anybody own a pull type blower?

[excav8ter]

A few pic of what I have gone through this year. Some drifts are hard and wind blown, and some are kinda fluffy. Obviously, the hard ones take a bit more work to get through. Some weight on the front will help, I am thinking about adding 800 pounds next fall.

 

[flyingcow]

My TN75 isn't as heavy as your 100, but thats a lot closer than some of the smaller framed tractors that I've seen pulling these units. Obviously, clearance and wheel diameter is key, i think.

Thanks for the pics and info. I'll look for a year or so for a bargain, and then get impatient and buy one. I like my Lucknow. But who knows.

 

[zzvyb6]

The videos show me I made the right decision to get a front blade. That driveway should have taken only 2 or 3 passes, one down a side, one down the middle and the other down the other side. And. I would have driven the blade up to the garage door sill, pulled back and scrapped enough away to do 100% of the driveway. I also would not had angered the neighbor by putting 25% of my snow in his driveway.

Even if you speed up the video x10, it took way too long for me to believe its an efficient way to clear snow. Maybe tomorrow I'll video how well a front plow and CUT combo can clear a driveway. We're supposed to get 6 inches overnight...

 

[excav8ter]

Most of my drives are 3 stalls at the garage and taper to 18' wide at the road. The video that took to long was a demonstration of what I can get through, not a demonstration of speed. Where do you you see that I put 25% of the snow I the neighbors driveway? That video was at a condominium association, so where I put the snow is all common space. My single family clients also love our service because I can put the snow pretty much any where in their yards I want, with no piles and I don't have to go on the lawn to do it. Most of my drives take less than 2 minutes to clear, an I leave no piles. I have a 14' Ebling and a Boss V-XT on my f 350 and the tractor/blower whips the truck/plow combo in every aspect of driveway snow removal.

 

[excav8ter]

If you want to PM me, I can get you the contact info of a friend in Quebec, who may have a good, used unit for you to look into. We purchased 1, new Normand 92-280 inverted blower, and a used one as a spare. They are not cheap, but are well worth the cost in my opinion. I think a fully optioned 92-280 is around 12 grand. There is a back drag edge that we did not buy, but we will be adding it for next year. It will let me get to with in a foot or so of the overhead doors.

 

[excav8ter]

Same driveway as the previous video. 6-8" of snow
.

 

[flyingcow]

I had an 8ft diamond plow on a pickup for yrs. I live 650ft off of the road in a field on a hill. We get between 8ft to 10ft of snowfall ayr. To do my driveway right, takes 2 to 3 hours to open up with the pickup. . Plus if we get a significant storm, more than likely have to do a rough job part way thru the storm. Now it takes about 45 mins, at best. And If we get 2ft of snow, If I can, I wait until it's over. For me, a snowblower is way more efficient. Excav8er's set up would work nice for what he's doing. Probably the ideal set up multi unit houses.

 

[flyingcow]

If you want to PM me, I can get you the contact info of a friend in Quebec, who may have a good, used unit for you to look into. We purchased 1, new Normand 92-280 inverted blower, and a used one as a spare. They are not cheap, but are well worth the cost in my opinion. I think a fully optioned 92-280 is around 12 grand. There is a back drag edge that we did not buy, but we will be adding it for next year. It will let me get to with in a foot or so of the overhead doors.

Thanks. Get back to you. That unit in the video was real smooth working unit. I'm thinking some brands drag easier thru the snow, than others.

 

[excav8ter]

Hey there flyingcow.... I also take care of 2, long private roads that are 22 feet wide and over 1300 feet each. Including drive time, I also do a 800+ foot drive next door the one of the private roads.... total time for both private roads and the drive is just over and hour.....maybe 1.25 hours.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Why the **** does anyone get off their tractor with the blower kept running? I mean, I guess it's not nearly as dangerous with this type of blower but I saw a guy do this a couple of days ago with a normal blower and climb a high bank just feet from his running blower! Just plain STUPID!

These things should not be confused with the old, non auger V style of blower!

