Maine Bound!

[budget76]

I would, but I’m kind of soured on them as a business at the moment. It’s truly insane. Like, shut the fuck up, take my money, and give me the fucking quad. I didn’t ask for your advice, input, or opinion on whether this particular machine is appropriate for my kid who you don’t even fucking know and haven’t seen.

good point, I'd do the same

saw a 90CC clunker near me for <$200 recently, the beater kids toys are out there somewhere.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Been quiet for a week. Had some weird bug that kind of kicked my ass. Wasn’t the beer flu I don’t think. Anyway, finally feeling better today and my eye isn’t super red and puffy like it has been the last two days. Nothing much to report other than woke up this morning to our first proper snowfall. Eyeballing it I’d say we have at least an inch or so right now. Not sure if it’s gonna stick or not.

sure is pretty around here though.

 

[Pony_Driver]

That rain barrel is going to freeze.

 

[92 Green YJ]

That rain barrel is going to freeze.

Yeah, that’s on my list today while the kids go out and play in the snow. Like I said, been down with something the past week.

 

[Grnjp92]

That snow is real pretty... for the first month! Lol By April or may you will be over it.

 

[SanDiegoCJ]

Right?! That’s what I said? How the fuck is that any of their concern anyway? I’m the customer and the parent. It’s on me to decide what my kid can and can’t handle. The thing has a throttle governor on it. It’s not like I’m gonna let my kid get on it and just go full throttle right out of the gate. I was fucking floored. They said Polaris asks for the kids DOB with the paperwork and they really don’t want them to sell quads above a certain engine size for a given age range. Fucking ridiculous.

Our daughter and SIL had a similar ATC for their son when he was younger. They had a remote ignition shut-off on it and if he didn't stay "in bounds" that they set up they just shut it off. He learned REAL quick to follow the rules.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Well I decided to take the truck down the driveway to check the mail. Wanted to see how rusty I am driving in the snow. Had to stop to remove a fallen limb and couldn’t help taking a few shots of the truck in the fresh snow.

I think I did pretty good.not used to these fancy new fangled Traction control systems. But I didn’t spin the tires or get stuck in 2wd. Of course I couldn’t resist turning traction control off when I got back up to the house.

then we got the kids and myself in the snow gear and went out to play for a while. Sledding in the front yard, snowball fights, took a ride on the quad thru the trails and around the property. Then of course I tied a sled to the back of the quad and dragged my daughter around on it. She had a lot of fun and all was well uNeil she sorta maybe slid into a tree coming down the driveway. As I turned the quad the sled got slack on the line and went straight. Oops. She was fine though.

back inside now for a bit to warm up and I made a treat I haven’t had in damn near 20 years.

Sugar Snow! Nice fresh clean snow with some Maine Maple Syrup on it. Yummy!

 

[Pony_Driver]

We make "Snow cream" around here. Basically snow, milk, sugar and vanilla extract. It's yummy.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Decided to take the Jeep out for a while. It hasnt seen snow in 17 years or so, and it’s never been in the snow as it is currently built. Heated seat kept me toasty as I tooled around the property for a while. Did some donuts in one of my fields and just generally had some fun.

 

[Chicken Corners]

Looks real nice.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Didn’t really take any pics today, but we had another fun day out and about playing in the snow. Kids did some more sledding, took another quad ride towing my daughter on a sled behind us. Went around and down to the big gravel pit and enjoyed the winter scenery.

While the kids were sledding I took care of the rain barrel. Went ahead and just drilled a couple of small holes down in the bottom of it to drain it out. Figure I’ll leave them be for the winter. Come spring I can just plug the holes and let it fill again. But for now it drained out and is continuing to drain. Realized today that when the sun hits the front side of the house it does a very nice job of melting everything off the roof so there was a lot of water running down the chains today. So much it melted the 2” or so of ice that had formed around the chains since yesterday.

