I have one...

Tim,

I went out this year and purchased a HLA 1500 Snow pusher for my 1025R. It's a beautiful setup where you can go right up to your garage door and use the back scraper (top part) feature to drag snow away. All I can say is this thing is built like a brick $hit house.

 

Tim,

I went out this year and purchased a HLA 1500 Snow pusher for my 1025R. It's a beautiful setup where you can go right up to your garage door and use the back scraper (top part) feature to drag snow away. All I can say is this thing is built like a brick $hit house.

What size did you get 54",60", 66", or 72"?? I am thinking of the 60 or 66". Thanks.

 

I bought a 6 ft Express Steel snow pusher and I finally was able to use a few days ago after about 10 inches of powder snow. I have a 1025R and it handled the 6 ft pusher no problem. I believe it weighs about 600 lbs or so. I didn't get the back scraper version but I don't think I'll need it since I can use my box blade for most of the work a backblade would have been used for.

 

I've had an HLA 1500 for two seasons and can attest to the superior build quality and robust construction. I have the optional back drag blade installed which is extremely useful if you have the need.

You will not be disappointed if you buy an HLA. Those guys up in Canada really know how to make snow moving equipment!

 

I have never heard a negative point about any product HLA makes for snow. If I didn’t already have my HLA 1000 60” front blade I’d seriously be looking at the snow pusher with backdrag for my 2032r.

Fishbait-any idea what yours weighs?

 

No direct experience, but these look pretty cool:

Bucket Wings

 

Ken,

For an economical version of the snow pusher, this is probably OK. As a point of clarification, I do NOT plow any gravel surfaces as we don't have any around our area. I tried to be as objective in both the pro's and con's as I could.

From someone who plows A LOT of snow in residential driveways, here is my take on the "bucket wings. I Just plowed for 4 hours again today, another 17 driveways of every shape, size all concrete and asphalt. I have plowed snow for 35 hours already this season. So, I get and have a lot of experience plowing snow, especially in residential driveways in my area.............

While some may have differing opinions, from doing this on a variety of of driveways and dealing with the real world complications, here are my thoughts from my experience of residential driveway plowing over 20 years, using various equipment.

Positives
1. Makes the bucket more of a multi use tool. Buckets alone to plow snow are painfully slow.

2. Adds pushing width that takes the bucket from 50" to 84". This is a huge issue.

3. Gives you "Snow Pushing" capabilities for $500, which is much less than the cost of a dedicated snow pusher, roughly $1,500.

4. Allows you to push snow without being limited to the bucket capacity and having clean up trails everywhere.

5. Permits you to move snow without spending the money for a front quick attach hitch and 54" plow.

6. Gives the snow pusher the advantages of a V Plow and allows you to "scoop" the snow for pushing. However, unlike a V Plow, this is the ONLY way this item on your bucket allows you to push the snow. You can't angle it, etc.

7. Prevents having the $1,500 tied up in a dedicated snow pusher that is used seasonally and can be very weather dependent.

Negatives
1. Eliminates the ability to back drag, which is an essential function in plowing residential driveways (unless you like to hand shovel). Of the 17 residential driveways I plow the ONLY one I don't back drag is my own drive because I designed it and the landscaping for scraping and pushing to the edge in every direction. Other driveways require me to back drag, some of the extensively.

2. If you catch an edge of the bucket on an uneven surface,such as heaved concrete, you are wrecking either the surface, the bucket and maybe yourself. It's going to happen.......it's part of the game of plowing residential driveways.

3. Wet heavy snow will fill the bucket and be harder to "empty" plus stick to the wings, adding a lot of weight.

4. When number 3 happens, You can't tip the front of the bucket down and bang the bucket on the surface to clean it out as the wings are out front and will be bent.

5. Needs a top flap or snow accumulated out front of the unit starts to come over the top of the bucket and eventually the wings. Even in the video, this becomes an issue. With light fluffy snow, it's a reality as the weight of the snow won't stop you before the snow needing additional clean up will.

6. When you are straight pushing everything, you end up with piles all over the place when you reach your pushing limit. You will have to push off the surface and likely into the lawn often at 15 degree angles.

7. When you push onto a lawn, you will likely tear up either the grass or other with the bucket edge. This is a big problem.

8. The bucket edge isn't ideal for scraping the pavement, unless you put some type of rubber or composite "edge" on the bottom of the bucket edge to protect the surface.

9. Changes in contour on the surface, for example transitions from the road to driveways and back due to drain curbing will leave the bucket leading edge very likely to damage the surface and the heights change. Even floating the bucket leaves the sharp leading edge of the bucket very likely to damage either the driveway, the road or in reality, both depending upon the direction of the push.

10. Without being able to trip the snow removal scraping edge, you better wear your seat belt because unforeseen and unplanned stops will be very abrupt.

