Naive Newbie Question: belly mower + snowblower?

[Karl in NY]

I'm planning on buying my first lawn tractor, for mowing about 1/2 acre and for snowblowing a 150' asphalt double-wide driveway, as well as a path down to my boathouse.

The question: Does belly mower absolutely need to be removed when a front-mount blower is attached?
It looks like a lot of work for an old guy to do alone.

I'm hoping it can simply be raised to transport height, and left in place for winter.

Thanks, and any suggestions welcomed. BTW, thinking about a Deere with 4-wheel steering, but that is not definite.

 

[BigDog1956]

it depend's on how big a tractor you looking at, a smaller (lawn mower) type is real low to ground, if your buying new-they make them way easier these day's to R&R them, older small tractor's might be a little harder (but not bad-once you do it), but I would not leave belly mower on while doing snow work.

 

[mykleh]

it would also depend on how the snowblower up front is driven.. some use the mid mount PTO that drives the mower deck so really depends on what your looking at..

 

[leonz]

I'm planning on buying my first lawn tractor, for mowing about 1/2 acre and for snowblowing a 150' asphalt double-wide driveway, as well as a path down to my boathouse.

The question: Does belly mower absolutely need to be removed when a front-mount blower is attached?
It looks like a lot of work for an old guy to do alone.

I'm hoping it can simply be raised to transport height, and left in place for winter.

Thanks, and any suggestions welcomed. BTW, thinking about a Deere with 4-wheel steering, but that is not definite.

===================================================================================
Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, no mower, no lawn tractor with that driveway if you want to stay sane.

As far as real world experience I live in the same state that you do but in the southern finger lakes.

Anything that is two wheel drive even with chains is limited in traction and will get stuck if the tires
are not loaded or chains are not used. The other thing is the big box lawn tractors have Belt drive for
the front mount snow blowers and in the case of the John Deere's the V belts are $130.00 for my mule.

The big box lawn tractors are typically belt drive as well and it requires a lot of work to change the belts-on mine
they had to remove the front axle to change the drive belt.

What do your neighbors use and how hard is it to do maintenance? you can have the dealer you choose do
all that work to change out the mower in the fall and install the snowblower and chains before the snow comes.
You can always let the dealer change it out for you and have them service the mule too.

Your driveway is the big factor as is the annual snow fall. the smaller yard is less of a problem.

Do you know how the snow behaves and whether you have drifting on the property?

Belt driven snow blowers do not do well in heavy wet snows especially when trying to
remove heavy snows that have melted after they have plowed the road and put down
rock salt. and they break belts at the worst time-mine died in the middle of Stella.

Just understand before you even look before you buy, a lawn tractor all the pictures are nice and
the snow is fluffy and they do not represent the real world cases.

The front mounts require a very large mounting frame to secure it to the tractor.
and belt drive that loves to break.
A rear mount snow caster requires less work to install and there are NO DRIVE BELTS.
The belts love to break at the worst time by the way.

So if you take your small 1/2 acre lawn and 2 lane driveway in total a 2 wheel tractor with a sulky
to ride on may be a better option to mow and blow snow.

The BCS and Grillo 2 wheel tractors are gear drive no belts to break and no belt pulleys either.
The rotary mowers used on the 2 wheel tractors use secondary V belts but the mowers are very well
designed and built attachments. The flail mowers they use and offer are gear driven.

The Berta 28" and 33" two stage snow blowers are excellent attachments and they are also gear driven.
The open cross augers are made with serrations to tear up the snow pack and make it easier to cast away .

I would not buy a lawn tractor period as they are money hogs. if you want more help Please PM me.

I do not have my hand on your wallet, I will not start blinking my eyes or twisting in my chair
when you have relevant or questions about a mules performance making a salesman operating
on commission rather than a salary when asking how well they do in snow.

I will share my forty plus years of growing up in a rural area and being a rural homeowner living on a state secondary road that gets buried in ice and snow making ice dams causing drainage problems.

 

[Karl in NY]

===================================================================================
Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, no mower, no lawn tractor with that driveway if you want to stay sane.

As far as real world experience I live in the same state that you do but in the southern finger lakes.

(snip)

I'm currently in a suburb of Albany, but will be relocating to north of Plattsburgh. Both areas average about 63" of snow, and I have been using the same Ariens ST824 blower for 32 years...back then, it was about 3-weeks of take-home pay. I don't run either weights or chains, but driveway is level and differential is locked, and no traction problems unless some oil gets on the friction drive wheel, or I shear one auger pin without realizing it. Has the original tecumseh snow king engine, a now defunct company. I tried chains for one season, and they made such a mess of the asphalt seal-coating, I haven't used them since.

