Guys, how are we doing? Welcome to GoodWorks Tractors. I'm asked all the time. Why do I need a snow plow, a snow pusher or anything else? I've already got a bucket on the front of my tractor. What's wrong with just using that? And yeah, it's going to remove snow. It's going to push it. It's already there. It's convenient. It's paid for. Move that snow where you want to. Be done with it. Simple as that. Every attachment is built for certain tasks. Set a pallet forks, a grapple, a tiller, a brush hog, and just because it's on the front of your tractor right now, doesn't mean that it's suited or intended to move snow. There's a lot of reasons why a bucket is not good for snow removal. Let's get into that now. If you like what you see here, would you do me a big favor? Give me a thumbs up on this video. And if you'd like to see future videos like this one, hit that subscribe button right down below. If you're in the market for tractor accessories or attachments, maybe even a tractor yourself, read through the description below or go to GoodWorks Tractors. You'll find all sorts of cool products for tractor owners like us. Now don't get me wrong. I love tractor seat time. Just as much as anybody else. However, it can be frustrating and annoying, especially if it's freezing cold out and you're in an open station tractor to not get the job done quickly. So with that being said, you take a look at the design, the construction of a bucket for the front of your tractor. It could be a skid steer too. The point being it's designed with a bottom back sides to trap and hold material. Whether that's dirt, it could be mulch, it could be rock, it could be snow. The point is, is that it's going to keep it inside there and not let it go without an effort from the operator. So with a snow pusher or a snow plow, you're driving forward, pushing that snow wherever you want to. And when you got it to that point where you want to leave it there, all you do is just start backing up, maybe raise the loader up a little bit in a way you go. The same can't be said with a bucket. With a bucket, again, that snow wants to stay in here or whatever material it is. So you have to lift that bucket up, you have to rock it forward, you have to shake it out. There's still going to be a lot of snow trapped in these corners here that's overall going to make it a very inefficient tool just from that aspect. So if you take a look at the snow pusher right here, and it could be a plow as well. It's the same concept. You'll notice there's no bottom. There's no floor, there's nothing to trap and hold material in it. That's the big difference between a bucket and a pusher. So when you're moving that pile of snow forward, you just simply back up and it's going to stay there. One push is no big deal, but push after push after push, and then every time you go out and plow, and then season after season, that's a ton of additional time that you're spending just on shaking a bucket to empty the material out. One of the ways that I've seen I've read online to kind of help snow release and maybe not just stuck in these corners is going to be using some sort of a spray. You know, a lubricant, silicone, teflon, Pam even, but just sprayed all inside here. I've kind of seen mixed results. I'm pretty sure I even saw a thread on one of the tractor forms where I guided a test with them without the teflon or silicone spray inside of a snow blower. Didn't really see much of a difference in the result, but overall I think it didn't do any harm. So maybe it'll help you and maybe it won't, but it's something to look at if you're going to use your bucket. Another consideration with the design of a bucket here is going to be this bottom edge that comes along here. Not only is that going to trap and hold material that's in here and not allow it to release, but it also means it's intended to dig. Dig down, dig into a pile, whatever material it is, again gravel, dirt, mulch, it could be any of the above. But the point being is that as this is riding along that plowing surface, it's going to want to naturally just dig into whatever that surface is. If you have gravel, stone, even asphalt or a concrete surface, you catch any edges on there or loose stone. It's going to maybe chip an edge, collect that stone, put it into a yard, somewhere you don't want it. So you can see a bucket right here with a long edge designed to dig compared against a plow right here. It's going to have skitshoes tucked underneath the bottom, or if you have a snow push, you'll have skid runners and either end that are going to prevent this main leading edge here from digging down into the ground. The intent is to just kind of glide along with those skitshoes or the skid runners not dig down, but just follow that surface there, the contour over to take care of the snow and move that where you want to. So that's something very important to consider because that could end up costing you a lot of additional money of repairing that damaged surface down the road. If you're concerned about costs to repairs to the surface you're plowing, whether it's a gravel drive, concrete asphalt, the same thing can be said for your bucket as well. Because this edge right here is going to wear significantly and unevenly, meaning you're not going to be able to use it very well for other digging purposes that it's really intended for. This edge right here is going to end up rounding off at the corners here. You'll see a lot of significant wear chewing up the main portion of this wear edge and then it'll come back in and die off into these side plates right here. And once you get to that point you're really making it unusable. However, if you really want to use your bucket or maybe it's just a temporary solution until you can figure out a better long term solution, there's some things you can do to prevent that uneven and unnecessary wear on your bucket edge. You're going to see a couple of different products right here. One is going to be essentially a type of skid shoe that you can put onto your bucket. Just going to fit it on there like that and it's going to keep it from allowing the main bucket edge here to make contact with that plowing surface both protecting your plowing surface and the bucket itself. The tradeoff is going to be the fact that your bucket is then going to be maybe three quarters or an inch above the plowing surface. Therefore leaving a significant amount of snow behind. Another option you can look into is something like this poly or UHMW is called a cutting edge that you can put onto your bucket. Kind of mount it now underneath here and make this a sacrificial edge instead. Not only is poly a good option for that but this is very protective of paved surfaces as well. Anything like your asphalt or your concrete. A good way to sum up UHMW is that it's going to cut like steel but protect like rubber. Now some buckets are going to come pre-drilled which this bucket here was already pre-drilled. You can see there's actually an additional steel edge on the bottom. A lot of smaller compact and sub-compact tractors will not have a pre-drilled bucket edge on here so you may have to do a little bit of drilling on your own in order to secure the UHMW. Now I will have links below in the description of the video if you want to get more information in the word of I skid shoes like this or the UHMW. While we're talking about edges on buckets you know what I had totally forgot even had this it's winter time you don't think about it too much but this is a really cool option for the summertime. It's going to be a way to enhance the versatility and the digging capability of your bucket instead of having the smooth edge here you'll have these teeth. This whole bar here just tightens down. You have these Allen set screws here that just tight down it stays in place. I honestly never take mine off because it's that handy to have when I need it but something to take a look at this is a heavy hitch tooth bar you go to their website and order directly there anything on their website you get 5% off of code GWT. So again I'm not saying that a bucket is not going to work for snow removal it's certainly will. It's just that there are certain tools that are meant to be used for snow removal there are certain tools that are used to be able to scoop and dig and hold material so there are two different things and trying to use one for a different purpose is going to be kind of frustrating and could end up being very costly for you even if you're trying to save some money up front it could cost you more down the road. So if you found this video helpful consider giving me a thumbs up and also if you haven't done so subscribe to my channel by clicking that button below and as always read through that description you'll get helpful information links I'm reading by those products like those skitshoes or the poly edge or maybe a snow pusher or replacement bucket or a whole tractor we can put together a whole package for you and ship it to you as well. Well until next time stay safe we'll see you soon. Oh right inside. Let's go. Come on. Have fun. Start over.