[firefighter5143]

Purchased a new place this year and it comes with a gravel driveway. So I need to know what you guys recommend on gravel driveways and snowblowers. I want to avoid shooting gravel all over the place.

Should I be looking for a single to two stage unit?

How about the feet on the blower will they float ok on the gravel?

Any tips?

 

[kb0nly]

This question has come up a lot lately..

I deal with this every winter too, have for about ten years now, and even more than that when i lived on the farm.

I always keep the blower about an inch above the gravel, let it pack down and basically build an ice road.. LOL

Get some bigger skids! I am going to experiment this year with some larger footprint skids from www.snowblowerskids.com and see how that helps. The smaller skids dig in. I know one guy that put a couple old lawnmower wheels on his blower, that works great also.

 

[Justy37]

For gravel either is fine. Long as the first few times you blow snow with the Skids down far as possible. For a while leave it til a layer of snow packs the gravel driveway. Once packed, you can raise the skids up where the cutting blade hits the ground. Should have very little rocks.

As for blowers and rocks. I would say 2-stage is better for gravel. I use single stage and don't have issues on a gravel driveway, just make sure the skids done right. But the auger does spin pretty fast and sucks anything it can in. 2-stage the auger is slow and not spinning 3600 rpm like a single stage. It seems less chance getting a lot of rocks in.

 

[slkpk]

I do the same on my gravel let it get a solid base of snow pack by leaving about an inch and lower the skid shoes to raise the blower to it's maximum height. slkpk

 

[ezliving4ume]

You will throw some gravel, or I always do. Leave about 1/2" to an inch depending on graval conditions. Packed unpacked etc. I run a single stage thrower and would recommend a single based on this, there are a lot of single stage heads out there and their cheap. So if you beat it up to bad you can change the head unit.
The bigger skide are a good idea along with the casters.

 

[firefighter5143]

Thanks for the tips so far. The gravel is all fresh and isn't really packed down so I'm sure i'll be throwing a few extra stones because of that. I have a single stage now. I'll try that first before deciding if I need the bigger two stage unit. The lift on my blower is hyd. so I would think I could even leave it up just a tad to get that base layer down.

 

[NE Indiana mower]

If you are trying to throw the snow into the next county, you will have stone all over your yard. I always, for the first few snows at least, limited how far I threw the snow/stones. It saves a lot of raking next spring, it is all right next to the drive.

 

[firefighter5143]

Thanks for the info NE. I will make sure to aim my chute at the neighbors yard. Just kidding.

 

[Corso]

I just blew 12" of wet, heavy snow from my grvel driveway last Saturday with my single-stage. Like has been said, I dropped the skids so the blade was about 3/4" off the surface. The issue I had with this storm was that the ground wasn't frozen, so the skids would dig in. I guess that's what happens when it snows in Oct.

Last year I only had to drop the skids during the first snow removal. After that it was packed down nice and hard so I ran the blade all the way down and it did great. And I moved A LOT of snow last year.

 

[locknut]

Just finished up a blower redo on the old quasi footdragger.It had the original skids,but I decided to use some UHMW I had on hand and made some larger ones,about the same width but longer.I'll be doing gravel so I hope they work.