11. Leaves the bucket with a bunch of holes in when the wings are removed.....

12. Anytime you are going over snow and not scraping it to the surface with a rubber edge or composite edge, you are packing down the snow and making it very likely to become icy. It's the same way the blower does it. Packing down the wet snow over time, it makes the surface very dangerous for walking, etc. Using this approach will require more snow melt be applied since you can't clean the surface completely. This occurs in the video of him pushing snow with the wings. I need to get the surface cleaned or the ice on these driveway grades makes everything much more dangerous than it should be.

Bottom line, I am not a fan of this approach and I can't see the bucket wings working unless you are in the same position as the guy who invented them. You are clearing a driveway and it's not paved and you don't care about cleaning it to the surface. .........................

 

First time I have seen the backdrag on a snow pusher, very clever idea:thumbup1gif:

Thanks for pics.......

 

This is my first winter with an HLA1500 66" pusher. It seems like it's going to do great. We've only had a couple of 3-5" snowfalls and the ground hasn't frozen yet. I really like how I can back drag with it.

 

In post #2 there in the 1st photo is a black pickup. I would think a blade on the front of it would be the “best way” to push snow.
:bigthumb:

 

I just picked up the 60" HLA 1500 snowpusher.

Absolute garbage if you even remotely plan on going from asphalt to gravel.


Me and my dealer are going to have a lively "chat" on Wednesday about this HLA garbage he sold me when he knew exactly what I was planning on doing with it - commercial cleaning of various residential driveways.

Whenever I try to "float" the pusher, all it wants to do is bury those tiny skid shoes in the gravel and push gravel around everywhere. However, I need the cutting edge equal to the same height as the shoes, in case I want to do asphalt driveways. From what I can clearly see, the shoes are WAY too narrow - and at a $1500 take-home price tag, I should NOT have to be modifying it in any way, shape or form.

1 out of 10 for a poorly thought out product. Maybe 2 out of 10 if the backdrag function is of interest to you.

 

Pretty harsh.

If you are plowing un-frozen gravel you will have this same issue with any snow removal implement. Once frozen it is a non-issue.

 

The pusher I was looking at getting (someday) has long wide skid shoes like the one you pictured jgayman. Having a gravel driveway/intersection I thought these looked good. Of course when un-frozen I still would try to carry it just a bit.

ZMI Snow Pusher for Sub Compact Tractor - 900 Series

 

If you are a commercial grade pusher , you have some things to learn ? Kevin .

 

Something occured to me after seeing this image that jgayman posted above -

I noticed in the pic the front of the pusher is elevated a little bit. I realized it is just parked in that photo but made me think.

OP says he is running the pusher in the float position. That’s all fine and good but at what angle is the pusher at when it is touching the ground? The float function only affects the up/down motion - not the tilt forward/back motion. That forward/back motion has to be adjusted manually.

So on a paved surface it would be fine for the skid shoes to ride flat. On a gravel driveway it wouldn’t hurt to have a slight tilt backards thus maybe avoiding the front of the skids to dig in. If one isn’t paying attention to this aspect it would be easy to have the pusher tilted forward thus letting the front of the skids dig in.

Just thinking out loud here....

On another thing - if the OP plans to go into the dealer with guns blazing.....good luck! You are likely to run straight into a brick wall. A little diplomacy when explaining your issue will go a long way with any business. Go in barking and you won’t get anywhere.

 

Something occured to me after seeing this image that jgayman posted above -

View attachment 517226

I noticed in the pic the front of the pusher is elevated a little bit. I realized it is just parked in that photo but made me think.

OP says he is running the pusher in the float position. That’s all fine and good but at what angle is the pusher at when it is touching the ground? The float function only affects the up/down motion - not the tilt forward/back motion. That forward/back motion has to be adjusted manually.

So on a paved surface it would be fine for the skid shoes to ride flat. On a gravel driveway it wouldn’t hurt to have a slight tilt backards thus maybe avoiding the front of the skids to dig in. If one isn’t paying attention to this aspect it would be easy to have the pusher tilted forward thus letting the front of the skids dig in.

Just thinking out loud here....

On another thing - if the OP plans to go into the dealer with guns blazing.....good luck! You are likely to run straight into a brick wall. A little diplomacy when explaining your issue will go a long way with any business. Go in barking and you won’t get anywhere.

When you push snow, you think in straight lines, and you "do" in straight lines. When you "turn", it's in a subtle, delicate way Not my first go at this rodeo. The angle front-back is dependent on the surface, yes, I probably should have explained that better. What's important to note is that all other SCUT/MCUT-snow-pusher-manufacturers provide shoes at least two inches wide - and from personal experience, that's about the minimum width to start supporting some of the lighter boxes over your typical 'A' gravel (aka most driveways). Honestly, based on the weight of the HLA 1500 and considering that the loader arms inherently have some amount of flex to them in our smaller tractors, they should be about 2.5" wide. Again, not my first go at this rodeo (mind you, this is my own stuff now, with smaller equipment). You just have to be careful to not tilt it up too much, or else you've made your problem ten times worse. I have another design in mind that would completely negate my issue, but I need to: A) build a prototype, and B) consult with a mechanical engineer.