The added benefit would be, generally more forward speed selection on many tractors. I have NEVER had a rear mounted conventional blower, with the right travel speed! One too fast, the other too slow!

 

[flyingcow]

Hey there flyingcow.... I also take care of 2, long private roads that are 22 feet wide and over 1300 feet each. Including drive time, I also do a 800+ foot drive next door the one of the private roads.... total time for both private roads and the drive is just over and hour.....maybe 1.25 hours.

definitely an I deal set up. my concern is your 100 tractor has a heavier front end weight than mine. But I also keep my front end loader on.from watching the videos the balance of that 100 new Holland tractor is much better than my 75.that's why my question or thoughts were of the dragging of the blower. The design of blower in processing would have a lot to do with how the tractor could easily pull it through the snow

 

[GManBart]

The videos show me I made the right decision to get a front blade. That driveway should have taken only 2 or 3 passes, one down a side, one down the middle and the other down the other side. And. I would have driven the blade up to the garage door sill, pulled back and scrapped enough away to do 100% of the driveway. I also would not had angered the neighbor by putting 25% of my snow in his driveway.

Even if you speed up the video x10, it took way too long for me to believe its an efficient way to clear snow. Maybe tomorrow I'll video how well a front plow and CUT combo can clear a driveway. We're supposed to get 6 inches overnight...

I have a plow on my truck, and an 8' blade on my Massey....and I'm looking at getting a rear pull-type blower now. The plow works great, and is really fast.....until you have snow banks too high to move. This year I've had to move the banks with my FEL bucket several times so that I could go back to using my plow, and blade. I doubt a blower will cover my driveway as quickly as my truck/plow will, but I won't have to go back out and move snow banks every other time we get 6" or so built up, so it'll be faster in the long run. If I get the blower, I'll probably make a modified attachment plate so I can use my truck plow on the FEL, and that will be about as good a combo as I can imagine needing.

 

[flyingcow]

GMan, I agree. I get some good winds, drifts easy. High banks equal, bigger drifts. If you're in a wide open area, snow blowers work well. A cab with hyd controls on the chute, for me , is a must. Curtis makes a decent cab. The only reason i have a factory cab is because I got a deal on the tractor. As far as speed, you can cover alot of ground quickly in the smaller storms.

 

[ME83]

I have a 90" Erskine/Quick Attach pull type blower that I use on a JD 110 tlb. I love the pull style, and I chose the Erskine because it has a 24" fan which is better suited to my 33 pto HP, although I can still easily overload the tractor. The Erskine was also about $6700 where the Normand and Pronovost where over $10k. The Normand and Pronovost have bigger and deeper fans which will be better suited to your TN 75. I also priced a 7' RAD backup style and it was $5200.

I have R4 tires and chains on the rear, but the tractor weighs about 6k lbs itself and I have no trouble driving through fresh or old settled snow up to 18". After that I am clearance limited. You should have no trouble with 24" or more snow.

One thing I didn't realize with a pull style is that with small snowfalls it is much faster than a reverse style since you can drive forward much easier and faster than in reverse. You also take muck less risk damaging a 3 pt hitch arm than hitting something in reverse at a faster speed. I always hear the best setup being plow on the front with a blower on the back of a tractor. With the pull style I see no need for a plow on the front.

 

[flyingcow]

ME83, thanks for the input. I expected to be able to cover more ground with the inverted blower, especially in the small storms.

 

[excav8ter]

http://www.plowsite.com/showthread.php?t=110685


I don't know how many of you guys go to Plowsite.com. . But there is a TON of good info in the thread I linked here. It's a HUGE thread. If you read it, pay close attention to posts by the two guys Neige and Image. Neige is the guy who helped me understand the speed and efficiency of a blower, if you set your route up right, nothing beats a tractor/blower. Obviously, I do this to make money. It took me a few years to convince a few places to commit to my company, so I could get the tractor/blower set up going. Now that we have the set up, people are calling almost daily asking if we can take over their snow removal needs. Most of the people calling have 200-1000' long driveways that wind through the woods or along the lake and sand dunes. We can maintain their driveways at there full width all season long, and do it with out piles of snow to block their visibility when entering or exiting their driveway.

