle though. If it rains (or there's a thaw) and then freezes quickly, why should it be worse than if the rain freezes "normally" or even at minus 20 instead of "just" minus 5?

Saturday we had rain and then a fall in temperature overnight. It was a greater fall than that predicted for tonight, yet there was no warning Saturday nor was there a nasty load of ice on Sunday.

R I C H

You'll have no problem clearing a 6" snowfall. I owned a similarly sized JD, but with a little less HP (yours is 40 something, right?). All the driveways, parking lots and roadways to paddocks I had at the equestrian centre took about 3.5 hours to plow. There's no doubt a quad would have been faster, but once snow banks build up during the course of a winter, a quad would stand no chance of pushing the banks back. The tractor (I used a rear 7' deep blade, with loader on the front) would maintain the width of the roads throughout the winter without problem. The loader added to it's versatility to move snow banks that were getting in the way.

I had the rear tires filled with calcium chloride for added traction (the property entrance was pretty steep) and I never needed to resort to chains - could plow up and down hill with the added weight in the tires. Helps counter-balance a full loader bucket slightly too.

Pick up a fence post auger when you can too. About $1000 ish new, they make fence repair and maintainance a breeze and tree planting very easy too

Almost Canadian

Thanks

It's a bigger beast that we anticipated but we realised that, once we started to use it, we would find lots of uses for it that we hadn't thought of and I really didn't want to find that we were underpowered. The ability to be able to handle round bales is a real bonus for us.

Time will tell whether I look to acquire a cutter and baler to enable us to make our own bales.

We have our tires filled too.

The quad does very well and, as you likely know, where we are the Chinooks winds blow through relatively frequently so accumulation of snow is not normally an issue and, until this last winter, drifts had not been an issue for us. As we learned to our cost just before Christmas, our quad cannot cope with sustained drifts of more than 18" of snow and we needed something to cope.

If using the tractor isn't too slow, I anticipate that the rear blade will become the implement of choice. We have a paved drive with a couple of raised points. I am anxious to avoid ripping the tarmac if the blade is set too low. With the quad, the blade is spring loaded and, if it hits anything, it simply catches and lays forward, preventing any damage.

In time, we will likely obtain some form of tiller to assist with the arena, an auger and a mower deck for the rear. The thing is that I don't like storing equipment outside so we may have to look into getting another quonset. Yet another way of getting rid of $$$$$$$

Oink

Does it have a cabin with a heater?

Almost Canadian

No. The engine has a block heater though.

Souvy

The joys of winter. Some of you will be aware of the lovely weather in Ontario and Quebec on Monday.

We had gone to Chicoutimi for the weekend to look at property and came back on Monday. On a good day that trip takes about seven hours. Monday was not a good day. It took 13 hours.

We started on the 175, which is 200km long and the only road between Chicoutimi and Quebec City. It's a good road (two lanes in either direction and a wide central divider). Most of it passes through wilderness. Apart from a truck stop halfway, there is nothing. It's not a good place to break down or crash.

The weather was reasonable, a few flakes. The ploughs were working, in staggered pairs and few hundred metres apart. They were bothersome because what they were shifting was powdery and blew into clouds. You knew there was a plough but you couldn't tell exactly where it was until you were almost upon it. We got past the first pair OK. Later on, we came to another pair. We got past the right one and were edging our way at about 50km towards the left one. Just as we caught sight of a bit of it about 75 metres ahead, some tosser came whizzing past us at close to 100. We were not very polite in our comments when we drove past the remains of his car.

Things were relatively OK from there until we reached Quebec, which was a mess. The roads had not been cleared, not even the highways, and there had been a pile-up on the 40 west of the city (ie the highway we needed to take). That leg took forever.

The stretch to Trois Rivieres was largely uneventful. I occupied myself counting the cars and trucks in the central ditch. An earlier pile-up outside Trois Rivieres had been cleared by the time we got there.

Stopping for a piss west of Trois Rivieres was a mistake. Blowing snow. The highway itself was not too bad but getting back on to it was terrifying. Absolute zero visibility.

A way out from Montreal, a long traffic jam appeared (another pile-up). We joined other people in moving onto the shoulder and coming off at a nearby exit and dropping down to the St Lawrence. I'm glad I have a map/locator thingy on my phone because I would not otherwise have had a clue where we were. We stayed on the river road until we figured we were past the carnage and then rejoined the 40 to go through Montreal. It was the rush hour by then. Sloooow but people were still crashing.

The highway splits at the far west end on Montreal Island. Most people go left to join what becomes the 401 to Toronto. We go right, on the 40, which becomes the 417 when you reach Ontario. It's usually very easy. We knew that there had been an earlier pile-up in Rigaud but it was clear by then. My SIL and stepson were keeping tabs on our progress by text and I told them it was plain sailing from there on in. Fairly clear road and little traffic. There would not have been much. Most Quebec cars were in ditches by that point.

I should have kept my gob shut. At Herb's Diner on the 417 we got diverted off the road by the OPP. 20-vehicle pile-up, we later discovered. The country roads in that bit of Ontario are not well signposted. We followed tail lights and hoped for the best. We got back on the 417 at Casselman. On the highway, Herb's to Casselman is 50km. I think we covered rather more km than that.

We we eventually got back to Gatineau and to our neighbourhood, we noticed that people were shovelling big-time. That did not bode well. Fortunately, my years of nurturing my neighbours had paid off. One or more of the little darlings had done the driveway, path and steps.

A somewhat eventful day. I'm damn glad I have a cellphone and a car adapter. I used a month's worth of data allowance in half a day.

Incidentally, if anyone is travelling by car in Quebec, the highway conditions bit of the Quebec 511 website is invaluable. It's not quite real-time but it's close.

Gozit

Wow. Just wow. Glad you are home safe!

Martin the cdn expat

Sounds like a fun day.

I guess the ' do not pass snow plows or at least do it very slowly and carefully'
need to be in bigger type for your friend.

Jerseygirl

Back in New Jersey now and the weather feels just as brutal as it did in Toronto. There's a lot more snow down here.

Tirytory

So up in snowy muskoka, we are having an interesting introduction into a "proper" canadian winter- thats what everyone keeps telling us anyway!

I had to drive down to Bracebridge from up north today on the hwy this afternoon. That was err stressful...still made it without landing up in a snow bank which is more than can be said for other cars i saw...

Shirtback

Wow! Gosh! & Congratulations! I've driven the 175 in snowy conditions, & found it quite an unnerving experience :-(

+ 1 for the 511 info.

dbd33

Curiously, just up the road from here, a state of emergency has been declared due to the weather. There's often weather.

http://barrie.ctvnews.ca/dufferin-co...ency-1.1661566

Souvy

The stretch of the 175 between Stoneham and Saguenay (ie most of it) had the dubious distinction of being one of the most dangerous roads in the country. The upgrade to a 2-lane divided highway was only completed recently. I dare not imagine what it was like as a single-land undivided road. The large number of roadside memorials provides a bit of a clue, though.

We should have guessed what it was going to be like when we drove up on Saturday night. When we got on the highway near Stoneham, the first thing we saw was a plough in the ditch.

Gozit

Sunny here for once today but still freezing as all hell!!