Just bought my neighbor's Kioti DK50 and been plowing my 1.5 mile long driveway with it this year. Considering getting a blower next year and wanted to know the pros/cons of the front mount to the rear mount. I am thinking with a front mount I can leave the box scraper on the back to quickly push piles while blowing with the front. It is not uncommon to get 4' snowfalls here and a couple of times last year I had to make 2 passes with the blade to get down to the road because of so much snow. Anyone have any experience comparing the two? Ideally, I'd like to get a hyrdaulic front blower, but I need to make some money this summer to afford that, so most likely I'd be looking at a pto for the front.
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I can tell you with my 47+ years of experience with wet heavy eastern snows that a front or rear mount single stage will handle all your snow.
my JDLA115 with its "wonderful" 2 stage snow blower belt driven snow blower died in the middle of Winter Storm Stella with 16 inches plus of melted wet snow on my 2 car driveway.
I brought out my trusty 11 year old single stage Toro Snow Pup CCR2000 with the Power Curve Paddle and it barely grunted getting rid of the snow and did not use a quart of 25 to one mixed gas.
The single stage series 1000, 2000, and 3000 snow throwers built by Riest Industries in Elmira, Ontario, Canada are
very well built and lighter in weight than the available rear mount 2 stage snow blowers.
All three series models can be converted to hydraulic drive by just removing the gearbox and installing the hydraulic motor to replace the right angle gearbox.
All three units have a single chain drive that is tensioned with a torflex rubber arm to tension the drive chain with a roller chain sprocket.
A single stage rear or front mount uses 20 percent less power or more than two stage snow blower.
I wish I still had our original 1968 12 horsepower IHC hydro Cub Cadet with the single stage snow blower.
I never never never had issues clearing snow and it worked very well on a steep paved driveway.
Now, just so you know its going to cost you a small fortune to purchase a hydraulic power pack for a hydraulic drive blower "Plus" the cost of the hydraulic drive 2 stage snow blower itself.
The other issue is how much more work is needed for your current mule if you want to mount it up front.
1.running hydraulic hoses from the hydraulic power pack
2. hydraulic rotation of the chute "function"
3. hydraulic control of the spout angle function
Both 2 and 3 are really needed when clearing to save time and labor.
You also have to have an under frame mount to attach the PTO Shaft to the snow caster from the rear PTO if you choose to use the rear PTO for the front snow blower and adequate clearance to run the PTO shaft to the implement with a second shorter PTO shaft.
The Riest Industries folks have also uploaded some videos describing their snow blowers too.
I have uploaded some images of the Riest Series One single snow throwers in Canadian snow thrower thread I started.
I will post some more images of the series 1,000, 2000 and 3000 series models I mentioned.
The series 1000 models have the 13 inch rotor, The series 2000 models have the 24 inch rotor and the series 3000 models have the 30 inch rotor
The series 1000 snow throwers require 15-25 horse power, the series 2000 snow throwers require 25-55 horse power and the series 3000 snow throwers require 40-100 horse power.
The first image is the front mount option of their series 2000 single stage.
The second image is a rear mount of the series 3000 single stage thrower.
The third image is of the series 1000 rear mount snow thrower.
You wont have to push anything back as long as you can throw the snow away to clear the road.
They have a neat video of a 42 inch single stage "Rolba type design rotor" snow thrower used by a sidewalk clearing landscape contractor mounted on the front of a cabbed Steiner tractor used to clear sidewalks in Elmira, Ontario, Canada.
All three models can be equipped with a quick attach plate using the three point hitch on the snow thrower to convert them to use hydraulic drive.
Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in Reist Industries
