Do you plow snow?

[RSK Property Maintenance]

Originally Posted by yardguy28

85-100......

that's it?

that's only a tank of gas for my pickup. that wouldn't cover the snow blowers. I guess I don't consider a tank of gas per storm anything to loose sleep over.

yup 85-100 that's it, I usually go through about 18-19 gallons per bigger storm like over 10" I don't consider a tank of gas per storm anything to lose sleep over either, I sleep very well, for 6-10 hours every night. my truck has two tanks and between the two of them I have put 40 gallons in total, but i really have to run them down far to fit that much in there, so in the winter i only fit 19 in the front tank and usually 16 in the smaller rear tank. I drive around in 2wd whenever possible. plus i never shut my truck off until i'm completely done with my route and at my house meaning it will idle for a few hours during my route. so that doesn't help my fuel economy but its fine how it is really.

[Darryl G]

On that 10 inch storm I rolled out at 6:45pm with 5 inches on the ground until 12:55am and parked it, then rolled back out around 8:45am and wrapped it up around 5:30pm = 15 hours, but some bsing and leisure time in there and stopped to refuel before heading home. A friend of mine was in from Santa Barbara so I helped her with digging out the cars at her parent's and chatted. I was probably there an hour and got some awesome brownies from her It takes a while to do my place and I do a few neighbors for free as well as a lawn customer who is active Navy and out on a submarine. I billed it all at 2x my normal rate, but according to my terms I could have billed at 2.5 times. About 2/3 of my route got 2 pushes and the tail end got 1. I dunno, probably 25 paid accounts and 5 or so freebies. As long as I'm at $150/hr or so I'm happy. I generally don't get out of my truck at all while it's still coming down, so my first leg was all driving. I could have brought a helper for the second leg but decided I had it under control solo. Both of my sons are trained for stick plow and snowblower duty.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

I do all seasonal. It works out good unless its a record setting winter. It carries over anyway.

[Darryl G]

Originally Posted by SECTLANDSCAPING

I do all seasonal. It works out good unless its a record setting winter. It carries over anyway.

Are these commercial, residential or both? For commercial I can see being able to do that, but residentials seem to be very resistant to a seasonal contract in my opinion. Please enlighten us if you can.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by Darryl G

Are these commercial, residential or both? For commercial I can see being able to do that, but residentials seem to be very resistant to a seasonal contract in my opinion. Please enlighten us if you can.

commercial. I do bid a few per push but I still am 90% seasonal. I would like to be around 75/25 so I can make money when it snows instead of losing money every storm but hey it works out.

I have got a few residential to do seasonal. Its a lot easier after a bad winter. With this winter and last you can kiss that goodbye.

The few I do get are multifamily houses, work crazy hours, or are full service.

Full service seems to be the easiest way to go. I even worked my contracts different ways since some wont pay for clean ups, others want stuff like gutter cleanings included. Then I charge them on a 10 monthly payments. This way if they want to cancel because theres no snow they already paid for it!

[yardguy28]

Originally Posted by KeystoneLawn&Landscaping

My route can take 6- 11 hours. Saturday with 2 inches was 6 hours, today with 6-8 inches it was 8.5 hours. IMO, you should have a back up truck if you have a route like mine. Actually 2 of everything. I have 30 stops. 3 very small commercial, 26 drives and 9 sidewalks. I have a break down kit in the truck for the plow and snow blower for the simple break downs, but I have another truck and snow blower all ready to go if something major goes wrong. Don't normally need them, but this year needed the back up truck one time and the back up snow blower too. I keep the newest truck for the back up. Want to keep it out of the salt as much as possible. If I need the back up, I want to go get my best piece and know it should be better than what just had a failure. I also do METICULOUS maintenance on snow equipment.

I'm like you I keep back ups of as much stuff as I can. personally I don't have a back up truck or plow but I have people who can help with that in a pinch. but I'm usually doing snow removal solo and I always load my truck with 2 snow blowers and 2 to 3 shovels. almost had to use the back up snow blower last night.

Originally Posted by KeystoneLawn&Landscaping

I burn 1 gallon per hour of plowing. I leave the truck running from start to stop.

Originally Posted by RSK Property Maintenance

yup 85-100 that's it, I usually go through about 18-19 gallons per bigger storm like over 10" I don't consider a tank of gas per storm anything to lose sleep over either, I sleep very well, for 6-10 hours every night. my truck has two tanks and between the two of them I have put 40 gallons in total, but i really have to run them down far to fit that much in there, so in the winter i only fit 19 in the front tank and usually 16 in the smaller rear tank. I drive around in 2wd whenever possible. plus i never shut my truck off until i'm completely done with my route and at my house meaning it will idle for a few hours during my route. so that doesn't help my fuel economy but its fine how it is really.

yep I leave my truck running from the time I leave the driveway until the time I come back home as well. unless I stop for gas in the middle of my route which isn't very often. I usually make sure I have the truck filled and everything else I need before the storm.

[711SnoPro]

I started doing snow last year with a skid steer. I enjoy doing it. Gets to be long hours sometimes but I'm young haha

I ended up buying a pusher this fall, amazing how much faster it makes things go! For next year would like to get maybe 4-5 more accounts. Would also be nice to get my own dump truck for landscaping and snow but one thing at a time.

The way I look at it, if you have the equipment why wouldn't you do it?? But it's not something you should depend on for income. I see and hear about all kinds of people that are depending on snow and suffering because of that.

[Darryl G]

A recent run of the NAM weather model predicts 4 to 5 feet of snow in parts of the northeast this weekend, lol.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by Darryl G

A recent run of the NAM weather model predicts 4 to 5 feet of snow in parts of the northeast this weekend, lol.

At the end of article that says "New England will be Buried this Weekend". It briefly talks about it will snow 2" a hour if two storms collide. Hmmmmm, that sounds like that perfect storm nonsense about Sandy.

[Darryl G]

Originally Posted by RSK Property Maintenance

Negative on the old saybrook area, I'm down there 2-3 times a week in the summer at the pavilion and the beach, and I go to claudios in greenport,ny on the weekends but no accounts down there too far. I have arrangements with a buddy of mine, but he has a few lots he has to do by a certain time. but i used his truck when mine was down. I always bring a helper for the sidewalks and in front of the garage doors. I do need to drop customers or raise the price on the ones that aren't lawn customers or near lawn customers so that it will offset another truck, and get new accounts only near my current lawn customers my fuel bill for small storm is around 85 dollars, big storm like 12" is about 100.

If we get what they're forcasting you're gonna have a REALLY long weekend. I've got new snows going on the truck tomorrow and chains at the ready.