[Bill]

Hello, I moved last year and my family and I struggled all last winter to get cars out of our very steep driveway. We live in northern Illinois and usually get 2-4 inches of snow but a feew times a year we get 8 inches. Just plowing the driveway or using a snow blower leaves behind too much snow for our cars to climb the driveway even with now tires on. I have a Gravely walk behind tractor and a power broom attachment that does a great job of removing the snow / ice left behind after plowing or snow blowing and we can easily get our cars out of the driveway if I use the power broom and a little snow melt afterwards. Unfortunately, I am not always home to clear the driveway and my mother (elderly) and daughter (very small) don't like to use the Gravely and I don't blame them. I have a John Deere X485 but currently don't have any attachments for it other than a mowing deck. I was wondering if a John deere 52 or 60 broom on my X485 could clear up to 8 inches of snow? Would it be possible to make two passes removing the top 4 inches of snow in the first pass then removing the remaining 4 inches of snow in the second pass. I have never had the opportunity to use a power broom on a John Deere garden tractor so I just don't know what there capabilities are. I'm trying to avoid a situation where my mother or daughter must change attachments so i'm hoping a broom alone may be able to clear the snow. The X485 is so easy to use that even my elderly mother enjoys using it to mow once in a while and my daughter can handle easily handle it. Thanks for your help.

 

[Kster526]

We had used a brush at one of my previous employers . They are excellent in dry snows but over four inches of a wetter heavy snow they aren’t as effective.
Ours was on a JD 318
We had great success but changing it in the middle of a storm to a blade really
was a pain.
The other issue was build up of wet snow laying on the top you had to keep a watch on that or you would get excess wear on the brushes.
We also had a walk behind unit that was just a little cumbersome to use but affective also
Good luck in your choice hope it works out for you.

 

[ckjakline]

another thing with doing 4 incessantly at a time where your tires drive it'll be packed down then and make it real slippery also.