Cat 140M2 Snow Removal Tips

[RRSS]

Hellos Guys. New Member here from ND. I have been in the snow removal industry for 20 years using Cat loaders doing commercial snow removal. This winter I will be doing township roads. Have always loved moving snow and when its in your blood its always in your blood. Anyways this whole snow removal thing with a maintainer is all new to me. Don't get me wrong...I know how to operate the thing as I have been blading all summer with it but moving snow with it Im sure there are some tricks to the trade. The machine is a 2015 Cat 140M2 16ft Moldboard, 12ft short post falls wing and one way falls front snowplow...also planning on adding a Falls v plow. Just looking for a rundown on what you guys find works best. I'm no rookie at moving snow but always willing to take pointers and learn new things. Like I said...this will be my first winter moving snow with a maintainer. I do have the x snoplus michialin tires on it but the machine is not awd. This is my main concern. I do have tire chains but only plan on having them hang on the machine and use them if I get in a pickle. Unless we actually have a good old ND blizzard and get 6ft drifts...then would probably run with them on. Thanks in advance for the tips.

 

[ippielb]

From Sask, basically what you need to do when loosing is go fast, keep your blade and wing out of the ditch and NEVER leave a windrow of snow.

You want the snow to blow overtop of the road, any kind of windrow will start attracting more. Then you’ll try and blade that off, and make a bigger windrow, and even more snow will accumulate.

Bad operators here stuck their wings in the ditch and made a windrow down at the bottom of their reach, and over the winter it got to about 15’ high on either side of the road. And they had to bring blowers in and payloaders to push it back.

Do not touch the gravel with your blade, just skim the tips of the rocks. Traffic will dissipate the rest, and the wind will blow it away.

Only places that might get tricky are intersections depending on the road elevation differences. But usually you start on the primary roads and then work to the secondaries, keep your speed so you continue to throw the snow as far as you can.

Speed is also your friend. If you have a one way blade to your right, there’s no real reason to need to put on a V plow unless you have a road you cannot break open.

 

[RRSS]

Completely understand! Wing level with edge of road and not sloped down the ditch and speed to throw and spread the snow out as much as possible instead of it windrowing up. Looking forward to getting some snow this winter! We had our first inch the other night but its way to early for that. I still have 3500 acres of crop to get off the field. Sure wish it would stop raining!

 

[ippielb]

Yeah, we’re north of you in Canada, and we’ve gotten more of the weather you have been experiencing, we are finished combining last Saturday before this second batch of weather started. Three full day and nights of snow. And three full days of rain. I’ve been at home all week from work because it’s been too wet supposedly. So I did some of my own work with my track loader lol.

Sounds like you won’t have any problems at all, as long as you can prevent yourself from making any windrows along the side of the road. Best to be gentle the first round of snow. The ground will not be forgiving if you touch it... you’ll be sending a wave of gravel and grass into the ditch lol.

 

[Tarhe Driver]

"... a wave of gravel and grass into the ditch..." Talk about a word picture that this South Gawga (that's southern for Georgia) can understand immediately. Love it.
Neill

 

[cuttin edge]

A one way plow is more useful than a v. If you can swing it, a front power angle is pretty handy. Your wing can steer you around sharp corners if the banks are hard packed

 

[RRSS]

Well guys....I had my first snow removal experience in the machine about 2 months sooner then I cared to. On Tues we got 16" of snow. They said maybe 2" so I was not worried about having to do anything. When it hit 6" I figured we better start looking at the front plow that was still sitting out back in the trees just to make sure it didn't need anything...was missing a shoe assembly. When it hit the 10" mark we figured we better get the wing put on. Long story short we scrambled all day and got everything ready. Was missing that shoe for the front oneway plow so I was just going to run with it off the ground a couple inches and then catch the rest with the moldboard like you would do anyways. Headed out at 2am and realized you need those shoes for it to ride on cause it oscillates (tilts) side to side about 6 inches so when Id try to run with it off the ground a little ways the right side would drop down and dig in. Keep in mind the ground is not froze so had to be very careful of what you where doing. All in all it went pretty well. Just had to be extra careful with the wing not to roll all the sod and gravel into the ditch. I set the toe chain on the wing so it was about 3 inches off the ground and then it went pretty good. ( I still did a little landscaping here and there) What sucked is it was wet snow so it didn't want to slide across the moldboard very well at the angle you use with the wing. Only half slid off the road once trying to clean up a apron off the highway onto a township road but was able to sideshift myself back onto the road. About 12 hours in the Forward/Neutral/Reverse switch went out and left me stranded in neutral. Luckily I was turning around at the end of a road into a pasture so it was not in a busy intersection. Dealer didn't have a switch so it had to sit there overnight and they fixed it this morning. I spent the last 6 hours of my day yesterday cleaning roads with my boss v plow on my service truck....yeah that sucked! Anyways I thank everyone for the tips and more are always welcome. I cant wait to get some regular snow and be able to use my front plow.

