Snow B26 owners and snow handling

   / B26 owners and snow handling #1  

skyhook

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2013
Messages
1,917
Location
Canada Ontario
Tractor
1996 Kubota L4200 GSTC,(sold) 1994 JCB 210S 4x4x4
I'd like to hear from "B26" owners and the operation of their machines in snow.
How they handle in deep snow,
what attachments you have, example: 72" rear blower etc...
are your tires "loaded"
are they R4's or have you switched to R1's etc....
How they handle on hill's, (in snow)
anything related to snow and how good or bad these are.
I'd like to be convinced on one of these for snow contracts, nothing big
but just the average 300 foot or so drive way etc.
 
   / B26 owners and snow handling #2  
I don't have a B26 but have a B3200 the bigger cousin. I have R4's with a 72" blower on the rear and 60" FEL. Does real well here in Upstae NY so far. I have a 300' up hill driveway and we had a 24"+ storm earlier this year and it did fine even over ice on teh lower part of the gravel driveway. Some say R4's are no good but I've had no complaints about mine and they aren't even loaded.
 
   / B26 owners and snow handling #3  
I would advise you to buy chains just for the front. This way, if you get in a jam on the job, raise the wheels with the loader and slip em on. Easiest and cheapest way to go.
 

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   / B26 owners and snow handling
  • Thread Starter
#4  
I would advise you to buy chains just for the front. This way, if you get in a jam on the job, raise the wheels with the loader and slip em on. Easiest and cheapest way to go.

Are your rear tires loaded with calcium?
My concern with these smaller tractors like the B26 is the weight, there's not much!
And if you weigh them down for traction, can the little 26 horse engine and trans handle the
daily weight of the machine, plus what ever else you load onto it.
 
   / B26 owners and snow handling #5  
Are your rear tires loaded with calcium?
My concern with these smaller tractors like the B26 is the weight, there's not much!
And if you weigh them down for traction, can the little 26 horse engine and trans handle the
daily weight of the machine, plus what ever else you load onto it.

The rears on my B3030 are loaded. The problem with a backhoe is that it is recommended you don't load the rear tires when the hoe is on.
I'm a big believer in chains and would always have a set for any tractor that I owned as long as I live in Yankee Land.
Forgot to say, I got beet juice in my rears. If I had to do it again, I would of foamed em.
 
   / B26 owners and snow handling
  • Thread Starter
#6  
I don't have a B26 but have a B3200 the bigger cousin. I have R4's with a 72" blower on the rear and 60" FEL. Does real well here in Upstae NY so far. I have a 300' up hill driveway and we had a 24"+ storm earlier this year and it did fine even over ice on teh lower part of the gravel driveway. Some say R4's are no good but I've had no complaints about mine and they aren't even loaded.
Sorry, I didn't see your post until now,
thats good to know, yours has a little bigger engine,
you have a 4 cylinder.
 
   / B26 owners and snow handling #7  
Sorry, I didn't see your post until now,
thats good to know, yours has a little bigger engine,
you have a 4 cylinder.

Yes it has a 4 cyclinder and a little bigger frame, but a close comparison for you. Are you going to run it or a employee. If you let an employee go with it you might like teh R4 and no chains as it will spin/slide some if they beat on it which might keep them from breaking something.
 
   / B26 owners and snow handling
  • Thread Starter
#8  
If I decide to get it, I would be the only one driving it.
Thats what I want to know about these B26's,
if they have a 7 foot blower on the back ( mine is a reverse pull) can this machine handle
a foot of snow in front of it, while pulling a 7 foot blower without spinning and sliding.
Can it handle a 7 foot plow in front of it in these conditions.
The blower must weigh about 5 hundred pounds, so once its down, can it pull it?
 
   / B26 owners and snow handling #9  
View attachment 354369View attachment 354370I have a B2630 - same as the B26. I have R-4's, loaded rears, and I've cut or grooved both the fronts and the rears. I've attached pics and you can find info on this tire cutting in the snow removal section under 'cutting and siping'. I pull a 5 foot heavy duty plow behind me. My tractor is absolutely unstoppable in very deep snow. On a flat surface, I can pull a very full and heaped plow full of the heaviest wettest snow while driving forward through about 8 inches of fresh stuff. I usually angle it off to the side, however. I can also push through and stack the piles left by the State trucks on the side of the highway that must be over 3 feet deep while using the loader. I have no problems whatsoever with power or traction. My driveway is extremely steep and there are no issues. I can plow uphill through 6-8 inches on the steepest part. I can drive right up an icy driveway that I cannot even walk down on my own feet. Traction is no issue at all, and I cannot imagine needing chains. I'm speaking from 5 years experience plowing snow with this particular setup. I keep the rear tire pressure low enough so that the tires squat a little and I get maximum amount of footprint to the ground. Plain and simple, the thing is a tank in the snow.

That being said..... I don't think there is any way you should be - or will be able to run a 7 foot blower on the B26. That is simply waayyy too big. First of all, I'm sure it's way more than 500 lbs. - probably double that in reality. You'll be far over the 3 pt capacity. Secondly, I don't think you'll have the horsepower to run it in anything more than a light snow that isn't very deep. 5 foot will more than cover the width of the machine and you'll have power to spare. I bet you could squeek by with a 6 footer if it wasn't a foot deep heavy snow, but trust me when I say you won't be happy trying to run a 7 footer on that tractor. It's just way too much. You should be looking at a tractor with 60+ horsepower to run a blower that big.
 
   / B26 owners and snow handling #10  
I have a B26TLB and with the backhoe on it does pretty well with traction in mud, don't know about snow but you likely can get better traction in snow than mud. I have never used it without the hoe so rear traction might be an issue unless you load the rear tires or best just use some chains on front and rear. Kubota says not to load the tires with the hoe on, but if you don't use the outriggers to pick up the tractor, just to stabilize it, then loaded tires shouldn't be an issue. I would hate to have to drain and fill each time I removed and replaced the backhoe but I think that is the case with any TLB, no loaded tires when using the backhoe.
I think the B26 is a bit heavier than any of the B2xxx series kubotas so it should be a bit better in the snow pushing arena.
 
 
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