Plowing Condos

I plow a couple of condo complexes and are asked to bid on others every year. The thing is like most condos they all have short driveways say 50 to 75 feet streight in from the road to the garage. A full size truck, is just two big. I mean a pull plow helps, but you still have to do a lot of turning around with the truck. I wonder if a small tractor would work better, or maybe a truck mounted snowblower, but those are 7K. Do any of you guys do condos? If so what do you use to plow, and what do you think is the most profitable. <p>Note all condos have their own access road, so you could drive from unit to unit with out a problem.<p>Geoff

 

You need something like my JD for that. It will turn on a dime and has a 54 inch power angle blade with down presure or the 48 inch blower also with down presure. Works nice. It could handle a bigger blade in most conditions.<p>----------<br>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.townserver.com/elm/&quot;&gt;Eric@ELM&lt;/a&gt;<br>

 

Does the JD handle whole driveways. Have you ever battled a big storm with it?<p>Geoff

 

Geoff eric has gone to bed, he is getting snow, and needs to start plowing at midnight.<br>However i can say for him that he plowed the blizzard last January(24-27&quot he said it did great. A blower on that machine will move alot of snow. I would think that any smaller type loader will do fine in tight spaces, of course they are kinda slow. How about a skid steer, they are very manuverable and very quick,and with the hydro drive easy to reverse directions. I would think that hydro drive would be a must for plowing.<br>Dino<p>----------<br> Professional Ice and Snow Management <br>Products:Services:Equipment www.sima.org

 

I could lease a skid steer from a rental yard for like 25 bucks a day, if i lease it from Nov 1 to Apr 1. The thing is i would have to buy a snowblower for it. Maybe that would be the best way to go. Right now i am just trying to think of a better way to do these properties, because they are good money makers.<p>The trouble with the skid steer is you would have to trailer it from condo complex to condo complex. I just wonder how fast you could go trailering something in 8&quot; of snow.<p>Dino we will get our snow and ice sometime sunday/monday. Get ready it could be a big one.<p>Geoff<br>

 

Geoff,<br>I've got my 14.4' plow mounted on a shortbox (115&quot; wb) pick-up so it's shorter more maneuvable than the long beds.<p>Of course all the new trucks you need to have at least a 3/4 ton so that idea is pretty useless.<p>BTW: I've used those truck-mounted snowthrowers, that's not your solution for this application.

 

Im pretty new but i plow for a company and they use bobcats to do the droiveways and they have tiny little driveways almost too small for any truck. Exspecially in the corners. I dont know what a skid steer is but it sounds like a bull dozer or something.

 

We use 4 skid steer loaders for our condos, two with plows and two with snow pushers. The ones with plows can get right up to the doors and pull back then turn around and push off, the larger one then come by with the pushers and pick up. they are fast can turn around in their own length and pile snow 10'-15' high. I have found them faster than a truck. We keep ours on site, but in our area alot of snow companys move them around on a trailer with a 1 ton 4x4.<br> <br>I have found with condos walks are the biggest problem, this year 2 atv's handle most of the snow on the walks salt is the hardest part this year.<p>snow coming down now have to leave.<br>paul<p>----------<br>paul<br>

 

Geoff, For several years, I didn't use anything but my JD for snow removal. It can handle anything mother nature dished out and I use the 54 inch blade most of the time. If you have deep snow and are running out of places to put the snow, I put the blower on. The blower and blade I have is made by Quick-Tach in Wisconsin and both fit on one mount, so it is fast to change over. I have the bar tires on it and the traction it has is unbelievable. We trailer it to the job, 8 miles away and have never had a problem with trailering it. When I first started doing this, I pulled it with an old Bronco and had no problems trailering. We unload it and do all 61 driveways before we load it back up. We couldn't do as many back when we used it by itself, but it can do 6 huge driveways an hour by itself with a 4 inch snowfall. When I ran it, I could do a driveway as fast as my competitors could with a truck and these are push off driveways I do, so it is neat. When I did back drag driveways, I have a 4' box scraper I can put on the back if needed. Now it is used for cleaning up hard to get at areas and cleaning up corners on circle drives. After doing 61 driveways and running for 6.5 hours last night, it took 2 gallons even to fill it back up when we got in. If you want to see it, it's on my equipment page on my website. <p>----------<br>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.townserver.com/elm/&quot;&gt;Eric@ELM&lt;/a&gt;<br>

 

It looks like a great rig. I like the cab, can it stack snow very high? Do you ever use your truck to plow? Or is the truck just for parking lots?<p>Geoff