Rear pull snowblower

   / Rear pull snowblower #1  

BlacknTan

Platinum Member
Joined
May 26, 2006
Messages
978
Location
Adirondacks of NY
Tractor
Kubota B-7800
Does anyone have experience with a rear pull snowblower like the Erskine unit with a FEL for deep snow on a B-7800 sized tractor?
 
   / Rear pull snowblower #2  
I don't quite understand this?
Your going to pull a snow blower and flatten and compact the snow first with the tires?
Why?
All snow blower machines blow the snow before it gets compacted by the tires.
I must be missing something here.
 
   / Rear pull snowblower
  • Thread Starter
#3  
I don't want to turn my head and operate in reverse with a conventional rear mount blower. I will often have iced up scraper bank to deal with from the town plow, so I'd like to keep the FEL mounted. Snow can also get pretty deep. The FEL can knock it down some to let the rear pull do the rest.

http://www.erskineattachments.com/products/snow_blower_rear_pull.html
 
   / Rear pull snowblower #4  
Good idea that has fallen out of favor lately. Probably due to higher snowfall,and more fel equipped tractors. Still a few of the old v-type fan ones around. New single or dual augers are available,but $$$$.

As for the compacting part.........does not really make much difference. The machine will pick it up anyways down to a set height.
 
   / Rear pull snowblower #5  
BlacknTan said:
I don't want to turn my head and operate in reverse with a conventional rear mount blower. I will often have iced up scraper bank to deal with from the town plow, so I'd like to keep the FEL mounted. Snow can also get pretty deep. The FEL can knock it down some to let the rear pull do the rest.

http://www.erskineattachments.com/products/snow_blower_rear_pull.html

How deep is deep? If the snow is deep enough (that the FEL must knock it down) for more than just a short distance, then the snow will build up in front of the FEL (or the tractor itself) and you will have to push or dump it off to the side. This to me defeats the purpose of having the blower. Erskine on their web page say that to attack deep drifts, turn around, raise the blower, back into the drift, lower the blower and drive out. Sounds to me like an awful awkward way to go about blowing snow. I've never used or even seen one of these units. It may work well if the snow is not too deep, but I think there would be no advantage to it if the snow is too deep. Again, how deep is deep?:confused:
 
   / Rear pull snowblower #6  
I've seen quite a few south Montreal. Most of the tractors were cab units without a FEL.
 
   / Rear pull snowblower #7  
Here is a pic of my rear pull type snow thrower - made in the '70s by Snow Machines, and similar to the Erskine pull type

7b3d8be9.jpg


This rig is really simple - one rotating auger/impeller - no chain drives, no gearboxes. For fluffy snow it can't be beat.

To answer your question about depth, it works best with 8" or less if the snow is sticky. The less sticky - the better it will flow, and greater depths work fine. Compaction is not too much of an issue - the plow edges get under it pretty well. Moving slow, the B7800 with FEL would handle it ok, power and weight-wise.

One place this tool really shines is on long driveways that have been plowed but need to be widened because the banks are getting too big to push back. By driving along with the FEL about 8 or 10" above the ground and about 2 feet into the snowbank, the snow spreads down in front of the tractor and then the blower comes along and launches it.

The Erskine units are a little fancier - with extending side wings.

While we're on the subject of pull-ahead rear-mounts, Pronovost has a combo backward/forward design that is great to watch in action - there's a video at their website.
http://www.pronovost.qc.ca/videoa.html
Their big stuff is pretty serious machinery.

Take care - and have fun. Dick B
 
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   / Rear pull snowblower #8  
The simple v-plow type in the picture above is like a model Eskine made up untill a couple years ago. I looked at the new Erskine pull-type model (from your link) and it is a different design. It is more like the Pronovost "inverted" style. I think the new Erskine may be a bit heavy for a B-7800 even with the FEL mounted. What width are you considering?
 
   / Rear pull snowblower
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Dick,
Thanks for your reply. I was considering the 60" for my usage. BTW, you've got the idea of what I would like to do exactly.

BTW, that's quite a machine you've got!
 
   / Rear pull snowblower #10  
I think the same thing as rbargeron: a rear pull snowblower is built to be heavy. Usually that kind of blower is no less than 1000 lbs. My reference is Pronovost. Their smallest blower weights around 1500 lbs (plus 300 lbs for the back blade) and the minimum width is 86". I looked at Erskine and I think their blowers are too heavy for a B7800. I've seen a lot of blowers like that in my region but they are equipped on M-series tractors (M-110, M105).

I'd go for something smaller.
 

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