Diplomacy will last for about sixty seconds when I make the initial phone calls. The specified use was extremely clear. If they don't cooperate, one call to my credit card and a charge back is initiated. The problem then becomes their problem. The world of Elite level credit cards sure does have its benefits. I realize some people are pushovers - I, however, am not one of them, and I have a credit card that allows me to leverage myself as such.


It's terrifying the number of people on this forum perfectly willing to pay top dollar then put up with nonsensical issues because some incompetent engineer came in one morning drunk out of his tree. If we're not holding these manufacturers accountable with out wallets, how will they ever get the message that substandard equipment is absolutely not okay? Seriously, guys, stop accepting mediocre products (sold at a premium) as an acceptable solution.


Alright, getting off my soapbox here. :mocking:

 

In my limited experience, equipment set up for snow removal on paved surfaces is going to dig into soft gravel. It’s pretty common practice to take the shoes off of snowplows used on pavement. Equipment set up for gravel / dirt roads and driveways is going to leave too much snow behind on paved surfaces.

Now keep in mind I’m only 48 years old, live just outside side Green Bay where the winters are quiet mild. In addition to this I have only had the opportunity to use shovels,walk behind blowsers, ag tractors with loaders and snowblowers, skid steers. And a couple of pickups, ATVs and a sis with plows. Now if I was a bit older with more snow removal experience I would understand what’s wrong with the snow pusher in question.

 

I still haven't found a skid shoe that doesn't dig into gravel unless the gravel/ground is frozen as hard as concrete.

That pusher looks like a nice piece of equipment, if you have a paved driveway.


Firemachine69 - I do agree that if the dealer knew you intended to plow gravel drives with that pusher and he still sold it to you, then yes he owes you a refund. That is IF he knows anything about plowing snow. Just out of curiosity, did the dealer recommend this to you or did you go in and day I want a "xxx"?

 

I told Fire the same thing about his dealer and asked him the same question...

Additionally he keeps mentioning that he expects perfection from this “commercial grade” piece of equipment. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t see many Pro’s using a 2 series and HLA 1500 series equipment, homeowners, and the like yes. It seems to me that with a max operating weight of 3000lb that the 1000, 1500 & 2000 series from HLA aren’t really what most would consider “commercial “ equipment, their 2500, 3500 and above series that are meant for attachment to construction size/style machines are.

http://hlasnow.com/pdf/snow_brochure.pdf

 

I was just asking cause several years ago I had a snow blower that I wanted to cram up a salesman's butt.

That was until I figured out the limitations of a snow blower verses my intentions......:banghead:

The dealership gave me a break on the replacement parts I needed and I did most of the clearing with the blade. :hide:

The salesman was right, the blower doesn't like frozen stuff or rocky stuff but when you really get dumped on it will be worth its weight in gold.

I only really got to use it a couple times and it worked really well.


and to the salesman's credit, he never did mention that he recommended a bigger machine in the first place......:hi:

 

Perhaps the optional turf skids for the HLA1500 would work better on gravel and soft ground.

 

Perhaps the optional turf skids for the HLA1500 would work better on gravel and soft ground.

View attachment 517666

I ended up getting wider steel shoes welded up to the factory skid shoes. Cost me all of $150CAD ($120USD), including the steel and getting them painted. They're now 4" wide (each), and they (reasonably) float on snow... Or, at least, enough not to destroy a gravel driveway. I'll be adding the rubber cutting edge to the inside (and adjusting the height), and running the carbide edge on the backdrag option my pusher is equipped with.



The whole reason to get this pusher was an option sold to me to speed up snow removal, especially the annoying telltale snow peaks left behind while backdragging with the bucket. I'm just about at the maximum amount that can be done or added with the pusher, and there's a good chance this thing will be sold off next fall (and I'll go back to a bucket, mind you, the HD version, I need a replaceable cutting edge).

 

Thanks to all recommendations. I have priced the 60” HLA 1500 and found the lowest price to be $958 + tax at James River Equipment JD dealer.

 

I’m just using on my really long paved driveway and maybe some of the neighbors paved driveways. No gravel

Not only does that sound like a great price but it should suit your use and equipment well. Hopefully the offtrack posts on your thread haven’t distracted you too much from gathering the info you needed.

Please let us know what you decide and start a new thread with your new equipment and how it’s working for you when you get it! Good luck:thumbup1gif:

 

I’m just using on my really long paved driveway and maybe some of the neighbors paved driveways. No gravel

 

I just wanted to add, if you were just going to stick to one surface type (or you didn't mind leaving two inches of snow behind hovering the pusher), the HLA isn't terrible, just priced a bit steep.