Snow Attachments Snow Blower Q & A

[RAllen]

As a recent immigrant from Georgia to NW Montana, this is my first winter season. Never plowed snow in my life. I have a 1/4 mile drive and must help with clearing a 1/2 mile private road. All gravel with hills, dips, ruts etc. I am using a Kubota 2910 with a 60" Kubota Blower. Its been a real learning experience.
The rig works well on the level or down grade. I am going to have to pick up some chains because more than two inches of snow start the wheels a spinning up my hills. I have tried to build a snow base to prevent blowing my gravel all over the place. Have been hampered somewhat by the lack of a freeze/thaw cycle. Its been cold and the powder snow does pack but its not real hard yet. I am forced not to use float control as I dig up too much rock. I have "discovered" on trick that seems to work well. I place the front mounted blower in float then BACK up. This compacts some of the snow and pulls the rest. I do this around my turn-around and parking areas around the house. The feet on the blower are set to "high". This produces a smooth compacted surface. I then use the blower in the conventional forward way to blow the piled up snow.

This minimizes the gravel ejected and seems to help build up a base. This may be "oldhat" to you more experienced folks but I thought I would pass it along to those newbies like me.

Rick

 

[RobS]

Rick, sounds fun to me. Chains will certainly help but I think you need a bunch of weight on the rear as well. When you raise the blower you are reducing the weight on the back of your tractor. No doubt that blower is pretty heavy too. When you clear the paved section, do you float it? If so, does the traction improve?

Rob

 

[RAllen]

Rob
I have calcium chloride in my rear tires. I have a back blade I can hitch up but the tractor does not seem front heavy.
I wish I had some pavement. Its all gravel. The grades are not constant either- alot of dips. My neighbors use blades and I do use the float position on the private road with sucess. Their scraping seems to help build up a base. Even using the float position, I start slipping when going up a grade. Actually, I do better going up hill when I lift the blower up an inch or two. So I do not think adding more weight to the rear will help. I am curious as to what type of chains everyone uses. I have R-4 tires and it seems conventional chains could slip down between lugs and not do much good.

Rick

 

[Thomas]

RAllen,
As just about everyone knows I'm a firm believer in chains.
Have you consider chains w/ ice cheats?
Your locate dealer should beable to get them,but they cost $$$ and well worth.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[TomG]

I'm in my second year of using a 3ph blower for a gravel drive that does have a grade. I have turf tires, and there hasn't been a traction problem. I wonder what's going on here? The way I think about it is that if the auger is clearing the snow and the blower is in float, then the blower shouldn't need much more traction then the tractor alone.

I think I'd try tilting the blower up a bit so it floats easier (I guess it would be obvious if it actually wasn't floating. I'd also run the engine at PTO speed if you aren't already, and cut down your ground speed. The one thing about blowers is they don't make their passes very fast (maybe 2mph compared to near 10 with a plow in good conditions). Of course, the whole job may still get done faster with a blower, since much less time for pushing and stacking is needed. I guess you're aware that an implement in float puts very little weight on the tractor. The effect of ballast mostly disappears.

 

[Thomas]

TomG,
I agree keep at a even speed and don't spin the tires,but tire chains also gives that extra bite for ice as you know can play surprises.

After a good size snow storm some poeple still try and take a full blower every pass even going up hill,if they would try 3/4 or so of a blower maybe that would help.

Hope the winter has been a easy one for you.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[TomG]

Yep, no question. Chains definitely solve traction problems. I keep thinking about getting some to help with the loader work I can't avoid and also to improve steering. It's one of the things I haven't gotten around to, because I really don't have much of a traction problem. Well, I have been surprised by catching ice chunks the blower wouldn't move or float over.

Winter's OK so far. There's enough snow to be interesting. My wife and I just bought 'modern' snow shoes so we can get around in the bush without having to drive everywhere. The worst part of winter so far was four hours of rain on top of the snow base--a real mess.

 

[art]

To lift the blower a few inches in effect puts weight on the front end of the tractor so it increases the front tire traction. Chains don't normally fall totally between the lugs of a ag tire but yes you do lose some surface area but by doing that it increases the pounds per square inch of weight so it in effect has more traction on ice and a better chance to grab on to it.

 

[Anderson]

This is my first year with a similar setup. I have an L3600 with a 60" blower, 7' rear blade, and ag tires. I purchased a set of chains at tirechains.com - field type chains for the rear tires, and garden tractor type for the front.

The rear chains are GREAT. The front chains don'd do much though - they mostly fell down between the treads.

Initially I wasn't planning on using the rear blade at all for snow, but I was throwing so much gravel with the blower that I hooked it back up. I'm not sure why, but the blade doesn't pick up as much gravel as the blower. It's the angle of the scraper bar or the shear weight of the blower. I'm thinking about having a less aggressive scraper bar made up for the blower next year.

What I've done the last couple times is to make a nice snow furrow with the rear blade then go back, and put the blower most of the way down, and the back blade down. The blower remover the previous forrow, and the blade makes the next one.

 

[RAllen]

Thanks for all the help. I think chains are in my 2910's future. I have seen the chains with cleats and yes they are $$$. One difference for my property may be the definition of "hill" or "grade". I live in the mountains and my drive gains about 70 feet in about 1200 feet but grade is not constant with most of the gain coming in two steep places.

Do most of you use chains on the front [4x4]? Seems it would help with steering as much as pulling traction.

Another thing I have noticed is traction is best if temps are lower than 25 degrees f. At higher temps, the snow cakes on the lugs making things sliippery. At lower temps. there seems to be less caking.

Now if someone would invent a blower shute that always throws down-wind....

Rick