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"Best Snow Mover I've Ever Used"
If you've ever tried moving snow with a skid steer loader, you know a regular bucket is not the best snow handler around.
Jerry Shrum, a farm mechanics teacher in Whiteland, Ind., also does commercial snow plowing on the side. He bought a plate from his dealer that mounts on the loader in place of the bucket.
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"Best Snow Mover I've Ever Used" SNOWBLOWERS Snowblowers 24-2-4 If you've ever tried moving snow with a skid steer loader, you know a regular bucket is not the best snow handler around.
Jerry Shrum, a farm mechanics teacher in Whiteland, Ind., also does commercial snow plowing on the side. He bought a plate from his dealer that mounts on the loader in place of the bucket. It's designed to hold small implements. Shrum simply fitted it with a Western snowplow, designed for use on a pickup truck.
"I bought the mounting plate for less than $100. A lot of people have a snow blade around - the kind with a couple of cylinders on it that angle and lift it. I bought a used one for $50. Since the skidsteer has remote hydraulic outlets, I didn't need the hydraulic pump and motor you'd need on a pickup," he says.
The hydraulics on the skidsteer are faster and more responsive than with the pump that came with the blade, too. And, Shrum says, with the blade mounted in place of the bucket, you can put down-pressure on the blade so it will do a good job of removing frozen snow and ice, too.
The mounting plate was a little light so he reinforced it along the edges and across the center by welding channel iron on the back. "It only took about three hours to reinforce the plate and get the plow mounted on it. It's something anyone can do.
"It takes only 30 seconds to switch from the blade to the bucket or back again, so when I'm clearing snow I take both along. The cylinders on the blade allow me to angle it left or right. With the skidsteer controls, I can tilt the blade so I can push snow up. I can pile it about 9 ft. high with the blade alone. Then I can put on the bucket and pile it higher," he says. When clearing a parking lot, that means less space wasted.
"It'll push a lot more snow than with the bucket alone. It's faster than pushing with a pickup, and it's the most maneuverable snow plow I've ever had," he says.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jerry Shrum, Shrum Mowing, 5632 N. 300 E., Whiteland, Ind. 46184 (ph 317 535-7609).
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