Snow Front Snow Blower or Front Snow Plow?

[xkbal]

I've got a 3720 with the front mount snowblower. We have 2400' of gravel driveway and it winds quite a lot. Live in Edmonton, Alberta area so don't know how your snow compares but we tend to get fairly dry, fluffy snow. I found this setup worked well for me, would not have wanted to back u a rear mounted blower down our driveway as it winds so much. Have a cab on ours and it is great for the winter.

Only things I don't like,
-the front mount blower is too narrow in my opinion, should be 10" to 12" wider. I hope to find time to add some wings to the sides for next winter.
-I find the 3720 very tippy (I have R4 tires). I plan on getting extensions to move the rear wheels out. It's not too bad with the blower but really notice it on hills or loader work.

Hope this helps,
Al

 

[FRIZ]

Thank you all for the education. Please keep it coming.

Regards,
FRIZ

 

[SpringHollow]

For a different point of view:

I use a FEL mounted snow plow blade. I had one made for tractors but gave that setup to my brother and one modified from a truck. Here, the ground freezes and stays frozen, So the only problem is the first couple of snow falls. Usually, I do not need to plow those. The biggest problem is that the snow is so wet, the stones come up with the snow even with the plow raised up (the plow is not scraping them up). The neighbor with the snow blower has the same problem but his stones are thrown over a much larger distance.

A FEL mounted snow plow is a sweet setup. It clears snow very quickly, no snow blowing in your face, can pile snow VERY high if necessary. As a favor, I plow several of my neighbors very long driveways on a steep hill. There is no way I would have time to do this if i used a snow blower. My driveway has a side slope that allows me to easily push the snow or frozen snow piles to the downhill side. Their driveways are lined with trees on both sides. Every few snow storms, I just push the snow back into the trees. If I need to do that, plowing and pushing back takes me about an hour and a half for the 4 driveways - the driveway parts take only about 40 minutes of that - the rest is clearing out next to their cars, garages etc. I am pickier about the quality of the job i do than i need to be.

As a comparison, I did previously iuse a rear blade and a bucket and that worked but was a pain. I would feel very differently if the plow were not mounted to the FEL - i had one without hydraulic turn and it worked pretty well but it worked great when i added the hydraulics to it.

Ken

 

[Rob-D]

I have 600 feet of gravel driveway and I use the Deere 47 blower. It works great and I have never run into problems with wet snow although sometimes I have to go a little slower with it. We get A LOT of snow here in the mountains and before I got the blower I had a guy with a plow do it. What a mess! There were times it was too much for his plow but never once could I not run my blower and I've done 4 foot drifts for me and my neighbors. I'm sold on it, a great investment!