Winter is now in full swing and a blast of Arctic air is really pummeling the Champlain Valley with low temperatures and scary wind chills. We have had a strange brew of snowfall this year and winter is far from over. I thought that I would take this opportunity on a cold night to take some time to really break down some of the benefits of the tractor snowblowing system. Environmentally tractor snowblowing has many benefits over both traditional trucks and plows as well as your personal snowblower.
Environmental benefits begin with efficiency. The tractor snowblowers take between 1 minute and 6 minutes to clear a driveway depending on the size of the driveway. Some driveways can even be cleared in less than a minute. An average two car wide, two car deep driveway takes between 60 and 90 seconds to clear with the tractor. This time remains unchanged even in snow depths up to 12″. Personal walk behind snow blowers are much more affected by snow depth and moisture content. Driveway clearing times with personal walkbehind snowblowers are exceptionally variable. The same two car wide, two car deep driveway would take a personal walk behind snowblower about 3o minutes in up to about 8 inches of snow accumulation–more time for deeper snows. The tractor-blowers burn between 2.5 and 4 gallons of diesel per hour (depending on engine load). With good route density a tractor and blower can clear between 20 and 40 drives per hour. Smaller drives in really tight neighborhoods and a tractor blower can clear upwards of 50 drives per hour. This driver here keeps pace at a drive per minute. At 20 drives per hour and fuel usage of 3 gallons per hour we get fuel consumption of .15 gallons per driveway. Most personal walkbehind snowblowers consume between .75 and 1 gallon per hour calculating out to between .375 gallon and .5 gallon per driveway usage rate—double to triple the usage of a tractor blower. Newer diesel engines also have emissions controls while small engines on personal walkbehind snowblowers are some of the least emission controlled engines available. Read more on small engine emissions here. Less fuel consumption, less emissions–using a tractor snowblowing service brings significant environmental benefits.
Save your time, save your back, save your money, and save the environment with a tractor snowblowing service.