Plowing LAYERS of Snow and ICE

hit her hard [Music] oh let it snow let it snow let it snow we got more snow coming we just got done with an ice storm so if we go over here we got this weird crunchy layer underneath all of the snow so deep down you got snow and then you got ice that's what we're going to be going up against in this snowstorm this is nothing it's beautiful it's fun it's the crap underneath that's going to make it exciting challenging make our job worthwhile so let's go out and plow whatever we're gonna call this one but let's get the truck started up and warmed up before we head out so today we're gonna be starting with open ups the storm's not done yet but that doesn't mean we don't have we get to wait until it's done before we go out we've got to go out and get the drive lanes all cleared out so that the cars can come in and out of all of our accounts safely so we'll go out and we'll pop them open up top and uh then come back this evening and do a full push all right well we're gonna go do first we're gonna start the open ups with the pickup truck we'll do a little bit of a ride along today just kind of show you around what we're doing um while we're going through this what we've got is a two to three inch little baby storm here but we've got a pretty slick layer of ice underneath us yesterday we had a pretty nasty ice storm come through and about around midnight it laid down a sheet of uh well it started to rain which laid down a sheet of ice over our lots so we have um two things that we typically do we'll do an open up which is prior to doing a full push and that means one or two or three guys or however many we think we need depending on how severe the storm is comes out early and they just start doing drive lanes so we're not cleaning everything we're not here to clean everything we're here to make it safe for the cars that are in front of us right now to be able to get out and so it's just kind of a kind of a nice fun pre-work uh thing to do it's very low-key you just come in and drive around and um with your blade down and you gotta it's not completely random by any means even though to somebody that you know may be looking at going what was that guy just randomly driving around for well we're not we're actually there's a method to our madness we're trying to get the highest priority areas cleared up first so that um the most vehicular traffic can get in and out safely there don't they don't have to deal with the weather as far as it goes from getting from point a to point b out of the building and on to the roads once they get to the road so that's somebody else's job to do but all i got to do right now is get these lanes opened up so they can get in and out on this site we have dedicated push piles so the snow doesn't go just any old place all right we got the loader fired up but i want to show you something look at this is pure ice that's not an asphalt [Music] this is high speed right here [Music] this is floored pedal to the metal right now high speed second gear [Music] there's first gear actually a little faster because we got a load up i didn't do anything special i just switched the gears all right [Music] all right let's see let's back up and see how we let's see how the sledge did how well it scraped what do you think she scrapes like a champ doesn't she yeah scrapes unbelievably an arctic they contour to the top [Music] here's where it ends um and this is why i bought this one and i'm not trying to skew you one way or another and i said skew as in make you think of buying one or another i don't care what to buy go buy what you want buy what makes you happy buy what your checkbook says you can afford this is why i bought an arctic our neighbors use them right just right across the way if you actually look in front of me right over there they use an hla so i stopped by and i took a peek at it [Music] it had 26 grease zerks this has zero it had 13 different hoses every one of those hoses looked like something that could rupture and break it had three motors and you just seen the sectional edge in action i can't even see where the curbs are [Music] now if i would have hit that and a regular pusher i'd have been hurt a static pusher but the arctics float up and over you guys probably we barely felt that other than just going ah that's a stupid rookie operator error we didn't feel it we didn't wreck a machine we didn't wreck a pusher um the hla also that i looked at had three motors on it three pumps so it had three different and all of that to me said maintenance point failure point maintenance point failure now there's critics of the arctics and rightfully so because there's nothing perfect but the arctics use this rubber puck to make every single one of their sections go up and down and the critics will tell you that those punks break now i've been plowing with arctic pushers here's my two cents on what those critics say i've been plowing with an arctic pusher now this is my third or fourth year we've used nothing but we've never broke a single rubber puck not one we've never had an arctic fail not once we've never had an arctic not deliver what we needed it to do we've never had it [Music] let us down or make more work through maintenance or what have you not once so how these uh guys are breaking pucks because they do break they're not indestructible but they'll come into a pile like this full speed and just slam into it and when they slam into it it creates a compression and snaps them so don't slam your arctic pushers and you're not going to have a problem and it's pretty simple and if you uh have an operator that keeps breaking these pucks maybe you better look at how that operator is running that piece of equipment because the prop the pucks are the spot that are taking the brute force instead of it transferring right through the entire loader at that point