big snow shovels..

Anyone have a 36" or 48" pusher...  what do you think?  We get lots of light snows here and Its good to remove it before it turns to ice.  Too small to get out the blower.. ...

Discusss.

Example:https://www.amazon.com/SNOWPLOW-50548-48-Wide/dp/B004CSMBMG/ref=pd_day0_hl_86_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B004CSMBMG&pd_rd_r=47aa7c1a-d7f3-11e8-8a6a-edd5ab8179b1&pd_rd_w=NLsXe&pd_rd_wg=SK5RH&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=ad07871c-e646-4161-82c7-5ed0d4c85b07&pf_rd_r=8XM0J2B0ZET9TYZ88G2F&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=8XM0J2B0ZET9TYZ88G2F

They work great on the pond after a hockey game.

Any kind of wet snow and you'll give yourself a heart attack.

I'm not a fan of shovels with plastic blades, even in light snow they don't do very well.  Steel ones weigh a ton but they do a lot better job scraping the snow.

stuart in mn said:

I'm not a fan of  shovels with plastic blades, even in light snow they don't do very well.  Steel ones weigh a ton but they do a lot better job scraping the snow.

Disagree. The right plastic shovel is magic.  Just remember they are a wearing item, and don't buy one with  metal strip on the blade.  And, there is no sustitute for a wooden handle.  

Two years ago my 74 year old neighbor clued me in on the trick of using a stiff plastic bristle broom to clear a paved driveway of a light snow. It's  great at getting all the snow out of the crevices before it melts and refreezes into ice. When the snow is heavy enough to shovel I go I over it again with the broom, makes an amazing difference.  I have both plastic and metal shovels. As a native Floridian I hate them all. 

I use the broom trick too for light snow. Excellent at knocking out a sidewalk almost as fast as you walk. But I have snapped a plastic broom, I assume from the cold...

Streetwiseguy said:

Disagree. The right plastic shovel is magic.  Just remember they are a wearing item, and don't buy one with  metal strip on the blade.  And, there is no sustitute for a wooden handle.  

I guess results may vary, but for me the plastic blades flex too much.

Stuart, get better plastic shovels. 

Agree with the broom, but to answer fbc’s question get one with double handle like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0751GKGC8/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

not necessarily recommending that one, but you want to be able to 2-hand it so you can walk behind and push it easier. You’re morning shoveling, you’re plowing. 

I prefer plastic shovels because they are lightweight.

Floor squeegee? 

I have a snowdozer and it works well on flat surfaces. Uneven ground, not so much.

A leaf blower works great for light snows

Our snows are typically fairly wet around here, but we don't tend to get giant accumulations with any sort of regularity.  To clear the driveway, I have a steel blade wooden handle pusher that works really well.  The driveway is basically two cars wide and two-and-a-half cars long and accumulations are usually around 4 inches and the pusher makes pretty short work of it.  Where it really falls down, though, is if the snow melts and re-freezes or if its driven on. 

The Dakota Snow Blade is the droid you're looking for.  Almost every house has one up here in the Dakotas.  They are perfect for when you get the amount of snow that is enough to ignore but not enough to get the blower out for.  You just push it along and it pushes the snow off to one side.  Really slick.

If you want to move real snow, you use a bucket. This is what I grew up pushing around. Not good for the piddly snowfalls, but if you've got a foot of the heavy stuff it's the bomb. Never had a snowblower, alas.