 

[aczlan]

Didn’t really take any pics today, but we had another fun day out and about playing in the snow. Kids did some more sledding, took another quad ride towing my daughter on a sled behind us. Went around and down to the big gravel pit and enjoyed the winter scenery.

While the kids were sledding I took care of the rain barrel. Went ahead and just drilled a couple of small holes down in the bottom of it to drain it out. Figure I’ll leave them be for the winter. Come spring I can just plug the holes and let it fill again. But for now it drained out and is continuing to drain. Realized today that when the sun hits the front side of the house it does a very nice job of melting everything off the roof so there was a lot of water running down the chains today. So much it melted the 2” or so of ice that had formed around the chains since yesterday.

I would remove it or put a lid on it, you will get a dump of snow that will melt, re-freeze, plug your holes and then split the barrel.

Aaron Z

 

[92 Green YJ]

Well, you guys were right about that spreader I picked up at Tractor supply not having the sack for sand.

I noticed yesterday my driveway is icing up pretty good in a few areas so I went to try to sand it today. It just clogged and wouldn’t feed no matter what I tried.

So I hit the net and found a place in Bangor that carries damn near every plow, sander, etc you can imagine. Hopped in the truck and headed on over. More money than I care to admit and a forklift loaded pallet into the bed of my truck later and I was on my way back home with a Boss TGS 800 “tailgate” sander. This is the only one they carried that will handle sand.

So after unloading and assembling it, I got it mounted to the back of the tractor with a 3 point to 2” hitch adapter and went about wiring and installing the controller.
Winter mode achieved for the Deere. Sander on and installed, shoes put on the bucket for plow duty.

and of course I went and tested it out. Think I need to play with the speed settings a bit more. I dumped way too much at first as I had it too high. That said it looks like a full hopper is just about enough for one pass up the driveway and around most of my parking area if I have it feeding slow enough. I’m gonna need more sand.

 

[djljeep]

How long is your driveway? I just did a rough google earth estimate of what I know I can do with my dads DownEaster truck bed sander, and with a 2.5 yard sander (what you typically see in a 1 ton dump truck) that is slightly overloaded (rounded over), sanding heavy enough to do the job, but not overkill, I can lay down about ~2500 ft, and still have a little left in the box to do my parents short driveway in town. I can certainly expend that entire box in 2500ft if it needs more on a vacation week (I'm talking parking lot here). ThePanzerFuhrer may have a better guesstimate than me on that though.

Edit to add in total for the winter: My dad normally puts up ~30 yards for his customers (of his 50+ or so driveway accounts maybe a dozen of them get sand only when its icy, plus the two big commercial accounts which is the 2500ft worth of parking lot, plus the Mt Abram ski resort parking lot main road when they ask for it in icy conditions). IMO he puts up about half of what he really should be. Its not unusual for him to have to order more 2/3 of the way through the season.

I forget the earlier sand conversation - are you using just screened sand or a winter sand mix (with salt mixed in). Normal screened sand will freeze solid chunks that will plug the spreader if you aren't careful. Even winter mix will freeze if you leave it uncovered or let it get wet. I would suggest not leaving sand in the spreader unless its stored inside because it can freeze in the box, and thats not a good time either. I've had to run propane torpedo heaters inside the spreader with a tarp over it to thaw a frozen box before. Good times.

​

 

[92 Green YJ]

How long is your driveway? I just did a rough google earth estimate of what I know I can do with my dads DownEaster truck bed sander, and with a 2.5 yard sander (what you typically see in a 1 ton dump truck) that is slightly overloaded (rounded over), sanding heavy enough to do the job, but not overkill, I can lay down about ~2500 ft, and still have a little left in the box to do my parents short driveway in town. I can certainly expend that entire box in 2500ft if it needs more on a vacation week (I'm talking parking lot here). ThePanzerFuhrer may have a better guesstimate than me on that though.

