Snow Blowers

[Piston]

You probably get more than enough snow to justify the FEL and power pack option I'm sure! However, you have the ideal tractor for a rear mount push behind blower.
The reason I say "ideal tractor" is because it's probably the only one I could imagine doing long drives with a rear push style blower.

Here me out....
If you were to bypass the safety switch on the seat so you could operate the tractor in reverse, and figure out a way to use the creep to position lever as speed control (I.e. Faster than a creep) then put a small electric over hydraulic motor on your steering rod, controlled by a joystick on your right side (facing backwards) then you'd have a very capable but compact bidirectional tractor.

The advantage of PTO power over hydraulic power is that you get much more power to the implement. Also, your pivot point is right over the rear tires so your tractor is considerably more maneuverable with a rear blower vs one sticking way out in front on the FEL.

Just an idea, but this is something I'd like to pursue if the day ever comes that I'm fortunate enough to own an M59/62.

A Pronovost TRC800 with rotating chute on the back of a tractor that you could face the direction your driving in would truly be impressive!

So basically this.....but spin the seat around and drive backwards.

 

[bdhsfz6]

You probably get more than enough snow to justify the FEL and power pack option I'm sure! However, you have the ideal tractor for a rear mount push behind blower.
The reason I say "ideal tractor" is because it's probably the only one I could imagine doing long drives with a rear push style blower.

Here me out....
If you were to bypass the safety switch on the seat so you could operate the tractor in reverse, and figure out a way to use the creep to position lever as speed control (I.e. Faster than a creep) then put a small electric over hydraulic motor on your steering rod, controlled by a joystick on your right side (facing backwards) then you'd have a very capable but compact bidirectional tractor.

The advantage of PTO power over hydraulic power is that you get much more power to the implement. Also, your pivot point is right over the rear tires so your tractor is considerably more maneuverable with a rear blower vs one sticking way out in front on the FEL.

Just an idea, but this is something I'd like to pursue if the day ever comes that I'm fortunate enough to own an M59/62.

A Pronovost TRC800 with rotating chute on the back of a tractor that you could face the direction your driving in would truly be impressive!

So basically this.....but spin the seat around and drive backwards.

View attachment 524367

I used to do something similar, albeit on a smaller scale, with my old B7100 HST and Woods SB54 snowblower. The tractor had a swivel seat for use with a backhoe. I attached a pole to the HST pedal to control speed. Most of my work is long straight runs so an occasional reach around to steer was all that was necessary.

Sadly, my newer larger tractors aren't so adaptable and I'm back to the stiff neck from looking over my shoulder. I may try one of your ideas on my MX5800 though. I now do most of my snow removal with a FEL mounted blade and resort to the blower only in deep snow or when the banks get too high.

 

[rScotty]

A Pronovost TRC800 with rotating chute on the back of a tractor that you could face the direction your driving in would truly be impressive!

So basically this.....but spin the seat around and drive backwards.

View attachment 524367

Matt...Mr. Piston....Thanks for being so innovative. That is the most creative solution I've seen on TBN in a long, long while. I agree that it might even work better than you think. The creeper control on the M59 is somehow associated with both the range and plus shifters, so the M59 can potentially creep along at a pretty good rate depending on which gearing range is selected.

The downside is that without a cab it leaves me sitting out in the open almost on top of the snowblower. Hmmm....I'll have to think about how much that appeals.
Another even weirder alternative method would be to bolt a couple of motor-driven blowers into my spare FEL bucket and give that a go... What do you think of that?

 

[Piston]

Thanks Roger,
This idea I have, is one of the main reasons I really love the appeal of the M59/62. I believe it would be very helpful for many implements I use, especially the stumpgrinder and rotary cutter. I do a lot of work in reverse with the rotary cutter because the trees are too large to comfortably drive over.
The stumpgrinder is the biggest pain in my neck, and I believe a rear blower would be very similar.

I really don't think it would be terribly difficult to figure out with the help of Mtnviewranch and his hydraulic expertise.

Regarding the blowers in the bucket idea, I believe you'd be bogging down the blowers at a very slow speed and wouldn't be happy with it, but if you already have them then there is nothing to lose!

 

[mikester]

I've run both front and rear mounted snow blowers on my TLB's. I made an adapter to mount a 5 foot 3PH snowblower and ran a hydraulic motor to drive the PTO with a 16GPM hydraulic remote setup. I currently run a 6 foot blower on the back of my M59.

The front mount is great and saves your neck big time but the hydraulic flow just isn't enough for heavy snow. The other negative with my setup was that the blower sticks way out in front so if you need to negotiate a lot of curves or have lots of obstacles its slows you down and you can't get into as many tight spaces.

Running the rear mounted blower on M59 cut my clean up time in half. The hydrostatic drive is awesome as I can leave it in high gear and can vary my speeds easily and beats my old gear drive TLB hands down. The rear PTO never seems to get bogged down by snow and I never went back to the front mounted blower setup.

I just added a cab to my M59 so I'm actually looking forward to winter again this year.

 

[mikester]

Holy cow USD$6,000 for a power pack! Check out
2.7 GPM 54 RPM PTO Pump | Princess Auto

These are regularly CDN$599 and go on sale very year usually $100-150 off. You can build your own power pack with all new parts for less that half Loftness.com price.

 

[rScotty]

I may have been trying to fit a snow blower to the wrong tractor. The M59's SSQA, cat II 3pt, and PTO seduced me at first, but now that we've discussed it I can see advantages to putting a snow blower on the JD 310SG. The JD doesn't have SSQA, a 3 pt, or even a PTO....but it does have a heated cab and an accessory flow circuit that pushes out 36 gpm at decent pressure - with cooling and filtration built right in. One of the reasons I didn't consider going that route is that attachments for the 310 tend to be somewhere between way too expensive and downright unaffordable. It's commercial; not homeowner.

In fact, I've never even looked to see if there is an SSQA adapter for the JD 310, but since there is someone who makes nearly everything else for the JD commercial backhoes, SSQA might be available. Anyone know?
rScotty

 

[Piston]

Roger,
That is a great photo!

I was interested in doing something very similar many years ago. The general consensus seemed to be that the weight and power of the full sized backhoe/loader would pretty easily overcome the design build strength of SS attachments.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/245854-skidsteer-attachments-full-size-backhoe.html

The major disadvantage of this setup would be lack of maneuverability. Similar to a hydraulic power pack system and FEL mounted blower on your tractor, it's going to make for one LOOOONG package with a large turning radius. Just think of how far forward that blower would be, plus the backhoe sticking off the back of the 310.

If this wouldn't be a concern for you, then it may work out very well if you could find a heavy duty blower. However, to get a blower as heavy and wide as you'd need on the 310, I don't know if you'd be saving any money.

I'd think,you'd be well over $10k for something that stout, and still,risk damaging it very easily with the power of the 310. Personally, I believe your better off investing in a cab for your M59 and going with a rear mount blower.

I almost always think an inverted pull behind blower is better but in your situation I'm sure you get too much snow at one time for one of those.

Did you see the recent post on the Lauren cab install by a fellow from Canada? He did a great write up with some nice photos.

 

[Piston]

Here is the link I was referring to about the cab. He runs a blower as well, and posted an excellent write up on his blog.
Laurin Eclipse Cab install and review for my Kubota M59

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=387033