If you’re a farmer or work for a construction company, don’t shack up the mini skid steer in the shed just because you start to see snow in the forecast.
The truth is that mini skid steers can be very versatile snow-clearing machines that can help you keep your land and rights-of-way clear even when the white stuff starts coming down in earnest.
And, for some users, such as contractors and landscaping companies, with the right mini skid steer attachments, you can convert your mini skid steers into parking-lot snow-clearing machines, enabling you to add some services to your business’s repertoire during the winter months.
Buckets
The same bucket you use to move mulch and grade land in the summer months can be your best friend in the winter when the snow starts coming down.
Admittedly, heavier buckets with tooth bars aren’t ideal for snow removal, but any bucket will do in a pinch. Rather, you should get a wider, lighter snow bucket for the winter months.
These attach just as easily as heavier, toothed bucket attachments designated for excavation and they usually have larger capacities, making it easier for them to doze, lift, load, and remove larger volumes of snow quickly.
Landscaping companies with mini skid steers or skid steers can convert their fleet into snow-clearing machines into the winter months with attachments like these, and they are particularly helpful in tight urban areas where full-sized snow plows and even some pickups with plows can’t get.
Instead, a mini skid steer outfitted with a bucket attachment, specifically a snow bucket, can make quick work up blocked roadways, driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, and other rights of way. And, the great thing about a bucket (as opposed to a dozer attachment) is that it’s easier to pile the snow up and out of the way.
Dozer and Snow Blades
If you can’t make-do with a snow bucket attachment for your mini skid steer, then the number two mini skid steer attachment for snow removal or clearing has got to be a quality snow dozer blade attachment.
Whereas snow buckets are designed to lift, load, and move snow, dozer blades are meant to get it out of the way, and even consolidate it, quickly, easily, and efficiently.
One of the advantages of dozer blades as opposed to buckets is that they won’t easily be overburdened by deep snow, since they don’t get “clogged.” They’re much more efficient when you need to move snow out of the way, even though they aren’t as much use for piling it up.
Our snow dozer blades, available here in a wide range of sizes and configurations (including V-blade configurations with manual-adjustment capabilities), feature replaceable cutting edges, skid shoes, and trip springs. They also feature rubber cutting edges that are gentler on paved surfaces and less likely to score and gouge blacktop and cement when you’re clearing snow.
Snow Blowers
Not as versatile or as expedient when it comes to removing snow as a dozer blade or bucket attachment, but equally efficient, is a reliable mini skid steer snow blower attachment.
Our hydraulically-powered snow blower mini skid steer attachments are a top option when you need to clear a path through deep snow, quickly and efficiently, and to get the snow far out of the way.
Our snow blower attachments can throw snow as far as 45 feet – 75 feet if configured with the optional high flow feature – and are equipped with poly-lined chutes and deflectors as well as universal electrical attachment control kits.
These mini skid steer attachments are excellent for sidewalks, trails, driveways, paths, and other narrow rights of way, making them great for landscaping and contracting companies that offer snow removal services to commercial customers in the wintertime.
Angle Brooms
While angle broom attachments for mini skid steers really aren’t designed for clearing snow, they’re pretty solid attachments in a pinch.
They’re purpose-built for clearing roads, paths, warehouses, bunks and depots of grain, gravel, sand, dirt, mud, and other loose debris, but if you experience a light snowfall and this is what your machine is equipped with, it’s far better than nothing.
In fact, armed with their tough, long-lasting, and exceptionally durable poly and wire bristles, these angle brooms can make quick work of a light snowfall, and in some ways are even better on some surfaces than dozer blades and buckets are.
The height/angle of the brush can easily be adjusted, making these the perfect attachments for quickly sweeping away a light snowfall in a jiffy. Anything under a few inches doesn’t stand a chance against one of these.
Mini Skid Steer Augers & Bits
This last one is a winter mini skid steer attachment only by matter of pragmatism – it’s not designed for winter use but can come in handy nonetheless.
If you live in an area with very cold winters, and deal with frozen earth well into the early spring, it can be tough to dig holes for signs, fence posts, and even root balls. Impossible, even, if you aren’t ready with the right tools.
We carry mini skid steer augers and bits that are capable of digging clean-walled, straight, deep holes through the toughest, hardest frozen earth (as well as through fractured and even solid rock).
So while they’re not useful for snow removal, if you’ve ever struggled in the past with spring planting or other land management or maintenance work and the problem was frozen earth, Spartan Equipment mini skid steer augers and bits may be the solution.
Never Surrender, Stand Strong in the Face of Wicked Winter Weather
Armed with these mini skid steer attachments that have a great deal of utility through the coldest months of the year, and especially when there is snow on the ground, you’ll find no obstacle stands a chance – at least if you plan accordingly.
Get ready this summer by preparing yourself with the industry’s toughest mini skid steer attachments that are made in the United States – with American steel only – and which will Never Surrender.
Most of our attachments are compatible with most major makes and models of skid steers and mini skid steers, but if you have any questions about specifications or compatibility, please feel free to get in touch with us at 1-888-888-1085.