I forget the earlier sand conversation - are you using just screened sand or a winter sand mix (with salt mixed in). Normal screened sand will freeze solid chunks that will plug the spreader if you aren't careful. Even winter mix will freeze if you leave it uncovered or let it get wet. I would suggest not leaving sand in the spreader unless its stored inside because it can freeze in the box, and thats not a good time either. I've had to run propane torpedo heaters inside the spreader with a tarp over it to thaw a frozen box before. Good times.

​

My driveway is just under a 1/2 mile long from the road to my parking lot.

and I’m basically using sand I dug up out of my field. I’ve got a few large sandy patches so I went for it. I did mix in a bag of salt with it as was suggested in the earlier discussion.

I had two large trash cans that I filled with sand a few months ago and covered. Kept them out in the pole barn. I now have one can left and all the sand sitting in the other spreader I bought. Might have to call around and see if I can get a dump truck load from somewhere as my sand patches are now covered in snow.

 

[TiTRD]

Call around. A lot of excavating companies and pits make winter sand and will sell loads of it.

 

[Dethmachinefab]

Why sand/salt a flat driveway? Especially a gravel one. Better to let it get a solid icy base so it plows nice. If it was a hill I totally understand.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Why sand/salt a flat driveway? Especially a gravel one. Better to let it get a solid icy base so it plows nice. If it was a hill I totally understand.

Because it’s not totally flat. It is down across the fields, but it slopes up when it hits the tree line and it also slopes where it comes down into the parking area.

that said, the spot I fishtailed was on the flat area maybe 150 yards or so up from the road when I came home from taking my daughter to swim lessons last night.

 

[ThePanzerFuhrer]

Call around. A lot of excavating companies and pits make winter sand and will sell loads of it.

10-4 I make about 3-4000 yds a year depending on the weather. Salt/sand is kind of a misnomer. I mix only about 5% salt into the sand. All the salt is there for is to keep the sand from freezing.

 

[ThePanzerFuhrer]

Why sand/salt a flat driveway? Especially a gravel one. Better to let it get a solid icy base so it plows nice. If it was a hill I totally understand.

You are correct on how to treat a gravel driveway. First snow fall run it over and get it to freeze done so you don’t plow your gravel into the yard. Only sanding it, never use straight salt when it gets icy.

 

[92 Green YJ]

You are correct on how to treat a gravel driveway. First snow fall run it over and get it to freeze done so you don’t plow your gravel into the yard. Only sanding it, never use straight salt when it gets icy.

So yeah that’s basically what I did. First day we had snow on it I drove up and down it a few times with both the Ram and the Jeep. Couple times with the quad too actually. Made sure to spread out across the driveway with the tracks so it was packed down evenly.

sun hitting it the next few days melted it down and some of it refroze to ice. Most of it doesn’t seem to be an issue but I did fishtail a bit coming home last night, so today I sanded it with a bit of salt tossed into the hopper with the sand.

we really didn’t even get enough snow to bother plowing this time.

 

[[486]]

10-4 I make about 3-4000 yds a year depending on the weather. Salt/sand is kind of a misnomer. I mix only about 5% salt into the sand. All the salt is there for is to keep the sand from freezing.

interesting, here I thought the only way to do it would be kiln dried sand

 

[ThePanzerFuhrer]

interesting, here I thought the only way to do it would be kiln dried sand

The airports do that for the runways. They put in out in the sun on a few 70-80 degrees days disk blade it a few times to turn it to dust then put it in the shed.

The Salt is just expensive compared to the sand. I get it home to the yard for about $85 a ton.

 

[djljeep]

Some of the towns around here experiment with straight salt or mixing salt with sand as they load on their paved roads (like 50/50 as in a scoop of salt then a scoop of sand. It’s dumb and doesn’t work…), but on gravel I agree with Panzerfurher. Let it freeze then sand it rather than moving a bunch of gravel with the blade, at least at the beginning of the season.

The other advantage is that sand almost always gives you at least some traction even on pavement, but below 19 degrees or so, straight salt doesn’t do a very good job at melting much of anything. MDOT gets away with it on major state roads because they run brine tanks now and put the salt down wet, but even that doesn’t work when it gets towards 0.