I have less lawn here, but I'm in an upscale neighborhood, and neighbor expectations are much higher than in Chazy, but I pay a local kid $15 to mow/bag...I'm almost 70, with several joint replacements and back problems.

The two-wheel machines sound much like the original Gravelys...don't understand why they went out of business, as they owned that market share for many years...all the local towns had multiple ones, for both snow and grass...my current town near Albany is the first place I've ever lived where the town does sidewalk snow removal, but they have narrow rubber track skid-steers (heated cabs) for that alone, and can maintain about 8mph even in 18" of snow. They started with vee-plows, but now use front blowers.

I hate paying others to do what I've always done myself, but age sneaks up...and I have learned over time that if you want something done right, do it yourself, so I'm a self-trained carpenter, cabinet maker, plumber and electrician, too. Today, the so-called work-ethic is a dinosaur, sad but true.

Sorry for thread drift...

 

[leonz]

You did not drift, you explained your situation very well.

My so called asphalt driveway it needs to be ripped out and I no longer bother with coating it as it was layed over concrete floor sections of what was once a one room school house.

You are not that much older than myself. I agree that paying others to do what you can do is foolish if you are physically able and have the knowledge and tools for same.

There comes a point where you need a little help and having a mule serviced by the local dealer is cost effective. The problem is equipment breakdowns and when can you get here to haul the carcass away to the hospital?????
Breakdowns in snowstorms are a hopeless case anyway.

Your going to be close enough to the Canadian border that you should travel to a Yamaha Power Equipment dealer there look at the New Yamaha tracked snow casters and perhaps purchase a battery powered robot mower for your half acre of green stuff. I say that because there are a number of new robot mowers that are battery powered and operate independently and keep the sod at a short haircut length while mowing as needed.

You mentioned you also planned on running a path to boathouse as well and a Yamaha tracked snow caster has lots of power and traction both. the widest model being the 32 inch model snow caster with 32 inch serrated augers to chew and chop up the snow. It is very heavy and will not ride up on piles it will eat through them.

The BCS units also have serrated cross augers as well.


Please don't make the mistake I made and buy a lawn mower to do snow removal. If I had had more time 7 years ago I would have invested in a BCS 832 2 wheel tractor with a diesel engine a flail mower and the 32 inch 2 stage BCS snow caster.

All the current US made snow casters are too light and will ride up on snow piles and do not have serrated cross augers.

I am so disgusted with mine that I am going to use my sawzall and cut teeth in the cross auger flights to make the bloody thing work better as all it does is push snow ahead rather than pull it in due to the wide open augers flighting. if the flights were shorter in height it would not do that. I looked at new augers the other day and they are almost $700.00 a piece and are not universal where it has a left and right cross auger GGGGRRRRRRRRRRR!

The bloody gearbox was almost $700.00 as well. If the cross auger was closed it could not push snow forward it would pull it all in to the impeller.

If it were me again and 99% of the work was snow removal I would have to invest in the Yamaha walk behind 32 inch snow caster.

You could always purchase a BCS sit down sulky or towed trailer with a ride along seat to carry shovels, salt, sand and a can of gas and have a welding shop fix the hitch so you could ride up and down the driveway rather than walk behind the Yamaha snow blower.

Saying that the BCS two wheel tractor has a ready made hitch to use their sit down sulky or 2 wheel trailer with a seat.

Its a case of how much time you have to do the work and whether you have insulated coveralls. that is something that your going to need for the weather up there.

===================================================================================

A compact utility tractor is an option and you could leave a mid mount mower on it the year round with a rear mount snow caster but your looking at $17-$18,000+- with a 2K down payment for some brands and they do not trade well or sell well outright without a front end loader either.

===================================================================================

If as it looks that the majority of your work is going to be snow clearing and you said you need to keep a path open to a boat house the BCS two wheel tractor with the Berta snow caster or the widest Yamaha tracked snow blower are what you are going to really make use of the most(they both have serrated cross auger ribbons.

The Owners of these machines love them and they work and work well.

The BCS and Grillo 2 wheel tractors have been used in Europe for over 50 years and are used in many steep alpine farms and vineyards in Europe and they both have many attachments that can be used for either brand of 2 wheel tractor.

As I mentioned the two stage Berta and BCS snow casters can be used on either machine and other brands are also mounted on them in Europe as well-Rolba being one in particular.

The BCS single stage units are light and require weight to be added to the front of the snow casters housing to keep it from climbing on the snow piles.

