I had the same problem with my 24" 5Hp unit. Here in S.E. CT we often get snow followed by sleet, freezing rain and rain, just like it is outside right this minute!
I solved the problem by hiring a service to come and polw the white s**t out of the way.
An laternative might be
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on the "home made flamethrower" link.
Strange though, when I am in Oshkosh every summer for the EAA convention there is never a slush problem.
IIRC Crazy Carpet was a trade name for a kids toy made out of a slick plastic. Basically just a sheet of slippery plastic with a handgrip at the front you could hold onto to keep from sliding off. A commercial version of the old flattened cardboard box kids have slid down hills with for generations.
Growing up in Michigan, we had the normal plow versus mail box problems. Unfortunately.. my buddies Dad had a low key feud going with one individual, who just happened to drive the plow in that neck of the woods. After repeatedly replacing the mailbox and post..and seeing the driver only grin when encountered at the market etc.. the old man got a bit pissed. The plow guy was well known for driving at rather high speeds, swinging in, clipping the mail box (and newspaper box) off, then swinging back out and continuing down the road. High speed.
We waited for the start of a really good snow, then pulled a couple hundred feet of garden house out to the road, and proceeded to build a wide based cone shaped ice pyramid around the mailbox. Lots of water, packed in real good.. about 3 and a half feet tall, terminating just below the mailbox..IIRC, it was about 6'-7' in diameter. Then we left mother nature cover it with snow.
My buddies Dad (was a good LDS elder, wouldn't say shit if he had a mouthful )didn't know what we had done, or Im sure he would have stopped us..but..
The next morning we were up early..and heard that plow hauling ass up the highway, then we could hear him speed up, the roar of that diesel getting louder and louder, closer and closer...then a huge SPUWANGGGGGGGG! BANG CRASH BONG CRUNCH!..then a sound like a huge quarter spining on edge...then silence.
My buddies dad was up having breakfast..and we all ran out, the 150 or so yards to the road, to find the plow over here..and over there and a bit more there..and a piece here and there..scattered down the road for about a 100yrds or more, with a very very disoriented driver wandering around in circles mumbling to himself as he batted at snowflakes.
After the ambulence had left, and the tow trucks starting to show up to cart off the bits and pieces...my buddies Dad ,looked over at us with a very slight grin..and suggested that maybe we should put the hose away, before the police started their investigation......
Gunner
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Tim
-- "I've got more trophies than Wayne Gretsky and the Pope combined!" - Homer Simpson Website @
Check out Ron Reil's burners too. You can make a damn big propane burner. If you want a lot of heat, try a 1/16" orifice down a 1 1/2 to 2" pipe (about 12 to 18" long), with a flare on the end (wrap it with sheetmetal and expand the end a bit).
My experience is it doesn't really melt that fast, you'd stand there with the burner at the ground for an hour or two as it melts away (in the mean time your tank ices up and runs out of pressure). Mind that melting *that* much ice is a lot in any terms.
Oh, and of course, don't forget that they've been known to use large jet engine trucks at airports to blow and melt snow off runways... I'll have to Google a link for that some day...
Tim
-- "I've got more trophies than Wayne Gretsky and the Pope combined!" - Homer Simpson Website @
Another trick I use to help beat the snowplow man is to use my
This drives SWMBO up the wall to see me out plowing the street but I never have a problem getting out of the driveway. I keep the bank cut back to the curb, all the way upstream to the neighbours drive. Gerry :-)} London, Canada
You have life easy. I live on a corner - and the plow dumps a ridge up to 3-4 feet deep and six feet wide across my driveway. And he leaves that 4 foot deep pile 3 feet out from the curb the first time round. I blow out my driveway, and the plow comes down the street, instead of around the corner, and piles all of THAT into my driveway too. SO - when I blow my driveway out the FIRST time, I also blow about 35 feet of that ridge up onto the boulevard while it is still "relatively" soft and blowable, before it freezes into huge moon rocks in the end of my driveway.
That way I only have to do it once. AWFULL hard on a 30+ year old 5HP 26" blower.
If I don't blow the whole shebang, melting it would just make a big lake, as the plow covers the catch basin 20 feet from my driveway too. A good thaw without clearing THAT makes a real mess.
A good freeze right after, and it is a huge skating rink.
My house is in a similar location...I'm the first house right after the corner lot....However the corner lot is empty, that is it has no driveway, so like you I get a ton more snow that should have been pushed into someone else's driveway right into mine...This is where my crazy idea of blocking the end of my driveway with a portable/collapsible wall came into place- the plow would have to push it all into the driveway after mine, problem is that I actually like that neighbor.. Now if I could dump it all into the a-hole that lives next to him.... :-)
I usually have a frozen puddle at the end/bottom of the driveway after clearing it all out anyway, either from the melting snow from the 4-6' high piles of slush or from the wet road. At this point I'd pay money to have the city put a drain in right next to my driveway...
Living in the Redwoods, it is easy. Chain saw the lump into small blocks and move them into an ICE fence that protects the driveway from the city plow!
At least it should have some salt or chemical in the mix, but high walls freeze nicely...
I find it handy even though the grating is about an inch above the road surface, a little creative modification of the packed snow and I have the drainage patern pretty much under control. Gerry :-)} London, Canada
This is similar to what I used to do at my previous residence, we had no sidewalk until about the third snowfall, when the sidewalk plow would use up about 15% of my available snow storage area. Although I never blocked the plowed path completely, by spring, the bobcat mounted plow had to grunt pretty y hard to get between my frozen wall and the bank left by the street plow. Gerry :-)} London, Canada
Last night I cleared the end of the driveway and 30' of curb of the plowed stuff. I used the little single stage I inherited from the previous homeowner (he moved to Florida, left his snow stuff). No problem, just rammed it into it slow enough that it didn't stall, and could break up the 6"^3 clumps.
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