You do say your driveway is long and skinny however would moving up to a 60" plus blower clear the drive in less passes than than the 54"? I assume you are interested in a wider blower to make the job go quicker but that will only happen if you are taking less passes.
That's a great point and one of the reasons I'm torn. The driveway is a touch over 11' wide. That means I need to clear around 132". Even the 63" blower won't do it in one trip down and back, especially with any overlap. Once I'm making two trips I could pretty easily clear the whole thing with a blower under 40"...
That's just the straight part of the driveway, though. The drive forks off and there is an apron going to both of my garages (one is a wide 3-car and the other is a bit over the width of a 2-car) and they both have small turn-arounds to clear. That's where the wider blower might result in fewer passes. However, it's not a big area so it isn't likely to make that much of a difference in the time I'm out there. Honestly, I'd like more width but it's not the biggest issue I have with the 54" JD blower.
The 54" blower from John Deere just doesn't seem very heavy-duty. It's hard to find specifications, but it seems that it weighs about 150# less than the Kubota blower because it's made of thinner materials. The impeller blade on the Deere blower is made of plastic. I can replace that with a metal version that's available but I'm worried about what that says about the design philosophy of the implement. Are the bearings, gearbox, etc. also light-weight? It just comes down to the feeling in my gut that the 54" blower was designed to go on a big lawn tractor and not a small utility tractor.
I talked to the JD dealer today. He confirmed that the 59" blower (which is much beefier) won't go on the 2-series tractor without fabrication work. That's not my bag, so I think that's out. I need plug-and-play for my first (and most important) implement.
I'm still having him email me his best price on the tractor, loader, forks, blower, and
ballast box. I _do_ like the JD controls and loader better. The Kubota makes more power and has a much nicer snowblower available. I think either will serve me well, so I just need to figure out what is more important to me.
but based on your initial comments of preferring most things about the John Deere I am glad to see that is what you went with.