Please help my neck....

[greenrider1]

I really like the Kubota treadle pedal design compared to the two pedal design, since I've used both, and currently have a Kubota. I guess it's all in what one gets used to. I don't rest my whole foot on the pedal, but rather use a toe/heel method to cycle between forward and reverse. The treadle pedal also makes it quite comfortable to sit sideways and work the pedal in reverse with my left toe. I do this quite often when blowing snow at night when visibility is not as good. During the day, I generally just use the cab mirrors to guide me, since my driveway is straight. I guess it's never bothered me enough to want a front blower, since my driveway is only 500' long, and with a 7' wide blower, one pass down and back and I'm done. If I spent all day moving snow, I'm sure I'd want something different. If someone has the time to keep up with the snowfall before it gets too deep, I think a pull type 3 point blower would be the ticket, since it would still leave the front loader available to use a bucket, snow pusher, plow, etc.

 

[PILOON]

My tractor has enough room for me to sit sideways so I am only looking 90 degrees to go forward or reverse. That said...

I was at Harbor Freight yesterday and was looking at their 22hp twin cylinder horizontal shaft mower engine. Hook up the engine to the blower with sprockets and chain or pulleys and belt and mount a quick attack plate behind the engine so you have a self powered blower that mounts on your front end loader. It would cost less than $1,000.

22 HP (67�cc) V-Twin Horizontal Shaft Gas Engine EPA

I actually did this using a 16HP Wisconsin to drive a 48" blower.
Worked awesome.
I had removed my bucket and duplicated the mountings.
Used chain and sprockets carefully calculated proper diameters and fabricated a tensioner. (from memory, 3" drove a 10" and used #40 chain.)
Since it was FEL arm mounted I could remove huge piled from the tops down.
I opted for chain and sprockets as I felt that wet V belts would slip, min U clutching would be easy with a simple binder set up.
I actually had no clutch, simply started the motor with blower engaged as it was direct coupled.
Mind U I considered an electric clutch but that cost more than the motor did.

Sadly it was so easy and fun that I got carried away and that blower simply could not digest a snow buried old car starter as I played at widening my spaces.
Blew the gearbox wide open as unknown to me the augers were rust welded to the shaft. Price of new auger, shaft and gear box relegated that blower to the junk pile.
Moral is keep everything well lubricated! (being used I am not blamed, LOL)

 

[shooterdon]

One of the members here posted that Erskin makes a pull behind that only needs 20 hp. My JD has 19 PTO hp so that should be close enough.

There is a used one at a dealer near me or $3300 that looks in very good condition. I am going to check what a new one costs. My JD is 30 years old and I may upgrade so investing in the front blower for it may not be worth it. A 3pt unit can be moved to another machine. No way I can ran my tractor in reverse for long and do it safely so a pull unit is my best option.

 

[PILOON]

Main problem with a puller blower is that you need to drive thru the snow first.
OK when nice dry snow and not too deep.
I have a CUT and there times with wet 'snowman' snow that my wheels never make it to the road surface and only leave compacted lumps that nothing cuts thru.
IMHO only a real heavy tractor can take advantage of those style blowers.
12 inches of wet stuff would IMHO spell disaster for a cut pulling a puller blower, shucks even 5-6".

That 19 hp PTO would be fine in light fluffy snow but that is not always what mother nature gives us.
Also most CUTs don't have all that much clearance.

 

[RobertBrown]

It was 87F here today.

 

[fishhead]

I did not know that erskine made a rear pull- surprised at how much snow its leaving on the drive in that video , if it is mid winter you should be able to just pull it on the scrape edge

72 and my neck is surgically fused. Little turning possible. I changed from traditional style 3 pt to inverted

You drive forward through the snow and the blower follows behind. In drifts, it is slow. You back into the drift and pull the snow forward.

I have a 90" on a M7040.

I was surprised to see ERSKINE making inverted blowers for tractors as small as 20 HP.
3-Point PTO Rear Pull Snowblower | Snow Equipment | Snowblowers | Tractor Attachments | Erskine Attachments LLC

Dave M7040

 

[fishhead]

Piloon, for the most part pull blowers are quite heavy and they cut right down. I would never call my jd 3720 a heavy tractor and 1 foot of wet snow is really no big deal . Plus a tractor tire (ag and r4) is not like a car tire in the way it compacts snow- it doesn't make a continuous stripe the width of the tire due to the tread. The effect is even greater with chains as they lift the wheel up. The deepest i have done is 2 ft compacted ( months of settled and rained on refrozen etc snow and it worked fine , slow but good. If you can drive trough it you can blow it. More than that, and like Dave says its back into it a ways then forward

Main problem with a puller blower is that you need to drive thru the snow first.
OK when nice dry snow and not too deep.
I have a CUT and there times with wet 'snowman' snow that my wheels never make it to the road surface and only leave compacted lumps that nothing cuts thru.
IMHO only a real heavy tractor can take advantage of those style blowers.
12 inches of wet stuff would IMHO spell disaster for a cut pulling a puller blower, shucks even 5-6".

That 19 hp PTO would be fine in light fluffy snow but that is not always what mother nature gives us.
Also most CUTs don't have all that much clearance.

 

[shooterdon]

Main problem with a puller blower is that you need to drive thru the snow first.
OK when nice dry snow and not too deep.
I have a CUT and there times with wet 'snowman' snow that my wheels never make it to the road surface and only leave compacted lumps that nothing cuts thru.
IMHO only a real heavy tractor can take advantage of those style blowers.
12 inches of wet stuff would IMHO spell disaster for a cut pulling a puller blower, shucks even 5-6".

That 19 hp PTO would be fine in light fluffy snow but that is not always what mother nature gives us.
Also most CUTs don't have all that much clearance.

All good points. My drive is gravel so I do not want to get down too far anyway. The heaviest snow dump I have seen here is about 20" over three days. Single event maybe 14". I think I can deal with that if I am home by hitting it when we get 6-7" and do it again when the snow stops. If I am not at home, or ill, I would have a neighbor plow me out. With wet heavy snow, the first pass will need to go real slow. Subsequent passes may require only taking a partial cut.

Obviously, a "normal" rear blower would be cheaper but it would have the same issues with wet snow although be better at handling deeper snow. I am going to try some things to make operating in reverse doable for me for those reasons, but so far I cannot come up with a safe way to operate that way. My neck has been in poor shape for decades and will only get worse so I am looking for a longer term solution.

Ideally, a new tractor with a front blower is the ultimate answer. If only cost wasn't a factor...LOL

 

[shooterdon]

Well, the 60" Erskine pull type blower was over $4800 delivered, so that is not an affordable option for me. Hard to believe it should be twice the cost of a standard blower.

I decided to get a backup camera and try that out with my back blade to see how I do using the camera and driving in reverse. Cost was less then $70 from Amazon so not much of an investment to try the concept out. If it works, then a standard 3 pt hitch blower makes sense for me.

 

[grsthegreat]

Personally, i tried everything for 14 years of using my jd870 and rear snowblower. Nithing ever worked. It got to where it would take me several days for neck pains to go away. The wife ...forced me ... to buy a cabbed tractor and front mount blower. Now no more neck pains.