 

[RRSS]

Few pics

 

[cuttin edge]

Fresh coat of paint on the face of your wing, one way plow and mb can help the snow slide away.

 

[ippielb]

I can count on one hand how many times I have used my plow in any way. Really the only time you should have to use it is when there’s a snowbank. You have way less control all the rest you’d be able to just use your blade and wing.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the snow not going far off the road right now. It’ll melt before winter actually starts.

Always try run the blade fully curled back to try and get the snow airborn. And momentum to keep moving and rolling.

What was the first thing you thought when you were plowing snow with the wing, and chugging along snow going, and then the snow turns into a brown carpet hahaha

 

[kshansen]

All this talk about snow has me wondering how many times my mail box is going to get smacked this year!

After having it hit too many times last year I finally call highway department who tried to say the mail box was probably too close to the road or too low. Well it's been the same place since the late 1970's. One time they dropped off a new box for me to install. That one only lasted a couple weeks at best.

Called again and they came out a couple days latter on a Saturday and installed another new one. Got a bit of new snow that day and when I went to get the paper in the morning there was a good kink in the front of the box. Called and told them about it and at first they thought I was talking about the last one I complained about till I said it was replaced and hit the same day!

Funny thing is despite having several more days of plowing that winter it never got hit again. They plow the roads around here with 10 wheelers and have a wing man riding in the trucks

 

[fast1buzz]

Appears as though RRSS and I are doing similar gigs this winter. I ended up getting a contract clearing the roads in a private ranchettes subdivision after blading there roads this last summer. That 140 you have looks fantastic. Thanks to all of you that have posted to RRSS inquiry as to plowing snow. I am using the info as well just using an older Galion purchased from Fairplay Co with all the attachments for snow removal.

 

[cuttin edge]

Another handy tool are snow tires. A lot of guys laugh at that and say they prefer chains, but unless you're in the mountains......... First time I tried them I was a fan. We have winter tires for all our loaders and backhoes as well. Big difference.

 

[fast1buzz]

Another handy tool are snow tires. A lot of guys laugh at that and say they prefer chains, but unless you're in the mountains......... First time I tried them I was a fan. We have winter tires for all our loaders and backhoes as well. Big difference.

The machine I have doesn't have the tires but as you put it unless your in the mountains which I am and have chains for all 6 its a 6x machine as well.

 

[ippielb]

We run winter tires all season on our graders. The only time they suffer is working in the gumbo if it’s wet. Wear is far superior to directional tires. And the ride is phenomenal. I don’t see a reason why someone would ever want the deep tread directional tires. Here’s a picture of my grader at work I run. Even leveling off this coarse slag, I rarely ever lose traction. You just learn and adapt to your machine. The front wheel assist is probably my favourite thing about these 772’s. Most times you push the front tires trying to make a tight corner. Or if you try turn at all in winter time. But with the FWA on it pulls you around the corner. I don’t think I could run a grader without it anymore.

 

[fast1buzz]

View attachment 187185 View attachment 187186 We run winter tires all season on our graders. The only time they suffer is working in the gumbo if it’s wet. Wear is far superior to directional tires. And the ride is phenomenal. I don’t see a reason why someone would ever want the deep tread directional tires. Here’s a picture of my grader at work I run. Even leveling off this coarse slag, I rarely ever lose traction. You just learn and adapt to your machine. The front wheel assist is probably my favourite thing about these 772’s. Most times you push the front tires trying to make a tight corner. Or if you try turn at all in winter time. But with the FWA on it pulls you around the corner. I don’t think I could run a grader without it anymore.

I had before retiring several years ago a Cat 14 acquired through a customer of my heavy haul business that went bankrupt. I have always used Cat equipment but now your Deere has a mighty fine machine and giving Cat some serious competition. As it is I purchased an old A606 Galion for a couple grand to help out a friend with a road problem. You must have a steel mill close by that slag ballast will fix just about any mud hole. The road base is good too packs down so tight flash floods won't even wash it away. Looks like you have nice office to work in I assume has AC,stereo,and other amenities gps etc.

