Snow Newby intro and a snowblower retrofit question

[Jonohio]

Hi folks,

I've always wanted a tractor of my own and I finally decided to jump in and buy a SCUT - the 84 month free financing and 0 down pushed me over the line with MF - I looked at Kubota, Kioti, and Mahindra as well but for a number of reasons the MF stayed top of mind.

My family always thought i'd own a construction company since I drove farm tractors before I rode a bike and had JD410 rear hydraulics apart and overhauled before I could drive, but alas I became an IT consultant. Nonetheless this moment has been in the back of my mind for 18+ years now.

In general I've never bought anything new in my life and this tractor costs more than most cars I have purchased - I'm a long time wrencher and DIY'r and I'm super excited to be expecting delivery of my shiny new 1710 with the 2326 mower, and 10" BH bucket tomorrow. The wife test drove it last weekend and I got the :thumbsup: from her...woohooo.

Currently and over the last 8 years I have an used an RZT50 for the lawn and a craftsman gt6000 18hp lawn tractor with the agri-fab universal 48" two stage blower for snow removal. Both have worked pretty well but the RZT slips on my hilly yard with even the slightest dampness- andd it's nearly impossible to let my 2 year old son ride with daddy (which I think will be solved by the 4wd 1710). Not to mention that I hate having two tractors in my garage all year round.

So, i've got this agrifab 48" blower that works quite well and i got new for a great price - i'd like to try and retrofit it for the GC1710. I have read many posts about adapting plows and other items to a tractor so I figured this shouldn't be any different - perhaps more complicated though.

Questions:
-- Has anyone tried to retrofit a non MF or Kubota snowblower to the front of their GC?
-- I believe I need the front sub-frame mount for the blower - does anyone know if this mount includes the hydraulic lifting mechanism - or is that mechanism of the snowblower?

For fun i've attached some pictures of the what my current blower looks like vs the 2360 as well as some tractor pictures I took at the dealer - she looks too clean....

 

[Fiziksgeek]

The front blowers for the Kubota Bx line hooks up without modification. The Kubota and Massey blower are made by the same manufacturer, Rad Tech up in Canada. The only difference is the MID PTO speed, Massey is rated for 2000 rpm and Kubota 2500 rpm. There is a corresponding gear difference in the blowers to compensate.

I think the agrifab blowers made for riding mowers are belt driven..the hard part is finding a way to adapt the belt drive to take power form the PTO....adapting a plow is much easier....


To answer your two specific questions:
1. Not me...
2.The hydraulic lift cylinder is on the quick hitch, see the last picture you posted, lift cylinder is on the left with the tractor.

 

[Jonohio]

Thanks Fiziksgeek, I guess I should have looked over that last picture more carefully. As to adapting the agrifab belt driven blower to pro driven, it looks like I could buy the adapter gear parts from MF or kubota and possibly retrofit the drive with those.

Looking at the rear of the one i have it looks like the belt drive and lift system are bolted onto the blower and can be removed, then it would look similar to the rad tech model. I'll need to spend some time looking at things as I analyze how to do this.

 

[DMW]

Take a really good look and compare the construction of the blowers. Is the old blower made sturdy enough to survive the front of the GC. Looks like a lot of stamped/bolted parts on the agri-fab blower.

 

[irvingj]

Ditto what DMW said. I think you'd be far better off to go with the M-F PTO-powered factory blower rather than try to retrofit your Agri-Fab. I bet it would be a real hassle to adapt yours, and I'd also bet that the result would be less capable than the factory version, especially in the long run.

Yeah, I know, they want two arms and a leg for the M-F blower, but I still think you'd be better off to go that route. Tough choice to be sure, but I'd think long & hard about it. Any chance you could sell your existing blower?

 

[Jonohio]

Take a really good look and compare the construction of the blowers. Is the old blower made sturdy enough to survive the front of the GC. Looks like a lot of stamped/bolted parts on the agri-fab blower.

So this blower has worked flawlessly for 5 years on my sears tractor clearing my driveway and at least 4 other neighbors' driveways - it throws about 35 feet, is barely rusted, and weighs about 175lbs. I don't understand why it wouldn't be sturdy enough to survive the front of the GC? It's the same operating environment, speeds, and operator - just a different power plant. Can you explain what makes the GC beat on attachments vs my current tractor?

It may be stamped and not as high of quality as the $3500 blower setup but regardless it's enough quality for my needs - I'm going to investigate this mod. I'll keep the forum updated.

 

[Clipse3GT]

So this blower has worked flawlessly for 5 years on my sears tractor clearing my driveway and at least 4 other neighbors' driveways - it throws about 35 feet, is barely rusted, and weighs about 175lbs. I don't understand why it wouldn't be sturdy enough to survive the front of the GC? It's the same operating environment, speeds, and operator - just a different power plant. Can you explain what makes the GC beat on attachments vs my current tractor?

It may be stamped and not as high of quality as the $3500 blower setup but regardless it's enough quality for my needs - I'm going to investigate this mod. I'll keep the forum updated.

I think you would work. It in the end it comes down to is how much is your time and sanity worth. Again you are going to try to make parts that are not designed to work together operate as one unit. You can run run the mid pto shaft to a pulley / gear system which would reduce the PTO speed to whatever speed the manufactures recommends to run the augers on snowblower as well as need to make and design a front hitch/subframe that would bolt up to the GC. I think in the end. Sure you can make anything work with enough time and money. But I think putting the MTD/Agrifab blower on craigslist or forum for sale is the way to go. Gain whatever money you can on the blower and put it towards the new blower. If you plan to keep the GC for a long time or at least 84 months. I think going with the MF blower is the way to go. Also, nothing worse than going out to see 12" of snow here by us in the snowbelt and go to realize that your blower is not working or something broke and needs to be custom made to get it back to operating condition.

 

[Fiziksgeek]

$1000 of the $3500 cost of the MF blower is the quick hitch with hydraulic lift and the mid-front PTO kit. So at the end of the day, the blower itself is ~$2500, not all that much more expensive than those Agrifab blowers.

I have almost no fabrication skills, and therefor can't help, but again, the challenge is going from the PTO drive on the tractor to the belt drive on the blower, and matching the designed input speed. But, guys on here do all sorts of creative things....

 

[aczlan]

If you can find out the target RPM for the pulley, you might be able to take it off and direct drive it with a PTO shaft.

Aaron Z

 

[Dutch445]

If you can find out the target RPM for the pulley, you might be able to take it off and direct drive it with a PTO shaft.

Aaron Z

also need to confirm rotation, would suck to get it all together and have it spin backwards!