Also, for some more great tractor/blower videos.... search for Paul Vanderzon (Neige) on YouTube.

 

[skyhook]

I have a 90" Erskine/Quick Attach pull type blower that I use on a JD 110 tlb. I love the pull style, and I chose the Erskine because it has a 24" fan which is better suited to my 33 pto HP, although I can still easily overload the tractor. The Erskine was also about $6700 where the Normand and Pronovost where over $10k. The Normand and Pronovost have bigger and deeper fans which will be better suited to your TN 75. I also priced a 7' RAD backup style and it was $5200.

I have R4 tires and chains on the rear, but the tractor weighs about 6k lbs itself and I have no trouble driving through fresh or old settled snow up to 18". After that I am clearance limited. You should have no trouble with 24" or more snow.

One thing I didn't realize with a pull style is that with small snowfalls it is much faster than a reverse style since you can drive forward much easier and faster than in reverse. You also take muck less risk damaging a 3 pt hitch arm than hitting something in reverse at a faster speed. I always hear the best setup being plow on the front with a blower on the back of a tractor. With the pull style I see no need for a plow on the front.

I totally agree, except for the last part....

With the pull style I see no need for a plow on the front.

When some residents are "waiting" for you to open the road so they can pass,
this is where the front blade comes in, two quick pass's and the roads passable.
You can then come back and blow the berm on the side.

I believe this is the ideal set-up here.... VVV

I have a plow on my truck, and an 8' blade on my Massey....and I'm looking at getting a rear pull-type blower now. The plow works great, and is really fast.....until you have snow banks too high to move. This year I've had to move the banks with my FEL bucket several times so that I could go back to using my plow, and blade. I doubt a blower will cover my driveway as quickly as my truck/plow will, but I won't have to go back out and move snow banks every other time we get 6" or so built up, so it'll be faster in the long run. If I get the blower, I'll probably make a modified attachment plate so I can use my truck plow on the FEL, and that will be about as good a combo as I can imagine needing.

 

[ericher69]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ou6IOxwJCk&feature=youtube_gdata_player Check out this video.... normally this driveway takes less than 1 minute. But, because no one lives there, I let it sit through a 3 day storm. The snow was about 36" deep at the deepest point. But it was also packed and drifted from 4 days of 25+ mph winds. I'll see if I have another video of me going through more drifts. I get TONS of drifting out by my biggest account, which is why I went to an inverted blower.

Nice setup! I can't help but think for the price of that pull behind a front mount blower would be MUCH more efficient in almost all of your clearing situations. My smallish Kubota b2920 (21 PTO hp and 63" front mount blower) could have cleared that drive in about the same time maybe less. What's the reason you decided against front mount? (I have not read thru all posts)

There are not many drawbacks to having the blower in the front; and you could have a fairly large rear hydraulic angle blade for lighter snowfalls.

Thanks

Sent from my iPhone 5s 64Gb using TractorByNet

 

[flyingcow]

For his workload I think that's an ideal setup. Plus there usually is no front or mid mount PTO on that size of tractor. Too pricey to do a front mount vs the pull type.

 

[excav8ter]

Thanks for the compliment on my set up. Yes, at that particular time, a front mount might have been faster, but I did that video to show how deep of snow I can get through. That driveway sat for 3 days of blizzard conditions. If it was just a normal morning, I can pull that drive clear in just over a minute.
There are front mount options for tractors of that size, and I had originally wanted that type of set up. But after much consulting with a friend who is just outside of Quebec, I decided that I would set mine up like 36 tractor/blower set ups he has. Clearing drifts across some of the roads I do was the main reason I wanted front mount. I could not be happier with this set up.... so much so that we are looking for at least one more for next year.
Although this was an EPIC winter for us, with 130" + we proved that we can do residential snow removal faster, neater and with no piles of snow at the end of the customers driveway, so their visibility is not blocked.
The biggest down side is the upfront cost of the tractor and blower. Most of my pick up truck competitors cannot justify a set up like this, which is good for us. But I suspect, in 2-3 years, someone else will have one in our area.