Snow Snow blower / blade for a 1540?

[ottawarob]

I'm a new owner of a 1540. Really enjoy it so far, lots of power, I've been using it for some landscaping, property maintenance and redid my driveway. I'm in Ontario, Canada, need to get it in gear for the winter. 500 foot driveway, I used a 500CC ATV the last two years for it, with a plow blade. Trying to decide for the 1540 whether to get a 84" rear blade or a 72" snow blower. It's rear wheels are about 72" wide. Only 30 HP at the PTO, I wonder about it running a 6' snow blower.


Anyway, curious what people suggest. I did really well with the ATV + snow plow in years past, there's a lot of room on the property to push snow. That said, a good 84" rear blade isn't that much different in price to a snow blower!

 

[nybirdman]

Welcome from just a little south of you in Ogdensburg;our winters are similar ,if an ATV served the purpose with a plow a tractor certainly will.
I started with an ATV plow(it did well) moved to a 6' on a 30 H.P. tractor and now have a 8' on a 44 H.P.Snow blowers are just to slow for the amount of snow we get.They do have their place though.My snow blades are front mounted,a rear blade will do the job(I run a 7' rear blade also).

 

[ottawarob]

Welcome from just a little south of you in Ogdensburg;our winters are similar ,if an ATV served the purpose with a plow a tractor certainly will.
I started with an ATV plow(it did well) moved to a 6' on a 30 H.P. tractor and now have a 8' on a 44 H.P.Snow blowers are just to slow for the amount of snow we get.They do have their place though.My snow blades are front mounted,a rear blade will do the job(I run a 7' rear blade also).

I always felt my ATV was super fast compared to my BCS snow blower. I really like clearing snow, so I'd keep on top of it. I bet the rear blade would work well, although it's too bad you can't pile snow with it. Will have to start shopping for a blade or blower, see what I find. A friend gave me an old 6' 3pt hitch blade, but it just barely clears the tires, so I don't think it'll work for snow.

I'd love to get a front plow, but my 1540 doesn't have a quick attach loader!

 

[Dan the roofer]

I’m about an hour east of you 10 min from the Quebec border. I also have a 1540, bought a brand new blower for 2 grand works great. My back of the tractor is 66 inches wide and the blower is 67 inches. I have a blade for the Front but no chains so if it’s icy it’s not great for heavy snowfalls. Would love to get a set of chains!

 

[nybirdman]

I always felt my ATV was super fast compared to my BCS snow blower. I really like clearing snow, so I'd keep on top of it. I bet the rear blade would work well, although it's too bad you can't pile snow with it. Will have to start shopping for a blade or blower, see what I find. A friend gave me an old 6' 3pt hitch blade, but it just barely clears the tires, so I don't think it'll work for snow.

I'd love to get a front plow, but my 1540 doesn't have a quick attach loader!

You can weld a couple clips in the bucket and use an old snow plow off a truck(don't need the lift).

 

[Dan the roofer]

That’s basically what I did, I attached a old pickup truck blade to my fel. 75$ for the blade drilled a few holes in the bucket , worked great. Until it got icy.... then I couldn’t push much. Tire chains were not in the budget and probably won’t be again this year. Having winters off has its financial challenges!

 

[ottawarob]

I’m about an hour east of you 10 min from the Quebec border. I also have a 1540, bought a brand new blower for 2 grand works great. My back of the tractor is 66 inches wide and the blower is 67 inches. I have a blade for the Front but no chains so if it’s icy it’s not great for heavy snowfalls. Would love to get a set of chains!

Hey Dan, that's great to hear someone with a 1540 working with Canadian snow levels! If you don't mind me asking, which snow blower did you buy?

Yeah... I want to get chains too. I managed well with the ATV without, but the driveway does get quite icy at times, and sliding around with the tractor sounds pretty terrible.

How do you find winter start up is? I have a block heater, but... I know it's still going be a pain starting in the cold.

 

[Dan the roofer]

Hi Rob. The snowblower is made by MK Martin enterprise inc. 1855 664 2752 . I bought it off a farm equipment dealer but the info I just gave you is written on the snowblower.
I park inside and my garage usually stays around 10 c I did have a little problem because I wasn’t adding any fuel conditioner but once I started adding conditioner on each fill up it was fine and I changed my fuel filter also .
I’m not sure about winter starting but I’m sure with the block heater and synthetic oil you’ll be fine. It is nice to thaw the tractor out periodically because it does get iced up. You do know how to heat your glow plugs by turning the ignition switch just enough that the light comes on and hold for a few seconds. The light will not go off like a lot of diesels on my model so, I just hold it for about 5 seconds. My driveway is about half a kilometre long with a decent hill and I was always able to get it done, sometime I had to blast up the hill and blow downhill . I just only put it in the ditch once:thumbsdown:

 

[ottawarob]

Hi Rob. The snowblower is made by MK Martin enterprise inc. 1855 664 2752 . I bought it off a farm equipment dealer but the info I just gave you is written on the snowblower.
I park inside and my garage usually stays around 10 c I did have a little problem because I wasn’t adding any fuel conditioner but once I started adding conditioner on each fill up it was fine and I changed my fuel filter also .
I’m not sure about winter starting but I’m sure with the block heater and synthetic oil you’ll be fine. It is nice to thaw the tractor out periodically because it does get iced up. You do know how to heat your glow plugs by turning the ignition switch just enough that the light comes on and hold for a few seconds. The light will not go off like a lot of diesels on my model so, I just hold it for about 5 seconds. My driveway is about half a kilometre long with a decent hill and I was always able to get it done, sometime I had to blast up the hill and blow downhill . I just only put it in the ditch once:thumbsdown:

Right on, thanks Dan, all great info! I have an MK Martin box blade, seems like pretty good stuff, I'll definitely check out their blowers.

Thanks, yeah I do know about the glow plug - took me a week or two to figure it out until I started to read the manual.

 

[seville009]

For what it’s worth, in the winter the seat of my MF 1540 would freeze up enough so that it wouldn’t compress enough to turn off the seat safety swtch. That would cause the engine to die when I put it in gear. Had to override the switch by unplugging it under the seat and jumping the connector. My tractor is from 2007; may have changed the design since then