Snow Attachments New Provonost Puma-74 delivered yesterday!

[Trails End]

I ordered a new Provonost Puma-74 snowblower back in November and
it was delivered yesterday (12/23/13). I unloaded it from the dealer's
trailer in the pouring rain and was soaked by the time I had it off the
trailer, and attached to the 3pt hitch and moved bacl under cover. It's
not set up yet. I have to check and probably shorten the PTO shaft,
and fine tune the top lift length, and I had to make a quick trip to
Tractor Supply for a new top link pin, since the only one I had wasn't
long enough for the top link interface on the blower. The dealer made
unloading a little easier by having lifting straps already attached to the
blower. I used the grapple on the FEL and attached the straps to the
tines on the grapple to lift it from the trailer (sorry, no pictures of that
operation, because of the rain).

 

[tony binkowski]

very nice congrads!!! nice hyd shute rotation, let me know how it works for you.

 

[DieselnHooters]

10 years ago there seemed to be more Normand blowers than Pronovost up my way, its the other way around now. But both are well built sturdy top of the line.

Now all you need is a cab and you are in business lol

 

[PHPaul]

Nice!

I caught a heckuva deal on a used Pronovost 64, all manual. I'm tickled with it. Don't have a cab on the tractor so the manual chute isn't that much of a pain.

 

[Trails End]

I looked all over for a used Puma-74 but no luck, so decided to bite the bullet and
buy a new one. Now, waiting for some precipitation, other than rain, to try it out.

 

[Bob77064]

Looks good.

 

[Kubotafan]

I blew snow for five years with an open station tractor before getting a cab tractor. You will find you get snow blowing back on you. After using it for two years I had a brain wave. I got a piece of Plexiglas and mounted it to the roll bar with four u-bolts. It wasn't a cab, but made a BIG difference blowing snow. I wondered why I hadn't thought of it sooner, and would highly recommend it. Likely cost me close to $100.00 by the time I bought the u-bolts and Plexiglas, but was money well spent.

 

[The Deerslayer]

Nice set up...congrats! I looked used for awhile with no luck and took the plunge on new 64 inch Pronovost 2 seasons ago. So glad I did. Let us know what you think once you get to throw some of the white stuff around.

 

[Trails End]

Well, I finally have the new snow blower ready for the upcoming rain storm, but not without some difficulty! The first task was to determine the correct pto shaft length. It was obviously too long to start with, as I could not collapse it short enough to connect the tractor end to the pto shaft. My back has been acting up for the last week or so, and trying to manipulate the drive shaft in the tight quarters was taking it's toll on me, but I finally managed to determine how much I'd have to cut off from the outer and inner shaft assembly. I now had the shaft connected from the snow blower to the tractor. I then connected the hydraulic lines to the rear auxiliary ports, but when I tried to turn the chute, it only rotated about 80 degrees before a loud SNAP brought rotation to a halt. The shear bolt on the chute drive mechanism sheared. Upon examination, I found that the dealer had not installed the hydraulic drive mechanism correctly, resulting in the chute reaching one stop tab while the piston on the hydraulic ram was only partially extended. After a quick trip to my local ACE hardware for some replacement 1/4" NC x 1.5" grade 5 bolts with nylon lock nuts, I removed the hydraulic cylinder and the arm that rotates and engages the gear teeth around the base of the chute. The cylinder end that attached to the aforementioned arm did not want to be removed without the addition of force and a liberal amount of WD40. It appears that that joint hadn't seen any lubricant. After applying suitable lubricant to aforementioned joint, I re-assembled the parts correctly. Voila - I now have operational hydraulic chute rotation which rotates the full 270 degrees, and a back ache that will keep me laying low until the next storm arrives.

 

[Kubotafan]

Well, I finally have the new snow blower ready for the upcoming rain storm, but not without some difficulty! The first task was to determine the correct pto shaft length. It was obviously too long to start with, as I could not collapse it short enough to connect the tractor end to the pto shaft. My back has been acting up for the last week or so, and trying to manipulate the drive shaft in the tight quarters was taking it's toll on me, but I finally managed to determine how much I'd have to cut off from the outer and inner shaft assembly. I now had the shaft connected from the snow blower to the tractor. I then connected the hydraulic lines to the rear auxiliary ports, but when I tried to turn the chute, it only rotated about 80 degrees before a loud SNAP brought rotation to a halt. The shear bolt on the chute drive mechanism sheared. Upon examination, I found that the dealer had not installed the hydraulic drive mechanism correctly, resulting in the chute reaching one stop tab while the piston on the hydraulic ram was only partially extended. After a quick trip to my local ACE hardware for some replacement 1/4" NC x 1.5" grade 5 bolts with nylon lock nuts, I removed the hydraulic cylinder and the arm that rotates and engages the gear teeth around the base of the chute. The cylinder end that attached to the aforementioned arm did not want to be removed without the addition of force and a liberal amount of WD40. It appears that that joint hadn't seen any lubricant. After applying suitable lubricant to aforementioned joint, I re-assembled the parts correctly. Voila - I now have operational hydraulic chute rotation which rotates the full 270 degrees, and a back ache that will keep me laying low until the next storm arrives.

You are not finished yet if you don't have that Plexiglas installed!!!