3PH Snowblowers - pros and cons

[Industrial Toys]

A blower leaves the lanscape looking much cleaner. Not the end of the world, but who likes to look at those jagged plow mounds all winter? Don't get me wrong. Plowing is a lot of fun. Like a kid in the sandbox. Blowing is boring as heck!.

I use a blade for my parking lot and blower for the thousand foot driveway. If you had a hundred HP tractor (which I don't) you might win the plow/snow battle, but anything less and you are going to fight a loosing battle around here.

 

[CobyRupert]

You've got the cons covered. The pros are they actually work and they are a lot cheaper than front mounted blowers.

Don't forget the part when you're blowing the snow west and there's a 30 mph east wind.

 

[Fallon]

I picked up my 3pt blower recently after i couldnt plow a nasty snow we got. 90% of the time i still use the plow as its faster & easier. If the snow is to deep or packed enough that i can't plow itbeasily i'll flip around & run the blower. I'll sometimes blow the windrows I plow to avoid snow canyons.

 

[labhaven]

I picked up a 3PH blower just recently and have only had to use it a few times. So far, it works out great for me and sure beats the walk-behind. Very little damage to the lawn. I have it adjusted properly so I don't pick up gravel from the non-paved portion of my drive.

 

[KennyG]

Don't forget the part when you're blowing the snow west and there's a 30 mph east wind.

Which is why I added a cab. :thumbsup:

 

[aczlan]

I have used a rear blade, front blade, front loader, rear blower and now front blower. When you get enough snow, a CUT or SCUT with a blade or a FEL isn't enough. Last year we had enough snow that the B7500 couldn't lift it over the banks (yes, we could have pushed back the banks but there path out back to the wood was too long to make that feasible), the BX2660 didn't have enough pushing power for its 60" front blade and the rear blade on the L3830 just dragged the tractor sideways.
We picked up a snowblower for the L3830 and used it on the back. That was a lifesaver as it let me push all the banks back and clear things to where the smaller tractors could push snow again.

Aaron Z

 

[RippySkippy]

Don't forget the part when you're blowing the snow west and there's a 30 mph east wind.

It's not hard to add a chute rotator; back up blow to the west, turn around rotate, blow to the west.

 

[RippySkippy]

We got hit with about 2 feet of snow over the weekend. My ATV plow was useless and the tractor plow wasn't efficient. It took me 7 hours to make a 2,000 foot driveway passable. I was thinking of looking for a used 3PH blower over the summer. Aside from the cost, having to run in reverse and the fact that it would be used infrequently what are the pros and cons of a 3PH blower?

Lot's of good advice, I picked one up a 4yo model last summer for 1/3 of new with a power chute rotate, and I added a linear actuator for the deflector. I've only been able to use it a couple of times this year, but LOVE it. For the last 7 years I spend 3 hours plowing my god-forsaken wind tunnel/drift collecting drive.

I found mine on tractorhouse.com, but I have no luck finding stuff on their site. Fortunately they are indexed pretty well by google and I had the best luck searching for the specific model number and brand. While this sounds odd, once you start looking at brands and widths there really are not many options once you nail those two points.

All the best!!!

 

[Industrial Toys]

Always buy a blower in JULY! I have never seen any other item go up and down in price as much as (used) blowers.

 

[Katahdin]

The best way to win the plow/snow battle is to plow every 8 inches of accumulation. It might suck to leave your warm house or bed in the middle of the night to plow in blizzard conditions, but that's how you effectively use a snow plow during a large storm.

I purchased a rear snowblower this summer, so far the largest snow fall has been 6 inches. Go figure. My loader mounted snow plow is still doing most of the work, but its been fun to blow snow piles away with the rear blower. The blower is a nice tool to have, but it doesn't replace my front plow. However, I plan to sleep in during the next big storm just so I can try out the blower in deep snow and get my money's worth.