Since I wrote the previous post, dreaming about a Human Powered Snowmobile, more snow has fallen.  Dry stuff this time and the forecasters might be right that there is more to come.  So naturally thoughts turn to human powered ways of snow removal – ideally ways that don’t break your back.

Good memories will probably remember the Google sponsored Innovate-or-die competition (c. 2007) and may perhaps remember the following entry by MrPlowKevin Blake:

Kevin’s snowplow design got him a lengthy report in Mother Earth News, in which he explains the design and build method in quite a lot of technical detail, very useful for anyone wishing to make one for themselves.

However Kevin is not alone.  Bob Beechy of Ontario, has designed and built a series of HP plows starting with a trike and evolving the design through a number of diverse machines.  Here he is explaining the collection before the snow sets in.

He goes on to demonstrate shifting snow in the following two videos, and he has more on YouTube.  In the first he gives an overview of the first two machines and then gives the viewer a driver’s eye view

In the second, which is quite lengthy, you get a demo of the quad plowing the driveway clear.

But there are others too.

Trailcart, website now defunct, and production in limbo due to conflicting business priorities, produced a number of these all-terrain HP quads, one of which is shown above, fitted with an impressive snow plow.  It would be great to see these back in production!

Finally there is the tow-plow created by Dave Peterson.  A design reminiscent of the old horse-drawn plows of the past, it is fitted behind a regular bike like a bike-trailer, and used to maintain a clear path through the snow.  There is more about the plow and how it developed over on a wiki site Appropedia.

Above the plow in action.  Below the results.