John deere 3520... Loader mounted blade vs rear blower

[cobracnvt]

I have a john Deere 3320 and initially used a 6 1/2 foot snow plow on the loader. We get a lot of snow here and thought the snow plow was ok for light snows, but not good for deep snow. My area doesn't really allow me to go fast enough with the tractor to throw the snow with the plow. A highly angled plow will also push the tractor sideways if the snow is heavy or deep. I have turf tires which help fight this sideways push, but I heard that it is harder to counter act with industrial tire tread.

I wound up getting a 64 in rear snowblower two years ago and think it's great. Yes, It's less convenient to look backwards, but not that bad. The snow blower throws the snow really far and I feel it's faster for me since I don't have to spend time pushing the snow back with the plow making room for places to push future snow storms.

Having the rear blower leaves the loader free for other tasks like stacking snow, getting firewood, using my pallet forks, etc. I can easily swap between the snow plow, bucket, and pallet forks keeping the snow blower attached all winter. The snow blower is heavy, so it makes for a good rear weight when using the loader. I really didn't use my plow much at all last year, keeping the bucket and snow blower on for most of the winter.

 

[nch209]

I've decided to hold onto the plow and see how things go. I think both would we great, but been trying to work deals on leftovers at dealers to no avail (one 2010 model comes to mind, and it looks like dealer will sit on it another year) and used ones keep getting sold beneath me. Will keep my eyes peeled for a used one since I'm not in a rush or a big need.

 

[arrow]

Just rear ballast your tractor properly and you'll love the plow. An almost half mile of travel lane to plow is quite a bit and traveling about 2 miles an hour with a snow blower would make me nuts.. If you were getting crushing snow after snow storms as we did last year here in the east, running out of places to put snow would make a blower look real good. I'm thinking you get melting between storms so a concern of what to do with excess snow may not be an issue there.

 

[nch209]

^. Yea, maybe was just looking for a new toy more than anything. If I find one so be it, and if not, may pull the trigger on a nice tiller that will probably get more use. Let it snow!

 

[nch209]

Well, I ended up passing on a few blowers and also passed on a local even swap for a like new 64 rear blower... And this weekend will tell the tale if I made a good move or not. We shall see if we get some snow! Hope the loader mounted blade works as well as I hope!

 

[2458n]

Better start looking for the tiller now the way your luck is running. Ran around with a Dr.'s kid in college. Ohio had some real snow back in 1977. Steve tells me they have a small tractor with a front mounted snow blower at home. Our hour drive took 5 hours. When we got there the tractor was parked in the garage and the snow blower was in a shed. Said snowblower was 75 yards away with 3 foot of snow every bit of the way. It stayed where it was. Never had that much snow since.

 

[nch209]

^ don't worry, I'm tiller hunting. With a new house, new garage build and new baby, it's more of a case of being frugal by not getting excited about snow blowers. New plan is to pick one up this spring and summer! Hope people buy buy buy for this snow and then not need/want it when it's done, then I'll grab one!