A snow pusher is a piece of equipment that does exactly what it sounds like-- it pushes snow where you want it to go. To understand the difference between a snow pusher and a snow plow, picture the type of snowplow you see clearing the highway in bad weather. These have a huge blade in front of them that sits at an angle and pushes the snow to the side of the road. That leaves a wall of snow along the edge.

A snow pusher, by comparison, pushes the snow straight ahead. The blade on the front is actually straight up and down rather than angled and has a wall on each side to hold the snow in as it fills up. The snow is simply pushed straight ahead until it's out of the area. These are used to make the huge piles you find in parking lots. These stores and companies use the snow pusher to pile the snow and remove it from the lots. Not only does it do a better job of clearing a large area, it does it much faster than a blade.

Someone who needs to clear a large area like a parking lot and tries to use a blade will have to keep going over the same snow repeatedly. Using the snow pusher prevents that. Instead of using a blade down a strip and then having to go back and re-plow the snow that piled up from the first strip, the snow pusher goes over the snow once and pushes it out of the way. It's fast and efficient.

The differences in snow pushers have to do with the size and the type of edge. The snow pusher attachment has a special edge on the bottom designed to keep the snow from slipping underneath the blade. Without that edge, the pusher would do an excellent job of removing the snow down to the edge of the blade. But there would be a thin level that got through on the bottom leaving the area slick and snow covered.

There are two types of edges used with snow pushers: steel and rubber. Each has certain advantages and disadvantages. A rubber edge is best when the surface isn't exactly flat. The rubber can go over small bumps and obstructions where a steel edge may catch on them or bounce above them and leave more snow than a rubber edge would. The biggest disadvantage of a rubber edge is when you're dealing with hardened snow that's icy, packed and uneven often the rubber edge will go over the top of the hardest bumps instead of pushing them forward.

A steel edge can scrape flat pavement almost perfectly clean and is ideal when there's ice on top of the snow, below it or mixed in with it. But because steel is rigid, it can pose problems unless used on absolutely smooth surfaces. Most snow pushers with steel edges have them attached with either a spring or some sort of flexible composite material to allow the blade to flip backwards, go over the bump and then snap back into place. But for very bumpy surfaces, rubber edges will do a far better job of snow pushing and steel because they'll maintain contact longer.

Photo Credits: cwalker71

Originally posted 2010-04-05 03:36:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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bad weather, edge of the blade, parking lot, parking lots, rubber edge, snow plow, snow pusher, snow pushers, snowplow