Long before winter service vehicles were invented, people had already developed ways to make dirt roads usable during the coldest months of the year. Customarily, villagers packed the fallen snow using boulders pulled by cattle to make it firm and usable for sleds.

While this way of packing down snow during early times was often used to make travel feasible, today having snow on paved thoroughfares can make traveling extremely hazardous. Build-up of this frozen precipitation can cause cars and trucks to skid and lose control, sometimes resulting in multiple-vehicle accidents. This is why, during the winter season, snow must be removed on a regular basis from roads before it turns into solid slippery ice. One winter service vehicle that can help make our roads safer during this time is the snow sweeper.

How It Functions

This machine is a specialized vehicle designed to brush away snow, cleaning the roads right down to each and every crevice. It is equipped with several large rotating brushes which turn around at high revolutions. The spinning brushes are powered by either an electric motor or by the sweeper’s own engine. It is a perfect road cleaner. In fact, it is the winter service vehicle of choice on demanding road conditions.

Used on Winter Sports Racing Tracks

One of the places that require the meticulous cleaning power of this vehicle is on the winter sports racing tracks. These sports that are held during the coldest season require racing tracks free of any accumulation of snow since it could interfere with the traction between the track and blades on which many winter sports racing vehicles are mounted.

Used on Airport Runways

Another important application for a sweeper is on airport runways. During the winter season, runways can easily pile up with snow, making the landing of a plane very risky. Even the smallest formation of ice could cause the landing gear on an airplane to skid. The sweeper can make regular rounds on the runway to prevent any ice build-up on the landing strip making the runway safer for the planes to land.

Design Facts

The superb cleaning capability of this winter vehicle is due to its design. The sweeper’s flexible brushes can follow the terrain better than the rigid blades of plows and blowers making it able to clear more of this bothersome wintry precipitation off the ground.

Although it has thorough cleaning power, it unfortunately has one limitation. The sweeper uses rotating brushes to clean the road; however, it is likely to clog up when there is too much of this frozen precipitation on the ground. When the level of snow goes beyond 4 inches, it can get in between the bristles and clog the sweeper.

To avoid this problem, this winter vehicle should be used only after the use of a plow or a blower. First, the plow or blower gets rid of the thick layers of the heavy precipitation. Once most of it is gone, this specially designed vehicle moves in and brushes the remaining thin layer of precipitation off the road. The only other alternative is in those applications where the area to be covered is small enough that the sweeper can keep going over the same area quickly enough to keep the level down below 4 inches.

Newer Models

Some newer sweeper designs already include a high-powered blower placed at the rear of the brushes. This blows the swept snow far enough away to prevent the detached snow from re-attaching to the surface. Smaller-sized machines are also available for performing this job on sidewalks, making it safe for pedestrians.

This winter vehicle, when used in the proper fashion after first using a plow or blower, can be an invaluable tool when removing frozen precipitation not only from roadways but from many other specialized areas which require that no snow be allowed. They certainly do sweep away problems from runways and tracks during the winter!