Plowing question

[Ranger]

Here's the picture of what I have to plow at work.

Here's what they want cleared, in red. The stack area is the same as below, no choice in the matter.

Here's the recommended plow pattern by my bosses

Here's what I have been doing, as it seems more efficient and less hard on the equipment.

Since the apron needs to get cleared, I just forward/reverse it all onto our ramp, then start my NASCAR racetracking. I furlow in all the way around for the majority of the ramp, making a wider lane at the other end from the stack pile, then start making straight runs that are offset so the blade spillover from the boss with wings ends up furlowing together for another run. I just keep doing that till it's all cleaned up, then start backplowing the area next to the hangar/PIT area, plus the parking that looks to be near the various crap, on the airport side of the fence. Once that's all relatively clean then I start pushing it into the snow stack... the stack builds out towards the taxiway until a company we work with comes over with a 966 and stacks it even higher, or we have it trucked off to a storage area.

On the street side of things, next to the gated fence there's a sidewalk on the side of the hangar.. I backplow the starting area for all the runs then I scrape the parking next to the sidewalk, furlowing right, then come back and hug the sidewalk to scrape it some more and/or shovel it to where I'm dropping blade.. I push it all down towards the street, then start orbiting to clean up near the building, and get it all pushed towards the straight shot from across the street to the snow stack pile...

It seems to be efficient.

I'm forced to use a F250 gasser with no ballast, and a boss 8 footer with wings that spill over more than they help.

What would you guys do?

 

[stacks04]

imo the circle deal is not helping you. just prolonging the inevitable and pushing less snow farther. i am no expert but i prefer the angled blade into a common path and forward reverse driving.

 

[Ranger]

Another reason for the circle is because we can't block the taxiway apron to the right, immediately up from the snowstack... otherwise our largest customer wouldn't be able to taxi out and burn fuel so we can make $$$$$$ refueling them. it's got to all move there, and I figure more time with a blade down getting it closer to where it needs to go.

Once it's all generally in-line with the stack then it goes to forward-reverse. Even with spillover, it seems more snow total gets moved when it's furlowed than when it's not, plus with the circle I can keep the speed up better which means I can get more throw on the snow... our ramp's about 100 yds by 200 yds... only obstacles are the pit's lids which have damaged plowblades before hence the backdrag over there.

Having done it both ways already, it's also a severe pain trying to break down a over-blade stack that grows if you just start from the hangar and work up, or the other way... you can't cut into the stack with the blade edge much, so you're stuck having to nibble at the thing for an hour vs getting it into the stack the first time.

 

[craiggenz]

It sounds time consuming, but backing up and going forward really is the fastest, ive tried both. Another thing you should look at is what way the wind is coming from. on the right of the hanger, u have a pile, must be a fence, but you also backdrag the other side, if i gets windy, your going to have a constant pile right were you have to backdrag, and those piles are NO fun to try and back drag. IMO, you will lose some space no matter how your pushing it and wil always have wind blown piles to clear up, rent a skidloader or payloader, get the shit away from the right side and stack it out as far as you can after plowing with your truck. its always a treat with layouts like that, i had a few gas/service stations with a similar layout on a smaller scale, no fun.