Snow Equipment Buying/Pricing Which one?

[gonegreen]

Hi All,

I am really considering buying a 3-point Snowblower. I have a JD2320 and have narrowed my choices down to two. Anyone own the Frontier SB1154 or the Woods SS52? The two are quoted at "around $2800" for the Frontier (may be able to haggle a little???) and $2700 for the Woods. The Frontier is 30 minutes away and the Woods is probably about a 1 hour drive. Which one woud you choose and why? Also, can either of these be hauled in the back of a full size pickup truck?

BTW, please do not let this get of topic with the "front vs rear" blower opinion.

Thanks!

Green

 

[devildog1]

First thing is shop around because here I was quoted $2350.00 for a 64" Blizzard which is made by RAD as is the Frontier. Now Woods stands alone with there products, and they make good heavy duty long lasting attachments. Second item is size of the 2 nd. stage blower, 24" fan is better then a 19", also 4 bladed fan tis better then three.
DevilDog

 

[JDGreenGrass]

Hi All,

I am really considering buying a 3-point Snowblower. I have a JD2320 and have narrowed my choices down to two. Anyone own the Frontier SB1154 or the Woods SS52? The two are quoted at "around $2800" for the Frontier (may be able to haggle a little???) and $2700 for the Woods. The Frontier is 30 minutes away and the Woods is probably about a 1 hour drive. Which one woud you choose and why? Also, can either of these be hauled in the back of a full size pickup truck?

BTW, please do not let this get of topic with the "front vs rear" blower opinion.

Thanks!

Green

$2800 for the Frontier sounds high to me, though it is a great blower.

Why wouldn't you wait 'til August or so and shop your local dealers for a blower then.?? I bought my SB1164 for $2100 in August of 2010 at the local Deere dealer..

Regardless, I have been more than happy with my Frontier blower. I have just 20pto/hp and it handles the 64" blower very well. It weighs 505lbs. and contours the land beautifully. It clears a full 64" swath up to 15" deep without having the snow spill out the sides. Handles any type of snow but actually likes the wet stuff. Goes through compacted snow with ease.

Highly recommend the Frontier. Get the price under $2500 and it is money well spent.

 

[gonegreen]

$2800 for the Frontier sounds high to me, though it is a great blower.

Why wouldn't you wait 'til August or so and shop your local dealers for a blower then.?? I bought my SB1164 for $2100 in August of 2010 at the local Deere dealer..

Regardless, I have been more than happy with my Frontier blower. I have just 20pto/hp and it handles the 64" blower very well. It weighs 505lbs. and contours the land beautifully. It clears a full 64" swath up to 15" deep without having the snow spill out the sides. Handles any type of snow but actually likes the wet stuff. Goes through compacted snow with ease.

Highly recommend the Frontier. Get the price under $2500 and it is money well spent.

I thought I would get a better deal buying a snowblower after winter, instead of trying to buy one after they were out of stock. I just figured they would want to get rid of last year's model so it wasn't sitting around taking up space. $2800 sounded high to me also that's why I called around. These things must be gold plated before being shipped into Pennsylvania????

 

[JDGreenGrass]

I thought I would get a better deal buying a snowblower after winter, instead of trying to buy one after they were out of stock. I just figured they would want to get rid of last year's model so it wasn't sitting around taking up space. $2800 sounded high to me also that's why I called around. These things must be gold plated before being shipped into Pennsylvania????

I still suggest waiting a bit.

I would say this....I knew when I paid $2100 it was a real good deal, however, shortly after my purchase I was astonished by how much people were paying for the blower. Seemed like the price went through the roof.!!

So, maybe over $2500 is now the going rate.?? Crazy.

 

[gonegreen]

Thanks for the reply - I'm still holding out. Couple more questions though.

I have been looking at the specs on some of the blowers and noticed that the Farm King Y500 is listing a weight of 422 lbs. The Frontier SB1154 lists a weight of 475 lbs (505 lbs shipping weight), and the Woods is showing 675 lbs for the SS52 on their website. 675 lbs ??? Really??? I thought it was in the 400s when I looked it up before. Can this be right?

Second question, will my JD 2320 handle the Woods? The Farm King HP requirement is 15 - 30 (good). The Frontier lists 16 - 35 PTO HP (good). The Woods lists 20 - 40 PTO HP (not so good). Will this work ok? Does anybody here own a JD 2320 (or similar) with a Woods SS52?

 

[DrainPondDesign]

I do not claim to know more than the manufacturer about their products but......

When I went through a similar exercise the TBN forum made it clear that it was the "work" being done that used up the HP.

That is you are throwing tons of snow per hour with your blower which takes a lot of energy. If your HP is the limiting factor as it is with me then you just drive slower blowing heavy wet or compacted snow than when blowing light fluffy snow.

From that it would seem that blowers of similar width should require similar HP.

I will be rebuilding my JD 59" front mounted blower this summer, rocks have dented the housing, damaged the chute rotator and only 1 and 1/2 blades are still functional on the 3 blade impeller. So I would choose the biggest & strongest impeller available.

The blower impellers that I've seen all run at PTO RPM so the larger impeller will have a greater tip speed which will help when the boys get together to brag about how far their blowers throw ;-)

Good hunting

 

[204saskman]

I run a 73" inland blower with a 20" 3 blade fan. I have to go slow in the heavy snow but it will blow powder good no problem. I use mine in low range and at about 2300 rpm and it has worked good all winter.

 

[JDGreenGrass]

The low end of my blower is rated for 20pto/hp. My JD770 has just that...20pto/hp.

It performed great for the types of snow we had this past winter.

 

[grsthegreat]

I HAD a farm king Y600 series 60" snowblower. I added the hydraulic chute rotator. That was an awesome piece of equipment. Used it for 5-6 seasons of heavy snowfall here in north Idaho. Would recommend them.

Also, have you looked at Craigslist??