 

[ippielb]

I had before retiring several years ago a Cat 14 acquired through a customer of my heavy haul business that went bankrupt. I have always used Cat equipment but now your Deere has a mighty fine machine and giving Cat some serious competition. As it is I purchased an old A606 Galion for a couple grand to help out a friend with a road problem. You must have a steel mill close by that slag ballast will fix just about any mud hole. The road base is good too packs down so tight flash floods won't even wash it away. Looks like you have nice office to work in I assume has AC,stereo,and other amenities gps etc.

Yes we have a steel mill, they specialize in pipeline. They use to give us the slag for free, because it is a waste product and they had to pay to dispose of it before. But they quickly realized there’s is demand for it. And now we do have to pay, but it’s still by far the cheapest material we put down. And it works wonders, all interlocks together so if you touch one piece it is hooked together with the surrounding pieces.

I came off of Volvo graders and it’s the closest similarity to the Deere. And yes he office is quite comfortable, I’ve probably spent 2,000 hours alone in this specific grader. AC, good Defrost, heated seat, a good stereo with Sirius XM(not activated but I enjoy it for the free weeks), and a back up camera. We do not run GPS, as most people that operate our graders do not have the need for it. I’m the only operator that actually does final grades. We still use a line level and tape measure off of hubs/stations put in by the surveyors. 10mm accuracy is what we shoot for, and we get it shot by the surveyors when we finish, just before getting it paved.

But I seem to have wandered off track from the original topic of the thread.

A good snow tire has longer life, better traction, better ride, and you can swap to either side and rotate your tires to get longest life out of them. Doing final grades makes it a lot smoother as well.

 

[cuttin edge]

View attachment 187185 View attachment 187186 We run winter tires all season on our graders. The only time they suffer is working in the gumbo if it’s wet. Wear is far superior to directional tires. And the ride is phenomenal. I don’t see a reason why someone would ever want the deep tread directional tires. Here’s a picture of my grader at work I run. Even leveling off this coarse slag, I rarely ever lose traction. You just learn and adapt to your machine. The front wheel assist is probably my favourite thing about these 772’s. Most times you push the front tires trying to make a tight corner. Or if you try turn at all in winter time. But with the FWA on it pulls you around the corner. I don’t think I could run a grader without it anymore.

We take the winters off in the summer months. I have run the winters in the summer months and agree about their lack of traction in mud. The loaders winter tires are really soft, and wouldn't survive in Rock. If the banks are hard , I use the wing to slide around turns. Lifting the front plow a bit can give the front wheels more grip. I sometimes shove the right side of the mold board down a bit to pivot around as well. One thing I never do is put the mb on float. I like to be in control.

 

[ippielb]

We take the winters off in the summer months. I have run the winters in the summer months and agree about their lack of traction in mud. The loaders winter tires are really soft, and wouldn't survive in Rock. If the banks are hard , I use the wing to slide around turns. Lifting the front plow a bit can give the front wheels more grip. I sometimes shove the right side of the mold board down a bit to pivot around as well. One thing I never do is put the mb on float. I like to be in control.

Float is always used by the majority of our operators, they don’t know, they’re just inexperienced. It doesn’t cut the ice and hard pack off the streets in the city. And they always try to use too much pressure but don’t realize the edge gets flattened through out your shift. So you have to keep rolling it forward to get it to cut. I always have mine all the way back to get the snow to roll and try to get weight on the blade to carry it. But when I see hard packed I try to dump my snow and curl it forward to get that fresh sharp edge. Funny how you talk about dropped a side of your blade to pivot. When we do snow removal, we put the snow off the centre of the crown and from one intersection to the next, you have to carry it through the intersections not to block traffic. And I was usually the last guy because I have the least seniority. So I’d have to tighten up the windrow, and when I get to the end of the windrow at an intersection I’d always push that end of the blade down curled all the way back and lock the diff, the grader will literally rotate on that side of the blade. Having front wheel assist is also helpful in that situation.

 

[20/80]

View attachment 187142 View attachment 187143 View attachment 187144 View attachment 187145 Few pics

I run the 140m in the winter with basically the same plow and wing set up as yours, love the hand pod plow and wing controls, we changed the headlights over to heated led lights unbelievable the difference at night using these lights compared to the factory Cat lights, really good in a snow storm for visibility, those back fenders are a pain trying to get chains on we leave them off, just have the front fenders, we use all Michelin snow tires on our 140m they are great when roads get abit slippery, the front plow type you have I always keep the left side rubber plow flap folded up over the plow, held with heavy bungy cords to keep the snow off the plow and prevents snow from being thrown up on your windows, if you happen to have problems with your windows fogging up on your 140m 2 a lot, don't close your doors tight just leave loosely on the first click that seems to work for me.