you want that pump to break otherwise something else is going to break if you're slamming into piles of ice and snow hard enough to break a inch and a half thick rubber puck designed to handle that kind of abuse and you're able to break them consistently over and over again maybe you need to look at how you're running the equipment because i'll tell you if i had an operator that came to me i broke this i broke it again it broke again it broke again and i'm hopping in the same equipment and having zero issues i would be able to pretty quickly figure out where the heck that crop real problem actually lies [Music] looks like the sidewalk guys got a new rig who's got a new toy yes how are you man good i'm doing good good to see you again oh you too so you did you got you traded in the old four-wheeler i sold it for like four grand um shut the front door yeah it was a 2008 and i was having issues with it a buddy of mine kind of fixed it up i could use it but this is way too fun man now there's the only bad part is some sidewalks like the sidewalk here i can't get into i was gonna say is it because it's a lot bigger rig right but it's one pass and you're done on the sidewalks that i'm done is 72 inches uh the only part that sucks is this directional thing is stuck so i gotta get that worked out once i get that worked out i can i don't know why is this the same moose country or a different plow oh it's a can-am plow oh so it's not would you ever go with a hydraulic plug eventually i would i just didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on it right now yeah um but yes definitely i'll go with something else so you got room for a passenger now yes this is me my brothers we bought it uh 2019. can i go for a ride with you go faster than i go this is the first time i've done this out here so on the trails they go about 75 oh man you got the you got the fresh air right in your face no windshield to worry about well you know you're going to slow the rest of us down because every time you drive by we all got to stop and watch we're all like that looks like so much fun it is all right well i'll let you get back at it good to see you again man i'm glad you're out here yes i like you guys it's gonna be a fun year dude it's gonna be a fun year and uh start cleaning up he goes like twice as fast in that thing as i go drive that truck like you know how to use it keep going come on you can do it timmy you can do it i ram it this time god timmy hit her hard yeah there you go yeah you tell him about you tell him his daughter's 14 year old daughter is riding with him in the truck right now we're gonna go put her in a skid loader and let her do the slip and slide and learn how to run a loader there we go so to get that run filmed we pushed all the snow from this lot sideways which is how we would do it anyway and then just come in backwards and boom that's her first time running a piece of equipment she's 14. that's her first scoop of snow right there the reason i like to say stuff like that is because those are memories you guys that we all have a chance to make with somebody well you got a lot of snow there you're starting to slide you don't have snow tracks so it's going to slip a lot so kind of lift lift your bucket up in the air a little bit and keep going forward keep lifting until you get some bite and then go keep going come forward come forward as you go yeah there you go give her some gas step on the pedal give her some power so ava what you're trying to do when you lift it up is you're trying to get just a little bit of snow below you and the machine we're not scraping all the way down to the because you got the wrong tracks for that so you're not trying to dump your snow but when you feel like you're stuck you raise the plow up that much just a hair and then keep going if you got too much snow it's not going to push all that so you got to maybe let a little bit go and then keep pushing but back back up now lift this straight lift it up and back up all right well while tim is teaching his daughter how to run a skid loader i think we're just going to keep plowing with these guys working here sometimes if you realize you're actually making a memory oh it's just so it's just kind of cool to know to be in that moment you know what i mean you kind of want to go see that tractor though you do too all right let's go look let's go look and see what he's got but he's running looks like he's got a cage on the front john deere 64 30 cage snow pup cage is pretty good but they don't have a floating edge ah looks like that's taking a little bit of abuse huh so he can hook up drop his containment back away now he's got an angle plow all right so here's the game plan guys timmy is plowing with ava ava is 14 years old it's timmy's daughter she's never ran a skid loader before she's never even seen snowplowing before so he's going to work with her in this lot her obstacles thankfully there's no cars but there's plenty of those really expensive light poles and plenty of curbs to work around so she's going to have a challenge tonight and this is not going to be a typical snow plow pattern that you see because we usually have certain patterns that we use now i know some of the cynics and critical people out there going to go well how do you justify putting a 14 year old to work in a parking lot well that piece of equipment's not punched in on anybody's clock it was just sitting there and this is a great opportunity to give someone an experience that it may stick or it may not stick but let's just give them that opportunity to see if it if it's for them or not so here she comes now how's it going how's it how's it going he got headphones on you getting the hang of it yeah this is really fun is it fun yeah awesome good we'll keep going kiddo thank you yup love it love it love it [Music] so [Music] mmm so [Music] um [Music]