Filling barrels is nice for sanding your walk ways and such though. Most towns in Maine have some variety of free town supplied stand to residential taxpayers. usually something along the lines of allowing one 5 gallon bucket per trip to the dump or something like that.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Some of the towns around here experiment with straight salt or mixing salt with sand as they load on their paved roads (like 50/50 as in a scoop of salt then a scoop of sand. It’s dumb and doesn’t work…), but on gravel I agree with Panzerfurher. Let it freeze then sand it rather than moving a bunch of gravel with the blade, at least at the beginning of the season.

The other advantage is that sand almost always gives you at least some traction even on pavement, but below 19 degrees or so, straight salt doesn’t do a very good job at melting much of anything. MDOT gets away with it on major state roads because they run brine tanks now and put the salt down wet, but even that doesn’t work when it gets towards 0.

Filling barrels is nice for sanding your walk ways and such though. Most towns in Maine have some variety of free town supplied stand to residential taxpayers. usually something along the lines of allowing one 5 gallon bucket per trip to the dump or something like that.

Yeah i noticed this last Sunday on my weekly trip to the transfer station that they had a pile by the entrance for people to take. I’ve got a case of jugs I ordered from Northern tool a few months back that’s a stone and concrete safe salt mix that I used for my front steps. (Mostly for mail/UPS as we don’t use that door much)

going down the drive this morning to take my daughter to the school bus I noticed the sand worked nicely. Didn’t fully melt down the ice layer, but gave me good solid traction in the truck.

and it looks like the town plow guys here (who are actually the POs company, they get the town contract every year) use a sand/salt mix on the roads from what I could tell, he’s got a monster pile of the stuff stacked up near the shop/yard. Might have to head over with some beer later this week and see if I can’t get them to drop a load for me if they are making it themselves.

 

[woods]

You are correct on how to treat a gravel driveway. First snow fall run it over and get it to freeze done so you don’t plow your gravel into the yard. Only sanding it, never use straight salt when it gets icy.

But how else do you keep the kiddo occupied? I can get a solid 20m of work done while he's clearing gravel on the front yard until he gets bored.

 

[Trashman]

We use Cinders out here (not very often) they are awesome. Enough texture/grit to provide traction, but turn to dust when the snow melts and light. Bad storms we would mix cinders with some sort of pinkish ice melt and spread that.

One time, I was in a 6wheeler, splitting lanes doing intersections.

Full on lights, going slow approaching the next intersection, and there is a Beemer right on my ass....

He dropped back quick when his hood got showered with cinders 🤣

 

[92 Green YJ]

Well after about a month and a half of attending weekly meetings/training, I guess I have showed enough commitment to be considered a volunteer firefighter now. Assistant chief gave me some T-shirts, a long sleeve shirt, and a beanie at Wednesday nights training. Also asked my sizes so she can get my bunker gear for next week.

today I took advantage of the fact that the rain we got yesterday and over night melted all of our snow. Took the Deere down to the field and refilled the sander, then took a good 6 bucket loads of sand from various patches and dumped them up by the green house so I’ll have a supply handy. I’ll grab a tarp to cover it tomorrow when we go to town.

 

[budget76]

looks like it's time to start a cardboard burn pile. perks of a light snow - can still find the shit you need to burn but don't worry about flying embers. win win

 

[ThePanzerFuhrer]

Well after about a month and a half of attending weekly meetings/training, I guess I have showed enough commitment to be considered a volunteer firefighter now. Assistant chief gave me some T-shirts, a long sleeve shirt, and a beanie at Wednesday nights training. Also asked my sizes so she can get my bunker gear for next week.

today I took advantage of the fact that the rain we got yesterday and over night melted all of our snow. Took the Deere down to the field and refilled the sander, then took a good 6 bucket loads of sand from various patches and dumped them up by the green house so I’ll have a supply handy. I’ll grab a tarp to cover it tomorrow when we go to town.

Unless you mix salt in that pile, your never gonna move it until next spring. Way too wet.