You may just go ahead and buy the smallest BCS 2 wheel tractor and a mower with a bagger as you have a 1/2 acre lawn BUT the more power you have to use especially when clearing snow pack and heavy wet snows should be what drives your decision. The 13 HP BCS will have plenty pf power with the 2 stage snow caster but the exposed Honda engine engine control linkages will freeze up the engine operating and melting any snow that is dumped on it(one member of forum that has a smaller BCS with the single stage snow caster used lifting weights mounted to the shroud of the snow caster to hold the unit down as it rises up on the packed snow rather than chewing it up and casting it away. the other modification he did was to have a piece of aluminum fabricated to cover the Honda engine using the gas tanks filling neck as the location to mount the cover to prevent ice and snow from getting into the linkages and freezing them up.

If you have a very warm garage or a kerosene fired space heater it does wonders for melting ice and and snow and also warming up trucks and tractors as well as snow blowers.

The new larger Yamaha units also have electric start if I remember correctly and they have enclosed engiune compartments to keep out ice and snow.


just as the tracked 32 inch Yamaha will and the Yamaha will work slowly without bogging down much and you can raise and lower the snow caster from the operating console of the Yamaha snow caster too where you have to push down to lift or the snow caster on the BCS and Berta units if needed and they use wheel brakes to turn these units



The Yamaha snow casters were reintroduced in Cananda and the tracked models were reinstated this past year(they were built and designed for the heavy wet snows of Hokkaido Island and the northern main island of japan and its very heavy snows coming off the sea of Japan.

 

[Karl in NY]

You did not drift, you explained your situation very well.

I've bookmarked this thread under my "Champlain" folder...hope it's still alive in a year...this may be a dupe post...had a brief power-outage while typing a reply 10 minutes ago...

My only Yamaha experience is with a FJR1300 motorcycle, which is too painful to ride since shoulder surgery...but that bike was bullet-proof and had 65k miles on it when I sold it. My previous Honda VFR750 was retired with 99k on the odometer.

You have recommended products I've never even seen advertised...and, I thank you.

 

[leonz]

I've bookmarked this thread under my "Champlain" folder...hope it's still alive in a year...this may be a dupe post...had a brief power-outage while typing a reply 10 minutes ago...

My only Yamaha experience is with a FJR1300 motorcycle, which is too painful to ride since shoulder surgery...but that bike was bullet-proof and had 65k miles on it when I sold it. My previous Honda VFR750 was retired with 99k on the odometer.

You have recommended products I've never even seen advertised...and, I thank you.

===================================================================================

Hello Karl,

If you have a year to think about it I would suggest that you do a bit of homework.

If you decide to go to Canada, Yamaha Canada has many, many dealers in Ontario listed on their dealer locator page.
Once you cross the border you just have to visit one of them


Yamaha Motor Canada

Earth Tools

www.bcsamerica.com

Grillo SpA - Agrigarden Machines




The thread will still be here as long as the web site is still here.

 

[Karl in NY]

Again, appreciate it, leonz. But I'm 6 miles from Quebec, Ontario is a healthy drive, and if US support is lacking, buying Canadian scares me if it's not distributed here also. Plus, will have to look into customs duty, certificate of origin documents, etc.

My experience has been "if you didn't buy it from us, we ain't servicing it"...was true with motorcycles and outboard motors...or, you go to end of list and lose an entire season of use. I'm willing to pay more, for something bought locally, than go through scene again...twice burned on that, to save 20% on initial cost.

 

[leonz]

No worries, with NAFTA the issues are almost nill now and most if not all Yamaha dealers will
ship them across the border to you.


I understand fully that some dealers are being *&^%holes about servicing something that you
did not buy from them. I really do, been there done that with "Lil's tractors" and thier attitude
which is why they will not get a penny from me.(this is major reason I will be buying out of state when I can buy a new mule unless I can buy a repossessed unit with low hours).

In my case well placed phone calls saved me a lot of issues and solved my problems quickly.

If you visit the Yamaha Snow blower forum you will be much more informed about them too.

You have time, I would call a Yamaha power equipment dealer in Canada near Plattsburg and ask
for a minute of their time and explain your situation and tell them exactly what your new property
looks like with the grade to the boat house and the two lane driveway and how much snow you
expect to move for access to doors etc.

They will help you with what little export/import paperwork there is with regard to NAFTA which
is not much now.

As I said I want you to succeed not fail as most of your work is going to involve snow removal.


Disclaimer: I have no financial or business relationships with Yahama Power Equipment Canada.