Sure, I post about snow blowers and snow management tools... A LOT. I understand. But, it's my blog so that's not gonna change. The funny thing is, living in Buffalo, NY my entire life, it is clear that all snow blowers fail when confronted by WET snow and slush. Yeah, we get a lot of that due to lake-effect snow dumped on us thanks to Lake Erie.
For Buffalonians and those living in other snow havens across the world, slush and wet snow are backbreakers. For those of us with heart conditions, wet snow and slush can be literally a fatal obstacle to confront. Did I mention my driveway is 80 feet long?
What this all amounts to is that snow blowers, even the self-propelled, gas-fueled giants, are next to useless when battling wet snow and slush. Major shoutout to Troy-Bilt as their snow blowers have done the best in my experience blowing the slush and wet snow away. Now, can you imagine how wet snow was handled before snow blowers?
... imagine the harp noises from TV shows that usually precede thinking back in time. Then type in "horse snow plow" into any search engine - check out the images that pop up.
Before cars, if you didn't want to use a shovel, you used horse-drawn plows to clear streets. No horses? Yea, that would suck. There are also lots of images around the internet of early cars stuck in snow when roads were far from the well-constructed surfaces we have now. Welp, one winter, when confronted with a snow blower clogged with wet snow, I ended up pushing the snow to the end of the driveway on one pass where I cleaned out the snow blower before switching to a big push shovel. I figured I could just keep doing the push of snow with the snow blower, but I was worried about messing with the snow blowers gears (getting gears fixed/replaced is incredibly expensive - just an fyi). While shoveling, I thought about the pushing aspect. What if I got a machine to plow my driveway. Now, before you yell "those things already exist," keep in mind two things. First, plow blades made to attach to riding lawn mowers and snow blowers are incredibly expensive. Many if not most people can't afford to buy them! Most of these devices are close to or over $400. That's a lot of money for most of us.
Oh, the second thing to keep in mind? My wife said no.
So, there I was, in my 52nd year on the planet, with a heart condition, dealing with very heavy wet snow and slush on a fine December morning in Buffalo. Enough was enough. Enter the design phase. After another look at attachment options for my snow blower and riding lawn mower, I created a basic design of a device to attach to my snow blower, which would turn it into a plow. I wanted to keep costs low while building something effective and that would not mark up or dig up the driveway. I went with wood. The funny thing is, I initially planned to use pine boards I had in my garage, which would have saved me some money. Then it dawned on me that the wood was lightweight and may require my attaching something to weigh down my attachment. Low and behold I remember the heavy shelving I recently purchased and decided to spend a bit of money (about $25-$30) to get shelving boards from the local Home Value Center. Add in a few brackets and I created a snow plow! The photo is of the final product. How did it work on wet snow. Better than I expected.
Here's the thing, I designed it to attach to my snow blower, but the snow blower uses gas. My Greenworks self-propelled lawn mower, meanwhile, is battery-powered. So, the curious me tried the attachment out on the lawn mower. As you can see in the photo, it worked incredibly well. So, thinking back to the horse-drawn snow plows, I think such attachments are a life saver. With a bungee cord used to keep the attachment connected to the snow blower (or the lawn mower - whichever is handy), the device was amazing.
I imagine that when the snow is deep, the lawn mower will not be strong enough to push the snow. Also, for long, thin stretches of driveways, an angled attachment for the snow blade will help with moving the snow out of the way. I will post pictures of that attachment add-on after the next wet snow. All that aside, if you are in need of a device for dealing with wet snow, you now have an option. Cheers.
